America, América: A New History of the New World
Grandin makes a persuasive case that las Casas’s humanistic vision became the basis of international law in the Americas and beyond, and eventually informed the governing principles of President Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations and of the United Nations ... Since Trump’s first Presidential campaign, historians have reached for comparisons to the rise of European fascism in the nineteen-thirties. Grandin’s framing of history allows us to see Trump differently—as a successor to the conquistadors, who amassed wealth and glory through the subordination of racial others, and to a line of U.S. Presidents, who trampled the sovereignty of other peoples and nations whenever doing so benefitted perceived national interests.
If The End of the Myth helped make sense of the first Trump Administration, América, America sheds light on the expansionist ambitions Trump has voiced during his second term ... Changing the minds of Bukele’s supporters—and of the many Latinos in the U.S. who voted for Trump last year—might depend on convincing them of the better world that could be delivered by social democracy, as Grandin tries to do in America, América. But it might also require acknowledging the appeal that barbarism holds even to those who would seem to be its victims.
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Grandin is such a terrific writer and perceptive historian that I was swept along by his enthralling narrative. Yet his insistence on the indomitable spirit of Latin American humanism is so broad that it sometimes verges on the sentimental ... In terms of domestic politics, though, it’s been an altogether different story. Grandin knows this, however reluctant he is to allow it to complicate his inspiring thesis. He contends that responsibility for the continent’s travails lies elsewhere ... But all of the 'to be sure' caveats can’t quite cover reality’s rough edges. Grandin has written so brilliantly about the perils of mythological thinking that it’s jarring to see him wrestle with his own.
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Panoramic, gorgeously crafted ... Grandin lacquers his book with gritty detail—battles and beheadings, earthquakes and religious strife—yet beneath his textured narrative he metes out a compelling argument: America, in open conflict with América ... A vital reimagining of history and cultures, a vigorous study of the past and an uneasy glance toward a future in which no country emerges unscathed.
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