This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of the history of Latin America in all its diversity. Comprising 28 chapters by leading world experts, the book presents a single source of information and analysis for scholars and students interested in Latin America's past and is the ideal starting point for further study. Latin America is defined as the vast region stretching from the middle of North America through the entire tropic belt, and extending south over plains to the glaciers and fjords of the southernmost inhabited regions of the earth. In the pre-Columbian era, the area incorporated hundreds of distinct language groups; today, there are still more than 20 independent nations in the region. This Companion recognizes this variety, while providing systematic chronological and geographical coverage of the basic historical trends and new areas of scholarly interest.

Thomas H. Holloway is Professor of Latin American History at the University of California at Davis, where he was Director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas from 2000 to 2007. He served as President of the Latin American Studies Association, 2000-01, and Executive Secretary of the Conference on Latin American History, 2002-07. He has taught widely on Latin American history since 1974. His research focuses mainly on the social and economic history of Brazil. His previous books include Immigrants on the Land: Coffee and Society in São Paulo, 1886-1934 (1980) and Policing Rio de Janeiro: Repression and Resistance in a 19th-century city (1993).