Customer Reviews

Politics in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua; Revised Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thomas Anderson is an excellent historian and his work here is of the highest quality. This book was published in 1982 so there are some holes that are not finished out but the analysis up until that point is excellent. For analysis on the region as a whole I would check out Ralph Lee Woodward's book, which Anderson praises, entitled Central America: A Nation Divided. Anderson looks at four countries in Central America including Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Each of these is analyzed in its own internal policies and how they relate to the others and the rest of the world. Guatemala which is arguably the most stable of the group has an excellent economy and a government that keeps to honest elections with the exception of a few points in the 1970's. The book focuses on mostly the 1950-1980 time period in each of these countries. El Salvador is shown for the chaos that it is and is left with the civil war raging at the end of the chapter. Honduras is a simple case in Central America where US intervention has shaped the outcome of the country. It has the greatest wealth disparity of any country in Latin America. Finally Costa Rica is an interesting case with the Somoza's and Sandistas movement. The United States obviously will intervene here but it is interesting to see the analysis in a book that was written before that intervention. There are strong hints that intervention is necessary but it was not clear at that time that it would be done. Central America is a region that will need a great deal of internal improving and this book does an excellent job of showing where to start. It is very well written and an excellent place to start for learning about Central America.