Description: The fifteen essays in this volume apply the methods of the new economic history to the history of the Latin American economies since 1800. The authors combine the historian's sensitivity to context and contingency with modern or "neoclassical" economic theory and quantitative methods.
Brief description: John H. Coatsworth is Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and former Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
Review Quotes: This is an exciting moment in the study of the economic history of Latin America. It is now being done by scholars with good economic tools, asking questions that speak to the present, and with the grit to data-mine the archives. Equally important, economists and historians are now listening, after decades of deaf ears. Two of the best Latin American economic historians--a spectacular new young star teamed with a wise, long-established leader--have combined to edit papers from the best Latin American economic historians in the field. The book is a land mark.--Jeffrey G. Williamson, Laird Bell Professor of Economics, Harvard University