America, América

A New History of the New World

De: Greg Grandin

Narrado por: Holter Graham

“Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. . . . Destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world.”—Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of Doppelganger

“Scintillating . . . It’s a monumental new view of the New World.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both

The story of how the United States’ identity was formed is almost invariably told by looking east to Europe. But as Greg Grandin vividly demonstrates, the nation’s unique sense of itself was in fact forged facing south toward Latin America. In turn, Latin America developed its own identity in struggle with the looming colossus to the north. In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Grandin reveals how North and South emerged from a constant, turbulent engagement with each other.

America, América traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest—the greatest mortality event in human history—through the eighteenth-century wars for independence, the Monroe Doctrine, the coups and revolutions of the twentieth century, and beyond. Grandin shows, among other things, how in response to U.S. interventions, Latin Americans remade the rules, leading directly to the founding of the United Nations; and how the Good Neighbor Policy allowed FDR to assume the moral authority to lead the fight against world fascism.

Grandin’s book sheds new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolívar, and Woodrow Wilson, as well as lesser-known actors such as the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who almost lost his head in the French Revolution and conspired with Alexander Hamilton to free America from Spain; the Colombian Jorge Gaitán, whose unsolved murder inaugurated the rise of Cold War political terror, death squads, and disappearances; and the radical journalist Ernest Gruening, who, in championing non-interventionism in Latin America, helped broker the most spectacularly successful policy reversal in United States history. This is a monumental work of scholarship that will fundamentally change the way we think of Spanish and English colonialism, slavery and racism, and the rise of universal humanism. At once comprehensive and accessible, America, América shows that centuries of bloodshed and diplomacy not only helped shape the political identities of the United States and Latin America but also the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. In so doing, Grandin argues that Latin America’s deeply held culture of social democracy can be an effective counterweight to today’s spreading rightwing authoritarianism.

A culmination of a decades-long engagement with hemispheric history, drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World.

©2025 Greg Grandin (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“An authoritative history of the debates and brutality that made our world.”—Kirkus (starred review)

“Scintillating . . . It’s a monumental new view of the New World.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Dazzling. Sweeping. Mind-altering. World-changing. This is a once-in-a-generation contribution destined to become our new reference for understanding the making of the modern world. With extraordinary depth, erudition and precision, Grandin avenges the dead and fights for the living.”—Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of Doppelganger

Deeply researched and smoothly executed

This book reveals so much about the relationship between the “Americas” that I did not know (or only understood the thin surface of a complex and inter-tangled experience)—A deep dive into the Western Hemisphere’s history that is well worth your time.

Bartolomé de las Casas over Milton Friedman

This book will both break your heart and stir up righteous anger as it chronicles one failure after another to turn the advance of European conquest of the Western Hemisphere from exploitation and enslavement to mutually beneficial human interaction. Greg Grandin exposes a through line running from the Spanish conquest to the 21st Century of domination for greed and profit that justified the dispossession and suppression of those considered to be lesser peoples. Aspects in this book of historical figures not usually seen in popular accounts are sure to adjust readers' assessments of major actors such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Harry Truman—and these aspects intensify in the aftermath of World War II.

Grandin chronicles the evolution of an initial vision of a common America encompassing both continents into one that developed into the new United States seeing itself as the dominant hemispheric hegemon as early as the end of the Revolutionary War against Great Britain. The Monroe Doctrine, which had some beneficial features if applied judiciously, eventually became a bludgeon for imposed will until the US no longer found it useful in its original form. The seeming roller coaster success and setback of significant figures such as Simón Bolívar illustrates the many disappointments of things not gone right. One point of structure that Grandin mentions frequently is the principle of "uti possidetis juris," which was based in Roman law and stipulated that the new South American states would preserve the territorial boundaries they held as administrative units under their former colonial powers—it served to provide legal and territorial continuity to avoid useless conflicts, and has served well in avoiding some unnecessary wars.

In the narrative that Grandin presents, things turned notably for the worse during the Cold War and neoliberal Globalization. The South American countries were not helped in developing their domestic industries, primarily due to US companies preference to keep them instead as extractive sources of raw materials. The wave of right wing coups and dictators propped up by US operatives has impeded any meaningful social and economic progress—Augusto Pinochet's rule of terror in Chile is a well known example, and it served as a model that fellow travelers of the neoliberal Chicago Boys used to guide Vladimir Putin to emulate in Russia. Many of these coups were assisted by Frank Wisner's 1940s "Mighty Wurlitzer" of propaganda, which is still playing its hits on more technologically advanced platforms today.

We need something that can outperform Wisner's "Wurlitzer," and negate the vast amount of right wing disinformation that has been flooding the zone for far too long—it's past time to start calling up the songs of humanity. One may readily perceive from Grandin's skillful description how Bartolomé de las Casas had in the early 16th Century something better than 19th Century Marxism in his insistence that all people share a common humanity that cuts across cultural and racial divides. This is a view rooted in Christian doctrine, natural law, and empirical observation. For ourselves, we need to see that Bartolomé de las Casas outshines Milton Friedman in our own time—the case is easy to make.

Most important history book of 2025

Graeber writes the history of the Americas that the U.S. selectively amnesia-thetize from our versions of the world. This should be required reading for anyone traveling in LATAM

Admirable in scope and ins. A masterpiece of historical scholarship.

As a daughter of criollos who immigrated to the U.S., this book not only reconnected me with my roots but gave me hope that social democracy isn’t dead and is worth the struggle. I’m grateful to Greg Granden for reminding me that America is vast and its best aspirations are found south of the Rio Grande.

S-tier

Fantastic book about what sadly was, what almost was, and what could still be. I am not a history type, just an ignorant white guy born in the US who has had the great privilege to live and work in Latin American countries at a few points in my life, and this book has gone far toward disabusing me of many lingering misconceptions. There's so much potential for our hemisphere if the US had a sincere interest in collaboration and a view of Latin America that was anything better than hungry or disdainful. Can't say enough good things about this book. The earth shifted beneath me several times.

Amazing eye-opening perspective on American History

An amazing new perspective on American history. Should be required reading for all high school and college students and faculty. Good reading.

Our fates intertwined

Comparing and contrasting Spain and England's colonization of the Americas, through the Bolivar Revolution, Monroe Doctrine, Cold War, to now, Grandin does a fascinating job showing how our political currents are intertwined in this hemisphere.

Be aware: the Spanish is "pesimo"

An amazing book, so much information and so interesting. It really captures the difference between America and América as the difference between North and South America, their political viewpoints, cultural norms, approach to its citizens. It shows how the South Americans have always been more humanistic, with respect for basic human rights as opposed to the growing USA frontier with its emphasis on expansion and money, money, money. I have lived in South America (Colombia) for over 30 years and have experienced this difference firsthand, more so with Trump in the White House. The only complaint was the narrator and his oddly fervent attempt at speaking Spanish. It is as though someone told him to "think like a latin American" and so he does and really spits out some of the Spanish with a crisp Latino accent completely missing the stress on the words, e.g. Gabriel Garcia Márquez has the stress on the Mar, not on the quez, yet he says it wrong over and over again. Really frustrating for those of us who speak and love the Spanish language. Couldn't you find a bilingual reader?

I loved this book, first with alota info

A great,.what was really going on...
the percentage of folks following gotta love the feeling ya believe this book.
Put this with, To govern the globe 🌎 and I see things, Popes, Peru and Perus' resident author Perkins book CONFESSIONS of an Economic Hitman. He is dedicated to reversing Bad BAD USA damages.

The connecting of the Dots of the Past to the, now scary, Present.

It was long, but worth it. I learned a lot of history I didn't know before & it's broadened my perspective and understanding. Excellent book and it would make an excellent highschool history course.