In the spotlight

Other recent books about Chile include Patrick Barr-Melej's Reforming Chile: Cultural Politics, Nationalism, and the Rise of the Middle Class and Judith A. Teichman's The Politics of Freeing Markets in Latin America; the University of North Carolina Press published both in 2001. Barr-Melej shows how the Chilean government took over education and had schoolchildren learning poems with lines like, "Where are you going? said Fame / to Chile, and History said: / I will conquer glory; I go where duty calls.... I would die loyal and well, / for my adored Chile." Varun Gauri's School Choice in Chile (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1998) criticizes reforms of the past two decades and suggests that government educators know best.

Readers of Spanish can enjoy an update on Private Solutions to Public Problems, discussed above. Chile 2010: el Desafio del Desarrollo, also edited by Christian Larroulet, includes innovative proposals concerning poverty fighting, urban life, education, work, and infrastructure. One old book worth mentioning is Paul Sigmund's The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), a moderate work that shows how Allende acted immoderately.