{"product_id":"the-peru-reader-history-culture-politics","title":"The Peru Reader: History  Culture  Politics","description":"\u003cp\u003eSixteenth-century Spanish soldiers described Peru as a land filled with gold and silver  a place of untold wealth. Nineteenth-century travelers wrote of soaring Andean peaks plunging into luxuriant Amazonian canyons of orchids  pythons  and jaguars. The early-twentieth-century American adventurer Hiram Bingham told of the raging rivers and the wild jungles he traversed on his way to rediscovering the Lost City of the Incas  Machu Picchu. Seventy years later  news crews from ABC and CBS traveled to Peru to report on merciless terrorists  starving peasants  and Colombian drug runners in the white gold rush of the coca trade. As often as not  Peru has been portrayed in broad extremes: as the land of the richest treasures  the bloodiest conquest  the most poignant ballads  and the most violent revolutionaries. This revised and updated second edition of the bestselling Peru Reader offers a deeper understanding of the complex country that lies behind these claims. Unparalleled in scope  the volume covers Perus history from its extraordinary pre-Columbian civilizations to its citizens twenty-first-century struggles to achieve dignity and justice in a multicultural nation where Andean  African  Amazonian  Asian  and European traditions meet. The collection presents a vast array of essays  folklore  historical documents  poetry  songs  short stories  autobiographical accounts  and photographs. Works by contemporary Peruvian intellectuals and politicians appear alongside accounts of those whose voices are less often heard peasants  street vendors  maids  Amazonian Indians  and African-Peruvians. Including some of the most insightful pieces of Western journalism and scholarship about Peru  the selections provide the traveler and specialist alike with a thorough introduction to the countrys astonishing past and challenging present.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44959058853941,"sku":"ByrdShop_082231617X","price":45.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780822316176.jpg?v=1770372899","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-peru-reader-history-culture-politics","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}