Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

The Peace Corps in South America

Volunteers and the Global War on Poverty in the 1960s

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Fernando Purcell

    1. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers a new perspective on how the global Cold War impacted local communities in South America

  • Focuses on how local actors and agencies shaped the experiences of Peace Corps volunteers, and in turn the Peace Corps itself, its training strategies, and its relationships with foreign institutions worldwide

  • Examines Peace Corps volunteers as intermediaries, rather than unidirectional agents of American influence

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: Peace Corps Volunteers as Intermediary Agents in the Global War on Poverty

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 1-22

  3. Learning to Learn: Community Development Training During the 1960s

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 23-52

  4. Confronting Poverty Beforehand

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 53-81

  5. South America’s Fertile but Different World

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 83-112

  6. Difficulties and Frustrations on the Ground

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 113-139

  7. Volunteers in the Middle of Cold War Ideological Struggles

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 141-164

  8. Epilogue: Decentering Cold War Narratives Using Peace Corps Volunteer’s Accounts

    • Fernando Purcell
    Pages 165-171

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 173-180
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

In the 1960s, twenty-thousand young Americans landed in South America to serve as Peace Corps volunteers. The program was hailed by President John F. Kennedy and by volunteers themselves as an exceptional initiative to end global poverty. In practice, it was another front for fighting the Cold War and promoting American interests in the Global South. This book examines how this ideological project played out on the ground as volunteers encountered a range of local actors and agencies engaged in anti-poverty efforts of their own. As they negotiated the complexities of community intervention, these volunteers faced conflicts and frustrations, struggled to adapt, and gradually transformed the Peace Corps of the 1960s into a truly global, decentralized institution. Drawing on letters, diaries, reports, and newsletters created by volunteers themselves, Fernando Purcell shows how their experiences offer an invaluable perspective on local manifestations of the global Cold War.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Fernando Purcell

About the author

Fernando Purcell is Professor of History at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Davis, USA, and is the author of several books on US-Latin American relations.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Peace Corps in South America

  • Book Subtitle: Volunteers and the Global War on Poverty in the 1960s

  • Authors: Fernando Purcell

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24808-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-24807-9Published: 09 September 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-24810-9Published: 09 September 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-24808-6Published: 23 August 2019

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 180

  • Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Latin American History, US History, Political History, World History, Global and Transnational History

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation