Book excerpt: This thoughtful text describes how Latin America's authoritarian culture has been and continues to be reflected in a variety of governments, from the near-anarchy of the early regional bosses (caudillos), to all-powerful personalistic dictators or oligarchic machines, to contemporary mass-movement regimes like Castro's Cuba or Peron's Argentina. Taking a student-friendly chronological approach, Paul Lewis also analyzes how the internal dynamics of each historical phase of the region's development led to the next. He describes how dominant ideologies of the period were used to shape, and justify, each regime's power structure. Balanced yet cautious about the future of democracy in the region, this accessible book will be invaluable for courses on contemporary Latin America.