HistoryExtra podcast The tangled legacies of two Americas
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Aug 17, 2025 
In this engaging discussion, Greg Grandin, a Yale professor and author of America, América: A New History of the New World, delves into the intertwined histories of North and Latin America. He highlights the moral complexities of the Spanish conquest and critiques by figures like Bartolomé de las Casas. Grandin also explores evolving ideas of liberty in Latin America, contrasting them with U.S. expansionist ideologies. The conversation reveals how historical narratives continue to shape contemporary relations and identity between these regions.
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Latin America Rejected Conquest-Based Expansion
- Spanish American independence leaders used anti-conquest critiques to challenge US expansionism.
- Latin American interstate theory emphasised cooperation and shared interests over imperial balance-of-power politics.
Bolívar's Struggle With Independence's Promise
- Grandin contrasts Simón Bolívar's existential doubts with US founders' confidence.
- Bolívar viewed independence as an atonement for conquest and worried about narrow republican social bases.
Social Rights Rooted In Postcolonial Justice
- Latin American republics embedded social rights into constitutions as redress for colonial inequality.
- Mexico's 1917 constitution predated major European social-rights constitutions like Weimar.
