Book summary

This comprehensive history of Latin America spans more than 500 years, beginning with the discovery of the "New World" by European explorers and continuing up to modern times. Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano analyzes how the often celebrated voyages of explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Francisco Pizarro enacted a legacy of brutal European imperialist rule in Latin America, a pattern which was later continued by the United States. Galeano documents how these centuries of oppression and exploitation crippled the development of the nations of Latin America and eventually led to the governmental chaos and institutional corruption which gripped much of the region in the latter half of the twentieth century. Since its original publication in 1971, Galeano's revelatory book has become an essential text for anyone seeking to understand the lingering ramifications of colonialism in Latin America, and elsewhere around the world.