Latin America, First Edition Regions and People

by Kent, Robert B.

• ISBN13: 9781593852696
• ISBN10: 159385269X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-23
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

This comprehensive text introduces key geographical concepts while providing an incisive, timely, and highly informative primer on Latin America. Thematic chapters trace the development of the region from the pre-Hispanic era to the present, while regional chapters reveal the diversity of its constituent people and places. Coverage includes cultural history; environment and physical geography; land use, agriculture, and urbanization; social and economic processes; and the Latin American diaspora. Enhancing the utility of the text are quick-reference tables and illustrative vignettes, over 160 photographs and maps, and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter.

Author Biography

Robert B. Kent is Chair and Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Akron. He earned a BA and MA from the University of California, Davis, and a PhD from Syracuse University. His research and publications have focused broadly on the human geography of Latin America, especially the Andes and Central America, and on the evolving geography of Latin Americans in the United States. He has traveled, lived, and worked throughout Latin America, including 3 years as an urban and regional planner in Peru for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and has worked as a consultant for USAID in Bolivia on numerous occasions. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan in San Juan, Argentina, and at the Universidad Pedag=gica Nacional in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He is a past chair of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers and a past councillor and treasurer of the Association of American Geographers. Dr. Kent is the editor of <I>Region in Transition: An Economic and Social Atlas of Northeast Ohio<I*> and a coeditor of <I>Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century<I*>, and he has published numerous articles and book chapters on regional development, urban planning, cartography, GIS, and cultural geography.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(7)
Latin America as a Culture Region	8	(29)
The Environment	37	(18)
The Hispanic Caribbean	55	(12)
Peopling Latin America to 1820	67	(24)
The Mesa Central of Mexico	91	(22)
Early Cities and Urban Development	113	(17)
The Andes	130	(24)
Migration, Population Change, and Race	154	(25)
The Central Valley of Chile	179	(8)
The Central American Highlands	187	(19)
Land and People since the Conquest	206	(30)
Brazil's Atlantic Coastal Plain	236	(10)
Contemporary Cities and Urban Patterns	246	(25)
The Southern Brazilian Highlands	271	(21)
Latin American Development in Perspective	292	(16)
The Pampa	308	(14)
Latin America in the World Economy	322	(26)
The Amazon Basin	348	(17)
The Latin American Diaspora	365	(25)
Conclusion	390	(6)
Chapter Notes and Additional Sources	396	(12)
Index	408	(14)
About the Author	422