Book
Bolivar : American liberator
Record details
- ISBN: 9781439110195 :
- ISBN: 1439110190 :
-
Physical Description:
print
{B}
603 p. : maps ; 25 cm. - Edition: 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.
- Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-580) and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | The road to Bogotá -- Rites of passage -- The innocent abroad -- Building a revolution -- The rise and fall of Miranda -- Glimpses of glory -- The legions of hell -- A revolution struggles to life -- The hard way west -- The way to glory -- The chosen son -- Under the volcanoes -- In the empire of the sun -- The equilibrium of the universe -- Era of blunders -- Man of difficulties -- Plowing the sea -- The general in his labyrinth. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Bolâivar, Simâon -- 1783-1830 Heads of state -- South America -- Biography South America -- History |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Selkirk College.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Circulation Modifier | Holdable? | Status | Due Date | Courses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlegar Campus Library | F 2235.3 A876 2013 (Text)
Copy: c. 1
|
B001371269 | General | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2013 March #1
*Starred Review* Arana is an indefatigable researcher, a perceptive historian, and a luminous writer, as shown in her defining, exhilarating biography of the great South American liberator Simón BolÃvar. A household name in the southern half of the Americas, BolÃvar nevertheless is generally unknown to North Americans, beyond the simple, "Oh, yeah, I've heard the name." The good of this meticulous new account of BolÃvar's exciting, to say nothing of consequential, life and times is that such a robust, dynamic, and, more importantly, easily accessible narrative goes to great lengths to rectify the North American unfamiliarity with BolÃvar. The liberation of the South American colonies from the rule of the mother country was an even more complex, fits-and-starts program than the severing of ties between Great Britain and its Atlantic-seaboard colonies, but Arana follows the war in all its steps forward and back, at the end of which "one man would be credited for single-handedly conceiving, organizing, and leading the liberation of six nations." Her understanding of the man behind the fameâand behind the hostility that enveloped him in his later yearsâbrings this biography to the heights of the art and craft of life-writing. For more about the preparation of this book, see the adjacent Story behind the Story. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews. - Choice Reviews : Choice Reviews 2013 December
As Simon Bolivar's life, writings, and legacy deserve greater attention in the English-speaking world, any effort to provide an accessible biography is welcome. This is true whether one is concerned with the legacy of Bolivar's political vision in the post-Chavez era, or curious as to how Bolivar compares to the US founding fathers, who all seem to merit annual reappraisals that run several hundred pages. Here, Washington Post columnist Arana has produced a story that will sate the curiosity of all but the most avid Bolivarianist. Hers is a lengthy, thoroughly researched, and lovingly detailed telling of Bolivar's life that casts "The Liberator" as an Olympian figure, a font of history, and a visionary. Arana gives every element of his life equal weight--his early years in Caracas, his time in Europe as a young man, his early political experiences, and his many military adventures. The work is readable, but its length and lack of a critical perspective make it an unlikely choice for academia, especially as John Lynch's Simon Bolivar: A Life (CH, May'07, 44-5216) was published less than ten years ago. Summing Up: Recommended. General collection, public libraries. General Readers. J. M. Rosenthal Western Connecticut State University Copyright 2013 American Library Association. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2013 February #1
Inspired biography of the great Latin American revolutionary, with great depth given to his fulsome ideas. Like the recent biography by Englishman Robert Harvey, novelist and memoirist Arana's (Lima Nights, 2008, etc.) work is bold and positively starry-eyed about her subject. She plunges into the tumultuous life of the Great Liberator, from the moment he thundered into the capital of the Spanish viceroyalty, Santa Fe de Bogotá, on August 10, 1819, at age 36 and at the height of his power, sure at last that his revolution "stood to inherit all the abandoned riches of a waning empire." Arana reconstructs the wildly erratic, early character development that led to BolÃvar's apotheosis, a career forged by his own will and wrought by experience, from his aristocratic roots in Caracas through wide-ranging travels to Europe and America. From his mother's thwarted efforts to secure a title of nobility for her sons, BolÃvar learned early on about the racial inflexibility of the Spanish overseers, cognizant that Latin America, with its rich ethnic layers, was unlike the makeup of European and American society and therefore was incompatible with their models of government. BolÃvar would effectively build on important insurrections before him: by Indian leader Túpac Amaru II in Peru in 1781; by the famously egotistical Venezuelan rebel-in-exile Francisco de Miranda, from whom BolÃvar learned the fatal consequences of indecision; and by José de San Martin in Argentina and Chile. Disgusted by the corruption and venality of the Spanish crown and feeling betrayed by North America's refusal to aid the Latin American revolutionaries, BolÃvar embraced revolution wholeheartedly, declaring freedom for Spanish-American slaves, proclaiming war to the death and ruling by an authoritative style that won many detractors. Arana ably captures the brash brilliance of this revered and vilified leader. Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2013 April #1
The cliché goes that history is written by the winners; in the case of Simón BolÃvar, a remarkable military leader who liberated six South American countries from Spanish rule, this is not the case. BolÃvar's legacy has been tarnished by many right up to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Arana (former editor in chief, Washington Post Book World; Lima Nights) presents a human story of a wealthy Creole who, inspired by Enlightenment ideas, sought to bring South Americans of all colors responsible and representative government. As Arana aptly points out, his vision of equality went much further than the ideals of George Washington. Today, BolÃvar is viewed either as the archetype of the Latin American strongman or an impossibly faultless crusader of equality. In her work, Arana adeptly finds the statesman behind the images. Drawing on BolÃvar's voluminous correspondence and political writings, she assembles a chronological narrative that does justice to both BolÃvar's august achievements and his human imperfections. This well-rounded work reveals not just an accomplished military tactician but also an able statesman. VERDICT This vivid biography flows smoothly and makes an important contribution to BolÃvarian studies. It should appeal to readers both lay and academic, the more so as this is the bicentennial year of BolÃvar's first independence campaign. [See Prepub Alert, 10/28/12.]âBrian Renvall, Mesalands Community Coll., Tucumcari, NM
[Page 87]. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2013 February #3
The George Washington of South America cuts a dashing though dark-edged and ultimately tragic figure in this rousing biography. Peruvian journalist Arana (American Chica) chronicles Gen. Simón BolÃvar's struggle against the Spanish Empire in the 1810s and '20s through several dizzying cycles of battlefield victory, triumphal procession, demoralizing reversal, and squalid exile, before he finally drove imperial forces out of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Her vivid portrait shows us a charismatic man of high ideals, fiery oratory, unflagging energy and resolve, bold strategies, and a romantic auraâ"he rode, ragged and shirtless... his wild long hair riding the wind"âthat women found irresistible. (His preeminent mistress was no slouch herself: she once took up a sword to protect him from assassins.) Behind the epic marches, picturesque battles, and swirling ballroom scenes, the author smartly fills in the troubled background of the revolution, which descended from Enlightenment principles into bloody civil and racial conflict and grisly massacres that BolÃvar sometimes fomented; his tense rule over politically fractious republics also declined from a vision of freedom and unity to an unpopular authoritarianism. Arana's dramatic narrative is appropriately grand and enthralling, if a tad breathless, and it makes BolÃvar an apt embodiment of the ambitions and disappointments of the revolutionary age. 8 pages of color photos, 2 b&w maps. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Apr. 9)
[Page ]. Copyright 2013 PWxyz LLC
