As 19th-century Latin America emerged from under Spanish rule, the newly independent nations were faced with a host of urgent and difficult political, economic, and social questions. These complex issues were addressed and debated by the pensadores (public philosophers) of the region, the importance of whose writings to Latin American history are compared by the editors (both of Arizona State U.) of this reader to the contributions of John Stuart Mill, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. The reader collects writings and addresses by pensadores Simon Bolivar, Jose Maria Luis Mora, Andres Bello, Jose Victorino Lastarria, Francisco Bilbao, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Esteban Echeverria, Lucas Alaman, Juan Bautista Alberdi, Eugenio Maria de Hostos, Juan Montalvo, Jose Marti, Soledad Acosta de Samper, Justo Sierra, Euclides de Cunha, Clorinda Matto de Turner, Francisco Alonso de Bulnes, and Alcides Arguedas in which they grappled with the Latin American colonial past, issues of federalism versus political unitarianism, the role of the institutional Catholic Church, patterns of social existence, foreign relations, policies towards indigenous peoples, the role of women in Latin America, education and economic development, and the nature and uses of history. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).