Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History

Magazine. How have political, economic and ideological ideas flowed between Latin America and the United States over the

centuries, and how of these two powers looked to each other to define themselves?

That's the subject of a sweeping new book by Professor Greg Grandin, that begins with the

brutal 16th century Spanish conquest of South America

and tracks the two hemispheres relationships up until the present day.

Ellen Evans speaks to Grandin to find out more about how the two Americas

have influenced, mirrored and reacted to one another over time.

Your central thread is looking at how South and North America have looked to each other and learned from each other

and defined themselves against each other through their respective histories.

If that's a fair representation of your argument, can you explain what motivated you in this approach?

Well, it is a fair representation of the argument.

I would go a little bit further and say it was also an attempt to kind of think about

how the interstate, the modern liberal order that emerged after World War II,

the United Nations and all the legal fundamentals that underwrote the United Nations,

how that largely emerge out of the experience of the new world from conquest through

World War II.

There's a through line that starts with the Spanish conquest and climaxes, in many ways, with the first fight against fascism, the World War II.

And then there's a considerable aftermath, the Cold War and then economic restructuring.

But from Cortez to Hitler, in some ways, the book runs, you know, and fights over the doctrine of conquest.

So the book is about how the U.S. and Latin America shaped each other, but it's also about these larger questions that have to do with modern history.

We are going to dig into some of these big questions as we talk through this sweeping history.

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