Is this book published in 1980 or in 1999

This book describes many fun and curious adventures the author was personally involved while living in Bolivia a few decades ago. My wife and myself greatly enjoyed reading this and other books by this author. Fred Hendel is a physicist and writer who worked for years high up in the Bolivian mountains building a physics research facility doing experiments on cosmic rays, building a skiing station nearby the physics research center, training the first Bolivian Olympic skiing team, climbing many mountains, and exploring many aspects of Bolivia (e.g., casinos, university life, national politics, insurrections, revolutions, life in the mountains, city life, etc.) with great curiosity, passion, intensity and fun. Indeed, his books are great fun to read and communicate to the readers his zest for life, wonderful adventures, and interesting observations about living in Bolivia. The author has vividly described the wonders of living in the mountains, skiing them, and specially climbing them. Some of his photos were featured in Life magazine. His stories about his involvements in Bolivian insurrections are great fun to read. The author, originally from Austria, escaped WW-II, worked for years in Bolivia, earned a physics doctorate in Paris, and became professor of physics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a fine writer (and excellent photographer) with a keen sense for unraveling the joys of life, and a fine story teller of the many adventures he experienced.

We live in an age of ever increasing globalism. People and societies living on the margins are rapidly being drawn into the world economy. As this process speeds on, these same people are taking a step back and wondering what is it that makes us unique? And in turn, who and what is truly "authentic".

Michelle Bigenho's book looks at these important questions within the context of Bolivian musical performance. As a participant observer, Bigenho joins and chronicles the experiences of three groups of musicians.

The first group is made up of professional musicians/intellectuals whose performance repertoire includes mestizo criollo music from the era of the Chaco War. This group explores the question of what it means to be a Bolivian by re-discovering music of the traumatic Chaco War. This was the key event that helped develop the sense of Bolivia as a nation state. This group helps expand the idea of what is "authentic".

The second case she describes is of an indigenous community that due to the migration of young people fears that it is losing its traditional culture. This community lives with the sense that they are losing their "authenticity". Bigenho examines this fear through the lense of their musical performances.

Bigenho contrasts this feeling of loss with another nearby community that is suffering the same demographic and cultural pressures. However, due to frequent contacts with anthropologists and NGO's, this community is secure in its identity. Their belief in their own authenticity is reflected in the music.

This book is interesting because of its many insights into Bolivian Music and its role in forming and defining a National Identity. However, what makes this an important book is that it addresses the subtle nuances of "authenticity" in this age of rapid globalization.

Would you like to know more about Philosofy? Or would you prefer a great suspence novel? Why the world was created? Was it created? Are you different from a plant, a dog or even from another man? If one of this questions intrigue you, you must read this book! And if they don't, it's time to think about life, death and the whole universe around us! This book can help you understand yorself! It's the kind of book you can't stop reading until you finish it! And when it ends, you ask yourself why you've read it that fast

A book descrbing in depth the present and past reality ofbolivina filmmakers, actors an d the strong political backgorundbehind it, showing the harsh reality of this 3rd world drug republic. a must for dope users and film freaks as well

Three unusual areas of film history at last receive their due. The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema, by Jose Sanchez-H. (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland) places this Latin American nation's films in a historical and sociological context, and features interviews with some of the leading directors, above all Sanjines.

"...a valuable contribution to the still slim bibliography on Bolivian Cinema...a vivid and total mosaic of the history of Bolivian Cinema."-From the introduction by Jorge Ruiz, Bolivian Filmmaker

Other Reviews:

"Detailed information, not available elsewhere in English, fills the book, making it a major resource..."-FILM QUARTELY

"...a very comprehensive history based not only on sound research, but also on interviews with Bolivia's most significant filmmakers..a very valuable tool for students and scholars of film and Latin American culture."-BRITISH BULLETIN OF PUBLICATIONS ON LATIN AMERICA

This is the most peculiar and thouroughly disturbing book I have ever read. The perfect choice for anyone who would like to break away from the same old novel. Uniquely written and oddley arranged this book is the type of book you want to read over and over. I highley recommend this one to anyone with a different take on life.

Bolivia 41 is an excellent book. I would highly recommend it and plan to read it again to make sure I didn't miss anything. It's author, Brad Pierce, is a super-talented writer and will undoubtedly hit the big time soon. I can't wait for his next book. Five stars.

Simple words most certainly would fail to adequately express my revolt, disgust, and genuine anguish as I poured through the pages. But, yet, somewhere between lunacy and nausea, the author's humorously twisted adventure hits you right between the eyes. Creeping out when you least expect it, throwing you to the floor and stomping all over your funny bone. I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a single copy . . . buy several and give them to all your fiends, family and other people you wish to upset. Be sure to include a disclaimer!

Nobody thought that Ernesto Che Guevara, born in an argentinian burgeois family could develop advanced ideas in the revolutionary palaestra. A latinamerican traveller, a dreamer. Later, the great revolutionary that made a whole story in the guerilla warfare which still many leftists all over the world. Bolivia was the begining of the leggend and in the daily we can found the meaning of phrases as "Forever until victory". Never surrender. A book that equals a summary of guerilla tactics and the deception of 60's latinamerican politics, a sadness that never ends.

Che went to Bolivia because he (and the Cuban leadership) thought that the situation was ripe for revolution. It tells the story of how he built a cadre of fighters with dedicated youth who wanted to fight until freedom or die. He wrote this diary in the mountains, fighting the Bolivian army as well as hunger and asthma. Despite everything, he was always focused on the goal, not his own pain or suffering. He was constantly evaluating their situation, politically and militarily, and determining the next move.

I first read Che's diary in the early 1970s because I wanted to learn more about him. At the time I thought it was interesting, but it didn't make much sense to me. This new edition is far superior to the Ramparts edition I read back then. The Pathfinder editors went to Cuba to collect photos and maps to make the diary come to life. This book includes accounts by surviving guerillas who fought with Che in Bolivia. There is a chronology and a glossary so you can understand who everyone was, where they came from, and what happened to them. If you want to read this famous book, make sure to read this edition!

If you read this book, THIS edition, you will begin to know the real Che-- who gave his life building an embryo of the kind of leadership required to rid the world of Yankee Imperial domination and military dictators.Bolivians,Argentines,Peruvians, and Cubans fought side by side, changing themselves as they fought, with food and water and ammo and BOOKS in their knapsacks.Studying indigenous languages, among other things--- with the full support of Fidel Castro and the Cuban government.

And they fought to take the heat off brutalized,heroic Vietnam, even just a little.They were defeated in combat, but victorious in the example they set : "the highest form of the human species" , yes they were.To defeat this monster in the USA, working people will have to emulate these men and women.Not in the mountains, but on strike picketlines, street demonstrations,studying together, as we fight the Imperial march towards Depression, fascism, and war. Excellent introduction points to struggles in Argentina,Bolivia,Chile, afterward :now it begins again...

I'll try to make a constructive critique as a Bolivian born and raised in Potosi. As some of the books published in the US, this book portrays foreign life styles with an "american" mentality that is narrow in concept visualization as a whole. Yes, those pictures show a very harsh reality among "mineros" in Potosi. However, the pictures do not show, in any form, the subtle aspects of their lives that make them really unique and respectable. The photographer would have to live a reasonable time with them to really understand the situation and I'm sure he would take pictures with a different approach. By the way, I'm also a photographer.

Miners live in a world that almost defies description, except by the miners themselves. And the Potosi miners live in an exceptional world in itself, because the altitude of Potosi and the consequent thinning of the atmosphere at that height confer mining work, and even merely being there, with a permanent feeling of irreality in all your actions and thoughts. And that is what Stephen Ferry's images have captured in this outstanding book, the work of a real adventurer of the printed image. And Galeano's text is a fitting companion to such singular and excellent photographic work.

First off, I had the opportunity to sit in on 3 of Mr. Ferry's Photographic lectures on Latin America, with one of them dealing with Potosi. At first sight of these photos I thougth they were good, but after he explained the particulars behind each and every picture, the book comes to life. It is now one of my favorite photographic books of all time. Eduardo Galeano fills in the historical aspect of the book and Ferry satiates the contemporary features of Potosi, Bolivia. In response to an earlier review(the only really negative review of Ferr'y book) I respect the fact that you are a native born Bolivian, but if you look at Latin American History as a whole, there really in not much that is good about it. I am sure there are small subtle lifestyles that are interesting, but people want to read and learn about historical mishaps and atrocities, such as the the colonial raping of Potosi and the current poverty of the same region.

The subtitle of this book, "the evolution of a multi-ethnic society" led me to believe that this would be more of social history than it actually was. It is very well-written and readable, which is particularly commendable since it primarily concerns questions of government and economics: who was in power when, what they did, and how many tons of tin bolivia was exporting at the time. That's slightly exagerated, as the author also very *briefly* discusses developments of early bolivia art, architecture, and literature, and mentions changes in relations between 'white', 'cholo', and 'indian' segments of the population.

This is the second edition, published in 1992; I would love to read the third edition, updated to include public uprising against neo-liberalism as in the recent controversy over privatization of the public water service.

This is an excellent book as long as it is judged by its own goals; however, if you are looking for more social analysis of this 'multi-ethnic society', you'll have to supplement this book with additional reading.

Bolivia: Why? Most would consider this historically destitute nation - famous for its multiple "coups d'etat" and coca production - not worthy of serious study. Herb Klein seeks to rectify such neglect with this work. He largely succeeds. The book is a thorough account of Bolivian history, bringing to light the all important implications of the War of the Pacific, the Chaco War, the 1952 Revolution, and the transition to democracy of the 1980s and its concomitant economic reforms. The author reveals that Bolivia is more than the coca producing, political nightmare the uninformed eye frequently considers it to be.

Klein's analysis (though it does not emphasize this outright) effectively portrays Bolivia as the trend-setting nation that it is: one of four countries in the hemisphere to experience a definite revolution, an event which brought far-reaching social changes (extensive land reform, enfranchisement of the peasantry,etc.); one of the first nations to embark on the neoliberal stabilization and structural adjustment economic programs of the 1980s (the Nuevo Plan Economico); a progressive nation with respect to indigenous rights, highlighted by the election of an Aymara indian to the vice-presidency, the 1994 Constitutional reforms labeling Bolivia a mulicultural, pluri-ethnic state, and the subsequent Decentralization and Popular Participation Laws; and an example of hybrid presidential-/parliamentarian-ism with regards to electoral reform and systemic political changes.

Now, not all of these developments are covered in Klein's analysis, as some occurred after its 1992 publication, such as the cultural and constitutional changes. Nevertheless, Klein gives the reader a sense of their possibility. He states: "[At] this stage, Bolivia has reached an accommodation unusual even by the more open standards of the multi-racial and multi-ethnic societies of Latin America." Moreover, his look at history indicates to the reader just how far Bolivia has come since its national conception in 1825, and specifically the great strides it has made in the last quarter century.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in Bolivia or Latin America.