Understanding and Teaching Modern Latin America

Sharika D. Crawford, Kari E. Zimmerman

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9780299351908
• eBook ISBN:
  9780299351939
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Teaching History
• Index: History

Understanding and Teaching Modern Latin America combines engaging, clearly written overviews of key themes with fresh and well-tested classroom approaches for teaching today's students about a complex historical subject. This volume comprises an introduction and sixteen chapters divided into three parts, including a reflection from a senior professor about the ways in which teaching Latin American history have changed over the past few decades, as public calls to internationalize high school and college students have led to the growth of world history courses. Chapters explore a wide range of themes—including slavery, revolution, race, labor, gender, and the environment. This volume also offers innovative and practical teaching strategies, from using maps to incorporating food, to enrich any K–16 curriculum. By presenting multiple viewpoints, this book functions as a springboard for instructors hoping to encourage students to negotiate the various contradictions in historical study.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction: Navigating the Boundaries of Modern Latin American History
• Part One: Major Themes in Modern Latin American History
• Republicanism and Democracy in Latin America
• The Role of the Haitian Revolution in Modern Latin American History
• African Slavery in Latin America
• Twentieth-Century Latin American Revolutions
• Teaching the Dirty Wars: Challenges, Approaches, Sources
• Part Two: Critical Topics in Modern Latin American History
• Understanding Race, Racialization, and Racial Thinking in Modern Latin America
• The Nations with Immigrants: Teaching Immigration to Latin America
• Labor in Latin America: Teaching the History of Working People and Labor Movements
• Teaching Environmental Histories of the Caribbean and Latin America
• Teaching Gender in Modern Latin America
• Part Three: Approaches, Methods, and Sources in Teaching Modern Latin American History
• Testimonios: Witnessing the Past and Teaching with Biographical and Autobiographical Sources
• What’s the Story?: Engaging Literature in the Modern Latin American History Course
• Teaching Latin American History with Maps
• Spicing Up the Latin American Survey: Food as Evidence
• Teaching Latin American History in the Spanish-Language Classroom
• Afterword: What I Learned from Teaching Latin American History
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Index
• Series Page