The editorial office has received a number of edited volumes of articles that will be of interest to our readership. These works tend to be less suitable for unified reviews than monographs, and thus a considerable backlog has developed. To introduce these volumes, we occasionally list in this section the publication information and tables of contents entries for those we have received. The five volumes selected for this issue focus on politics and economics, with emphases on neoliberalism and the Cuban economy.

Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics. Edited by Juan E. De Castro and Nicholas Birns. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Pp. xii, 248. Index. $28.00 paper.

Introduction

Juan E. De Castro and Nicholas Birns

Part I. Mario Vargas Llosa and the Neoliberal

Mr. Vargas Llosa Goes to Washington

Juan E. De Castro

The Wars of an Old-Fashioned (Neoliberal) Gentleman

Fabiola Escárzaga

Let's Make Owners and Entrepreneurs: Glimpses of Freemarketeers in Vargas Llosa's Novels

Jean O’Bryan Knight

Part II. The Writings of the 1980s and 1990s

Appropriation in the Backlands: Is Mario Vargas Llosa at War with Euclides da Cunha?

Nicholas Birns

Mario Vargas Llosa, Fabulist of Queer Cleansing

Paul Allatson

Going Native: Anti-Indigenism in Vargas Llosa's The Storyteller and Death in the Andes

Ignacio López-Calvo

The Recovered Childhood: Utopian Liberalism and Mercantilism of the Skin in “A Fish in the Water”

Sergio R. Franco

Part III. Mario Vargas Llosa in the 21st Century

Sex, Politics and High Art: Vargas Llosa's Long Road to the Feast of the Goat

Gene Bell-Villada

Humanism and Criticism: The Presence of French Culture in Vargas Llosa's Utopia

Roland Forgues

Part IV. Mario Vargas Llosa, Man of Letters

Mario Vargas Llosa's Self-definition As ‘The Man Who Writes and Thinks’

Sabine Köllmann

Vargas Llosa and the History of Ideas: Avatars of a Dictionary

Wilfrido H. Corral

****

Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America. Edited by William Ascher and Natalia Mirovitskaya. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Pp. xvi, 280. Illustrations. Index. $90.00 cloth.

Economic Development Patterns and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America

William Ascher and Natalia Mirovitskaya

Violent Conflict and Unequal Development: The Case of Mexico

Judith Teichman

The Evolution of Violence: Economic Development and Inter-group Conflict in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

Gustavo Arcia

Violence and Sectoral Development in Colombia

Jennifer S. Holmes and Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres

On the Brink of Violence: Work, Fear, and the State in the Bolivian Regions

William T. Barndt

Sowing Conflict in Venezuela: Political Violence and Economic Policy

Deborah L. Norden

Education Policy and Conflict in Latin America: Lessons from Chile and Venezuela

Emily Penner

Economic Exclusion and the Shifting Patterns of Violence in Argentina and Brazil

Peter Kingstone

****

Cuban Economic and Social Development: Policy Reforms and Challenges in the 21st Century. Edited by Jorge I. Domínguez, Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva, Mayra Espina Prieto, and Lorena Barberia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. Pp. 338. Illustrations. Tables. $24.99 paper.

Introduction: On the Brink of Change: Cuba's Economy and Society at the Start of the 2010s

Jorge I. Domínguez

I: Igniting Domestic Economic Growth

The Cuban Economy: An Evaluation and Proposals for Necessary Policy Changes

Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva

Monetary Duality in Cuba: Initial Stages and Future Prospects

Pavel Vidal Alejandro

Commentary: The Importance of the Right Incentives

Dani Rodrik

Cuban Agriculture in the ‘Special Period’ and Necessary Transformations

Armando Nova González

Cuban Agriculture Reforms after 2007

Armando Nova González

Commentary: A Comparative View of Cuban Agricultural Institutions and Reforms

Dwight H. Perkins

II: Opportunities for Outward-Oriented Growth

Cuban Monetary Policy and the Global Crisis

Pavel Vidal Alejandro

Cuba's Agricultural Sector and Its External Links

Anicia García Álvarez

Foreign Direct Investment in China, Vietnam, and Cuba: Pertinent Experiences for Cuba

Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva

Commentary: Cuba and the Challenges of Globalization

Pedro Monreal González

Commentary: A View from the East: Trade, Investment, and Economic Reform

Regina Abrami

Commentary: The Cuban Advantage

Sergio Silva-Castañeda

III: Ensuring Equity and Social Mobility

Introductory Note: The Social Mobility Perspective and Its Usefulness for the Analysis of Inequality and Social Policy in Cuba

Mayra Espina Prieto

Structural Change and Routes of Social Mobility in Today's Cuba: Patterns, Profiles, and Subjectivities.

Mayra Espina Prieto and Viviana Togores González

Geography and Habitat: Dimensions of Equity and Social Mobility in Cuba

Lucy Martín Posada and Lilia Núñez Moreno

Commentary: Is Cuba Becoming More Latin American?

Elisa Reis and Graziella Moraes Dias da Silva

****

Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy. Edited by Al Campbell. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. Pp. xvii, 337. Tables. Figures. Abbreviations. Index. $79.95 cloth.

Introduction: Finding a New Road (Again) to a Socialist Economy and Economic Well-Being in Cuba

Al Campbell

Part I: The Macroeconomy

Fifty Years of Revolution in the Cuban Economy: A Brief Overview

José Luis Rodríguez

The Evolution of Cuba's Macroeconomy: From the Triumph of the Revolution through the Special Period

Oscar U-Echevarría Vellejo

Cuba's Insertion in the International Economy since 1990

Nancy A. Quiñones Chang

Medium- and Long-Range Planning in Cuba: Historical Evolution and Future Prospects

Elena Álvarez González

Part II: Socioeconomic Issues

Creating a Better Life: The Human Dimension of the Cuban Economy

Rita Castiñeiras García

Fighting Poverty: Cuba's Experience

Angela Ferriol

The Cuban Population: Major Characteristics with a Special Focus on the Aging Population

Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga

Labor Relations, Labor Rights, and Trade Unions: Their History in Cuba

Alfredo Morales Cartaya

Part III: Specific Branches of Production

The Evolution of International Tourism in Cuba

Miguel Alejandro Figueras

Tourism: Natural Product, Source of Exchanges with the Outside World, and Ideological Challenge

Alfredo García Jiménez

Agriculture: Historical Transformations and Future Directions

Angel Bu Wong and Pablo Fernández Domínguez

Expansion of Knowledge-Based Economic Sectors: The Advantages Socialism Offers for Cuba

Vito N. Quevado Rodríguez

****

Neoliberalism, Interrupted: Social Change and Contested Governance in Contemporary Latin America. Edited by Mark Goodale and Nancy Postero. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. Pp. xvi, 317. Abbreviations. Notes. References. Index. $27.95 paper.

Revolution and Retrenchment: Illuminating the Present in Latin America

Mark Goodale and Nancy Postero

Part I: The Postneoliberal Challenge

Bolivia's Challenge to “Colonial Neoliberalism”

Nancy Postero

Culture and Neoliberal Rationalities in Post-Neoliberal Venezuela

Sujatha Fernandes

Part II: Micropolitcs of History and Practice

“En minga por el Cauca”: Alternative Government in Colombia, 2001–2003

David Gow

Neoliberal Reforms and Protest in Buenos Aires

Marcela Cerrutti and Alejandro Grimson

“Taken into Account”: Democratic Change and Contradiction in Mexico's Third Sector

Analiese M. Richard

Part III: Care and Punishment: Biopolitics and Neoliberal Violence

Neoliberal Reckoning: Ecuador's Truth Commission and the Mythopoetics of Political Violence

Christopher Krupa

Care and Punishment in Latin America: The Gendered Neoliberalization of the Chilean State

Veronica Schild

“Yes we did!” “¡Sí se pudo!”: Regime Change and the Transnational Politics of Hope Between El Salvador and the United States

Elana Zilberg

Postscript: Insurgent Imaginaries and Postneoliberalism in Latin America

Miguel Ángel Contreras Natera