Eric Zolov

Eric Zolov is an American historian, author and academic. He is Professor of History at Stony Brook University where he was the Director of Latin American & Caribbean Studies (2016–19), and as of 2024 he is Director of Undergraduate Studies as of (2020–present). Previously, he taught at Franklin & Marshall College (1998–2011). Zolov is known for his work on the interplay between culture, politics, and international relations in twentieth-century Latin America, particularly during the Cold War era. His first monograph Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture was published in 1999 to positive critical acclaim, and was translated and published in Spanish by Norma Editorial. His book The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties (2020, Duke University Press) won the 2021 María Elena Martínez Prize in Mexican History by the Conference on Latin American History (CLAH-AHA). Zolov has been a member of the American Historical Association since 2001.

Eric Zolov Prof.
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Historian, scholar, author
Spouse	Terri Gordon-Zolov
Academic background
Education	B.A., M.A., PhD
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Thesis	Containing the Rock Gesture: Mass Culture and Hegemony in Mexico, 1955-1975 (1995)
Doctoral advisor	John Coatsworth, Friedrich Katz, Michael Geyer, Leora Auslander
Influences	Jack D. Foner
Writing career
Notable works	The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties (2020) Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (1999)
Notable awards	The María Elena Martínez Prize (2021)

Biography

Zolov graduated with a B.A. in history from Colby College in 1987. He studied at the University of Chicago where he graduated with a dual M.A. in International Relations and Latin American studies in 1990, and a PhD in Latin American History in 1995.

In an interview with Perspectives on History, a magazine published by the American Historical Association, Zolov said that he had never been interested in history or good at memorizing places, names or events, and that having Jack D. Foner teach him a social history course in college ignited his interest in the field. He said he was "hooked by the idea that history offered so much more than knowing “the right answer.""

In 2021, Zolov's book The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties won the María Elena Martínez Prize in Mexican History as the best published book on the history of Mexico published in 2020.

In 2022 Zolov and his wife Terri Gordon-Zolov published The Walls of Santiago: Social Revolution and Political Aesthetics in Contemporary Chile (Berghahn Books, 2022). Zolov and Gordon-Zolov embarked on the project of documenting the Estallido Social in Santiago through photographs, interviews, and research while living in Chile on a Fulbright Fellowship. Initially focusing on graffiti and political graphics, their project expanded to include various forms of public art and performances, culminating in a multi-modal approach including a monograph, an exhibit, an interactive map, and a website. They view their work as a form of scholarship-activism, aiming to translate the significance of the uprising and its artistic expressions to broader audiences, contributing to a larger archival consciousness and historical understanding of the events of 2019–20.

Bibliography

Books

• Zolov, Eric. The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties. Duke University Press, 2020.
• Zolov, Eric. Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture. Univ of California Press, 1999.

Select edited books

• Zolov, Eric, ed. Iconic Mexico: An Encyclopedia from Acapulco to Zócalo.  ABC-CLIO, 2015.
• Joseph, Gilbert M., Anne Rubenstein, and Eric Zolov, eds. Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico Since 1940. Duke University Press, 2001.
• Hernandez, Deborah Pacini, Héctor D. Fernández l'Hoeste, and Eric Zolov, eds. Rockin'las Américas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004.
• Holden, Robert H., and Eric Zolov, eds. Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History. Oxford University Press, 2011; 2000–.

Select book chapters

• Zolov, Eric. "Integrating Mexico into the Global Sixties." México Beyond 1968. Revolutionaries, Radicals, and Repression during the Global Sixties and Subversive Seventies (2018): 19–32.
• “Between Bohemianism and a Revolutionary Rebirth: Che Guevara in Mexico” in Paulo Drinot, ed.,  Che’s Travels: The Making of a Revolutionary in 1950s Latin America (Duke University Press, 2010): 245–282.
• “¡Cuba sí, yanquis no!: The Sacking of the Instituto Cultural México-Norteamericano in Morelia, Michoacán, 1961,” in Gilbert Joseph and Daniela Spenser, eds., In From the Cold: Latin America’s New Encounter with Cold War Studies (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007): 214–252.

Select articles

• “Marking the Contours of a Mexican New Left in the 1960s," Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 39:2 (Summer 2023): 185–214.
• “Introduction: Latin America in the Global Sixties,” Introduction to “Special Issue: Latin America in the Global Sixties,” The Americas 70:3 (January 2014): 349–62.
• “Expanding our Conceptual Horizons: The Shift from an Old to a New Left in Latin America,” A Contracorriente 5:2 (Winter 2008): 47–73.
• “Showcasing the ‘Land of Tomorrow’: Mexico and the 1968 Olympics,” The Americas 61:2 (October 2004): 159–88.
• Zolov, Eric. "Toward an analytical framework for assessing the impact of the 1968 student movement on US-Mexican relations." Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research 9, no. 2 (2003): 41–68.

See also

• History of Latin America