Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Well narrated and a very worthwhile book for anyone interested in South American culture and why the "illegal immigration issues" is just a smokescreen to hide a deeper issue, which is the politics of the U.S. and South American countries.

This is just an amazingly good book on the growth and development of Latin America. Although the date of this edition is 1971, it still is relevant to our time (2010) because the history is still accurate. In spite of its dated edition and perhaps even because of it, it has a particular poignancy as the author describes with pride and hope the 1972 Chilean election of S. Allende. In 1973 Dr. Allende was assassinated by agents of the CIA who installed A. Pinochet as puppet president. Pinochet was much later tried and convicted in international courts of the the murder of Allende and mass murders and torture of many Chileans citizens.
At any rate, I believe the book is still immensely worthwhile to read. I wish Audible would be much clearer in its representation of this as an older edition of the book in its catalogue and, better yet, change to a new edition.
In addition, the reader, Jonathan Davis, does a wonderful job of bringing this lengthy history alive.
Cudos to Audible for making this available in any form.

a lucid and free flowing account of latin american history that is a pleasure to listen to and provides a springboard for more detailed analysis. always helps when narrator has a pleasant voice...nice work.....I intend to buy the book

Galeano wants his continent back, and listening to his arguments, who can blame him. This book illustrates some of the deceptive exploitation of the first world towards latin America. The only pity is that the book is dated, I would love to get an update. Get this book, it will certainly make you think!

I like the English translation, but I looked for the the Spanish version first. This book definitely awaked so many feelings...because I identify with its content. I wander if Barak Obama has read it. I hope he has. Because there is a lesson, and the lessons is what is not good for the majorities is not good for the minorities. There is a limit to abuse the word resources and the prize sooner or latest has to be paid.

This book is fabulous and Galeano does an incredible job of weaving in the histories of such varied but intertwined states, regions, cultures and sectors throughout Latin America. The narrator was clear and emphatic. When you can give the audio your full attention, the narrative is easy to follow. However, the narrator does speak quickly (relative to other audiobooks from audible.com that I have purchased and listened to), which for some unfamiliar with the subject matter can make the content difficult to follow. So make sure you can hear and pause it when you have to talk to somebody on the bus you're riding to work =)

This book has a lot of good information, but the whiny tone just got on my nerves after a while. Okay, I get it. Latin America has been exploited for 5 centuries, and this book goes over point by point all the instances in which they've been screwed over. That's an impressive amount of territory to cover, and Galeano does a good job navigating the territory coherently. My problem is that the academics seem backwards. It seems like the research was cherry picked to support the hypothesis, which is ridiculously unnecessary, but lends the air of bullshit to the proceedings even though he's generally correct. The constant jabs at the Imperialists and Bourgeois fill this text with hyperbolic rhetoric that undermines its message. That is if it's message is anything more than polemic. I'm not exactly sure.

To the person that was annoyed about the, read CORRECT Spanish pronunciations. WTF?

It's with frustration that I say that I couldn't finish or enjoy this book, on account of the narrator (pretentious pronunciation of Spanish-based words) and to a greater extent the voice of the writing. The subject matter was engaging, but there's an anger to the author that gives me greater appreciation for "dispassionate" historians.

The entire book is written by a victim blaming others for all his problems. May be Eduardo Galeano should look closer to home for some of the problems in South America.

I'm quite tired of this harangue, and find myself doubting the fairness of the author's tirade.
I'll be hard-pressed to finish listening to this title.