There is a rich and vast scholarly literature on neoliberalism, democracy and indigenous rights in Latin America. Patricia Richards’ new book draws on and provides an excellent summary of this scholarship, particularly the discussions about the limitations of official discourses and practices of neoliberal multiculturalism – for example, ‘the tendency of states to promote formal recognition of indigenous rights without accompanying it with the redistribution of socioeconomic resources that could make that recognition meaningful’ (p. 11). Race and the Chilean Miracle also calls attention to two (now widely analysed) subject positions created through neoliberal multiculturalism: the ‘authorized Indian’ who ‘readily embraces integrationist policies and participates unquestioningly in government programs’, and his or her ‘Other’, the ‘insurrectionary Indian’, who ‘defies the principles of neoliberal multiculturalism by pursuing recognition of ancestral rights and redistribution of power and resources’ (p. 102).

Richards incorporates Chile and specifically the ‘Chilean South’ (what was autonomous indigenous Mapuche territory before the occupation campaigns of the late nineteenth century) into the larger continental picture, and thereby expands and complicates it. As she explains, Chile is a particularly compelling case study because it was the first country in Latin America to adopt neoliberalism (under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet) and one of the last to embrace multiculturalism. Other distinguishing factors include the long-term existence of a border between Chilean and Mapuche territory, the absence of decentralisation and the perceived prominence of class as a social marker. All of this helps to explain the very tepid nature of Chilean multiculturalism and the ‘extraordinarily narrow scope of “permissible” [indigenous] behavior’ (p. 217) in the country.

This superbly written book tells several different but intertwined stories about neoliberal multiculturalism in southern Chile. It provides an in-depth description of state policies in the region, concentrating mainly on the Concertación governments (1990–2010). It also takes a close look at the competing views of local people with regard to those policies. And here lie two of the major strengths of the work: its emphasis on multiplicity, and its attention to detail. Chapter 2, for example, explores ‘the contentious meanings Mapuche, local elites and colonos associate with their collective past’ and analyses the ways in which this ‘history continues to live on, re-told in diverse ways and diverse purposes’ (p. 44). Further on, the author distinguishes between different kinds of municipal authorities: in Cautín, where Mapuche lonkos (leaders) have a long history of negotiating with the central government, state workers see the Mapuche as a client base and a resource, whereas in Malleco, where the logging industry has greater presence and where the conflict has been most violent, state workers tend to see the Mapuche as a burden. Richards thus highlights the internal diversity of the state. Similarly, she shows us that ‘Chilean denial of Mapuche history is not universal’ (p. 79) and that, on the other side, the Mapuche do not ‘speak in one voice’ (p. 171). In a national context where the Mapuche and the state, and the Mapuche and Chilean society more broadly, are frequently presented as homogeneous, uniform wholes and as diametrically and irreversibly opposed to one another, this is a crucial point to reiterate.

The author's multiple stories of neoliberal multiculturalism are fully substantiated with a wealth of primary material, including an impressive number of interviews. Only three pages in, we are introduced to Gonzalo Arellano, a young employee at the National Agricultural Development Agency in Malleco, who gives a long list of what he perceives to be Mapuche faults. Arellano provides a fascinating window into local attitudes towards the Mapuche in Araucanía and helps to draw the reader into the narrative right from the offset. In chapter 3, Richards helpfully breaks down the large amount of data available on Salvador Allende's agrarian reform, Pinochet's counter-reform and the impact of both policies on Mapuche land ownership; she also specifies the way in which the burgeoning timber industry functions in the ‘Chilean south’ and the damage that it is causing. In chapter 4 Richards tells us exactly how many Mapuche were accused of violating the anti-terrorism law during the presidency of its instigator, President Ricardo Lagos (2000–6); we discover how this law squares up against international treaties on terrorism and we read about the prisoners who have gone on hunger strike to protest against it, such as Patricia Troncoso, who refused food for 112 days in 2008. The voices of many different individuals enliven the book's narrative, and the zeal with which Richards interrogates this material is impressive.

Such in-depth scrutiny enables Richards to paint a picture of race and class relations in southern Chile, with all their complex nuances. For example, she shows how local elites have benefited from state violence (enacted against the Mapuche) but also how they have been victimised (by Mapuche in specific conflicts, and by state failures). She repeatedly draws our attention to the limitations and hypocrisies of the Concertación's neoliberal multicultural policies, but also considers the ways in which they may have created openings for the expression of alternative politics, even if only unintentionally. As we see in chapter 6, which discusses Mapuche proposals for autonomy, Mapuche political activists face many problems, but their calls for a very different kind of citizenship and democracy in Chile also give cause for hope.

The focus of Richards’ book is contemporary Chile, but she rightly takes the reader back to the early independence period – indeed, to the colonial period – in order to explain how Mapuche–Chilean relations in Araucanía have come to be as they are. One of the things I like most about Race and the Chilean Miracle is the way in which it continually reconnects the present with the past, particularly in the second chapter, where the author explores local remembrances of the colonisation of Mapuche territory. I do have a couple of minor quibbles regarding historical accuracy: first, the Constitution of 1833 does not ‘portray the Mapuche as a neighboring nation’ (p. 37); to my knowledge, it does not mention the Mapuche at all. Second, Mapuche participation in the occupation campaigns seems to be somewhat oversimplified: I would argue that there were more than a few lonkos who negotiated with the Chileans, and when they did it was not just because they were certain the Mapuche would lose. These are nit-pickings, however, and do not detract from what is, overall, a masterful analysis of intercultural relations and racial ideologies in contemporary Chile. In a single narrative thread that weaves together the intricacies of multiple, contradictory views, Richards denounces explicitly and expertly the entrenched racism of local elites in Araucanía, and their determination to resist (even a very watered-down version of) state-sponsored multiculturalism.