From the Foundations in Global Studies series, this text offers students a fresh, comprehensive, multidisciplinary entry point to Latin America. After a brief introduction to the study of the region, the early chapters of the book survey the essentials of Latin American history; important historical narratives; and the region’s languages, religions, and global connections. Students are guided through the material with relevant maps, resource boxes, and text boxes that support and guide further independent exploration of the topics at hand.

The second half of the book features interdisciplinary case studies, each of which focuses on a specific country or subregion and a particular issue. Each chapter gives a flavor for the cultural distinctiveness of the particular country yet also draws attention to global linkages. Readers will come away from this book with an understanding of the larger historical, political, and cultural frameworks that shaped Latin America as we know it today, and of current issues that have relevance in Latin America and beyond.