Although Villavicencio, the capital of the Department of Meta, is located just 120 miles from Bogota, the mountains of the eastern Andean Cordillera lies between the two cities. As a result, after its founding in 1842, Villavicencio remained an isolated frontier outpost for more than one hundred years even though "El Portal de la Llanura" ("the Gateway to the Plains") provided the principal access to Colombia's tropical plains (Llanos), a vast grassy region cut by tributaries connecting with the Meta and Guaviare rivers and eventually the Orinoco. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century governments in Bogota regarded the Llanos as the "Eastern Lands of Promise," underestimating the geographic and climatic obstacles to their development. From Frontier Town to Metropolis recounts the history of the town and explains how, by the twenty-first century, it became a thriving metropolis with a population nearing three hundred thousand. During the next sixty years, it became the principal urban center of the Llanos despite the continual presence of militant guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug traffickers. This book examines the developments that transformed Villavicencio, drawing on data collected about the Colombian Llanos over a period of forty years. Noted researcher Jane M. Rausch offers a detailed treatment of the development of Villavicencio and the Department of Meta as a microcosm of Colombia's eastern frontier. The book incorporates a wealth of research published in Spanish by Colombian scholars in the last twenty years and is the first history of Villavicencio available to English-speaking scholars. It considers the important topics of when a frontier is no longer a frontier and the role played by frontier images in contemporary nationalism."

In the horrific conflict of 1914-1918 known first as "The Great War" and later as World War I, Latin American nations were peripheral players. Only after the U.S. entered the fighting in 1917 did eight of the twenty republics declare war. Five others broke diplomatic relations with Germany, while seven maintained strict neutrality. These diplomatic stances, even those of the two actual belligerents-Brazil and Cuba-did little to tip the balance of victory in favor of the allies, and perhaps that explains why historians have paid scant attention to events in Latin America related to the war. Nevertheless, it is still remarkable that Percy Alvin Martin's classic account, Latin American and the War, first published in 1925, remains the standard text on the topic. This book attempts to redress this gap by taking a fresh look at developments between 1914 and 1921 in one of the neutral nations-Colombia. This period, which coincides with the presidency of Jose Vicente Concha (1914-1918) and his successor, Marco Fidel Suarez (1918-1921), is filled with momentous developments not only in foreign policy, when Colombian diplomats pressured by German, British and U.S. propaganda struggled to maintain strict neutrality, but also on the domestic scene as the newly installed Conservative regime faced political and economic crises that sparked numerous and violent protests. Rausch's examination of the administrations of Concha and Suarez supports Martin's assertion that even those countries neutral in the Great War were not immune from its effects.

Although Villavicencio, the capital of the Department of Meta, is located just 120 miles from Bogota, the mountains of the eastern Andean Cordillera lies between the two cities. As a result, after its founding in 1842, Villavicencio remained an isolated frontier outpost for more than one hundred years even though "El Portal de la Llanura" ("the Gateway to the Plains") provided the principal access to Colombia's tropical plains (Llanos), a vast grassy region cut by tributaries connecting with the Meta and Guaviare rivers and eventually the Orinoco. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century governments in Bogota regarded the Llanos as the "Eastern Lands of Promise," underestimating the geographic and climatic obstacles to their development. From Frontier Town to Metropolis recounts the history of the town and explains how, by the twenty-first century, it became a thriving metropolis with a population nearing three hundred thousand. During the next sixty years, it became the principal urban center of the Llanos despite the continual presence of militant guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug traffickers. This book examines the developments that transformed Villavicencio, drawing on data collected about the Colombian Llanos over a period of forty years. Noted researcher Jane M. Rausch offers a detailed treatment of the development of Villavicencio and the Department of Meta as a microcosm of Colombia's eastern frontier. The book incorporates a wealth of research published in Spanish by Colombian scholars in the last twenty years and is the first history of Villavicencio available to English-speaking scholars. It considers the important topics of when a frontier is no longer a frontier and the role played by frontier images in contemporary nationalism."

In "Where Cultures Meet," editors Weber and Rausch have collected twenty essays that explore how the frontier experience has helped create Latin American national identities and institutions. Using 'frontier' to mean more than 'border, ' Weber and Rausch regard frontiers as the geographic zones of interaction between distinct cultures. Each essay in the volume illuminates the recipro-cal influences of the 'pioneer' culture and the 'frontier' culture, as they contend with each other and their physical environment.

The transformative power of frontiers gives them special interest for historians and anthropologists. Delving into the frontier experience below the Rio Grande, "Where Cultures Meet" is an important collection for anyone seeking to understand fully Latin American history and culture.

For the third edition the editor has added a section on Hugo Chavez to extend the historical perspective into the twenty-first century. Special emphasis is given to social history and the analysis of the spectrum of revolutionary change since Bolivar.The sections of the book include: Simon Bolivar - The Liberator; The Age of Caudillos - Juan Manuel de Rosas; Nineteenth-Century Economic Affairs: Did Railroads Hold the Key to Progress?; African Slavery in Brazil; Porfirio Diaz: Dictator of Mexico; Conflicting Latin and Yankee Attitudes at the Turn of the Twentieth Century; Eva Peron - Argentine Feminist; Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution; Hugo Chavez - A Venezuelan Populist in the Era of Globalization.

For this new edition, editor Jane Rausch has prepared an updated list of recommended books, videos, and films to enhance the written documents in each section.The sections of the book include: Columbus and the Transit of Civilization; Was Inca Rule Tyrannical?; Patterns of Conquest; The Spanish Struggle for Justice; The Introduction of African Slavery in Spanish America; Antonio Vieira and the Crisis of Seventeenth-Century Brazil; The Development of Society; Crisis and Climax in the Eighteenth Century; and, Historical Interpretations.