Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) [Paperback]

Elisabeth Jean Wood (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521010500 | ISBN-13: 978-0521010504 | Publication Date: August 4, 2003

Elisabeth Wood's account of insurgent collective action in El Salvador is based on oral histories gathered from peasants who supported the insurgency and those who did not, as well as on interviews with military commanders from both sides. She explains how widespread support among rural people for the leftist insurgency during the civil war in El Salvador challenges conventional interpretations of collective action. Those who supplied tortillas, information, and other aid to guerillas took mortal risks and yet stood to gain no more than those who did not.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...worthwhile, because [Wood] manages to bring the war before the reader's eyes, primarily through the words of the many men and women she interviewed over a period of almost 10 years...The very fact that so many people were willing to speak with her testifies to the level of trust she achieved with them." America

"Elisabeth Wood's rigorous study of individual motivations and mobilization in El Salvador will be required reading for students of collective action and civil war. Her unique combination of rich ethnography and rigorous theory represents social science at its best." Stathis N. Kalyvas, Yale University

"This book addresses an absolutely fundamental question in both social history and the study of revolutions: Under what circumstances and with what motivations do rural people mobilize collectively to achieve change? Building on ethnographic fieldwork and oral histories, Wood argues that the actions of rural people in El Salvador constituted an 'assertion of citizenship' not reducible to any calculation of the probability of altering outcomes or achieving exclusive benefits. With a delicate sense of social process, she demonstrates the 'pleasures of agency' that were possible even in the shadow of civil war. This is an elegant, important, and inspiring study." Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan

"Wood shares with us the voices and experiences of Salvadorans who, most extraordinarily, were interviewed in large numbers over many years and with amazing diligence and intensity by the author, despite their contemporary involvements in a hideously violent civil war. Particularly notable is her careful, even meticulous, discussion of the problems of establishing 'real' memories in such a setting. She is also good, very good, at dissecting debates about collective action theories and theories of revolution. And the discussions about the social import of mapmaking are just flat out lovely and feel so very human, which is (alas) not something you can say very often about a work of sophisticated social science. While her own discipline is political science, she draws on and herself surely enriches the fields of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and Latin American studies writ large." Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Georgetown University

" This is a well-written and enlightening book, exemplary in its clear and convincing discussion of methodological choices, empirical data, and theoretical explanation." Contemporary Sociology, Jon Shefner, University of Tennessee

Book Description

Widespread support among rural people for the leftist insurgency during the civil war in El Salvador challenges conventional interpretations of collective action. Those who supplied tortillas, information, and other aid to guerillas took mortal risks and yet stood to gain no more than those who did not. Wood's explanation is based on oral histories gathered from peasants who supported the insurgency and those who did not over a period of many years, and interviews with military commanders of both sides.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521010500
• ISBN-13: 978-0521010504
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > History > Americas > Central America > El Salvador

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT BOOK!!, October 16, 2009

By 

Salvatruco (Durham, NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) (Paperback)

Wood's book is an excellent weaving togther of the of strands of the land question in Usulutan department. The use of before-the-revolution-and-after "agrarian reform" maps constructed by former rebel participants and supporters is particularly ingenious.

She does a great job of even-handedly assessing a still contentious issue in the historiography of U.S. foreign policy.

She treated her interview subjects with great care and fairness, and tried to get at the roots of what made the Salvadoran conflict a civil war.

A criticism is that she appears to accept to eagerly reports of rebel arms transfers along the Usulutan coastline. Hundreds of millions the GOES received from the U.S. made those canoes full of rifles for the FMLN from Nicaragua pale in comparison.