Since its US debut, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.

Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organised the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Natural resources—such as gold, coffee, and copper—are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.

Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably.

This classic is now further honoured by Isabel Allende’s inspiring introduction. Universally recognised as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.