HIS-352 Social Movements and Revolution in Modern Latin America

Course Overview

This course will focus on the history of social movements, revolution, rebellion, and resistance that have shaped the lives of Latin Americans in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will examine the major revolutionary movements in Latin America during the 20th century, particularly Mexico (1910), Cuba (1959), Chile (1973), and Peru (1980s), and will learn about the development of the social movements of Liberation Theology in El Salvador, Peru and Brazil and the Landless Movement in Brazil. This course will explore the political, economic, and cultural forces at work that compelled ordinary people to rebel against the status quo. Students will consider who stood to benefit from revolutionary projects, and examine divisions within revolutionary movements, such as the differences between men and women, as well as divisions between those who formed the revolutionary leadership and those who supported revolution and social change through grassroots political activism.