Latin America has often been condemned to failure. Neither poor plenty of to evoke Africa’s moral crusade nor as explosively booming as India and China, they have largely been forgotten by the West. Yet this huge continent, house to half a billion people, the world’s largest reserves of arable property, and 8.5 percent of global oil, is busily transforming its political and economic landscaping.

This book argues that, rather than failing the test, Latin America’s efforts to create fairer and more prosperous about Forgotten Continent: The Fight for Latin America’s Soul societies make it one of the world’s most vigorous laboratories for capitalist democracy. In lots of countries-including Brazil, Chile, and Mexico-democratic leaders are laying the foundations for faster economic development and more inclusive politics, as well as tackling deep-rooted problems of poverty, inequality, and sociable injustice. They encounter a new problem from Hugo Chávez’s oil-fuelled populism, and far reaches stake. Failure increase the flow of medicines and unlawful immigrants to the United States and European countries, jeopardize stability in an area rich in oil and other tactical commodities, and threaten a number of the world’s many majestic natural environments.

Sketching on Michael Reid’s a long time of confirming from inside Latin America’s cities, presidential palaces, and shantytowns, this reserve provides a vivid, immediate, and up to date account of the dynamic continent and its struggle to compete in a globalized world.