Reinventing Revolution: The Renovation of Left Discourse in Cuba and Mexico

Based on in-depth interviews with 74 intellectuals of the Lefts in Cuba and Mexico, Reinventing Revolution explores the rapidly changing thinking of progressives on the big?and enduring?questions of democracy, economic alternatives, and national sovereignty. Offering a unique world-systems perspective on the sociology of intellectuals and ideology, Edward McCaughan concludes that the collapse of state socialism, the rise of neoliberalism, and accelerated economic globalization have deeply challenged the old paradigms of Latin America's socialist and nationalist lefts and have given rise to renovative ideas that defy both Marxist and liberal orthodoxies. The book's findings are relevant not only throughout Latin America but in Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, India, and other regions of the world where political, social, and intellectual forces continue to defy predictions about the ?end of history.? Reinventing Revolution will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Latin American politics and political theory, the sociology of intellectuals and ideology, and nationalism and revolution in the Third World.

Edward J. McCaughan is assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University in New Orleans.