This is the best book on Latin America I've ever read--it is extremely accessible for people who know nothing about Latin America, and for those who do, it is a major contribution to our understanding of the region. Rosenberg's vinnettes and explanations of the violence seemingly endemic to Latin America are brilliantly written and compelling. She captures the essense of the countries she writes about, and deftly explains their histories so that we understand the reasons for the violence. We can no longer just hear about the violence plaging Latin America and see it as irrational, wondering where it came from. Wonderful portraits of the perpetrators of violence, marking Rosenberg as different from the throngs of writers--journalists and others--who have focused on the victims of violence, on the corpses and grewsome stories. More attention needs to be given to the perpetrators and also those who live with such violence, who watch it and become numb to it, including ourselves. A major contribution to Latin American studies and the study of violence.

This is the second book by Tina Rosenberg I have read. The first one was Haunted Land about Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, which I also highly recommend. I'm so pleased with Rosenberg's style that I'm after her book on South Africa as well.

For almost a decade Rosenberg traveled through Latin America not shying away from really messy situations trying to make sense of a history of violence and very little respect for human rights. Tina experienced many of the situations herself such as being soaked with diluted acid by the police in the streets of Santiago, Chile, during marches against Pinochet or taking a nightmarish truck bed trip through guerrilla infested Peru. The Latin American economic, political and military elites also had their points of view captured by Rosenberg resulting, as far as I can tell, in a very well balanced collection of personal perspectives on the problem - violence in Latin America - intermingled with background historical information.

Rosenberg is very competent in summarizing the recent history and the roots of violence in Latin America. The author brings the historical review to life by interviewing perpetrators and victims. Violence in Latin America as viewed by Rosenberg emanates from a history of inequality. The native populations and the unwillingly imported black slaves and their descendants have been for five centuries exploited and victimized by greedy white Europeans. The resulting instable societies in turn fall prey of guerrilla groups, organized crime, drug lords, or the old fashioned military economic and political elites. The victimized population looses faith in the state and became passive or takes matters on their own hands solving social problems or even threatening or overthrowing governments. To tip the balance back the oligarchies can inevitably count on the CIA for supposedly counter insurgency help.

It's a chilling book with no solution on sight and Rosenberg didn't even include some remarkable facets of violence in Latin America such as domestic violence in a notably sexist society and the petit and not so petit common crime. Colombia is the first market worldwide for bulletproof cars - Brazil is the second.

It's an important book mainly for American readers since it shows the impact of American interference. Sadly it offers no solution - maybe there isn't.

Leonardo Alves - Tucson, Arizona - June 2002

Not only has Ms. Rosenburg done a spectacular gob in writing an extremely readable book, she provides her audience vivid decriptions using a very personal approach that employs the use of specific people, their experiences and dilemmas. She also provides her audience with the neccessary historical and enviromental (social, politial and economic) information to put these personal and organizational accouts into the cotexts neccessary for reader to truely appriecate the psychology of the forces driving these extaordinary historical events.

Moreover, Ms. Rosenburg provides the reader with six different cases from six differnet countries. From Escobar's Medellin to Argentina's "Dirty War", she examines and analyzes different types of violence motivated by unique sets of circumstances.

I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN; A MUST READ FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN LATIN AMERICA!

This book was interesting and informative. Though, I do believe that the foreword and the afterword could have been omitted since they were basically a general overview of bad government in all but the Western World. I recommend this book to any one who wants to learn more about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.

This book started out as just a piece for my research paper on South African Aparthied, but it soon turned into one of my favorites! It disturbed me a bit to hear about some of the autrocities, but I attribute that to a good description by the author and good research. It was an excellent source for my paper, and I enjoyed reading it as well. I don't recommend it for everyone because it drones in some parts, but it is a good read for those interested in Apartheid, learning more about Sout Africa, and the traveller.

Martin Meredith's COMING TO TERMS is a well constructed description of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa and forces nations to look at themselves and consider the fact that their actions of today will linger on forever.

The Haunted Land tries to answer one simple question, how should the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe deal with those citizens that actively supported the communist regimes? Are they guilty of anything? Can and should they be punished? Most importantly, is the act of seeking out and punishing people for their political actions simply another face of the totalitarianism that was just overthrown?

The questions raised by the book ARE very important. Unfortunately, although the writing is straightforward and the issues presented are raised clearly, the book is somewhat superficial. The author does not speak ANY Eastern European languages. . . and it shows. All of the "meat" of the book comes from structured interviews where the author, subject, and translator have a discussion. The author does not live in a country for five years, talking with fruit vendors, policemen, street cleaners, and other regular people. Instead, she sets up interviews with specific people that she thinks will be helpful and then grills them.

For a much better treatment of a similar subject, read Lenin's Tomb, by David Remnick. He speaks Russian, he lives in Russia for a while with his wife, and for goodness sakes -- he looks Russian! (there's a picture of him with Boris Yeltsin in the book). You can tell, within fifty pages of each book that Lenin's Tomb was written by someone who was there and lived it, while The Haunted Land reads like a college essay.

The Haunted Land was well written and it has a clear point. Unfortunately, there's not much meat here. If you're interested in the story of Communism and its fall, read Lenin's Tomb.

This was a great read, one of those nonfiction works that goes like a novel; I couldn't put it down. It's divided into three sections which focus on Germany, Poland and (then) Czechoslovakia, and focuses not only on the state systems and structures of regimes, spying agencies, etc., but on the individual perspectives and costs. There's a metric ton of reportage packed into the 400-page book, with a very compelling conclusion Rosenberg writes referencing her other work on Latin America. The transition to democracy has not been smooth in any of the countries Rosenberg reports on. Many critics use the word "moral" in praising the book. I think it is, but not in a didactic way. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

I was not surprised when this book won the Pulitzer. I read it a while back but I have returned to it from time to time for clarification about one point or another.

As I am about one-eighth Polish, I found the section on Poland interesting. My great grandparents fled from the Russians in the middle of the 19th Century, so I am aware of the bad behaviour of the Russians, the Germans, and then the Russians again. How the boundaries of this poor country have been altered over and over. What a dreary, sad, but hopeful people. The saying, "Poland isn't a country, it's an underground conspiracy" is so true. I am happy to read in the papers that things are finally improving slowly.

Ms. Rosenberg contrasts Czechoslovakia on the verge of becoming Slovakia and the Czech Republic, with East Germany now reunited with the West. Her descriptions of the events that led to the very different decisions of these people was lucid and well written and will be a good resource in years to come.

Because she is a journalist, the book is written to reflect the situation extant in the early 1990's. Since she wrote the book, some of the political leaders have changed and various scandals she describes such as the spy incident in Poland have been more or less resolved or disappeared. The book will retain value for those who wish to go back and reflect on what happened.