The population “explosion” in latin america during the past 25 years has been followed by a veritable explosion of research into its origins, characteristics, and effects as seen from the points of view of many disciplines. Research on the economic determinants, concomitants, and consequences of population growth in Latin America has not been absent; but it has been notably less abundant than that pertaining, for example, to sociological dimensions of the phenomenon.

United States studies in Latin American history, since their emergence as a distinct body of literature in the early years of the twentieth century, have been much more tradition-bound than their counterparts in United States and European history. More descriptive than analytical, they concentrated on diplomatic, military, political, and institutional history. They were legalistic and elitist in their approach, a reflection in part of their subject matter. But many other factors accounted for their traditionalism. Narration and description seemed justifiable first steps in a field practically devoid of serious scholarly attention. The dearth of research aids and the accessibility of certain types of source materials influenced the nature of the work undertaken. Less tangible factors were also present. It was easy to justify studies about former Spanish territories later incorporated into the United States since, after all, such studies were really a part of “American” history, and a “romantic” part at that. A case could also be made for the study of Spain and her empire in the new world. Once Europe's greatest military power and master of a world-wide empire, Catholic, aristocratic Spain subsequently became the rival of England, source of the dominant liberal, protestant culture of the United States. Moreover, as the United States itself began to acquire overseas colonies, was it not important to assess more objectively the Spanish experience with empire? But what was the importance of studying the dismal and chaotic post-independence history of Spain's former colonies in America? Perhaps concerned about the reception of their work in an area many people considered marginal, United States historians of Latin America produced impeccable scholarship on themes of proven acceptability. Working largely in isolation from United States social scientists, unlike their colleagues in United States history, they remained remote from the fascinating tools and concepts being developed in other disciplines. Moreover, although many first-rate scholars contributed works of solid worth and enduring value, the field as a whole seems to have failed to attract the most imaginative and original minds.

One of the most characteristic and picturesque features of Latin American commercial activity is the market, “an organized public gathering of buyers and sellers of commodities meeting at an appointed place at regular intervals” (Hodder 1965: 57). These markets are held in open market squares or plazas, in streets and open spaces, at roads junctions, and in public, municipal market buildings. Locally, markets are referred to by such names as ferias, plazas, or mercados in Spanish-speaking Latin America, feiras in Brazil, tianguis in Indian areas of central Mexico, catus in some Quechua-speaking Andean areas, and marchés in French-speaking countries. Generally found in medium to large nucleated settlements, markets are also encountered in very small hamlets, particularly those located at nodal points in communication networks. A settlement may have one or more different market locations within the built-up area, or on the outskirts of the settlement. Most larger towns and cities have several separate markets which specialize in different commodities, or serve different neighborhoods or social groups. Places with one or more markets are generally referred to as market centers.

During the past decade—more precisely during the last five to seven years—the increased use of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism have characterized the activities of many revolutionary groups in the less developed world. High-lighted by the olympic assassinations of 1972, this phenomenon has also been evident in various African and Asian states. It is in Latin America, however, that the change from the traditional rural base for guerrilla operations to an urban environment has been most pronounced. The years from 1962 to 1967 saw many Latin American insurgents copying the Cuban revolutionary model, with its emphasis on rural guerrilla operations and the peasantry as the ultimate motive force, but recent years have seen an equally strong pull toward either purely urban insurgency or a more balanced strategy according equal importance to both rural and urban activities. In either case, the identifiable shift away from a totally rural guerrilla strategy for most Latin American revolutionary groups seems an established fact.

Some historians and political scientists have probably passed each other on their way to incorporate the paraphernalia of their respective disciplines. The historians are showing greater interest in theoretical questions and a growing methodological sophistication. The political scientists have begun to test their models against well-known events which have been previously researched by the historians. Obviously, this trend is no harbinger of disciplinary convergence although it underlines the similarity of interests between quantitatively oriented historians and developmentally oriented political scientists.

Academic teaching and research on subjects related to Latin America developed in Israel not as the result of multi-faceted and premeditated planning but as a consequence of general historical events as well as of local and partial initiatives. In order to understand the present position of research and teaching activities on these subjects, it is indispensable to bear in mind the major developments which occurred in Israel in two main areas: (a) the emergence of academic life and institutions during Israel's 25 years of exstence; (b) the development of the diplomatic relations and economic and technological ties between the State of Israel and Latin American countries. Research and academic teaching evolved directly from these two determining factors.

Although written a decade apart, these quotations reflect recent research focusing on the inter-relationship, or lack thereof, between the functional and genetic aspects of the Latin American militaries and their roles in the development process. Generally, the literature has attempted to interweave the military with its role as a subsystem in the larger political system, or it has centered upon the sociopolitical origins or institutional life style of the military establishment. Problematics confronting social scientists have concerned the rationale for military intervention in the political process, the motivational aspects and the divergent variables reflecting the possibilities for the future. The term “military intervention” as used by most social scientists gives a false impression, for it implies that the military operates from outside the political system, when in fact it is recognized as a principal subsystem in most Latin American nations. Throughout this article, therefore, the term ‘military intervention’ is intended to connote an active involvement in the political process by the military establishment functioning from within the overall political system.

Urban insurgency has been used with increasing frequency and effectiveness in many areas of the developed and less developed world during the past decade. In Latin America, this trend toward expanded urban guerrilla warfare has been most pronounced in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In the three nations, revolutionary forces have rejected completely the concept of the primacy of guerrilla activities based in the countryside, a theory adapted to the Latin American environment by Cuba's Ernesto “Che” Guevara and French Marxist Régis Debray. Instead, attention has been focused on organizing and developing guerrilla and terrorist operations in such population centers as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba. (For a discussion of factors leading to the development of urban insurgency in Latin America see “The Urban Guerrilla in Latin America: A Select Bibliography,” LARR: 9: 1).

In 1968, I was offered the opportunity to prepare a brief survey of resources and prospects for quantitative research in Latin American history by the ad hoc committee on quantitative data of the American historical association. I was at first charged with treatment of the whole period 1500-1960, but the willingness of John TePaske to undertake a lion's share of the task ended in limiting my responsibility to ‘only’ the 19th and 20th centuries. The results of that survey, as indeed those of professor TePaske's work, are available in the collection of papers edited by Val R. Lorwin and Jacob price, the dimensions of the past. In the notes which follow I will try to avoid repeating any of the presentation in that work and will instead try to build a bridge between that effort of five years ago and developments in this field of research in the past few years.

The state of minas gerais, atop the central brazilian plateau, has long cast a spell over people of adventurous spirit. For years it supplied the Portuguese empire with a seemingly endless supply of mineral wealth. In 1698, gold was discovered and the famous ‘century of gold’ was ushered in. The mines of Minas proved to be among the richest ever worked by man and they provided the base for the luxurious Mineiro society that flourished throughout the eighteenth century.

One of the most incompletely developed areas of the social sciences in the study of Latin America is the field of public administration. As the focus of external studies of Latin America, public administration suffers from a paucity of attention, and internally in Latin America, the subject has lagged behind other branches of political science in development.

Many social scientists working today in Latin American studies are skeptical, if not hostile, to the notion of incorporating psychological theory and methodology in their research. Some contend that studies of individual personality formation, while perhaps inherently fascinating and certainly of professional interest to the psychologist, contribute little to our greater understanding of Latin American society. Social behavior and social systems, others argue, are wholly explainable in terms of structural-materialist-power factors. Consequently, there is no need for a social psychological approach. Still others view this type of orientation as essentially conservative, an effort to attribute Latin American problems (for example, underdevelopment) to the existence of a “Latin American mind” or a “Latin American personality” (through generally pejorative categories, such as the inability to exert onself).

The study of politics in british universities has traditionally been historical in approach and parochial in scope. It is only recently that the teaching and research interests of british political scientists have spread beyond the Anglo-European parliamentary tradition to the more ‘exotic’ areas of what is inaccurately called the ‘third world’. In the first half of this century the observation and analysis of political activity in the non-European parts of the world were the unchallenged concerns of travellers, diplomats, and journalists; and their writings found few serious readers in the universities. Their work was regarded, and often conceived, as a species of adventurers' tales describing quaint but essentially pre-political societies.

A vital interest in the affairs of Latin America has grown recently in Australia. There, in that land “in back of the beyond,” professors are offering new programs of Latin American studies while their librarian counterparts have strengthened their holdings through active participation in the Latin American cooperative acquisition program (LACAP) and in the seminars on the acquisition of Latin American library materials (SALALM). The move of claudio Véliz from the universidad de chile to the chair of the department of sociology, La Trobe University (Bundoora, Victoria), will stimulate further the development of Latin American studies in the antipodes, while the resurgence of trans-pacific sailings during the past decade is attracting the interest of the Australians to the nations across the Pacific. It is worth noting that last year Professor Gilbert Butland of the University of New England, Armidale (New South Wales) published a general study entitled The other side of the Pacific: Problems of Latin America (Sydney, 1972).

Although the volume of research on Latin America has increased markedly in the past decade or so, major topics remain neglected. One of these encompasses the urban working class (wage labor) and worker organizations. This situation, however, is changing. Scholars today are opening new lines of investigation and are applying fresh criteria to existing data in order to formulate working hypotheses and test older theories about organized labor and the working class in Latin America. This article presents a brief, highly selective analysis of new and traditional materials available for Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. It treats the urban sectors and labor in modernized enclaves in rural areas almost exclusively; related topics such as peasant unions and rural labor in general fall outside its scope. It outlines areas and problems that future investigators might probe and also presents some hypotheses. Perhaps most important, it attempts to orient future investigators in the field.