Thomas C. Wright and Robert L. Smale have written an engaging, intelligent, and valuable history of modern Latin America that will benefit students and specialists alike. Latin American since Independence places the region in a global context but also captures its great diversity and dynamism.

Charles Walker, University of California, Davis

Exploring continuity and change in key institutions and practices of Latin America’s colonial past, Wright and Smale skillfully blend the influence of international and regional politics with the idiosyncrasies of national development after 1810. The text provides a highly readable introduction to Latin American political, social, and economic history from the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and settlement in the Western Hemisphere into the first decades of the twenty-first century.

Brian Loveman, emeritus, San Diego State University and author of For la Patria: Politics and the Armed Forces in Latin America

This book offers a balanced blend of perspectives sustained by thoughtful recognition of the diversity of the experiences of the peoples of Latin America addressed within the context of a shared history. The proposition of continuity and change is expertly deployed as an imaginative framework for a commanding history of Latin America.

Louis A. Pérez Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill