Perspectives of an Iconoclast: Writings in Latin American Studies and International Relations provides summaries of various Latin American cultures as well as essays that give historical accounts of relations with the United States including past CIA operations and interventions that still affect those respective Latin American societies today. The book provides such provocative essays as "Sleepwalking Through History", an abstract analysis of the socioeconomic incentives of modern war; "Coca Culture", an essay that reveals the traditional use of Coca among Bolivia's indigenous people and how Coca plays a practical function within Bolivian culture including harvest and work cycles, bartering for goods, ect. The book's essays also promote the ideals of collective security and multilateralism in international relations including a progressive role for the United Nations and other international organizations that will serve to strengthen democracy and promote sustainable development abroad.