“Venezuelans have long been troubled by the prevalence of corruption among political leaders across the political spectrum, and Transparency International has consistently ranked their nation as one of most afflicted by corruption. Corruption has contributed to the collapse of the Venezuelan economy, the prevalence of human rights abuses, and the out-migration of 25% of the population,” Yarrington said. “My goal in writing Profitable Offices was to use the insights of the social sciences and the humanities to examine the historical roots of corruption, its impact on Venezuelans, and their efforts to create a different kind of state during the first half of the 20th century, which I see as a decisive period in the country’s trajectory.”A scholar of Latin American History, Yarrington has written about Venezuela for years, including in his first book, A Coffee Frontier. He has currently shifted his scholarly focus to 18th and 19th-century Chile but remains interested in questions related to corruption and anticorruption.