Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua Under U.S. Imperial Rule by Michel Gobat (review)

Book Reviews 165 be strengthened, however, by more consideration as to what makes these four texts distinctly American (in the hemispheric sense). Going back to my comments concerning Glissant, Benitez-Rojo, and Brathwaite, I believe that Linking theAmericas certainly succeeds in linking specific marginal discourses throughout the hemisphere ; nonetheless, such discourses are to be found beyond the geographical limits of the Americas as well. I am especially interested in Feracho’s project of defining American identities through a trans-American approach, and I feel that she does do a good job of localizing each text within its own cultural parameters; however , a more rigorous examination of each text’s specificity within a more clearly articulated hemispheric context would make the many substantial links to be found in this book even stronger. Claudia Barbosa Nogueira Department of English, University of Tulsa Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua Under U.S. Imperial Rule. By Michel Gobat. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006, p.392, $23.95. Michel Gobat provides readers with a novel view of imperialism in his analysis of US involvement in Nicaragua during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Gobat goes beyond the work of other analysts in illustrating how Nicaragua’s elite actions became greatly linked to US involvement through politics, culture, and power struggles. Only through developing these relationships within a historical context does Gobat bring full realization of the multilateral consequences arising from Nicaragua’s interaction with the United States. This is exemplified in Gobat’s discussions that traverse political strata, class structure, gender, and genealogy . Gobat fully engages the impacts of US involvement through supporting evidence drawn from resources that cross national boundaries. By understanding events from the experiences of those directly involved in Nicaragua, Gobat adds both depth and significance to his work. The central theme present in Gobat’s chronicle describes the facets of Nicaraguan elite interest in the socio-economic development patterns of the United States. Gobat stresses that elites wished to utilize the strengths of US entrepreneurship to achieve “the American way of life,” but not succumb to a loss of sovereignty typically experienced by other Central American States during Americanization. However, the modernization of 166 The Latin Americanist Fall 2006 Nicaragua was highly segmented due to power struggles within the elite class, leading to periods of foreign intervention to quell disputes. Employing examples of military and economic involvement , Gobat demonstrates how the US maintained great influence in Nicaraguan affairs to become more of a watchdog than a model utopia. This often lead to large gaps in elite development as US forces took control of transportation systems to boost agro-export profits. Foreign political involvement also directed Nicaraguan government spendingto reduce debt instead of boosting local civil programs to help expand elite businesses. These events lead to losses in elite hegemony, though Gobat finds that many elites continued to have interest in US lifestyles. Largely this is explained through Nicaraguan elite desire for the US as a model of development. However, this became difficult to realize as political struggles in Nicaragua lead to elite contention and US intervention. Gobat also interestingly notes that US involvement often arose from one faction requesting for protection from opponent elite factions. The descriptions and reasoning behind elite power struggles given by Gobat help to demonstrate that requests for US involvement kept Nicaragua under a large degree of foreign influence. For nearly 100 years repeating processes of political upheaval weakened elite governance and authority due to US intervention . Gobat’s historical account of these fracture points begins with Manifest Destiny in the mid 1800sand extends through the Sandino Rebellion of 1927-33.However, Gobat shows that these delicate situations often entailed a small “shove” from within Nicaragua to cause the American imperialistic machine to move into action. The author contends that these conclusions demonstrate the profound effect of US involvement into latter parts of the twentieth century, but in fact few direct examples are given past the 1930s,leaving the topic more as an afterthought than an integral component to contemporary Nicaraguan politics. Gobat also highlights rural power struggles to describe losses of elite hegemony in his account of US imperialism. In this Gobat found an increase in...