Robert J. Alexander

Robert Alexander, a long-time observer of Latin American politics and economics, has been an active correspondent with the key figures of the region for decades. In this volume, he provides interview transcripts and letters from nearly a score of the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. With some of the correspondence and interviews spread over a considerable length of time, the shifting views and attitudes as well as the comments on other key players makes for fascinating insights into the politics of change in Latin America.Beginning with an introduction placing the various presidents in the context of their roles in the history of their respective countries, Alexander then presents materials dealing with and by the presidents of Argentina, then Brazil, and finally Chile. A selected bibliography provides guidance on the major writings on the figures covered, and a general subject index helps to point readers to the numerous interconnections contacted in the volume. Essential reading for students of 20th-century Latin American affairs, political, social, and economic.

Venezuela's most important political figure of the twentieth century, and probably its most important since Simon Bolivar, is the subject of this volume of interviews and letters. Romulo Betancourt helped to form Venezuela's historic Accion Democratica group, twice served as his country's president, and in his many years in exile worked to inform the world about the political crises and dictatorships that plagued Venezuela. The material in this book covers more than three decades of exchanges between Betancourt and Robert Alexander, presenting details of Betancourt's career and the evolution of his thinking.The material begins with Alexander's first meeting with Betancourt, in 1948, and continues up until the political leader's death forty years later. The interviews and personal exchanges, which Alexander transcribed from notes immediately following each meeting, focus largely on issues and events contemporary to the time of the conversations. In later years, however, when Alexander was compiling a biography of Betancourt, the conversations are directed toward the leader's earlier career, and provide an overview of the events and ideas that shaped Venezuela's political destiny. The letters from Betancourt are reproduced in full, and follow the same pattern of addressing contemporary and, later, biographical issues. This collection will serve as a complementary volume to Robert Alexander's two previous works on Romulo Betancourt, and will be an important resource for courses on the history, politics, and economic development of Latin America and Venezuela. Both public and academic libraries will also find it to be a valuable addition to their collections.

Well-known Latin Americanist Alexander and his colleagues (some with reputations equal to that of their editor) provide information about Latin American and Caribbean leaders over the past two centuries. ChoiceThis is a compiliation of biographical sketches of the most important political figures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Each entry describes the subject's political significance as well as their career, family background, education, and relevant nonpolitical activities. Appendixes list the leaders according to country or territory, and provide a chronology of major events in the region from Haitian independence in 1804 to the present day. A general subject index completes the volume.