Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter One. Introduction / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Two. The Institutionalisation Of Inequality In Colonial Latin America / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Three. The Omnipresence Of Land Inequality In Post-Colonial Latin America / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Four. The Advance Of Mass Education: Quantity Or Quality? / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Five. The Secular Trend Of Income Inequality, 1870-2000: Theoretical And Historical Perspectives / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Six. Changing Patterns Of Factor Income Distribution, 1870-2000 / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Seven. The Recent Rise Of Urban Wage Inequality / E.H.P. Frankema -- Chapter Eight. Conclusion / E.H.P. Frankema -- Appendix / E.H.P. Frankema -- References / E.H.P. Frankema -- Index / E.H.P. Frankema.

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The forces of industrialisation, urbanisation, globalisation and technological change have washed away the pre-modern outlook of most Latin American economies. Despite the improved opportunities of social mobility offered by economic modernisation, current income inequality levels (still) appear extraordinary high. Has Latin America always been unequal? Did the region fail to settle a longstanding account with its colonial past? Or should we be reluctant to point our finger so far back in time? In a comparative study of asset and income distribution Frankema shows that both the levels, and nature, of income inequality have changed significantly since 1870. Besides the deep historical roots of land and educational inequality, more recent demographic and political-institutional forces are taken on board to understand Latin America’s distributive dynamics in the long twentieth century.