Gift of the devil : a history of Guatemala / Jim Handy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Handy, Jim, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Peasant uprisings--Guatemala--History.

Peasant uprisings.

Revolutions--Guatemala--History.

Revolutions.

History.

Guatemala--History.

Guatemala.

Guatemala--Economic conditions.

Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

319 pages : maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston, MA : South End Press, [1984]

Summary:

Guatemalan history has been dominated by a long string of revolts punctuated by periods of exploitation and suppression. It is a history of sharp contrasts, of violent conflict between an oppressive elite and a majority Indian population.

Gift of the Devil traces Guatemala's history from precolonial times to the present: including the 1838 peasant revolt led by Rafael Carrera, the repressive growth of the coffee and banana economies and the revolutionary "ten years of spring" of 1945-54. It is a history that has seen the ascendancy of a military elite, buttressed more than once by U.S. intervention, culminating in the recent decades of brutal military dictatorship and civil war.

Throughout these painful years the Indian peasants of Guatemala have shown again and again their determination to organize in defence of their lives and land, a defence leading to the guerrilla campaigns of the present. During it all, it has been the resilience of opposition forces that has best defined the essence of Guatemalan life.

The first full history of Guatemala to appear in several decades, Gift of the Devil reveals that the country's current traumas are a bitter but logical extension of a past based on harsh colonial institutions, dispossession and racial and economic oppression.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Indians and the Colonial Legacy 11

2 Revolt From The Mountains: Rafael Carrera and the 1838 Uprising 35

3 Barrios And The Coffee Economy: Order, Progress and the Assault on Indian Land 57

4 Banana Empire: U.S. Intervention and the Ubico Dictatorship 77

5 The Ten Years Of Spring: "Spiritual Socialism" and the Capitalist Revolution 103

6 The Arbenz Administration: Agrarian Reform and the Counter-Revolution of 1954 123

7 Politics And The Military, 1954-1970: The Failure of Electoral Politics 149

8 Politics And The Military In The 1970s: The Violence Escalates 165

9 The Post-1954 Economy: "Showcase of Capitalist Development" 185

10 The Economy And The Highland Peasantry: Land, Profits and Poverty 205

11 "A Smouldering Element": The Rebirth of Popular Organization 223

12 Conclusion: Peasants, Politics and Repression in the 1980s 255

Appendix Guatemalan Political Parties and Elections Post-1954 283.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages [285]-315.

ISBN:

0896082474 :

OCLC:

11533298