“Historians have paid less attention than they should to Latin America’s place in global history. In this sparkling and marvelously readable book, Brown draws on novels, film, music, and sport, as well as political and economic history, to show how intense Latin Americans’ engagement with the rest of the world has really been, from Simón Bolívar and the independence struggles of the 1810s to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the global impact of Gloria Estefan, Diego Maradona and Gabriel García Márquez. A superb introduction to Latin America’s history, written for a global age.”

John Darwin, Oxford University

“Latin America’s huge influence on the world is well recognised but rarely understood, so this book is an overdue exercise in accessible myth busting. In the year that the World Cup comes back to the region for the first time in almost 30 years, Brown skillfully joins the dots between the region’s culture and those of the rest of the world. Reasoned, opinionated, and moreish.”

Andy Brassell, European football writer and broadcaster

“Everything you wanted to know about Latin America. . . . Matthew Brown has managed to compact 200 years of history of a vast and diverse region into just over 200 pages. He has condensed recent academic scholarship on history and politics and combined it with what you really want to know about culture, society, and sport, particularly how and why football became so influential. This is a very readable and knowledgeable introduction that will help all readers join the dots and gain a deep understanding of how Latin America came to be how it is and what makes it tick today. A must-read for anyone interested in the region.” 

Natalia Sobrevilla Perea, University of Kent