Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World (in Spanish Patas Arriba: la Escuela del Mundo al Revés), originally published in Spanish in 1998, was written by Eduardo Galeano, a Uruguayan author who was greatly impacted by the political turmoil during the 20th century military regimes in Latin America. Events such as the Uruguayan military coup forced Galeano into exile in Spain and Argentina; these exiles, in particular, may have been formative in Galeano's life and writing. The ruminations of this book were formed as a result of Galeano's desire to remember the past traumas and as well as to learn from them. Within this piece of nonfiction, he explores themes such as modern education systems, racism, sexism, poverty, economics, work, and societal fear. The pretense of the prose tends to be preoccupied with learning to rethink the contradictions of society; in a moment when outrageous circumstances are normalized, it is time to reconsider the understandings many people hold, which, in turn, informs the way such people view things. Though focusing on Latin America, Galeano uses what he has learned from the political and social environment within Latin America to understand injustices and social dynamics throughout the rest of the world. Source: Wikipedia (en)