Eduardo Galeano (1) (1940–2015)

This is a book of stories, no doubt, but the vast majority are a minute or shorter! Less than a handful are 3 or fewer minutes. It could be hard to grasp some of it since they are so short and I listened to it rather than read it. But some “stories” were so profound, I’m going to have to find the IRL book. The author was from Uruguay but he shared morsels from all over the world: quotes, news, history, thoughts. But I did love his references to his love of soccer (football) and the team from Uruguay that won the World Cup in 1950. The storyteller went from thoughtful and sedate to leaping out of the speakers with delight talking about soccer. While a few things I didn’t like, including his reverence for some politics, I found this book so rewarding. A completely unexpected and delightful choice to read.… (mere)

Really great and highly readable and comprehensive look at the history of Latin America in terms of military and economic interventions (kind of a euphemistic term, really) from Europe and the USA. Really shows just how much Europe destroyed Latin America and how it continues to do so - gives a particularly good look at how imperialism works and its effects without being too tough to understand. Has lots of statistics and stories as evidence of just how bad things are that help make it convincing even for sceptics. Also talks about "home grown" problems but makes clear that they have often been promoted by capital to make conditions for profit better. Some parts are outdated - it's sad reading stuff about the possibilities of Allende - but the points are still as important now as then and the history is essential to understanding things today, as well as the process in other countries. A really great book I highly recommend if you're at all interested in imperialism, with applications to many things going on in the world today.… (mere)

Highly idiosyncratic but moving series of very short stories about people from all over the world throughout history. I recognised a few details as being wrong but in general it's pretty decent at accuracy - although sometimes it feels things are talked about specifically to give a moral at the end of each story.

Because each story is so short it doesn't really give a good history lesson - you obviously miss a huge amount of context and without that and because of the focus on those under-represented elsewhere stories can seem a bit samey, with people being brave and then usually getting killed. However, it gives you a great sample of the huge diversity of people and stories and places and histories out there. Most of the stories are pretty affecting, his writing style is great. There's sometimes a bit of "African mythology says" or whatever but he does make an effort at other times to properly attribute it to a group.

Honestly the biggest place it falls down is the length of each story. If they were longer it'd obviously be a very different book but it's often a bit much all at once and it tends to make really reductive stories (the someone is brave and good, gets killed thing I mentioned earlier). It's sad seeing some people take away from it that it shows humanity is just bad and it's not worth fighting injustices. I wished there were more positive stories about revolutions and stuff - he does mention some although they're often balanced out with negatives about them if they were successful. Maybe that's a bit of a pathetic want though. It is a pretty deeply affecting experience - I was really moved by some of the stories. He's a great writer and I do recommend this book if you're interested in having your eyes opened to some of those people who've been widely ignored and moved at the same time.

(As a side note: as a Marxist I feel I have to take exception to his bits on Marxism - he's obviously not hostile to it and says positive things but it's tempered with "oh they all ended in disaster". For example, he writes as if the Cultural Revolution never happened and it just went Great Leap Forward - Deng. Given he obviously focuses far far more on capitalism etc it's no big deal, it just contributes a bit to a very pessimistic/fatalistic tone and I'm being a baby)… (mere)