A History of Chile:

"A History of Chile" traces the nation's political, economic, and social evolution from its independence until the 1994 inauguration of its second president Eduardo Frei. Relying on both primary and secondary materials, it explores the growth of Chile's wheat-based economy in colonial times (which entailed the formation of great landed estates), the ninteenth-century wheat and mining books, the rise and fall of the nitrate mines, and their eventual replacement by large-scale copper mining. This volume also provides a historical overview of Chile's political journey from oligarchy to one of South America's most democratic countries only for it to fall prey to a military dictatorship following the 1973 overthrow of Savlador Allende. Finally, this book examines varous aspects of Chile's social history: the growth of the press, the process of urbanization, the spread of education, the creation of a rich intellectual and literary tradition, the experiences of the middle and lower classes, and the development of Chilean culture from a unique blend of Amerindian and European sources.