A Concise History of Bolivia

Abstract

Bolivia is an unusual high-altitude society created by imperial conquests and native adaptations, and it remains today the most Indian of the American republics, yet it fully participates in the world economy. It has also seen the most social and economic mobility of Indian and mestizo populations in Latin America. These are among the themes analyzed in this historical survey. In its first Spanish edition, Herbert Klein's A Concise History of Bolivia won immediate acceptance within Bolivia as the new standard history of this important nation. Surveying Bolivia's economic, social, cultural, and political ev¬olution from the arrival of early man in the Andes to the present, this current version brings the history of this society up to the present day, covering the fundamental changes that have occurred since the National Revolution of 1952 and the return of democracy in 1982. These changes have included the introduction of universal education and the rise of the mestizos and Indian populations to political power for the first time in national history. Containing an updated bibliography, A Concise History of Bolivia remains an essential text for courses in Latin American history and politics. The second edition brings this story through the first administration of the first self-proclaimed Indian president in national history and the major changes that the government of Evo Morales has introduced in Bolivia society, politics, and economy