The Sandinista Revolution: A Global Latin American History

In 1979, the left-wing Sandinistas toppled a brutal Nicaraguan dictator, marking the only time since the 1959 Cuban Revolution that the armed left wing seized power in Latin America. Essentially pragmatic, the Sandinistas benefited from alliances with centrist Latin American rulers as well as with the Soviet Union. Led by President Ronald Reagan, the United States funded and armed the Contras, who fought the Sandinista government during the 1980s. In 1990, the Sandinistas became the first socialist movement in the world to give up power peacefully in a democratic election after first attaining power through armed struggle. Jarquín (history, Chapman Univ.) situates the Sandinistas deep in local and regional politics, focusing on the thinking and decision-making of revolutionary leaders. Refreshingly, he sees the Sandinista Revolution outside the narrow prism of U.S. foreign policy debates. A Harvard University–trained historian who conducted extensive original research for this, his first book, Jarquín takes a balanced and nuanced approach. (Note that Jarquín is a scion of an elite Nicaraguan family—his grandmother Violeta Chamorro served as the country’s president in the 1990s.)