Almost a century ago, long before biodiversity expressed a scientific value for nature, Latin American countries began establishing national parks. Today, they represent over 6 percent of Latin America’s landmass. By considering national park creation across a broad regional span and six crucial decades, this article explains a mode of state formation focused on caring for nature instead of just exploiting it. It examines how national parks expanded in the region by identifying three consequent trajectories: the use of these conservation units for frontier development in Argentina and as part of a broader project seeking social justice in Mexico; the formation of more haphazard park initiatives in various countries, taking Brazil and Chile as main examples; and the development of ecologically coherent park systems through the cases of Peru and Colombia. The article also addresses the role of science (especially forestry) and international cooperation in shaping national parks. In this manner, it uncovers the paths that faded from view after the idea that parks intend to protect biodiversity took hold and illustrates a rarely acknowledged aspect of state expansion.

This essay reviews the following works:

The Frontier Effect: State Formation and Violence in Colombia. By Teo Ballvé. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020. Pp. 228. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781501747540.

Paramilitarismo. Balance de la contribución del CNMH al esclarecimiento histórico. By Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (CNMH). Bogotá: Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica, 2018. Pp. 234. Free e-book. ISBN: 9789585500051.

Agrarian Capitalism, War and Peace in Colombia: Beyond Dispossession. By Jacobo Grajales. New York: Routledge, 2021. Pp. 190. $44.95 paperback. ISBN: 978036775707.

Clientelistic Warfare: Paramilitaries and the State in Colombia (1982-2007). By Francisco Gutiérrez Sanín. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019. Pp. 480 pages. $72.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9781787073654.

Borderland Battles: Violence, Crime, and Governance at the Edges of Colombia’s War. By Annette Idler. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 496. $29.00 paper. ISBN: 9780190849153.

Organized Violence after Civil War: The Geography of Recruitment in Latin America. By Sarah Zukerman Daly. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. 344. $25.00 paperback. ISBN: 9781107566835.

This essay reviews the following works:

A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power: The Andes in Comparative Perspective. By: Julio F. Carrión. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xi + 269. $26.93 cloth. ISBN: 9780197572290.

¿Por qué funciona el populismo? El discurso que sabe construir explicaciones convincentes en un mundo en crisis. By María Esperanza Casullo. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2019. Pp. v + 208. $19.52 paperback. ISBN: 9789876298964.

The Chain of Representation: Preferences, Institutions, and Policy across Presidential Systems. By Brian F. Crisp, Olivella Santiago and Guillermo Rosas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. iii + 262. $36.69 paperback. ISBN: 9781108745413.

Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil. By Jessica Lynn Graham. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2019. Pp. iii + 365. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520293762.

The Inclusionary Turn in Latin American Democracies. Edited by Diana Kapiszewski, Steven Levitsky, and Deborah J. Yashar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. iii + 537. $93.45 cloth. ISBN: 9781108842044.

Diminished Parties: Democratic Representation in Contemporary Latin America. Edited by Juan Pablo Luna, Rafael Piñeiro Rodríguez, Fernando Rosenblatt, and Gabriel Vommaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. iii + 341. $120.00 cloth. ISBN: 978–1316513187.

Democracia para Venezuela: ¿Representativa, participativa o populista? By Margarita López Maya. Caracas: Editorial Alfa, 2021. Pp. 3 + 238. $19.00 paperback. ISBN: 978–8412266566.

Checking Presidential Power: Executive Decrees and the Legislative Process in New Democracies. By Valeria Palanza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. iii + 245. $108.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781108427623.

This essay reviews the following works:

Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain. By David M. Carballo. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xvi + 351. $37.99 hardcover, $23.99 paperback, e-book. ISBN: 9780197661451.

Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest. By Fernando Cervantes. New York: Viking, 2021. Pp. vxiii + 496. $35.00 hardcover, e-book. ISBN: 9781101981269.

Inca Apocalypse: The Spanish Conquest and the Transformation of the Andean World. By R. Alan Covey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xix + 592. $34.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780190299125.

Death in the Snow: Pedro de Alvarado and the Illusive Conquest of Peru. By George W. Lovell. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022. Pp. xv + 280. $39.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780228014409.

Strike Fear in the Land: Pedro de Alvarado and the Conquest of Guatemala, 1520–1541. By W. George Lovell, Christopher H. Lutz, and Wendy Kramer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Pp. xvi + 194. $32.95 hardcover, $21.95 paperback, e-book. ISBN: 9780806190044.

German Conquistadors in Venezuela: The Welsers’ Colony, Racialized Capitalism, and Cultural Memory. By Giovanna Montenegro. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2022. Pp. xvii + 372. $95.00 hardcover, $75.99 e-book. ISBN: 9780268203214.

Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. By Matthew Restall. Updated edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. xix + 272. $21.99 paperback. ISBN: 9780197537299.

Conquistadors and Aztecs: A History of the Fall of Tenochtitlan. By Stefan Rinke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. ix + 328. $34.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780197552469.