njwatt reviewed The Americas by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
Useful survey with odd choices
3 stars
Necessarily, this book doesn’t get too deep into any one episode of history. It effectively frames mostly well-known episodes as part of a unified experience of the hemisphere instead of a “global south”/“global north” framing.
There are some strange rhetorical choices which detract from the experience. The author goes to great lengths to make sure no reader could think he approves of US culture. While minor, having all but one reference to the Falkland Islands instead written as “Malvinas” is an obnoxious, imperialist choice, especially without any discussion of the Argentine aggression of 1982.
The books discussion of the future is as relevant as you could expect a book about international relations finished just before 9/11 to be: not remotely, but one can’t blame the author for that.