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.

A Study of the Disputation between Bartlome de Las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda on the religious and iltellectual capacity of the American Indians.