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Gold, Oil and Avocados: A Recent History of Latin America in Sixteen Commodities
Bottom of the pile
16
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
21/100Critics
10/100Scholars
Author:
Andy Robinson
Publisher:
Melville House
Date:
August 17, 2021
Robinson takes readers from the salt plains of Chile to the depths of the Amazonian jungle to stitch together the story of Latin America's last decade, showing how the imperial plunder of the past carries on today under a new name.
What The Reviewers Say
Robinson introduces many South Americans whose lives have been upended in the current economy, which now faces domination not only by its historic big brother, the U.S., but also by China, whose burgeoning tech industry demands access to those same scarce metals. Robinson writes passionately and expects that his readers have more than a little knowledge of the subject..
The impressive amount of legwork he has put in tramping all across the region is undermined by excessive fealty to the thesis put forward in Open Veins – which has been cruelly caricatured as,'We’re poor, it’s their fault.' Robinson acknowledges Galeano’s later renunciation. But rather than explore why or take it as a warning of the pitfalls that await him he simply doubles down, rehashing its overly simplistic anti-capitalism and anti – these days US – imperialism rather than seeking to better contextualise it.
Sharp portraits.
... incisive.
