Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence by Harvey, Robert - 2000

Harry N. Abrams, 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. In this "informative and inspiring volume" (Chicago Tribune), Robert Harvey reconstructs in vivid detail the gripping story of Latin America's indepen dence and those who made it possible. Treated with contempt by their Spanis h overlords, given to dissipation and grandiose proclamations, these fearle ss men nonetheless achieved military feats unsurpassed elsewhere in history . The aristocratic Simón Bolívar led his guerilla armies through swamp, jun gle, and Andean ice to surprise his enemies and liberate most of northern S outh America. The inarticulate San Martín joined Bernardo O'Higgins, illegi timate son of a Spanish viceroy, to do the same in the south. These and fiv e others waged the war for freedom against the backdrop of the Napoleonic W ars, the American Revolution, the collapse of the Spanish Empire, and the r evolutionary ferment of the nineteenth century. Despite the success of thei r revolutions, all seven liberators died in poverty, disgrace, or oblivion. This fascinating and dramatic story takes in a vast range of martial experience, from butchery in the torrid Orinoco basin to a cavalry fought with lances 13,000 feet up in the mountains of Peru. It is one of the greatest and least-known epics of history, told here in unprecedented detail.