Your first choice is The Contemporary History of Latin America by Tulio Halperín Donghi.

This is a history book by an Argentine historian who taught at Berkeley for many years and it covers the history of Latin America since independence, highlighting one particular point. That is that the structure of inequality that characterises Latin America explains the political structure in the region and also the economic conditions. In short, the book discusses why Latin America has failed to develop.

What kind of examples does he give of that?

He naturally pays more attention to the larger countries like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. For example, the book is very good at explaining why, at the turn of the 20th century, Latin American countries did not readily embrace the industrialisation process that was going on in Europe and why, in that sense, they were left behind. He says Latin American countries did not embrace industrialisation because they had cheap sources of labour and also because agricultural production was so successful that they chose to continue producing primary goods rather than invest and acquire the necessary technology to industrialise.

And would you say that is still an issue today?

Yes and no. It’s an issue in that they need to go beyond primary goods and raw materials but perhaps the way to industrialise now is not the same as in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Constructing railroads may not be the way to go today, but certainly introducing technology and improving the quality of education is something that they should think of.

Your next book is Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul by Michael Reid, who is an editor at The Economist.

Michael Reid focuses on the degrees of populism in Latin America. He looks at how populism has led countries to choose the wrong economic policies that focus mostly on immediate redistribution rather than on sustained economic growth. Bolivia is one recent example. The book also covers very well the early 20th-century examples of populism, looking at people like Getulio Vargas in Brazil and Juan Peron in Argentina. He also discusses more recent events like the Cuban Revolution and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the sort of new left-wing governments that emerged in Latin America in the late 1990s and early part of this century.

These people have a very different style of governing to the previous left-wing governments.

Yes, they do. But that is a result of technological developments. So popular leaders now communicate directly with the people through television, not through massive rallies like in the past. But they still mostly rely on their personalities rather than on political institutions. So personal leadership rather than the political parties or institutions are the channels through which representation takes places in Latin America.

Like Hugo Chavez with his weekly television programmes.

Yes, but not just Chavez – there are other leaders who also do that in Latin America. In general, Latin America’s political parties tend to be very weak and unstable and that makes it very difficult for democratic institutions to consolidate. People rely almost exclusively on the strength of the individual leader. As a result, people think that the stability of the system depends on the leader being in power and not in institutional strength. This is what happened in Colombia very recently. Also, many people were concerned in Brazil about what would happen to the country after [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] left office.

Do you see Latin America as the forgotten continent? Do you think that is a fair description?

Yes, in that the relative weight or share of world output that Latin America counts for has slightly decreased over the past 100 years. In a sense, Latin America is a land of unfulfilled potential. That is because it hasn’t got its act together and the world has moved on. And this is partly because Latin American countries continue to rely on exporting commodities rather than on investing in education and technology to move up the ladder and produce more finished products.

Although the region has been doing very well recently and has survived the recession a lot better than many countries in the West.

All countries in Latin America in the last few years have done very well because the price of commodities has increased dramatically. But they are becoming increasingly dependent on the raw materials they export. Last year, for example, Peru grew at almost 9% and Argentina grew at 8%, but this is because they produce primary goods that are in high demand. The question is whether they will be able to make the transition to more value-added goods.