Summary Of The Poverty Of Progress

The thesis of the book The Poverty of Progress is clearly defined by the author, E. Bradford Burns. The thesis illustrates the struggle between the minority elitist and the majority poor lower-class. The elite benefited from the progress at the expense of the majority. This book proves that the idea that Latin America grew with the implementation of the European ideals of progress, urbanization, and industrialization. In fact, only the elite flourished with these ideals at the expense of the majority poor. Burns states in his book that he believes that modernization was ultimately the downfall for Latin America because it did not benefit the majority of its people. Burns presents his case in a very organized way with very enlightening information. He calls for a reconsideration of and probing of the
The elite believed in the ideals of individuality and competition. They believed in Social Darwinism, Positivism, and the Enlightenment. The elites pushed for aspects of modernization such as industrialization which came at the expense of the poor. Burns then turns to the ideals of the majority in his book by expressing their view points on the opposition of modernization with eh discussion of the intellectuals, patriarchs, and folk. Burns mentions that the intellectual elites began to understand why modernization was not entirely a beneficial development for Latin America as a whole nation of people. The elites began to notice the problems with modernization such as the growing dependence on foreign investors, who later took over the infrastructure of Latin America. They also pointed out the burdens of agrarian mismanagement that plagued economic conditions for the masses. Large land plots were increasingly controlled by a limited number of landlords who used the land inefficiently to produce export goods instead of producing goods to feed the