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Life and Death in the Andes

On the Trail of Bandits, Heroes, and Revolutionaries

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Life and Death in the Andes

Written by: Kim MacQuarrie
Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
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About this listen

The Andes Mountains are the world's longest mountain chain, linking most of the countries in South America. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author Kim MacQuarrie takes us on a historical journey through this unique region, bringing fresh insight and contemporary connections to such fabled characters as Charles Darwin, Pablo Escobar, Che Guevara, and many others. He introduces us to a Patagonian woman who is the last living speaker of her language as he explores the disappearance and sometimes surprising resiliency of indigenous cultures throughout the Andes. He meets a man whose grandfather witnessed Butch Cassidy's last days in Bolivia and tracks down the ballet dancer who once hid the leader of the brutal Shining Path in her home.

Through the stories he shares, MacQuarrie raises such questions as: Where did the people of South America come from? Did they create or import their cultures? What makes South America different from other continents - and what makes the cultures of the Andes different from other cultures in South America? Deeply observed and beautifully written, Life and Death in the Andes shows us this land as no one has before.

©2015 Kim MacQuarrie (P)2015 Tantor Adventure Travel Americas Modern South America Adventure Latin America

What the critics say

"A thoughtfully observed travel memoir and history." ( Kirkus)
"MacQuarrie spectacularly describes the Andes...This is a well-written, immersive work that history aficionados, particularly those with an) affinity for Latin America, will relish." ( Library Journal)
"MacQuarrie is a master storyteller whose cinematic eye always shines through.” ( BookPage)
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Most Relevant
Every time I heard the narrators say about revolutionaries that they wanted to build a “communist utopia” or that they followed Marx’s blueprint to do so i cringe. It painfully obvious the author is not at all familiar with Marxist-Leninist literature and theory. Socialism is not utopian, read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels to understand the difference between utopian socialism (more akin to modern anarchism) and scientific socialism (actual socialism).

Bourgeois Bias

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