Gudmundson & Lindo-Fuentes, Central Americas, 1821-1871 - Liberalism Before Liberal Reform

Abstract

Central America represents a fine contribution to the developing field of Latin American scholarship. The structure of the book, however, demands the reader's familiarity with Central American history in its entirety. The interpretive framework constructed within the two essays of the book will appear confusing and unattractive to the secondary or even undergraduate student lacking a general grasp of the region. Although the authors intended their essays to provide the introductory-level student with "novel ways of thinking about the facts," the nature of nineteenth-century Central American history commands a less elaborate and certainly a less sophisticated argument for the first or even second-time student of the period.