Armies without Nations Public Violence and State Formation in Central America, 1821-1960

by Holden, Robert H.

• ISBN13: 9780195161205
• ISBN10: 0195161203
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Public violence, a persistent feature of Latin American life since the collapse of Iberian rule in the 1820s, has been especially prominent in Central America. Robert H. Holden shows how public violence shaped the states that have governed Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Linking public violence and patrimonial political cultures, he shows how the early states improvised their authority by bargaining with armed bands or montoneras . Improvisation continued into the twentieth century as the bands were gradually superseded by semi-autonomous national armies, and as new agents of public violence emerged in the form of armed insurgencies and death squads. World War II, Holden argues, set into motion the globalization of public violence. Its most dramatic manifestation in Central America was the surge in U.S. military and police collaboration with the governments of the region, beginning with the Lend-Lease program of the 1940s and continuing through the Cold War. Although the scope of public violence had already been established by the people of the Central American countries, globalization intensified the violence and inhibited attempts to shrink its scope. Drawing on archival research in all five countries as well as in the United States, Holden elaborates the connections among the national, regional, and international dimensions of public violence. Armies Without Nations crosses the borders of Central American, Latin American, and North American history, providing a model for the study of global history and politics. Armies without Nations was a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2005.

Author Biography

Robert H. Holden is an Associate Professor of History at Old Dominion University. He is the author of Mexico and the Survey of the Public Lands: The Management of Modernization, 1876-1911 and the co-editor of Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History (OUP, 2000).

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(6)
PART I 1821-1939
1 Historical Dimensions of Public Violence in Latin America	9	(16)
2 Binding Hatreds: Public Violence, State, and Nation in Central American History	25	(25)
3 Guatemala: Organizing for War	50	(8)
4 El Salvador: A Democracy of Violence	58	(10)
5 Honduras: Caudillos in Search of an Army	68	(12)
6 Nicaragua: A New Army Finds Its Caudillo	80	(16)
7 Costa Rica: Caudillos in Search of a State	96	(11)
PART II 1940-1960
8 Transformations	107	(12)
9 Defining Collaboration: The United States and Central America	119	(15)
10 Guatemala: "Showcase of Latin America"	134	(25)
11 El Salvador: Distrustful Collaborator	159	(15)
12 Honduras: Remaking an "Armed Rabble"	174	(22)
13 Nicaragua: "Ready to Receive Orders from Uncle Sam"	196	(18)
14 Costa Rica: An Army Renamed	214	(13)
15 Conclusions	227	(6)
Statistical Appendix	233	(10)
Notes	243	(60)
Works Cited	303	(20)
Index	323