A review by cplemmons
Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Marie Arana

5.0

A few months ago I tried to read Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano, and I just couldn’t do it. The writing felt very dry and impersonal to me and I felt like I was missing the forest for the trees, trying to keep up with every little detail only to not really understand the wider impact of the events he was describing. But I still wanted to learn about the effects of imperialism in Latin America, so that’s where this book came in. This book was exactly what I wanted it to be. Marie Arana is an amazing writer, and the way she showed the modern day impact of the history of different Latin American countries through individuals that she met and interviewed ties it all back in a tangible way. It did take me a while to read this book because I felt like I needed long breaks between particularly brutal sections. But it’s amazingly well done and very informative.