A sweeping, five-hundred-year-history of Latin America that highlights the contributions of ordinary people in the struggle for free, democratic societies.

The history of Latin America is usually told in a melancholy key. Conquered at the dawn of the modern age, centuries of European colonialism in the region eventually gave way to brittle governments in the nineteenth century. Many countries quickly descended into authoritarianism and decades of instability.

Such one-sided narratives leave much unsaid. In Latin America, historian Timo H. Schaefer tells a fuller history. From the colonial era to today, Latin Americans have consistently fought to build and protect free societies. They pioneered new forms of cultural mixing and embarked on early experiments in representative democracy, long before Europeans did. Drawing on untapped judicial archives and groundbreaking research, Schaefer vividly illustrates how everyday people—from Jesuit friars to indigenous workers to revolutionary leaders—fought for their rights. In the process, they fundamentally transformed Latin America, and its place in the world.

As the region reemerges as a target of US foreign policy, Latin America serves as a crucial reminder that Latin Americans of all classes are not just bearers of a violence past, but architects of their own future.