This investigation of the dynamic link between the historical process, literacy and pedagogy celebrates popular education's victory in securing the inclusion, and subsequent empowerment, of women and ethnic minorities in Chile.

The popular education and adult literacy movements in Chile have historically represented competing paths toward a literate society: one born and nurtured through bitter nineteenth-century labor struggles, the other a compensatory effort by the modern state to limit the political potential of literacy. Robert Austin's book explores the contest between the state and popular education in three paradigmatic Latin American regimes: that of Eduardo Frei Montalva (Christian Democrat, 1964-70), Salvador Allende (Socialist, 1970-73) and Augustus Pinochet (Dictator, 1973-90).