By Linda C.
Farthing and Benjamin H. Kohl
An accessible
account of Evo Morales’s first six years in office, offering analysis of major
issues as well as interviews with a wide variety of people, resulting in a
valuable primer on Bolivia and Morales’s “process of change”.
In this
compelling and comprehensive look at the rise of Evo Morales and Bolivia’s
Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), Linda Farthing and Benjamin Kohl offer a
thoughtful evaluation of the transformations ushered in by the western
hemisphere’s first contemporary indigenous president. Accessible to all
readers, Evo’s Bolivia not only charts Evo’s rise to power but
also offers a history of and context for the MAS revolution’s place in the
rising “pink tide” of the political left. Farthing and Kohl examine the many
social movements whose agendas have set the political climate in Bolivia and
describe the difficult conditions the administration inherited. They evaluate
the results of Evo’s policies by examining a variety of measures, including poverty;
health care and education reform; natural resources and development; and
women’s, indigenous, and minority rights. Weighing the positive with the
negative, the authors offer a balanced assessment of the results and
shortcomings of the first six years of the Morales administration.
At the heart of
this book are the voices of Bolivians themselves. Farthing and Kohl interviewed
women and men in government, in social movements, and on the streets throughout
the country, and their diverse backgrounds and experiences offer a
multidimensional view of the administration and its progress so far. Ultimately
the “process of change” Evo promised is exactly that: an ongoing and
complicated process, yet an important example of development in a globalized
world.
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