The subject of Alan McPherson's collected edition is one that is quite familiar to students of US–Latin American relations, but one which has taken on global significance at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Whether prompted by the United States' leadership of the economic processes of globalisation, US promotion of values such as consumerism and secularism, or the recent adoption of a unilateral foreign policy, anti-Americanism has erupted with a new intensity around the world. The authors quite reasonably examine instances of anti-Americanism in what can be considered the birthplace of such ideas as a means towards a better understanding of the phenomenon in its global manifestations. The collection offers some valuable contributions to our understanding of anti-Americanism in Latin America.
One of the more interesting examples of the roots of anti-Americanism is Jeffrey Taffet's discussion of Eduardo Frei's effort to distance himself from the United States during the course of his presidency. Taffet details the manner in which the Johnson administration used the financial resources of the Alliance for Progress to strong-arm Frei into rolling back a recently announced increase in copper prices. After bowing to US pressure, the Chilean president not unreasonably expected the United States to offer generous terms in ongoing loan negotiations, only to find his administration held to impossible standards of fiscal stringency in order to secure badly needed funds. The essay offers insight into how Washington's use of aid programmes to pursue its own specific national interests can alienate even committed allies.
McPherson's article on Cuba and Panama, and Kirk Bowman's study of Brazil both deal with how inter-American elite alignments and realignments can affect anti-Americanism. Bowman illustrates how Brazil's industrialisation and the development of agribusiness placed the country's economic interests at odds with those of the United States. Conflicting economic interests, combined with the end of the Cold War ethos that had bound the elites of the two nations together, helped encourage increased anti-American sentiment in the continent's largest country. Another source of Brazilian anti-American sentiment in the contemporary era has been the convergence among transnational advocacy groups that brings together progressive groups from both halves of the hemisphere in support of such issues as women's and workers' rights. McPherson utilises the concept of political culture to contrast Cuban and Panamanian relations with the United States in the mid-nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries. His approach illustrates the persistent anti-Americanism of Cuban elites, ranging from the era of José Marti to the rule of Fidel Castro, which was rooted in the fear of total domination by the United States. In contrast, Panama's rulers adopted a pro-American stance reflecting their sensitivity to the nation's status as a commercial nexus within a US sphere of economic influence.
In an interesting use of political culture and elite convergence approaches, William Walker seeks to explain why anti-Americanism has not intensified in Colombia, despite Washington's interference in Colombian domestic affairs as a part of its war on drugs. Specifically, Walker concludes that the subdued response of Colombians to US intrusions resulted from a convergence of elite security interests and the emergence of a common political culture.
As the authors themselves conclude, much of what they have uncovered about anti-Americanism points to a close correlation between economic interests and the course of anti-Americanism in these countries. John Britton's essay views anti-Americanism in Mexico as driven by specific economic policy disputes. Yet some of the articles also point to other important influences. Jason Parker's essay on Jamaica traces the ambiguity of West Indian attitudes toward the United States. During Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, Jamaican activists found themselves torn between the potential of using US influence to accelerate the decline of British power in the region, and the fear of Washington extending its own imperial reach into the West Indies.
While the individual essays make valuable contributions, the volume does not make much use of the new approaches to inter-American affairs. Although Bowman's treatment of progressive groups in Brazil touches on popular roots of anti-Americanism, most of the essays focus on elite forms of anti-Americanism, or deal with mass protests as essentially the product of elite manipulation. In an era when studies of international relations have been enriched by perspectives drawn from race, gender and subaltern studies, the volume would have benefited from several articles utilising such approaches. Despite that limitation, the collection succeeds in generating a number of simulating explorations of anti-Americanism, providing an important starting point for further re-examination of a phenomenon that continues to grow in significance in the contemporary global environment.
