Books by Fernando Coronil
“What’s fantastic about The Magical State is that it’s this wonderful ethnographic, anthropological analysis of how oil has shaped Venezuela’s perceptions of modernity, and how the assumption of oil wealth has created this idea of a transcendental president and an omniscient, omnipresent state, which is capable of granting all of the wishes of Venezuela’s people, because oil is seen as being such a lucrative commodity.” Read more...
Julia Buxton, Policy Analyst
Interviews where books by Fernando Coronil were recommended
-
1
The Magical State: Nature, Money and Modernity in Venezuela
by Fernando Coronil -
2
The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela
by Miguel Tinker Salas -
3
Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution
by Richard Gott -
4
Who Can Stop the Drums: Urban Social Movements in Chavez’s Venezuela
by Sujatha Fernandes -
5
The Collapse of Venezuela: Scorched Earth Politics and Economic Decline 2012-2020
by Francisco Rodriguez
The best books on Venezuela, recommended by Julia Buxton
The best books on Venezuela, recommended by Julia Buxton
In early January 2026 US forces arrested the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and took him into custody in the US, charged with drug offences. Political scientist Julia Buxton chooses five books on modern Venezuelan politics and explains that this is only the latest political catastrophe to befall a country that has been plagued by its vast oil reserves. An endowment of natural resources that was expected to make the country rich when they were discovered in the early 20th century has only succeeded in making it poor and politically unstable.
