Book review Thinkers and Builders of the Latin American University, published by Carmen García Guadilla

Abstract

Universities as institutions for higher education play a fundamental role in how a nation conceives education. The institutions of higher education are responsible for the training of citizens capable to face the growing complexity of issues arising in the world. The analysis of the history of theses institutions and the different contexts in which they evolved tries to show us how the societies they are embedded in have conceived themselves and the world. In Latin America the development of universities goes hand in hand with big social changes since colonial times.  In the beginning it legitimated the Crown, and then became a generator of nationalist ideas but it has always been an instrument of societies to lead themselves.