“Beyond the Eagle’s Shadow: New Histories of Latin America’s Cold War” by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Mark Atwood Lawrence, and Julio E. Moreno

The History Faculty New Book Series presents:

Beyond the Eagle’s Shadow: New Histories of Latin America’s Cold War
(University of New Mexico Press, Dec. 2013)
co-edited by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Mark Atwood Lawrence, and Julio E. Moreno

Discussants include:

Seth Garfield
Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin
www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/faculty/garfsw

Virginia Garrard-Burnett
Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin
www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/faculty/vcgb

Mark Atwood Lawrence
Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin
www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/faculty/ut1markl

Aragorn Storm Miller
Lecturer, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Texas at Austin
www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/faculty/asm362

The dominant tradition in writing about U.S.–Latin American relations during the Cold War views the United States as all-powerful. That perspective, represented in the metaphor “talons of the eagle,” continues to influence much scholarly work down to the present day. The goal of this collection of essays is not to write the United States out of the picture but to explore the ways Latin American governments, groups, companies, organizations, and individuals promoted their own interests and perspectives.

The book also challenges the tendency among scholars to see the Cold War as a simple clash of “left” and “right.” In various ways, several essays disassemble those categories and explore the complexities of the Cold War as it was experienced beneath the level of great-power relations.