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Rating: Summary: Book Translation Review: I only want to inform you that this book was translated to spanish by Milena Grass K. and published in 1998 by Cambridge University Press in 1998. ISBN 84 8323 033 X rústica
Rating: Summary: Book Translation Review: I only want to inform you that this book was translated to spanish by Milena Grass K. and published in 1998 by Cambridge University Press in 1998. ISBN 84 8323 033 X rústica
Rating: Summary: Interesting in the past, not the whole truth in the present. Review: It is very important that foreigners study the history of Chile. But sometimes it is better to know the reality of the country and have an impartial view towards recent historical facts. For instance, the book does not tell how Alende's regime was driving the country to become a communist state, and how the extremist forces of the "Unidad Popular" were preparing a civil war against the bourgeois institutions. The military uprising of September 1973 was invoked by the Chilean Supreme Court and the Chilean parliament, as the only way to avoid that my country would be turned into a second Cuba. That is the real fact, and the origin of the military government. Said government commited some abuses, but restored Chile's economy and by its own will reestablished democracy. And we, Chileans, will always remember that were saved from a communist-started civil war, which would have brought not 3.000 (the total number of victims of represion) but millions of deads. So, when foreign historians write regarding Chile, they should be more careful when taking into consideration the true realities which we lived in the sixties and seventies.
Rating: Summary: It's (very) boring and lacks serious analysis Review: This book is very hard to read because of its dullness. As I read it, I was thinking that the book read as if written by an undergraduate: A compilation of a bunch of facts from many sources (usually without a reference) and with some remarks that lack any analysis (like blaming on neo-liberal policies the increase in Smog in the city of Santiago (!)) -if only we had followed the soviet union, we would have clean air-. This doesn't look like the work of a scholar (or of someone with a talent for writing for that matter), but rather of a couple of foreigners with an interest in Chile who said, "hey, we could write a book about this country". The real problem with the book is not its bias (or lack of it) but rather that it is just very hard to get oneself to read through it because it lacks insights, parallels with other situations in the world, witty remarks, etc. (i.e. what makes good books good). It reminded me of why I hated history in high school.
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