After decades of ideological struggle, much of it in the service of an elusive socialist ideal, Latin America has embraced liberalism - democracy and unfettered markets. But liberalism has triumphed more by default than through exuberance. The region's democracies are fragile and lethargic. Despite social inequality, poverty, and other difficulties, the populace is not involved in deep discussions about state and society. There is an uneasy social indifference. This work explores this period of circumscribed political passions through deft portrails of political, cultural, econmic, social, and cultural issues: governance, entrepreneurs and markets, urban bias, poverty, the struggle for women's equality, consumerism, crime, enviromental degradation, art and migration of the poor. Discussions of these issues are enriched by the narratives of emblematic individuals, many of whom are disorientated by the ideological void of the area.