Bolivia in the Age of Gas

by Bret Gustafson

Overview

Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, won reelection three times on a leftist platform championing Indigenous rights, anti-imperialism, and Bolivian control over the country's natural gas reserves. In Bolivia in the Age of Gas, Bret Gustafson explores how the struggle over natural gas has reshaped Bolivia, along with the rise, and ultimate fall, of the country's first Indigenous-led government. Rethinking current events against the backdrop of a longer history of oil and gas politics and military intervention, Gustafson shows how natural gas wealth brought a measure of economic independence and redistribution, yet also reproduced political and economic relationships that contradicted popular and Indigenous aspirations for radical change. Though grounded in the unique complexities of Bolivia, the volume argues that fossil-fuel political economies worldwide are central to the reproduction of militarism and racial capitalism and suggests that progressive change demands moving beyond fossil-fuel dependence and the social and ecological ills that come with it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478012528
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	08/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bret Gustafson is Associate Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of New Languages of the State: Indigenous Resurgence and the Politics of Knowledge in Bolivia, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations  ix
Note on Labels and Language  xiii
Preface and Acknowledgments  xv
Introduction. Gaseous State  1
Part One. Time
1. Heroes of Chaco  27
2. Imperial Maneuvers  50
3. Las nalgas of YPFB  69
Part Two. Space
4. Gas Lock-In  97
5. Bulls and Beauty Queens  125
6. Just a Few Lashes  152
Part Three. Excess
7. Requiem for the Dead  179
8. Gas Work  202
9. Quarrel over the Excess  223
Postscript. Bolivia 2020  247
Notes  255
References  271
Index  293

What People are Saying About This

Energopolitics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene - Dominic Boyer

“Bolivia in the Age of Gas is without a doubt the definitive account of the Bolivian petrostate and its subjects. It makes important contributions to anthropology, to Latin American studies and to the emergent interdisciplinary literature in energy humanities. It is also a true pleasure to read, the rare scholarly page-turner that conveys critical analytical insights in terms and ethnographic moments that will captivate readers of all backgrounds.”

Michael Watts

“Fossil capitalism, and the calamitous consequences of our dependence on coal and petroleum, is central to any understanding of life in the Anthropocene. Bret Gustafson offers up an original and compelling take on the oft-told tale of oil wealth, petroviolence and the so-called curse of oil dependency by reinterpreting the colonial and postcolonial history of Bolivia through the country's relation to natural gas, what he calls the gaseous state. Gustafson draws together the temporalities, spaces, and excesses of a world built through the exploitation of gas and in so doing takes the reader on an exhilarating ride through US imperialism, the Bolivian state, indigenous territoriality, the hard-edged world of pipelines, well heads, violent corporate capital, and of course the rise and fall of Evo Morales. A book for our time.”

Editorial Reviews

"Gustafson's book is historically expansive, beginning with the Chaco War of 1932-1935 and concluding with the 2020 ouster of Evo Morales, but it remains anchored and oriented by the ethnographer's attention to the quotidian. The result is a compelling analysis of petropower in Bolivia shaped as much by the commanding heights of the global fossil empire and the military-industrial complex as by the gendered and colonial violence of everyday life on the gas frontier."--Donald V. Kingsbury "Latin American Research Review" (5/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] is an important book, worthy of sustained and considered attention. From here forward, it will be required reading for all competent scholars wrestling with the various components of extractive capitalism in contemporary Bolivia from a variety of social science disciplines."--Jeffery R.Webber "American Anthropologist"

"While [Bret Gustafson] assumes a degree of familiarity with Bolivian geography and political history, his writing is gripping, and the book will be fruitful for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses."--C. Lurtz "Choice" (9/1/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] provide[s] important insight into Bolivia and Ecuador, and into fossil-fuel capitalism writ large."--Kim Fortun & James Adams "Public Books" (6/8/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Gustafson's Bolivia in the Age of Gas examines the historical and contemporary cultural politics of Bolivia's complex and often troubled relationship with natural gas.... Fundamental questions surface at the end of [Gustafson's book] that chart new directions for political analyses of Latin American social movements...."--Nicole Fabricant "NACLA Report on the Americas" (3/18/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Bret Gustafson's Bolivia in the Age of Gas is an ambitious and exquisitely detailed historical ethnography of Bolivia and its complicated relation with gas (and oil).... Gustafson exudes an enviable clarity even as he insists on nuance, complexity and contradiction."--Maria Elena Garcia "ReVista" (1/13/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"Fossil capitalism, and the calamitous consequences of our dependence on coal and petroleum, is central to any understanding of life in the Anthropocene. Bret Gustafson offers up an original and compelling take on the oft-told tale of oil wealth, petroviolence, and the so-called curse of oil dependency by reinterpreting the colonial and postcolonial history of Bolivia through the country's relation to natural gas, what he calls the gaseous state. Gustafson draws together the temporalities, spaces, and excesses of a world built through the exploitation of gas and in so doing takes the reader on an exhilarating ride through US imperialism, the Bolivian state, Indigenous territoriality, the hard-edged world of pipelines, wellheads, violent corporate capital, and of course the rise and fall of Evo Morales. A book for our time."--Michael Watts, Class of 63 Professor, University of California, Berkeley

"Bolivia in the Age of Gas is without a doubt the definitive account of the Bolivian petrostate and its subjects. It makes important contributions to anthropology, to Latin American studies, and to the emergent interdisciplinary literature in energy humanities. It is also a true pleasure to read, the rare scholarly page-turner that conveys critical analytical insights in terms and ethnographic moments that will captivate readers of all backgrounds."--Dominic Boyer, author of "Energopolitics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene"

From the Publisher

"[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] provide[s] important insight into Bolivia and Ecuador, and into fossil-fuel capitalism writ large."

Public Books - Kim Fortun & James Adams

"Gustafson’s book is historically expansive, beginning with the Chaco War of 1932–1935 and concluding with the 2020 ouster of Evo Morales, but it remains anchored and oriented by the ethnographer’s attention to the quotidian. The result is a compelling analysis of petropower in Bolivia shaped as much by the commanding heights of the global fossil empire and the military-industrial complex as by the gendered and colonial violence of everyday life on the gas frontier."

Latin American Research Review - Donald V. Kingsbury

Gustafson’s Bolivia in the Age of Gas examines the historical and contemporary cultural politics of Bolivia’s complex and often troubled relationship with natural gas.... Fundamental questions surface at the end of [Gustafson’s book] that chart new directions for political analyses of Latin American social movements....

NACLA Report on the Americas - Nicole Fabricant

Bret Gustafson’s Bolivia in the Age of Gas is an ambitious and exquisitely detailed historical ethnography of Bolivia and its complicated relation with gas (and oil).... Gustafson exudes an enviable clarity even as he insists on nuance, complexity and contradiction.

ReVista - Maria Elena Garcia

Fossil capitalism, and the calamitous consequences of our dependence on coal and petroleum, is central to any understanding of life in the Anthropocene. Bret Gustafson offers up an original and compelling take on the oft-told tale of oil wealth, petroviolence, and the so-called curse of oil dependency by reinterpreting the colonial and postcolonial history of Bolivia through the country's relation to natural gas, what he calls the gaseous state. Gustafson draws together the temporalities, spaces, and excesses of a world built through the exploitation of gas and in so doing takes the reader on an exhilarating ride through US imperialism, the Bolivian state, Indigenous territoriality, the hard-edged world of pipelines, wellheads, violent corporate capital, and of course the rise and fall of Evo Morales. A book for our time.

Michael Watts

"While [Bret Gustafson] assumes a degree of familiarity with Bolivian geography and political history, his writing is gripping, and the book will be fruitful for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses."

Choice - C. Lurtz

Bolivia in the Age of Gas is without a doubt the definitive account of the Bolivian petrostate and its subjects. It makes important contributions to anthropology, to Latin American studies, and to the emergent interdisciplinary literature in energy humanities. It is also a true pleasure to read, the rare scholarly page-turner that conveys critical analytical insights in terms and ethnographic moments that will captivate readers of all backgrounds.

Energopolitics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene - Dominic Boyer

[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] is an important book, worthy of sustained and considered attention. From here forward, it will be required reading for all competent scholars wrestling with the various components of extractive capitalism in contemporary Bolivia from a variety of social science disciplines.

Jeffery R.Webbern Anthropologist

[Bolivia in the Age of Gas] is an important book, worthy of sustained and considered attention. From here forward, it will be required reading for all competent scholars wrestling with the various components of extractive capitalism in contemporary Bolivia from a variety of social science disciplines.

American Anthropologist - Jeffery R.Webber