Beginning in the late 1990s, Latin American voters elected presidents who identified as progressives and socialists. Today, the tide has turned, and the right has returned to power seeking to undo the legacy of the past twenty years. These essays, written by leading social scientists committed to the process of change in Latin America, is required reading for anyone trying to understand the rise and eventual demise of the progressive governments that dominated Latin America over the past two decades.

- Miguel R. Tinker Salas, Pomona College,

In a world swept by winds of change, Latin America’s plural lefts have built windmills not walls since 1998. This volume’s contributors are not among those who sit on the mountaintop, looking down on the battlefield, to appear when the fighting is over to lecture the survivors. This stimulating collection contributes to the future of living projects by those convinced that another world is possible.

- John D. French, Duke University,

Latin America’s, Pink Tide is now well in retreat. Finally, the book we’ve been waiting for: a measured, insightful, and comprehensive assessment of what worked, what didn’t, and why, by some of the sharpest analysts of Latin America’s left. Exceptional in its breadth—offering global, regional, national, and local perspectives—and impressive in its depth—anchored in rich empirical evidence underlain by convincing theoretical arguments—this book sets the standard for careful analysis of the promise and limits of the Pink Tide. Debates about the left’s accomplishments in power will long continue. But for anyone wanting seriously to engage with the legacy of those years, and what comes next, this book is a must-read.

- Alejandro Velasco, New York University, executive editor of NACLA: Report on the Americas,