In this Book
- To Lead As Equals: Rural Protest and Political Consciousness in Chinandega, Nicaragua, 1912-1979
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
summary
This book is a carefully argued study of peasants and labor during the Somoza regime, focusing on popular movements in the economically strategic department of Chinandega in western Nicaragua. Jeffrey Gould traces the evolution of group consciousness among peasants and workers as they moved away from extreme dependency on the patron to achieve an autonomous social and political ideology. In doing so, he makes important contributions to peasant studies and theories of revolution, as well as our understanding of Nicaraguan history.
According to Gould, when Anastasio Somoza first came to power in 1936, workers and peasants took the Somocista reform program seriously. Their initial acceptance of Somocismo and its early promises of labor rights and later ones of land redistribution accounts for one of the most peculiar features of the pre-Sandinista political landscape: the wide gulf separating popular movements and middle-class opposition to the government. Only the alliance of the Frente Sandinista (FSLN) and the peasant movement would knock down the wall of silence between the two forces.
According to Gould, when Anastasio Somoza first came to power in 1936, workers and peasants took the Somocista reform program seriously. Their initial acceptance of Somocismo and its early promises of labor rights and later ones of land redistribution accounts for one of the most peculiar features of the pre-Sandinista political landscape: the wide gulf separating popular movements and middle-class opposition to the government. Only the alliance of the Frente Sandinista (FSLN) and the peasant movement would knock down the wall of silence between the two forces.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xii
- Introduction
- pp. 1-18
- Part I. Labor and Politics, 1912–1949
- Part II. The Campesino Movement and Somocismo, 1950–1964
- Part III. Campesinos and the Sandinista Revolution, 1964–1979
- Conclusion
- pp. 292-306
- Appendix 1. Chronology
- pp. 307-309
- Appendix 2. Characters and Places
- pp. 310-312
- Bibliographical Essay
- pp. 363-366
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469616087
Related ISBN(s)
9780807819043, 9780807842751, 9781469616070
MARC Record
OCLC
755235531
Pages
392
Launched on MUSE
2016-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No