Description
In Makers of Democracy A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros traces the ways in which a thriving middle class was understood to be a foundational marker of democracy in Colombia during the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide array of sources ranging from training manuals and oral histories to school and business archives, Lopez-Pedreros shows how the Colombian middle class created a model of democracy based on free-market ideologies, private property rights, material inequality, and an emphasis on a masculine work culture. This model, which naturalized class and gender hierarchies, provided the groundwork for Colombia's later adoption of neoliberalism and inspired the emergence of alternate models of democracy and social hierarchies in the 1960s and 1970s that helped foment political radicalization. By highlighting the contested relationships between class, gender, economics, and politics, Lopez-Pedreros theorizes democracy as a historically unstable practice that exacerbated multiple forms of domination, thereby prompting a rethinking of the formation of democracies throughout the Americas.
About the Author
A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros is Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University and coeditor of The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History, also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"This historicization of the relationship between middle classness and democracy enables the author to deliver a potent critique of prevailing narratives of Latin America as undemocratic, while reimagining the way we think about democracy itself." -- B. A. Lucero * Choice *
"[Makers of Democracy] is [a] must-read book for those who want to understand how power relations were configured in the third quarter of the 20th century in Colombia. It makes us question something that is sacred to most of us: democracy. After its thorough historization, [this book] exposes the contradictions of democracy... it finishes with a rather dark and challenging vision of what democracy means." (Translated from Spanish) -- Catalina Munoz Rojas * Historia Critica *
"On the one hand, this books rescues from historical oblivion not only the existence of the middle classes but also their importance. It discusses the middle classes and their connection -for better or for worse- with democracy and development... On the other, it highlights the active role in which the middle classes...radicalized themselves against the [developmentalist] imperatives coming from a Global capitalist north. In this way, we find a new reading of the 'invention of development' ... during the 1960s and 1970s. At the core of this historiographical originality, [this book] also proposes a methodological approach that highlights the discourses and practices that shaped certain men and women and their efforts to be part of a middle class in Bogota. We hope this book will soon be translated into Spanish, so that more readers can get familiarized with these transnational stories, uncommon methodological approaches in [Colombian] historiography." (Translated from Spanish)
-- Mauricio Archila Neira * Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura *
"In Makers of Democracy, A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros offers a multidimensional approach to the disputed processes through which particular social actors came to represent the middle classes and the promises of democracy.... This book is a key contribution to the contemporary history of the middle classes, democracy, and processes of political polarization." -- Ingrid Bolivar * Hispanic American Historical Review *
"Makers of Democracy is an important contribution to twentieth-century Colombian and Latin American history. For specialists of Colombia, it offers a novel interpretation of the conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, including the role of gender in class formation and political struggle. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in histories of democracy, class, gender, and US empire in Latin America and the global South." -- Laura Correa Ochoa * H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478002857
Author A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros
Format Paperback
Page Count 360
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
About the Author
A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros is Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University and coeditor of The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History, also published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"This historicization of the relationship between middle classness and democracy enables the author to deliver a potent critique of prevailing narratives of Latin America as undemocratic, while reimagining the way we think about democracy itself." -- B. A. Lucero * Choice *
"[Makers of Democracy] is [a] must-read book for those who want to understand how power relations were configured in the third quarter of the 20th century in Colombia. It makes us question something that is sacred to most of us: democracy. After its thorough historization, [this book] exposes the contradictions of democracy... it finishes with a rather dark and challenging vision of what democracy means." (Translated from Spanish) -- Catalina Munoz Rojas * Historia Critica *
"On the one hand, this books rescues from historical oblivion not only the existence of the middle classes but also their importance. It discusses the middle classes and their connection -for better or for worse- with democracy and development... On the other, it highlights the active role in which the middle classes...radicalized themselves against the [developmentalist] imperatives coming from a Global capitalist north. In this way, we find a new reading of the 'invention of development' ... during the 1960s and 1970s. At the core of this historiographical originality, [this book] also proposes a methodological approach that highlights the discourses and practices that shaped certain men and women and their efforts to be part of a middle class in Bogota. We hope this book will soon be translated into Spanish, so that more readers can get familiarized with these transnational stories, uncommon methodological approaches in [Colombian] historiography." (Translated from Spanish)
-- Mauricio Archila Neira * Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura *
"In Makers of Democracy, A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros offers a multidimensional approach to the disputed processes through which particular social actors came to represent the middle classes and the promises of democracy.... This book is a key contribution to the contemporary history of the middle classes, democracy, and processes of political polarization." -- Ingrid Bolivar * Hispanic American Historical Review *
"Makers of Democracy is an important contribution to twentieth-century Colombian and Latin American history. For specialists of Colombia, it offers a novel interpretation of the conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s, including the role of gender in class formation and political struggle. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in histories of democracy, class, gender, and US empire in Latin America and the global South." -- Laura Correa Ochoa * H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478002857
Author A. Ricardo Lopez-Pedreros
Format Paperback
Page Count 360
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
