Home › Features › Collections › The Best Books of 2012 on the Western Hemisphere

The Best Books of 2012 on the Western Hemisphere

Richard Feinberg's Picks
Article Summary and Author Biography

The professor of international political economy and chair of the Global Leadership Institute at the University of California San Diego selects the most important books on the Western Hemisphere published during the last year.

Print Email

The professor of international political economy and chair of the Global Leadership Institute at the University of California San Diego selects the most important books on the Western Hemisphere published during the last year. Here are his reviews, culled from recent issues of the magazine.

Click here to see all of the best books on international relations of 2012.

Cuban Economic and Social Development: Policy Reforms and Challenges in the Twenty-first Century
Capsule Review, August 20, 2012
Cuban Economic and Social Development: Policy Reforms and Challenges in the Twenty-first Century
Richard Feinberg

In this informative collection, leading Cuban social scientists express their frustration at the slow pace of economic reform, even as they recognize that the magnitude of Cuba’s accumulated problems demands skillful surgery.

State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America
Capsule Review, August 20, 2012
State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America
Richard Feinberg

Schneider hopes the middle and popular classes in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras will mobilize on behalf of more egalitarian fiscal policies and stronger states capable of implementing shared national compacts. Such revised states might be drawn closer to their more prosperous neighbor, Costa Rica, which benefits from relatively well-established institutions and a firmer commitment to social democracy.

Brazil, the United States, and the South American Subsystem: Regional Politics and the Absent Empire
Capsule Review, December 27, 2012
Brazil, the United States, and the South American Subsystem: Regional Politics and the Absent Empire
Richard Feinberg

Teixeira, a rising Brazilian scholar, forcefully makes the case that the United States has employed radically different policies in Mexico and the Caribbean basin than in more distant South America.