ABOUT

Description:

This database contains annotated bibliographic citations to a collection of pamphlets, grey literature and ephemera related to political, economic, and social conditions in Latin America during the twentieth century. While the collection spans the period 1910 to 1995, the bulk of the material dates from the volatile Cold War era. With its principal strength in rare contemporary publications such as pamphlets, conference proceedings, political manifestos, speeches, serials, statistical reports, and government documents, this collection give a unique perspective on left and right wing movements in Latin America. It also includes limited circulation secondary sources such as working papers from research institutes. Among the most important subjects are human rights, land reform, the labor movement, foreign policy, industrialization, and political parties. This unique collection represents a major addition for the study of the primary documents of the region.

Primarily based on the pamphlet collection of Rutgers professor Robert J. Alexander (1918–  ), this database also includes items from the ephemera and grey literature collections of activist Frances R. Grant, University of Florida professor Harry Kantor, and Rutgers faculty members Remigio U. Pane, Samuel Bailey, and Tomas Eloy Martínez. The Frances R. Grant and Robert J. Alexander pamphlet collections, as well as their papers, which are also held by Rutgers University Libraries, are rich sources of material on the relationship between Latin America and the United States from the l930s through the 1970s. Most of the titles incorporated in this database are unavailable through common research tools like library catalogs and indexes. The database is searchable by author, title, subject, keyword, publication year, and language: about two-thirds of the items are in Spanish or Portuguese. Subject terms are derived from the HAPI [Hispanic American Periodicals Index] Thesaurus, published by the University of California, Los Angeles in 2000 and the CeDinCI finding aid and thesaurus guide published by the Centro de Documentación e Investigaón de la Cultura de Izquierdas in Argentina in 2000.

The Twentieth Century Latin American Pamphlets Database is a work-in-progress. While Part I indexes over 1400 items documenting the “Southern Cone” countries (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay), further iterations of this project will comprise the Caribbean, Central America, and the remaining countries of South America. Professor Alexander also collected similar materials related to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States, which, although not included in this database, are held by Rutgers University Libraries. The original pamphlets are accessible through Special Collections and University Archives, although advanced notice may be required to use them. The Twentieth Century Latin American Pamphlet Collection is being microfilmed by IDC Publishers and will be available in the Archibald S. Alexander Library.