{"product_id":"9781529931709","title":"Patria","description":"Author: Blair, Laurence\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781529931709\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: RANDOM HOUSE UK\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 28 Oct 2025\u003cbr\u003ePages: 448\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn adventurous, dazzling and original continent-sized history that brings South America's epic past and fascinating present to life\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStretching from the edge of Antarctica to the shores of the Caribbean, South America is a continent of stunning natural beauty and biodiversity, a cultural and culinary powerhouse that feeds, fuels and cools the planet. Yet this vast region remains an enigma to many outsiders, its 450 million inhabitants often forgotten, or stereotyped as eternal victims of colonialism, crime and corruption.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePatria \u003c\/i\u003ereveals an alternative history of South America, spanning thousands of miles and five centuries to the present. Looking beyond modern borders, Laurence Blair takes as his waymarks nine countries that can't be found on a map- vanished realms, half-imagined utopias and dismembered homelands. He travels to each in turn - on foot and horseback, by rail and river - to trace their rise, fall and unexpected afterlives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlair goes in search of ancient Amazonian civilisations, a rebel Inca dynasty in the jungle, and the Patagonian power that defeated Imperial Spain. His journey ranges from a seafaring Peruvian kingdom made rich by bird droppings, to a fearsome nation of fugitives that defied slavery in Brazil, and an insurgent desert confederation that went down fighting with an Andalusian conman. He falls in with Bolivia's landlocked navy, the African freedom fighters who marched over the Andes to liberate the hemisphere, and the New World Napoleon who led Paraguay to its ruin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePatria \u003c\/i\u003eincorporates groundbreaking recent scholarship, striking archaeological discoveries and vivid eyewitness reporting - including encounters with drug lords, Indigenous leaders, refugees bound for the United States and former guerrillas - to weave an epic of survival, resistance and revolution. This is the story of South America as is rarely told- at the epicentre of global history and the forging of the modern world.","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46726995902622,"sku":"UBD-9781529931709","price":27.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9781529931709.jpg?v=1776491161","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9781529931709","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}