Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone

The old adage that history is written by the winners does not apply to Eduardo Galeano's Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. In this book of short vignettes, some only a few sentences and none longer than a page, Galeano traces the world's history from the first hunter gatherers to the dawn of the twenty-first century through the eyes of slaves, women, colonized natives, defeated rebels, and other powerless people. Galeano illuminates patterns and themes and by careful juxtaposition and commentary draws parallels between events in the distant past and in more modern times. He has a fine gift for irony, and uses it skillfully. He is one of Latin America's most acclaimed writers, and naturally much of his book concentrates on that region, but other areas are also given coverage.Naturally the politics behind Mirrors are left wing, but Galeano displays as much contempt for Lenin, Stalin, and Mao as he does for Hitler, Franco, and various Spanish and Portuguese kings. Several of his vignettes describe the early years of the Cuban Revolution, with kind words for Fidel and especially Che, but I was surprised to find not a single word about Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. Galeano's primary focus is to detail the effects of power upon the powerless, of imperialism, colonialism, industrialization, free trade, and globalization and their impacts on the poorer peoples and regions.This is not a comfortable book to read, especially for Westerners, but it illuminates a point of view many who live in the wealthy developed regions can find difficult to comprehend. Countering arguments can and should be made to some of Galeano's points, but before those arguments can have any force the other side needs to be recognized, and the peoples and countries whose labor and resources have supported the developed world for centuries need to be heard at long last.

By far one of the best history books I’ve read. I love Galeano’s unique style and his narrative voice. Profound and eye-opening view of humanity.

"Mirrors" was a difficult reading experience for me. The negativity and disappointment was overwhelming. I too often look at the world's brutality, the stunning ignorance and vacuum of values that makes people hurt each other rather than help each other, like there is really something to gain by exercising unjust power and manipulating the machinery of control. Frequently, I did not want to pick up the book again. When I got to the portion of the book about Jesus, I almost stopped. Galeano misses most of the gospel and focuses on the political ramifications and atrocities many of Jesus' so-called followers have committed in His name. It makes me think of this quote from The Urantia Book (p. 1720), "...a much better civilization could have been built upon his teachings, and sometime will be. This world has never seriously tried to carry out the teachings of Jesus on a large scale, notwithstanding that halfhearted attempts have often been made to follow the doctrines of so-called Christianity."That said, I'm glad I kept on to the end. I had found this book at a friend's house in a stack of books in the bathroom. I thought it was a book of short stories in the brief time I paged through it. So much of the text is difficult like "Women Possessed" (pp. 148-149), "The bedeviled woman swore, howled, bit, shrieked insults in the tongues of hell, and with loud laughter tore off her clothes and proffered her naughty parts." Galeano shows the great injustices with simple snippets like these. Women, the poor, the powerless, the misunderstood, the geniuses, the disabled, the dispossessed all find a champion in Galeano. While difficult, it is ultimately a rewarding reading experience. I appreciated the scope of his study. Enjoy!

This is an eye opening account of people and events that have occurred in the world that are from a perspective different than the government sanctioned history books we see in our schools. If you liked Howard Zinn's "A People's History Of The United States", you will probably like this book too. This book is good for people who are interested in the world at large. If you like this book, you may like some of many other books that this amazing author has penned.

I like to read...

This book should be required reading in all high school and university history programs. A very different and enlightening view of the history of human civilization. At times darkly humorous, at times disturbing. It is an eye-opening piece of historical literature that holds the truth of mankind's history up to the light of day. An absolutely brilliant work and a joy to read.

Galeano strikes again, showing in that beautiful poetic way of his that though I may be lucky to have been born a human, I don't necessarily have to be proud of it! One can use these snapshots of humanity to feed cynicism, misanthropy, despair, or even selfishness - and I found myself at times slipping into just such responses. I have no hope that humans will evolve away from our tendencies to do the most ill for the least meaningful gains, but I'd like to believe that the truth, continually circulating through the world in the words and works of artists and authors, will continue to inspire just enough people to be exceptions to the rule - and be much happier for it.

Das Buch selber ist sehr gut, aber es kam nur in einen Pappumschlag gesteckt hier an und stand bei - 15° Grad vor meiner Haustür. Papier ist empfindlich, dementsprechend gewellt war es.Das hat mich sehr geärgert.

Short stories that show you a different reflection of a different part of the world.

This year I have bought about fifty odd books so far . But this one from the legendary Uruguayan journalist and story teller is undoubtedly the best among them. I came to know about this book for the first time from the special edition of a famous Bengali magazine where some eminent scholars of Bengal had shared their favourite books with us. Immediately I jotted down the details of the book by Edwardo Galeano but I have to wait for about ten years to buy this book. In this master piece Galeano like a master story teller dished out before a vast treasure of stories ranging from East to West , from Oriental to Occidental ,from Bible to Korean ,from Gita to Tripitaka ,from Fables to folktales and from myth to popular gossips. And the most striking thing about Galeano's presentation of all these vast tapestries of stories is the absolute reticent ,the minimal arrangements ,the masterly , careful exclusion of unnecessary from seemingly necessary and the lucidity and the limpidity of the expression. All stories are like snippets restricted within 100 words yet one would not miss the wholeness of the topics. Galeano's Mirrors actually mirror the whole world .

I loved this book. The stories are fascinatingly offbeat and will pleasantly surprise. The global reach of the stories, with plenty coming from Latin American history - means that it is educational as well. As the stories are very short it makes an ideal book to leave around to pick up for a couple of minutes or so - & it makes you think. I found it very useful to entertain (and educate) my kids, with a quite different yet morally sound perspective on world events. It is sequenced roughly chronologically, so you can look for a period of history or go for "a lucky dip!" The stories are not footnoted, so it can not be trusted as an accurate history & is clearly polemical in places - but if taken for what it is, it will bring lots of mental stimulation.

This is a very easy to read book. It may anger, entertain, but its vignettes out of history are definitely intriguing. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the premise of this book, it does give food for thought.