ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents the comparison of the mining sector in Peru with world demand and prices. It provides an analyses of the transformation of highland society and the historical roots of industrial mining from the colonial period through the nineteenth century and the period from the beginning of the twentieth century through the depression of the 1930s. The book discusses the restructuring of capital from undergound to open-pit mining in the nineteen-fifties and sixties and changes in the labor process. It focuses on the crisis of the mining industry in the 1970s and the nationalization of two large North American firms. The book concludes with an analysis of the industry in the 1980s and of the effects of the indebtedness that was a legacy of President Velasco's ambitious development strategy for the mining sector.
