Along the same, er, vein, check out The Open Veins Of Latin America - it's a painstakingly well-researched and fiery book on the colonization and exploitation of Latin America for its resources, under the guise of "taming the primitives". It also documents the attempts of the US in sabotaging popular, labour-led/socialist movements, nearly always successful and often involving the use of violence, all in the name of "fostering democracy".