Problem
Study questions for Skidmore & Smith, "Why Latin America?"
A. What are the origins of the term "Latin America"?
B. In what ways is Latin America important to the US?
C. What are the three "paradoxes" of Latin America?
D. In the 1930s and 40s, how did European and North American observers tend to explain Latin America's lack of democratic rule and its ongoing political instability?
E. How did modernization theory attempt to explain Latin America's problems? How did this work out in the 1960s and 70s?
F. How did observers explain Latin America's turn toward authoritarian rule in the 1960s and 70s?
G. What happened to Latin America's governments starting in the late 1970s? How did scholars explain this change?