This book presents a history of Latin American thought since the 1930s. It follows ideas in economics, politics and religion which became the most influential in the developing world. The author addresses the origins of dependency theory and liberation theology and the Latin American peoples they address. The book also offers an up-to-date analysis of the myriad of social movements which have proliferated in Latin America, in the context of unprecedented repression and economic crisis. The author concludes by distilling from these social movements and the ideologies which they have inspired a non-utopian contribution to the idea of democractic development - a "basismo" or "grass roots" agenda for the reinvention of civil societies on the verge of disintegration.