The Essential Sarmiento

"Chasteen’s translations of Sarmiento’s writings are delightful reads. Chasteen is a master translator and shows his chops again here. The new translation of excerpts from Facundo especially captures the beauty of the original prose and reminds why—despite the morally complicated views contained therein—the work is still a canonical masterpiece of Latin American literature. Meanwhile, Acree's Preface provides a concise ‘instructor’s manual’ for how to use the text, and Chamosa’s Introduction is hands down one of the most eloquent accounts of Sarmiento’s life and its relationship to the birth and evolution of the United Provinces/Republic of Argentina ever written in English."
—Michael Huner, Grand Valley State University
"Like the pampa pathfinders described in Facundo, a dream team of scholars has surveyed the vast landscape of Sarmiento's writings in order to assemble a field guide to the borderlands of civilization and barbarism. We observe Sarmiento inhabiting the urbane world he idealized and grasp the urgency of his hopes and fears. This book is kaleidoscopic in its views of nineteenth-century Latin America."
—David Sartorius, University of Maryland