- Presents a single-volume thematic study that explores experiences with dictatorship as well as their social and historical contexts in Latin America
- Examines at the ideological and economic crossroads that brought Argentina, Brazil and Chile under the thrall of military dictatorship
- Draws on recent historiographical currents from Latin America to read these regimes as radically ideological and inherently unstable
- Makes a close reading of the economic trajectory from dependency to development and democratization and neoliberal reform in language that is accessible to general readers
- Offers a lively and readable narrative that brings popular perspectives to bear on national histories
Selected as a 2014 Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE