General Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), called El Liberator, and sometimes the "George Washington" of Latin America, was the leading hero of the Latin American independence movement. His victories over Spain won independence for Bolivia, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Bolívar became Columbia's first president in 1819. In 1822, he became dictator of Peru. Upper Peru became a separate state, which was named Bolivia in Bolívar's honor, in 1825. The constitution, which he drew up for Bolivia, is one of his most important political pronouncements. Today he is remembered throughout South America, and in Venezuela and Bolivia his birthday is a national holiday. Although Bolívar never prepared a systematic treatise, his essays, proclamations, and letters constitute some of the most eloquent writing not of the independence period alone, but of any period in Latin American history. His analysis of the region's fundamental problems, ideas on political organization and proposals for Latin American integration are relevant and widely read today, even among Latin Americans of all countries and of all political persuasions. The "Cartagena Letter," the "Jamaica Letter," and the "Angostura Address," are widely cited and reprinted.

An authoritative portrait of the Latin-American warrior-statesman examines his life against a backdrop of the tensions of nineteenth-century South America, covering his achievements as a strategist, abolitionist, and diplomat.

Simón Bolívar is the preeminent symbol of Latin America and the subject of seemingly endless posthumous attention. Interpreted and reinterpreted in biographies, histories, political writings, speeches, and works of art and fiction, he has been a vehicle for public discourse for the past two centuries. Robert T. Conn follows the afterlives of Bolívar across the Americas, tracing his presence in a range of competing but interlocking national stories. How have historians, writers, statesmen, filmmakers, and institutions reworked his life and writings to make cultural and political claims? How has his legacy been interpreted in the countries whose territories he liberated, as well as in those where his importance is symbolic, such as the United States? In answering these questions, Conn illuminates the history of nation building and hemispheric globalism in the Americas.

Examining women writers from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, this book traces the contradictions inherent in revolutionary movements that, while arguing for the rights of all, remained ambivalent, at best, about the place of women. It reveals the complex role of women in shaping the vexed ideologies of independence.

Chronicles the life of Simón Bolívar, exploring his political career, leadership dynamics, rule over the people of Spanish America, and impact on world history.

Earning glory on the fields of battle, Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) was one of the most influential and enigmatic figures of Latin American history. Most North Americans know little of "the Liberator" who freed South America from Spanish rule from 1810 to 1826. Richard W. Slatta and Jane Lucas De Grummond bring forth the entire life and legacy of Simón Bolívar, with special attention to the ups and the downs of his military career in Bolívar's Quest for Glory. Bolívar's life contained all the makings of an epic war hero: repeated comebacks from defeat, flashes of military genius, tremendous mood swings, dogged persistence, a near-manic quest for glory, and fall from political grace. He exhibited both military leadership and foolhardiness. Egomaniacal, he strived for military might and political power. The tragedy of his life and his political legacy remain hotly debated, but no one would deny this man's historical significance. Drawing from an immense corpus of writings left behind by Bolívar, his allies, and his enemies, the authors transport the reader back to the life and times of the Liberator, introducing lesser known people who fought on both sides of the conflict and showing how Bolívar did not win Spanish American independence all on his own. Voices of the past ring from this rich narrative—expressions of admiration for Bolívar's courage, leadership, and vision, as well as proclamations of the leader's failures and weaknesses. The first ever biography to suggest that Bolívar suffered from bipolar disorder, Bolívar's Quest for Glory treads new ground and shows how the conflicts he faced during the independence era set a political pattern followed by much of Latin America for the next century. Scholars and fans of military history, anyone interested in the development of modern Latin America, and readers of great biography will all welcome this book.

This book explores the surprising similarities in the political ideas of the American and Latin American independence movements.

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