Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: January 29, 2021 at 1:31:20 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Frens-String on Chastain and Lorek, > 'Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and the Environment in Latin > America (INTERSECTIONS: Histories of Environment)' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Andra B. Chastain, Timothy Lorek, eds. Itineraries of Expertise: > Science, Technology, and the Environment in Latin America > (INTERSECTIONS: Histories of Environment). Pittsburgh University of > Pittsburgh Press, 2020. 366 pp. $40.00 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-8229-4596-3. > > Reviewed by Joshua Frens-String (UT Austin) > Published on H-LatAm (January, 2021) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > What events and historical processes should be considered a part of > Latin America's Cold War experience? Who were the Latin American Cold > War's principal protagonists? How did a decades-long standoff between > the United States and Soviet Union alter the political direction and > meaning of domestic struggles for development in the region, many of > which predated the outbreak of that larger global conflict? In recent > years, questions like these have opened up exciting new lines of > historical research on twentieth-century Latin America. Historians > Andra B. Chastain and Timothy W. Lorek's illuminating new edited > collection, _Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and the > Environment in Latin America's Long Cold War_ sits squarely within > this growing scholarly discussion. > > The framework for Chastain and Lorek's collection follows Greg > Grandin and Gilbert M. Joseph's appeal that historians of the region > examine more deeply the relationship between the global Cold War and > Latin America's "century of revolution"--an era Grandin and Joseph > identify as running from the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in > 1910 through the civil wars in Central America in the 1980s.[1] > Indeed, the case studies compiled in _Itineraries of Expertise > _reaffirm the need to extend the periodization of Latin America's > Cold War back to at least the 1920s. Those same articles also > demonstrate the value of extending analyses of the Cold War forward > by connecting the dots between the scientific work of the pre-1989 > world and the new forms of knowledge that were deployed after the > superpower conflict concluded. > > At the same time, this valuable collection builds upon two decades of > scholarship that has successfully displaced credentialed diplomats > and military officials as the only protagonists of the region's Cold > War.[2] In their stead, Chastain, Lorek, and their contributors > recognize a wide cast of less traditional cultural and scientific > actors--everyone from agronomists and veterinarians to engineers, > architects, and conservationists. Together, the volume's authors show > that while global Cold War dynamics frequently conditioned the > production, distribution, and application of technical knowledge, > more often than not "the use of science and technology in pursuit of > development transcended geopolitical divides" (p. 14). > > Of equal significance, _Itineraries of Expertise _also offers a > thorough reappraisal of the role that "experts" played in > twentieth-century state-building processes. In this way, the > collection speaks not only to those who work on Latin America, but > also to scholars engaged with other parts of the Global South. In a > display of intellectual dexterity, the book's essays challenge both > the universalizing tendencies of Cold War-inflected modernization > theory and the dependency school of development. But the volume also > pushes back against the well-intentioned critiques of technical > expertise that many "post-development" scholars offered as the global > Cold War drew to a close. As the volume's co-editors recognize, > "high-modernist development schemes and the experts who promoted > them" did at times come into conflict with the needs and demands of > local populations. But in other critical moments, the ideas of > experts "aligned in unexpected ways with local worldviews" (p. 13). > At a time when the world is experiencing an upswell of attacks on > scientific work from a variety of corners, but especially from the > global political Right, understanding the complicated processes > through which nations sought, established, and disseminated technical > authority is an especially relevant task, as Chastain and Lorek > acknowledge in their introduction (pp. 4-5). > > The development of these larger interventions unfolds in a mostly > chronological manner across eleven originally researched chapters, > and under four thematic banners. After Gilbert Joseph's incisive > review of the historiography on Latin America's long, cultural Cold > War, Tore Olsson, Timothy Lorek, and Mary Roldán take readers to > rural modernization initiatives in the rivers, lands, and classrooms > of Mexico and Colombia, illuminating what the editors refer to as the > "agrarian antecedents" of Cold War-era knowledge circulation. From > there, a series of essays by Reinaldo Funes-Monzote and Steven > Palmer, Thomas Rath, and Pedro Igancio Alonso and Hugo Palmarola > examine novel case studies of scientific exchange, including in the > livestock breeding centers of the Cuban Revolution; the > foot-and-mouth laboratories of Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and > the United Kingdom; and at the NASA space research facilities of > Chile. > > In the book's third section, Mark Healey, Fernando Purcell, and Andra > Chastain consider the transnational currents that shaped the work of > architects, dam builders, and urban planners as they constructed > critical aspects of the region's built environment. Meanwhile, in the > book's last section, scholars Emily Wakild and Javiera Barandiarán > explore the afterlives of Cold War expertise in the areas of wildlife > conservation (in Peru) and environmental planning (in Chile). A final > essay, by Eden Medina and Mark Carey, two historians of Latin America > whose work engages the broader fields of science and technology > studies and environmental studies, situates the book within broader > conversations about science, knowledge production, and the Cold War. > > A few notable patterns stand out in this valuable collection of > essays, and in many cases, these patterns constitute potential points > of departure for future researchers. The first is the overwhelming > prominence of the countryside as a space where scientific knowledge > circulated across the region. Even more than the initial site through > which the Cold War "entered Latin America" and through which Latin > America's domestic struggles "entered global circulation" (p. 16), as > the book's first section suggests, the rural landscapes of the region > appear as ever-present fixtures throughout the twentieth century. > Future scholarship might build upon this observation by, for example, > exploring more systematically how the ideas of technical experts > affected not only rural space but urban spaces as well. Case studies > of rural dams, home building, and agricultural modernization in its > many forms beg important questions. For instance, to what extent were > rural development efforts meant to actually serve the needs and > demands of rural populations? When and why were such efforts, in > fact, meant to protect the interests of urban groups--whether by > halting rural-to-urban migration, increasing urban food security, or > developing new sources of electrical power for urban > industrialization? And how might we distinguish between efforts to > "uplift" rural populations, as opposed to simply "containing" their > political power? > > Put another way, many of the contributions in _Itineraries of > Expertise_ raise the following question: can histories of rural > development in the region, particularly ones that are centered around > the work of Latin American experts, be written without also exploring > the different forms of spatial inequality that such work at times > challenged but in other moments reproduced? By extension, we might > also ask if a history of the more technically inclined "hard > sciences," which are the primary focus of this volume, can be written > without also engaging with a history of the social sciences, and in > particular disciplines like sociology and economics from which many > of the assumptions about "development" first emerged in the twentieth > century. > > A second theme that runs throughout this excellent collection relates > to the nature of the transnational networks of expertise. In Mexico > (as described in Olsson and Rath's respective articles), in Chile (as > described by Purcell), and in Colombia (as described by Roldán), we > see the familiar faces of US technical experts--even if, as the > authors rightly point out, the old notion that knowledge always > flowed unidirectionally from an industrialized US to a static, > underdeveloped Latin America does not match the historical record. > But what stands out even more in _Itineraries of Expertise _are the > lesser-known transnational actors. In exploring agricultural > development in Colombia, Lorek, for example, shows that it was not > the mainland US but rather its colonial subject, Puerto Rico, that > became a hub of agrarian exchange for Colombian agricultural > modernizers like Ciro Molina Garcés. (Lorek also points out that > Catholic humanist tendencies focused on establishing harmony with, > not domination of, the natural world influenced the Colombian > agronomist's vision of a green revolution). > > Similarly, in Cuba, as described by Funes-Monzote and Palmer, it is > not Cuba's Cold War ally, the Soviet Union, that provided technical > assistance to the revolution's new dairy sector, but rather Canada, a > country which, like Mexico, walked the narrow passageways between the > world's two superpowers as the inter-American Cold War intensified. > What is more, Funes-Monzote and Palmer point out that the "impetus > for this partnership" came not from the Canadians but from the Cubans > themselves (p. 138). Finally, in Chastain's chapter on Santiago's > underground subway system, we see how French engineers acted as > interlocutors for Chilean urban planners--though as Chastain again > emphasizes, "this was not a story of foreign experts parachuting in > and ignoring local needs" (p. 238). Numerous international and > inter-American agencies also stand out as key facilitators of > technical exchange in this collection. Among them are the > Organization of American States-backed Centro Interamericano de > Vivienda y Planeamiento (CINVA), the Food and Agriculture > Organization (FAO), the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural > Organization (UNESCO), and the International Union for the > Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Identifying these less-studied paths > through which knowledge moved is a critically important contribution, > and once again, it opens up important doors for future researchers. > > Indeed, for historians of the Americas, the volume's ability to use > the history of science, technology, and the environment to restore > agency and ideas to both Latin America and other non-US, non-Soviet > actors complements recent international histories of the region that > have similarly revealed the agency (and at times autonomy) of > countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico as they pursued their > own political and economic interests and built their own alliances, > beyond the US and USSR.[3] In this sense, _Itineraries of Expertise > _not only further disrupts the conventional view that the > mid-twentieth-century world was neatly divided into two geopolitical > poles; it also presents compelling ways for historians to stitch > transnational approaches to twentieth-century Latin America, many of > which emerged out of the "cultural turn," back together with more > traditional political and economic approaches to the region's > international history. > > _Joshua Frens-String is an assistant professor of Latin American > history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of > _Hungry for Revolution: The Politics of Food and the Making of Modern > Chile_, forthcoming from University of California Press in 2021._ > > Notes > > [1]. Greg Grandin and Gilbert M. Joseph, eds., _A Century of > Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence during Latin > America's Long Cold War_ (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010). > > [2]. For example, Gilbert M. Joseph and Daniela Spenser, eds., _In > from the Cold: Latin America's New Encounter with the Cold War_ > (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007). _ _ > > [3]. For example, Ariel Armony, _Argentina, the United States, and > the Anti-Communist Crusade in Central America, 1977-1984_ (Athens: > Ohio University Press, 1997); Tanya Harmer, _Allende's Chile and the > Inter-American Cold War_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina > Press, 2011); Renata Keller, _Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United > States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution_ (New York: > Cambridge University Press, 2015); and Christy Thornton, _Revolution > in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy_ > (Oakland: University of California Press, 2021). > > Citation: Joshua Frens-String. Review of Chastain, Andra B.; Lorek, > Timothy, eds., _Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and > the Environment in Latin America (INTERSECTIONS: Histories of > Environment)_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. January, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55767 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#5939): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/5939 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80219325/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
