The Paraguay Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers) - Softcover

"For readers seeking an introduction to Paraguayan history and instructors interested in incorporating a tremendous range of source materials in the classroom, The Paraguay Reader is an excellent resource." -- Caroline E. Schuster * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology * "The editors do an admirable job of compiling primary sources and analytical essays on the history, politics, and culture of this small, landlocked, poorly understood nation. Undoubtedly the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to Paraguay available in English, The Paraguay Reader both explains and complicates the country's fabled uniqueness." -- Christine Mathias * Ethnohistory * "The Paraguay Reader is an excellent compilation of literature, folklore, anecdote, reportage and academic research. It illustrates the indomitable capacity of the Paraguayan people." -- Ed Hart * Sounds and Colours * "The Paraguay Reader is a much needed and therefore welcome contribution to the practically nonexistent field of Paraguayan studies. Anyone who wishes to better understand Paraguay will find this book indispensable." -- Marcelino Viera-Ramos * The Latin Americanist * "Many of the accounts are being made accessible in English for the first time and thus provide an invaluable resource on the subjects treated, one that has no parallel in the current literature. All of the accounts are preceded by introductions that prepare the reader for the historical significance of the piece." -- Leonard Rinchiuso * Journal of Latin American Geography * "This excellent collection of literary artefacts and historical texts and reportage lifts this veil of mystery and shines a light on the country's hidden hinterland, providing the reader with genuinely interesting insights into a country and society that is poorly understood in South America itself, let alone in the rest of the world." -- Gavin O'Toole * Latin American Review of Books * "Overall, the editors offer an indispensable guide to an important topic. A must-have for any academic library. Summing up: Essential." -- K.A. Tyvela * Choice * "At its best, The Paraguay Reader puts oppositional texts next to each other, not resolving the cacophony of voices but instead allowing the tensions to stand. As such, the compilation serves as an introductory overview for historians, regionalists, and social scientists; but, as the first English-language text of its kind, The Paraguay Reader will also be an important text for Paraguayanists." -- Christine Folch * Hispanic American Historical Review * "Peter Lambert and Andrew Nickson have written a wonderfully engaging and useful text that addresses Paraguay's fascinating and complicated history, replete with unique linguistics and national identity, and rich cultural heritage. . . . The lack of information about Paraguay is palpable.Nonetheless, Lambert and Nickson have corrected this oversight with a text that is bound to find an audience with undergraduate students, future Peace Corps volunteers . . . travelers, missionaries, businesspersons, and diplomats." -- Bridget Maria Chesterton * A Contracorriente *

Hemmed in by the vast, arid Chaco to the west and, for most of its history, impenetrable jungles to the east, Paraguay has been defined largely by its isolation. Partly as a result, there has been a dearth of serious scholarship or journalism about the country. Going a long way toward redressing this lack of information and analysis, The Paraguay Reader is a lively compilation of testimonies, journalism, scholarship, political tracts, literature, and illustrations, including maps, photographs, paintings, drawings, and advertisements. Taken together, the anthology's many selections convey the country's extraordinarily rich history and cultural heritage, as well as the realities of its struggles against underdevelopment, foreign intervention, poverty, inequality, and authoritarianism. Most of the Reader is arranged chronologically. Weighted toward the twentieth century and early twenty-first, it nevertheless gives due attention to major events in Paraguay's history, such as the Triple Alliance War (1864-70) and the Chaco War (1932-35). The Reader's final section, focused on national identity and culture, addresses matters including ethnicity, language, and gender. Most of the selections are by Paraguayans, and many of the pieces appear in English for the first time. Helpful introductions by the editors precede each of the book's sections and all of the selected texts.