Central America: A Nation Divided

by Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.

This popular text surveys the history of the Central American region, covering Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, from pre-Columbian times to the present. It emphasizes the common characteristics of the Central American states as well as their potential for political union. Now completely updated, the third edition of Central A Nation Divided encompasses the significant new research and tumultuous events that have taken place since the last edition was published. The text now includes coverage of the civil wars in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, as well as the restoration of peace to the region under the Central American peace accords. It also recounts and analyzes the substantial changes that have occurred in the economic and social arenas as Central American states have turned increasingly to neoliberal policies that emphasize the private sector and the development of exports while reducing government entitlement
programs. Students will find this text enormously helpful for sorting through the vast amounts of significant research that has been written and compiled in the past decade. In addition, the Selective Guide to the Literature section has been completely revised to reflect the great increase in research and writing on Central America. Comprehensive and incisively written, Central A Nation Divided is an essential text for Latin American History courses.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Latin American History

448 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 1976

Reviews

[Eren Buğlalılar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A densely written general history of Central America from the early colonial times. Very good, actually the best I have read so far, as an introduction with a large annotated bibliography and an extensive chronology. Nice to see that Woodward was not an apologist of the US interventions or any kind of imperial interventions in the Isthmus.

The only downside is that the book is now a bit old as it was published in 1985. And if you happen to read this, you dear Goodreads user, please feel free to recommend me any up-to-date histories of Central America.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woodward does an excellent job of showing how Central America developed from the Kingdom of Guatemala into the nations it is today. His view of Central America includes Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. Panama is considered a part of South America and left out of most discussions for that reason. South America went through a tumultuous time during its years under Spanish rule and despite the bourbon reforms it did not advance as Mexico or South America did. The terrain is unforgiving with malaria filled swamps along the coast and steep mountains at the top. This did not allow for the development of railroads in the post independence period or for much economic development beyond coffee production. This coffee production was difficult to ship as they lacked the infrastructure to send the product across the world.

The dictatorships that would come about after the wars for independence found another source of revenue. The so called Banana republics would suffer many intrusions from filibusters but became stronger in the process. The dictatorships of the Somoza's and others would outlast many different groups causing all sorts of problems across Central America. This book seeks to capture this turbulent time period and put forth a question that has no easy answer. Why did Central America fragment into so many disparate pieces instead of remaining whole? This country would remain a nation divided of people who had common background under Spain but did not have unity in independence. One of the reasons for this is the tremendous competition between right and left. These two forces would hold sway over various aspects of these countries development through the end of the cold war. This is a great read for those who want to gain a sense of what Central America looks like and why it developed the way it did.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in 1988, my classmates and I referred to this as the "Corona" book because of its coloring. I learned A LOT from this book. I cannot remember it all now....but distinct impressions remain. The history of Central America was one of my favorite classes in college. It shaped much of my future political views.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, very readable crash course in Central American History...mmmhh, doesn't that entice everyone??!!

[Nranger7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but pretty dry.

[Tera Vannoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great composition of Central American history. Four decades of research compiled into one book.