This essay reviews the following works:

The Economics of Contemporary Latin America. By Beatriz Armendáriz and Felipe Larraín B. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017. Pp. xix + 439. $28.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780262533157.

Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico. By Edward Beatty. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015. Pp. x + 342. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520284890.

Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History. By Gregory T. Cushman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xxii + 393. $84.29 hardcover. ISBN: 9781107004139.

Oil Revolution: Anticolonial Elites, Sovereign Rights, and the Economic Culture of Decolonization. By Cristopher R. W. Dietrich. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. xviii + 352. $34.72 paperback. ISBN: 9781316617892.

Historia mínima de la expansión ferroviaria en América Latina. Edited by Sandra Kuntz-Ficker. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2015. Pp. 361. ISBN: 9786074628449.

The First Export Era Revisited: Reassessing Its Contribution to Latin American Economies. Edited by Sandra Kuntz-Ficker. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. xxii + 348. $109.67 hardcover. ISBN: 9783319623399.

The Global Political Economy of Raúl Prebisch. Edited by Matias E. Margulis. London: Routledge, 2017. Pp. xv + 217. $103.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781138219779.

The World Economy through the Lens of the United Nations. Edited by José Antonio Ocampo, Anis Chowdhury, and Diana Alarcón. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxv + 296. $90.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780198817345.

Palma Africana. By Michael Taussig. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 258. $25.00. ISBN: 9780226516134.

Un siglo de economía en Bolivia (1900–2015). Tópicos de historia económica (tomo 1) y Working Papers (tomo 2). Edited by Iván Velázquez-Castellanos and Mario Pacheco Torrico. La Paz: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2017. Vol. 1, pp. 643. ISBN: 9789995418526. Vol. 2, pp. 508. ISBN: 9789995418533. (Both volumes are available by download from the Periódico Digital de Investigación sobre Bolivia, https://www.pieb.com.bo/sipieb_nota.php?idn=11054).

En base a correspondencia original es analizada la importancia que tuvo la Sociedad de Protección a los Inmigrantes Israelitas (SOPRO) para socorrer a los fugitivos judíos que llegaron de Europa a Bolivia entre mediados de 1938 e inicios de la década del 40. Después de exponer las razones que determinaron el flujo migratorio a este país y las dificultades que tuvo para prestar ayuda a la integración de los inmigrantes, se exponen cuatros dimensiones: la creación, las finalidades, los medios financieros y la estructura organizativa de la SOPRO; las formas de respaldo que ella otorgó; los mecanismos que empleó para conceder y recuperar sus créditos; las limitaciones y los éxitos de su labor. Considerando la falta de estudios respecto a la tarea que desempeñaron sociedades de amparo para facilitar la integración de inmigrantes israelitas en países latinoamericanos durante los decenios del 30 y del 40, el aporte busca enmendar esta negligencia y abrir posibilidades para estudios comparativos sobre la materia.

This essay reviews the following works:

The Cultural Politics of Blood, 1500–1900. Edited by Kimberly Anne Coles, Ralph Bauer, Zita Nunes, and Carla L. Peterson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Pp. vii + 274. $95.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781137338204.

Speaking of Spain: The Evolution of Race and Nation in the Hispanic World. By Antonio Feros. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 370. $45.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780674045514.

Theorizing Race in the Americas: Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos. By Juliet Hooker. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 280. $53.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780190633691.

The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950. By Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp xii + 255. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469636405.

Race and the Brazilian Body: Blackness, Whiteness, and Everyday Language in Rio de Janeiro. By Roth-Gordon Jennifer. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 248. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520293809.

Degrees of Mixture, Degrees of Freedom: Genomics, Multiculturalism, and Race in Latin America. By Peter Wade. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017. Pp. vii + 344. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780822363736.

Este artículo analiza el mecanismo causal que subyace a las condicionalidades a partir del análisis de los procesos de implementación de la Asignación Universal por Hijo de Argentina y el Régimen de Asignaciones Familiares (Plan de Equidad) de Uruguay. Para ello, con el objetivo de aportar elementos sobre la relación causal entre condicionalidades y el eventual cambio de comportamiento de las familias, aquí se profundiza en cómo las condicionalidades son comunicadas a los receptores de ambas políticas, cómo son entendidas por ellos, y cómo el incumplimiento es sancionado. La comparación entre Argentina y Uruguay muestra cómo cada política pone el foco en distintas etapas de su proceso de implementación. Esto da cuenta de dos formas distintas de implementar las condicionalidades, alterando en forma distinta la cadena causal a través de la cual las condicionalidades podrían modificar la conducta de los receptores. El análisis provee elementos para reflexionar sobre el grado en que es esperable que las condicionalidades de las políticas de transferencias logren los efectos deseados y en qué condiciones es esto razonable.

This article highlights the interfaces between micro-level livelihoods, social networks, and macroeconomic trends and policies. Specifically, it analyzes the role of farmer groups in livelihood adaptation of smallholder maize producers in southern Mexico. We show how neoliberal market changes have shaped the local social structure with constraining and enabling effects on households' ability to adapt, while in turn the outcomes of the neoliberal policy reforms are being (re)shaped by the responses of the farmers, thereby changing the structural context. We provide evidence for the heterogeneity of adaptation processes and show that farmers' participation influences the outcomes of neoliberal policy reforms.

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar a reação da organização indígena na região do norte do Cauca, na Côlombia, em face do confronto armado em seu território no período 2000–2005, tentando explicar como esta organização consegue realizar um tipo de resistência ativa ao conflito. O estudo é essencialmente do tipo etnográfico e trabalha com uma perspectiva que privilegia o estudo dos elementos culturais e identitários para a compreensão das ações coletivas, aos moldes de Sonia Alvarez, Evelina Dagnino e Arturo Escobar (2001) em seu livro “Política Cultural e Cultura Política nos Movimentos Sociais Latino-Americanos”.

O artigo apresenta as interpretações e definições de conflito armado e paz encontradas nos discursos dos membros do movimento indígena nortecaucano. Argumenta-se que, no caso indígena, a cultura e seu processo identitário no âmbito da organização são fontes importantes de elementos simbólicos que sustentam os processos de resistência e ao mesmo tempo criam um espaço alternativo importante sobre o tema do conflito armado e da paz no país a partir da sociedade civil, em contraponto às visões tanto do Estado quanto dos atores armados e suas propostas sobre este tema.

The past eleven years have been extremely fruitful for Chilean specialists. Various scholars have formulated theories to explain Chile's political, social, and economic development; new monographs as well as doctoral dissertations have provided grist for the generalist's mill; and studies on mining—particularly the nitrate sector—agriculture, the role of labor, and more detailed political surveys have been published. Increasingly, one notes a tendency to undertake projects that will investigate twentieth-century topics. This essay reviews some of the recent contributions to Chile's already rich historiography and attempts to include material from other disciplines as well as history. It will not, however, discuss the Allende period, whose massive and still growing literature requires separate treatment. Those interested in this topic might profitably consult the recent work of Arturo and Samuel Valenzuela, “Visions of Chile” (LARR 10, no. 3 [1975]:155–75).

This article represents an attempt to understand the changes that have taken place in the traditional vision of colonial society in New Spain as shaped by past historiography, drawing on works published between 1970 and 1981. This essay was not conceived as a bibliographic summary that would examine themes, review hypotheses, and evaluate the sources used by different authors. Instead, my analysis will give greater importance to the topics that have captured the attention of scholars than to their published works, it will emphasize the scientific community rather than particular scholars, and it will focus more on those themes that in my view characterize the social processes of New Spain than on the central themes of current historiography.

This essay reviews the following works:

Health Equity in Brazil: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Policy. By Kia Lilly Caldwell. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017. Pp. xii + 226. $28.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780252082474.

State of Health: Pleasure and Politics in Venezuelan Health Care under Chávez. By Amy Cooper. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019. Pp. 216. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520299290.

Social Policies and Decentralization in Cuba: Change in the Context of 21st Century Latin America. Edited by Jorge I. Domínguez, Maria del Carmen Zabala Argüelles, Mayra Espina Prieto, and Lorena G. Barberia Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center Series of Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2017. Pp. 282. $24.99 paperback. ISBN: 9780674975309.

Movement-Driven Development: The Politics of Health and Democracy in Brazil. By Christopher L. Gibson Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019. Pp. 328. $30.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781503607804.

A Right to Health: Medicine, Marginality, and Health Care Reform in Northeastern Brazil. By Jessica Scott Jerome. Austin: University Press of Texas, 2015. Pp. 192. $21.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477311318.

Uneven Social Policies: The Politics of Subnational Variation in Latin America. By Sara Niedzwiecki. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. xvii + 256. 256 pp. $34.99 paperback. ISBN: 9781108454896.

Banking on Health: The World Bank and the Health Sector Reform in Latin America. By Shiri Noy. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. 241. ISBN: 9783319617657.

This essay reviews the following works:

Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora. Edited by Evelyn Alsultany and Ella Shohat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 334. $41.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780472069446.

Forbidden Passages: Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America. By Karoline P. Cook. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Pp. 261. $45.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780812248241.

More Argentine Than You: Arabic-Speaking Immigrants in Argentina. By Steven Hyland Jr. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 304. $65.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780826358776.

Islam and the Americas. Edited by Aisha Khan. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015. Pp. vii + 331. $32.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780813060132.

Crescent over Another Horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino USA. Edited by María del Mar Logroño Narbona, Paulo G. Pinto, and John Tofik Karam. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. Pp. ix + 344. $60.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781477302293.

The Mexican Mahjar: Transnational Maronites, Jews, and Arabs under the French Mandate. By Camila Pastor. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017. Pp. ix + 352. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781477314623.

Syrian and Lebanese Patrícios in São Paulo: From the Levant to Brazil. By Oswaldo Truzzi. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018. Pp. ix + 173. $30.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780252083631.

The Study of Political Leadership is Important for an Understanding of any society. Political leaders participate in, or influence the making of, decisions that allocate resources within and among social units. These acts of choice constitute the major component of the governing process. It seems obvious, then, that an understanding of any social order rests fundamentally on a systematic grasp of the background attributes, careers, value and issue orientations, behaviors and environmental context of political leaders.

This study evaluates whether 853 municipalities of Minas Gerais have developed one specific strategy of electronic government. We searched for municipalities that have websites for the executive branch, relating this information to a number of secondary data. These data include variables on the Municipal Human Development Index (HDI-M), municipal budgetary revenues, year of founding of municipalities, the mayor's party affiliation, and a public policy initiative related to the creation of municipal executive branch websites. This analysis was performed to develop descriptive statistics among the variables collected. In addition to exploring descriptive analysis, we attempted to determine statistical models that explain the existence of websites for municipal executives. This allowed us to determine whether municipalities that were established earlier than others, have the highest HDI-M, and have larger budgets are also more likely to have websites. The results indicate that older municipalities, as well as those with higher HDI-M and elevated budgetary revenues, are more likely to have websites. A mayor's party affiliation indicates that municipalities administered by the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, or PT, the center-left-wing party) are more likely to have websites than municipalities governed by the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, or PSDB, the center-right-wing party). Furthermore, municipalities that use the state government program Integraminas (Connect Minas) are less likely to have their own websites, which is an indication that these locations are using policy resources to communicate electronically with the population. Thus, newly founded municipalities with low HDI-M, with low budgetary revenue, and administered by center-right-wing parties may benefit from public policies that encourage greater transparency in the communication of municipal executives with their population.