Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution - Softcover

Thomas C. Wright describes and explains the extraordinary impact that the Cuban Revolution had on Latin America and on US-Latin American relations during the past three decades. Wright integrates diverse and complex political events into a comprehensive whole - providing a broad perspective on this critical period in Latin American history. Wright does not use a country-by-country approach, but rather a unique synthesis of broadly defined trends and phases that affected significant numbers of Latin American countries and people. Among the currents examined are the destabilizing influence of "fidelismo", the rise of rural and urban guerrilla warfare, the Alliance for Progress, the growth of US military involvement in Latin America, and the rise of terrorist military regimes. Three country-specific topics - the military "revolution" in Peru, the Allende government in Chile, and the Sandinista struggle in Nicaragua - are examined separately due to their universal interest and their importance to the whole of Latin America. Successfully linking the most important Latin American political developments of three decades to the pervasive influence of Fidel Castro and his revolution, Wright presents 1990 as the final year in this coherent, discrete era that most Latin American historians agree began in 1959. This text will interest university and college classes on Latin American history, Latin American politics, and "revolution and reform" courses, as well as professional Latin Americanists in many specializations.

THOMAS C. WRIGHT is Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He became interested in the impact of the Cuban revolution during a junior year at the University of San Marcos in Lima, where Peruvian student politics and a national presidential election focused his attention on the pervasive influence of fidelismo in the early 1960s. Wright's publications include Landowners and Reform in Chile, Food, Politics and Society in Latin America, and articles and chapters in volumes such as the Hispanic American Historical Review and the Journal of Latin American Studies.