Book talk with Professor Alan McPherson

On September 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador to the United States, along with his colleague Ronni Moffitt, in Washington, D.C.

The quest for justice that followed lasted 19 years and exposed the long struggle between fascists and human rights advocates in the Americas. With interviews from three continents, never-before-used documents, and recently declassified sources that conclude that Pinochet himself ordered the hit and then covered it up, Professor McPherson has produced the definitive history of one of the Cold War’s most consequential assassinations. Read more about his latest book, Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

Alan McPherson is Thomas J. Freaney, Jr. Professor of History and Marvin Wachman Director, Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is the author and editor of eleven books, including the prize-winning Yankee No! Anti-Americanism in U.S.-Latin American Relations (Harvard, 2003) and The Invaded: How Latin Americans and their Allies Fought and Ended U.S. Occupations (Oxford, 2014). His latest is Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice (North Carolina, 2019).

Tanya Harmer is Associate Professor in the Department of International History at LSE.

Event hosted by the department's The Americas in World History Research Cluster.

The Department of International History (@lsehistory) teaches and conducts research on the international history of Britain, Europe and the world from the early modern era up to the present day.

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