El mundo hispanohablante contemporneo historia poltica sociedades y culturas is a comprehensive and innovative book for advanced students of Spanish. Offering a constructivist approach to the study of the civilizations cultures and histories of the contemporary Spanishspeaking world the book focuses on learning as an active process that enables learners to develop highlevel critical thinking skills through the exposure research examination and discussion of a variety of authentic films songs and literary texts. Divided into twelve chapters each chapter begins with an introduction to the general topic followed by various activities that lead students to critically analyse a range of authentic materials.