Liberty was in their hearts, but the old bondage was nevertheless perpetuated in their habits and, moreover, they were not united among themselves. Juan Bautista Alberdi

A number of recent publications have added to our knowledge of the century in which Argentina seems to have been transformed from a traditional colonial society into a modern and prosperous nation. Most of these new studies lean toward socioeconomic and sociopolitical analysis, testimony to the influence of Tulio Halperin Donghi's work on the Independence period and James Scobie's work on Buenos Aires. Because these two studies of the mid-1970s are so well known, this article will review only the literature that has appeared since. All modern scholars agree that the economy since 1820 expanded at least in the littoral region and that the century ended in an upsurge of technological innovation and export-led growth that extended even into the interior. Most also concur that the benefits of economic progress were not shared equally. The critical questions seem to be who got what and why?

Two differing views of the economy of contemporary Cuba continue to coexist. One portrays it as dynamic, largely unaffected by inflation, providing full employment for its citizens, diversified, and the unquestioned leader within Latin America in real economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s. The logical conclusion to be drawn from this view is that the Cuban economic model and its implementation in the island have been a success and that other developing countries in Latin America and elsewhere would do well to emulate the Cuban paradigm.

Interest in the Cristero insurrection against the Mexican Revolution has continued unabated since the 1960s. Until now all the major published studies have viewed the rebellion as the climactic outcome of the long-standing conflict between church and state in Mexico. By adopting this perspective, these works have deepened knowledge of church-state relations and sharply delineated the composition and development of Catholic and revolutionary factions. At the same time, these studies have offered a wide range of interpretations of the Cristero movement, interpretations that are incompatible with one another.

El tema de la vinculación de los productores y la producción agraria con los mercados es hoy un tema bastante bien explorado en la historiografía colonialista americana. De estos estudios surge como una visión más o menos generalizada la progresiva tendencia al control sobre los mercados de productos agropecuarios de parte de las grandes haciendas españolas. Sin embargo, últimamente esto ha sido matizado destacando el alto grado de participación mercantil del campesinado y de las comunidades indígenas, por lo menos en ciertas regiones y períodos, incluso tardíos.

Costa Rica has received greater attention from scholars in recent years than in the past. The nation's relative tranquility and stability compared with its neighbors continue to attract the attention of historians and social scientists seeking explanations for Costa Rican exceptionalism. The following summary of the main domestic sources of materials for studying the history of Costa Rica is presented in the hope of encouraging further research.

In 1980 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation announced that its Movietone newsfilm collection, containing documentary footage produced between 1919 and 1963, would be given to the University of South Carolina. Soon thereafter one-fifth of the collection, some twelve million feet of unduplicated footage, was shipped to the university's central campus in Columbia. Transfer of the film was suspended, however, when Twentieth Century Fox was purchased by a multinational corporation. Footage for the years between 1919 and 1935, and for the period from September 1942 through August 1944, was included in the initial gift. This material is presently housed and available for research in Columbia, South Carolina. Among these materials are hundreds of thousands of feet of documentary film with Latin American content, much of it untouched since the time it was “vaulted” by Fox fifty years ago or more. As such, this material represents a largely unmined and potentially rich source of film information on Latin America. This research note will suggest the nature and extent of this collection.