The Unusual Paths of Peru. First edition

"This book had its origin when a group of professors and students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison began to discuss how difficult it was to reach a deep understanding of the origins, the social dynamics, and the consequences of the political agony that afflicted Peru in the 1980s and early 1990s. Frustration, urgency, and opportunity all played a role in our discussions. The frustration arose from a feeling that our inherited knowledge and the available intellectual frameworks were inadequate to achieve a deep and multifaceted understanding. The urgency was due to the sense that Peru and Peruvians were living through a great disaster and a decisive formative period; these conditions seemed to demand, almost as an ethical priority, that we make an effort to improve the understanding and interpretation of recent Peruvian history. A sense of opportunity also emerged. Several young Peruvian intellectuals and activists had been formed intellectually right during the years of their country's war. If integrated into a carefully designed, multigenerational collaboration, their knowledge of reality and their analytical flexibility might perhaps produce the fresh knowledge and analysis that seemed so urgent." Steve J. Stern. Editor.