HIST 327/427 Revolutions in LA & Caribbean
This course will examine historical cases of attempts to change fundamentally the social structure and the social basis of political power in Latin America and the Caribbean. The course attempts to examine the process of social change as well as the broader context in which the changes took place, the cases of Haiti, Mexico, Bolivia, and Cuba. Questions that will be pondered include: How is a revolution defined? What distinguishes revolutions from other forms of change? Are revolutions, however defined, inevitable? Do the Latin American cases represent any peculiarities in the global experiences of revolution? How important was the role of personalities in creating revolutions from revolutionary situations? Who or what determined the ultimate success or failure of the revolution? We will conclude the course by discussing workers in Chile as carriers of the legacy of revolutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.