The Peculiar Revolution: Rethinking the Peruvian Experiment Under Military Rule - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1477312110 ISBN 13: 9781477312117

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 2017

Synopsis

On October 3, 1968, a military junta led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado took over the government of Peru. In striking contrast to the right-wing, pro–United States/anti-Communist military dictatorships of that era, however, Velasco's "Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces" set in motion a left-leaning nationalist project aimed at radically transforming Peruvian society by eliminating social injustice, breaking the cycle of foreign domination, redistributing land and wealth, and placing the destiny of Peruvians into their own hands. Although short-lived, the Velasco regime did indeed have a transformative effect on Peru, the meaning and legacy of which are still subjects of intense debate.

The Peculiar Revolution revisits this fascinating and idiosyncratic period of Latin American history. The book is organized into three sections that examine the era's cultural politics, including not just developments directed by the Velasco regime but also those that it engendered but did not necessarily control; its specific policies and key institutions; and the local and regional dimensions of the social reforms it promoted. In a series of innovative chapters written by both prominent and rising historians, this volume illuminates the cultural dimensions of the revolutionary project and its legacies, the impact of structural reforms at the local level (including previously understudied areas of the country such as Piura, Chimbote, and the Amazonia), and the effects of state policies on ordinary citizens and labor and peasant organizations.

About this title

About the Author

Carlos Aguirre is a professor of history at the University of Oregon. He is the author of The Criminals of Lima and Their Worlds and other books on the history of crime, punishment, slavery, and intellectuals.
Paulo Drinot is a senior lecturer in Latin American history at the Institute of the Americas, University College London. He is the author of The Allure of Labor: Workers, Race, and the Making of the Peruvian State.

Review

"This new edited volume by Aguirre and Pinot, twenty-five years after the last debate about the Velsaco years, is...very welcome...this study brings into view new and hitherto unexplored aspects and also shifts the focus from the national to the regional and the local, certainly a quality of the book. " (European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2018-07-01)

"This is a book that we have long needed on a regime and period in Peru's recent past that has largely faded from popular memory, been erased from official recognition, and gone mostly ignored in recent scholarship...impeccable scholarship and clear, accessible writing. " (Hispanic American Historical Review)

"[A] rich multidisciplinary symposium." (Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe 2019-04-01)

"This is a broad, original and engaging volume which holds important lessons not only for students of Peruvian history or Latin American's military regimes, but also for those interested in radical politics more widely." (Radical Americas 2019-01-05)

"This book provides a useful guide to both the classic and more recent literature on [the Peruvian reformist military regime of 1968-75]." (English Historical Review 2018-12-17)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1477312110
• ISBN 13: 9781477312117
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 370
• Editor: Aguirre Carlos, Drinot Paulo