Greg Grandin's "America, América": Catholic Traditions and Republican Futures

In this episode, we sit down with historian Greg Grandin to discuss his new book America, América, which reimagines the hemisphere’s intertwined republican traditions and confronts the United States’ monopolization of the very idea of “America.” Known for landmark works such as The Empire of Necessity and The End of the Myth, Grandin has long illuminated Latin America’s central role in the making of the modern world.

We explore how Latin American thinkers used immanent critique to measure U.S. democracy against its own ideals, and why common republican foundations led to divergent political paths across the hemisphere. We also ask how his earlier prediction of a more repressive United States after the closing of the frontier has held up, and whether America, América offers an alternative diplomatic and intellectual horizon.

Along the way, we consider the Catholic and scholastic legacies in Latin American thought, comparisons of racial orders across the Americas, the contested meaning of independence for the dispossessed, and the enduring tensions of social democracy in the region. 

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