Caribbean Revolutions
Cold War Armed Movements

A comprehensive history and comparative analysis of the most important Caribbean armed revolutionary movements during the Cold War era.

Rachel A. May (Author), Alejandro Schneider (Author), Roberto González Arana (Author)

9781108424752, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 June 2018

174 pages, 2 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.6 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

'The authors have crafted a fine book on many regional revolutionaries, thus meriting serious attention from scholars. They rigorously consider these 'national liberation Marxists' via the revolutionaries' structures and alliances, mobilization patterns, and ideologies as they changed over the decades, in some cases morphing into political parties, in one case seizing national power (Nicaragua). Yet the book is also richly appropriate for our student audiences, with clear prose, crisp organization and periodization, and a host of valuable extras such as website and film recommendations.' Timothy Wickham-Crowle, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

This book provides both a historical introduction and a comparative analysis of the five most important guerrilla movements in the Caribbean Basin between 1959 and the 1990s, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. The authors argue that the Cold War shaped and fueled the structure, tactics, and ideologies of the diverse movements taking place for the revolutionary cause, and address the particular impact that the Cuban Revolution had on the region. The first chapter of Caribbean Revolutions provides an introduction to the Cuban Revolution, the Cold War, and Marxist thought. Succeeding chapters analyze each case study individually and also provide discussions on the current political situation for all of the organizations covered in the book that remain active. With lists of suggested reading and extra resources in each chapter, this is written as an accessible course book for students of Latin American history and politics.

1. Cuban revolutionaries and the Caribbean Basin: an introduction
2. Armed revolutionary struggle in Guatemala
3. Armed revolutionary struggle in El Salvador
4. The armed movement that took power: the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua
5. Armed revolutionary struggle in Colombia
6. Armed organizations within the Puerto Rican revolutionary nationalist movement
7. Armed revolutionary movements in comparative perspective.

Subject Areas: Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions [HBTV], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]