This work treats the crucial issues facing this vital region in the advent of the 21st century. Designed as a core text for Introduction to Latin America courses, it can also be used effectively as a supplemental reader in a wide variety of discipline-oriented curriculums. The authors provide up-to-date, thorough analyses not only of history, politics, and economics, but also of class and ethnicity, the role of women, religious beliefs, education and cultural expression and the environment. Each topic is covered with reference to the latest available scholarship. All of the chapters in this second edition have been fully revised and updated.