The historical literature on the Latin American mass media from the 1920s to the late 1960s – most of it published in small editions, often by the pioneers of broadcasting – is not abundant. The extensive literature on development communications in Latin America was written mainly in the United States. There is a significant Latin American body of critical work around media reforms and the New International Information Order, much of which is contained in Fernando Reyes Matta (ed.), La Información en el Nuevo Orden International (Mexico, D.F., 1977) and in UNESCO Reports and Papers on Mass Communication: 70, Television Traffic - A One-Way Street?; 92, Transnational Communication and Cultural Industries; 93, Foreign News in the Media: International Reporting in 29 Countries; 98, The New International Economic Order: Links Between Economics and Communication; and 99, International Flow of Information: A Global Report and Analysis, There have been some studies on the media under the military dictatorships of the 1970s and early 1980s, such as G. Munizaga, El discurso público de Pinochet (Buenos Aires, 1983) and the studies cited below on Brazil and Argentina. Finally, there is extensive descriptive and applied literature on the experiences of alternative communications.

There have been important efforts to collect and analyse the literature on Latin American communications. Four annotated bibliographies of national communication research have been published: P. Anzola and P. Cooper, La investigatión en comunicación social en Colombia (Lima, 1985); G. Munizaga and A. Rivera, La investigaciín en comunicacion social en Chile (Lima, 1983); O. Peirano and T. Kudo, La investigatión en comunicación social en el Perú (Lima, 1982); and J. B. Rivera, La investigatión en comunicación social en Argentina (Lima, 1986).

Despite its age and limited attention to historical developments, Richard N. Adams, Crucifixion by Power: Essays on Guatemalan Social Structure, 1944–1966 (Austin, Tex., 1970) continues to occupy a central place in the literature on Guatemala in the twentieth century. A more recent narrative account of republican history is Jim Handy, Gift of the Devil: A History of Guatemala (Toronto, 1984), popular in style but with a full scholarly apparatus. The period up to the mid-1930s is covered in the engaging study by Chester Lloyd Jones, Guatemala Past and Present (Minneapolis, Minn., 1940). Providing full statistical material supported by a rather uneven text on the following two decades is Mario Monteforte Toledo, Guatemala: Monografía sociológica (Mexico, D.F., 1959), while Carlos Guzmán-Böckler and Jean-Loup Herbert, Guatemala: Una interpretación histórico-social (Mexico, D.F., 1970) is overwhelmingly analytical in perspective. Alfonso Bauer Paiz, Como opera el capital yanqui en Centroamérica: El caso de Guatemala (Mexico, D.F., 1956), and Thomas and Marjorie Melville, Guatemala: The Politics of Land Ownership (New York, 1971), are both polemical in style and secondary studies but do give cogent overviews of two important factors in twentieth-century society and economy.

Edith Wharton's first novel, The Valley of Decision, is one of her most important and distinguished novels, yet it has received relatively little (and mostly superficial) attention, in spite of its initial popularity. Set in northern Italy in the late eighteenth century, it concerns the decisions that must be made by Odo Valsecca, a young man of liberal ideas who inherits a dukedom during the years of the French Revolution. Forced to choose between conflicting loyalties - those to the forces of social reform with which he allied himself before he came to power, or those of the feudal tradition to which he belongs by blood - Odo must define himself. Readers familiar with the life of Edith Wharton or the themes of her better-known New York books immediately realize the personal investment Wharton had in her hero's ambivalence and self-definition. Through him she was able to speculate about personal commitments and choices behind the mask of a different time, a different place, and a different gender. Adopting experimental poses, assuming various attitudes, and entertaining contradictory ideas, in fiction she could leave nothing resolved except the fact of the book: it existed, it was hers, it was being widely read. In becoming a writer of novels, she had assumed her rightful identity. Working in the medium of politics rather than literature, her hero was not so lucky.

Scholars working on the economic history of Latin America in the period 1870–1914 are singularly fortunate in that much, indeed most, of what they need to locate is identified in Roberto Cortés Conde and Stanley J. Stein (eds.), Latin America: A Guide to Economic History, 1830–1930 (Berkeley, 1977). The editors, in their introduction, provide a helpful overview of problems and issues, while each country section of the masterfully annotated bibliographies on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru is also prefaced by an interpretive and evaluative essay from a noted scholar. With such an exceptionally valuable resource listing over 4,500 items already available, this essay will concentrate on studies from the more recent years which deal with the international matrix of Latin American regional development, with occasional mention of works written earlier but not included in the aforementioned comprehensive bibliography. There are a number of other bibliographies which deal with individual countries: for example, Enrique Florescano et al. (eds.), Bibliografía general del desarrollo económico de México, 1500–1976 (Mexico, D.F., 1980), an excellent work. Mention should also be made of a number of statistical publications which provide historical data on Latin America. See, for example, B. R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics: Australasia and Americas (London, 1983); also Paul Bairoch and Bouda Etemad, Commodity Structure of Third World Exports, 1830–1937 (Geneva, 1985).

A very good place to begin understanding the period is with more general works on the engagement of Latin America in the international economy. Pascal Arnaud, Estado y capitalismo en América Latina: Casos de México y Argentina (Mexico, D.F., 1981) represents one type of approach; based on the experience of two large countries in the 1820–1910 era, the author attempts to develop a general, perhaps too sweeping, picture of the transition to capitalism in Latin America.

The historiography of the church in Latin America in the period 1830–1930 is variable in coverage and quality and does not compare with the standard of historical writing in other aspects of Latin American history. One of the objects of the Comisión de Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina (CEHILA) is to remedy this situation, and the results of its work will be seen in the multi-volumed Historia general de la iglesia en América Latina under the general editorship of E. D. Dussel, individual volumes of which have already begun to appear. CEHILA has published a useful compendium on the sources and methods of church history, Para una historia de la Iglesia en América Latina: I Encuentro latinoamericano de CEHILA en Quito (1973) (Barcelona, 1975), which compensates to some extent for the lack of basic bibliographies. Meanwhile, history as well as other disciplines are well served by JLAS, 17/2 (1985), a number devoted largely to the church in Latin America.

General histories of the church in Latin America are few in number. Enrique D. Dussel, Historia de la iglesia en América Latina: Colonizaje y liberación (1492–1973), 3rd ed. (Barcelona, 1974; Eng. trans., Grand Rapids, Mich., 1981) provides a framework of the subject, and Hans-Jürgen Prien, Die Geschichte des Christentums in Lateinamerika (Göttingen, 1978; Sp. trans., Salamanca, 1985), is a substantial history. See also Enrique Dussel (ed.), The Church in Latin America, 1492–1992 (New York, 1992).

General studies on the structure and growth of the Brazilian population in the colonial period are rare. Attempts to calculate the size of the population and assess its growth at various dates have been carried out by Roberto Simonsen, História econômica do Brasil (1500–1820), 6th ed. (São Paulo, 1969), and also by Celso Furtado, Formação econômica do Brasil, IIth ed. (São Paulo, 1971). Using information from the third quarter of the eighteenth century, when the first census surveys were carried out in each captaincy, various authors have assembled and organized statistics still preserved in archives, in an attempt to arrive at a demographic aggregate for the country during the period. The following studies, in particular, are worthy of note: Dauril Alden, ‘The population of Brazil in the late 18th century: A preliminary survey’, HAHR, 43/1 (1963), 173–205; Maria Luiza Marcílio, ‘Accroissement de la population: Évolution historique de la population brésilienne jusqu’en 1872’, in Comité International de Coordination des Recherches Nationales en Demographie, La population du Brésil (Paris, 1974); also M. L. Marcílio, ‘Evolução da população brasileira através dos censos até 1872‘, Anais de História, 6 (1974), 115–37. Some scholars have based their figures on different sources. For example, using the more reliable nineteenth-century census figures, they have made retrospective estimates in order to arrive at a probable total for the population of Brazil in the eighteenth century. Such is the case of Giórgio Mortara, ‘Estudos sobre a utilização do movimento da população do Brasil’, Revista Brasileira de Estatística (January-March 1941), 38–46, who calculated the total population of Brazil by year, from 1772.

An invaluable guide with over 11,000 listings is David F. Trask, Michael C. Meyer and Roger R. Trask (eds.), A Bibliography of United States–Latin American Relations since 1810 (Lincoln, Nebr., 1968). See also Michael C. Meyer (ed.), Supplement to a Bibliography of United States–Latin American Relations since 1810 (Lincoln, Nebr., 1979). Several countries have guides to the secondary literature for their diplomatic history. One of the best is Daniel Cosío Villegas, Cuestiones internacionales de México (Mexico, D.F., 1966). A good overall introduction to the history of the international relations of Latin America is Harold Eugene David, John J. Finan and F. Taylor Peck, Latin American Diplomatic History: An Introduction (Baton Rouge, La., 1977). A more theoretical analysis of the international dilemma of Latin America is Leopoldo Zea, Latin America and the World, translated by Frances Hendricks and Beatrice Berler (Norman, Okla., 1969). This should be read in conjunction with another classic interpretation: Arthur P. Whitaker, The Western Hemisphere Idea: Its Rise and Decline (Ithaca, N.Y., 1954). For questions of international organization and law, see John C. Dreir et al., International Organization in the Western Hemisphere (Syracuse, N.Y., 1968), and C. Neale Ronning, Law and Politics in Inter-American Diplomacy (New York, 1963).

For a more detailed presentation of United States relations with Latin America, see Graham Stuart and James Tigner, Latin America and the United States, 6th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1975). See also Gordon Connell-Smith, The United States and Latin America: An Historical Analysis of Inter-American Relations (London, 1974) and, a more general treatment from a different perspective, Lloyd C. Gardner, Walter LaFeber and T. McCormick, The Creation of the Modern American Empire: U.S. Diplomatic History (London, 1973), as well as the various works of William Appleman Williams.

The Corporación Editora Nacional is in the course of publishing the Nueva historia del Ecuador (Quito, 1988–), planned in fifteen volumes under the general editorship of E. Ayala Mora. Vols. 8, 9 and 10 cover the period 1870–1930. The basic historical bibliography remains R. E. Norris, Guía bibliográfica para el estudio de la historia ecuatoriana (Austin, Tex., 1978).

The following contemporary accounts deserve mention: J. Kolberg, Nach Ecuador (Freiburg, 1876); C. Weiner, América pintoresca: Descripción de viajes al nuevo continente (Barcelona, 1884); E. Festa, Nel Darien e nell’Ecuador, Diario de viaggio di un naturalista (Turin, 1909); R. Enock, Ecuador (London, 1914); M. Sáenz, Sobre el indio ecuatoriano y su incorporación al medio nacional (Mexico, D.F., 1933).

On political history, see E. Ayala Mora, Lucha política y origen de los partidos en Ecuador (Quito, 1978); H. Malo and E. Ayala Mora (eds.), Ecuador 1830–1930, Tomo 1, Política y sociedad (Quito, 1980) (the two subsequent volumes deal with art and culture, and economics); L. Alexander Rodríguez, The Search for Public Policy: Regional Politics and Government Finances in Ecuador, 1830–1940 (Berkeley, 1985); J. L. Mera, La dictadura y la restauración en la República del Ecuador (Quito, 1982); and I. Robalino Dávila, Orígines del Ecuador de hoy, 7 vols. (Puebla, Mexico, 1948–70), a series of well-documented politico-biographical studies.

Three works whose principal focus is on later years are useful for this earlier period are: O. Hurtado, El poder político en el Ecuador (Quito, 1977); R. Quintero, El mito delpopulismo en el Ecuador (Quito, 1980); G. Drekonja et al., Ecuador de hoy (Bogotá, 1978).

At first glance, Summer (1917) does not seem to fit the mold of the novel of manners, the genre usually associated with Edith Wharton. This short novel primarily involves people of a lower class than is typical of the genre: there are no salons, grand balls, vast estates, sparkling wordplay, no meddling mother trying to marry off her daughter, no comic relief. Still, the story does involve a marriageable yet resistant young woman who must come to terms with the symbolic order (which can be thought of as the sociocultural matrix by which things and actions are interpreted) through courtship, social ritual, and, finally, marriage. But the foregrounding of Charity Royall's resistance to this incorporation on the one hand, and her apparent final capitulation to it on the other, has led readers of Summer down two different interpretive paths.

In brief, the plot of Summer revolves around Charity Royall, a young woman of obscure parentage who has been reared by two foster parents, Lawyer and Mrs. Royall. Mrs. Royall has been dead a few years when the narrative begins. Charity still lives with Lawyer Royall in a small Massachusetts town called North Dormer; although she yearns to escape, we learn that she has recently turned down a chance to attend boarding school because she feels obligated to Lawyer Royall, who would be “too lonesome” without her. However, Royall eventually tries to seduce his foster daughter, then twice asks her to be his wife: Charity is revolted. She instead falls in love with a visitor to North Dormer, an urbane young architect named Lucius Harney.

There has been increasing scholarly attention paid to the period dealing with Paraguay between the War of the Triple Alliance (1865–70) and the Chaco War (1932–5). Harris Gaylord Warren, Paraguay and the Triple Alliance: The Postwar Decade, 1869–1878 (Austin, Tex., 1978) is a serious study of the early part of this period. The period from 1878 to the 1904 revolution has been analysed in Harris G. Warren and Katherine E. Warren, Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic: The First Colorado Era, 1818–1904 (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1985). The 1904 revolution is the subject of essays by Harris G. Warren, ‘The Paraguayan revolution of 1904’, TA, 36 (1980); and Juan Carlos Herken Krauer, ‘La revolución de 1904 en el Paraguay: El trasfondo socio-económico y la perspectiva británica’, Revista Paraguay a de Sociología, 22/62 (1985). On the relationship between business and politics, see Diego Abente, ‘Foreign capital, economic elites and the state in Paraguay during the Liberal Republic, 1870–1936–, JLAS, 21/1 (1989), 61–88; and Juan Carlos Herken Krauer, Ferrocarriles, conspiraciones y negocios, 1910–1914 (Asunción, 1984), ‘Políticos, empresarios y financistas en el Paraguay, 1907–1920’, JGSWGL, 22 (1985), 423–55, and ‘Ferrocarril, política y economía en el Paraguay: El acuerdo de 1907 entre el Paraguay Central Railway Company y el gobierno paraguayo’, l–AA, 10/3 (1984), 291–316. Other studies of several aspects of this hitherto neglected period include Juan C. Herken Krauer, El Paraguay rural entre 1869 y 1913 (Asunción, 1984); Diego Abente, ‘The liberal republic and the failure of democracy’, TA, 45/4 (1989), 525–46; Ricardo Caballero Aquino, La segunda repúblka paraguaya (Asunción, 1984); and Harris G. Warren, ‘Journalism in Asunción under the allies and the Colorados, 1869–1904’, TA, 50, 14 (1983), 483–98.

The quantity and the quality of early material on the southern cone of South America varies from area to area according to the period. First observers rarely confined their writings to a single ethnic group, but chroniclers, military poets and priests were attracted at once by Mapuche resistance to the conquest. However, similarly worthwhile accounts about other places on either side of the Andes are scarce, and our knowledge of some sixteenth- and seventeenth-century documents is based entirely on references to them in eighteenth-century chronicles.

There is useful information on the northern section of the southern Andes in the region’s earliest chronicle, Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile, completed in 1558 by Gerónimo de Bibar. Bibar not only accompanied Pedro de Valdivia on his conquest of Chile but also ventured from the northern deserts to the southern archipelago, besides further travels east of the Andes. His account, which has chapters on the geography and ethnography of the provinces he visited, has been widely used by ethnohistorians since its rediscovery and publication in Santiago in 1966. Other interesting works on the northern section include the Relación del descubrimiento y conquista de los reinos del Perú (1571) by Pedro Pizarro, an encomendero of Tarapacá; and the collection of chronicles which document Diego de Almagro’s 1535 expedition to Chile, including Fernández de Oviedo’s Historia general y natural de las Indias, an anonymous Relación attributed to the ‘Almagrist’ Cristóbal de Molina, and Mariño de Lovera’s Crónica del Reino de Chile (1595).

peru

For the entire period from independence to the War of the Pacific, Jorge Basadre’s great work, Historia de la República del Perú, 5th ed., 10 vols. (Lima, 1962–4), undoubtedly constitutes the most important source of reference. His earlier works, Perú, problema y posibilidad (Lima, 1931), and La multitud, la ciudad y el campo (Lima, 1947), have not only maintained their freshness but were responsible for pioneering the study of Peru’s history. Apart from Basadre’s classic works, another summary of this period written by Emilio Romero, Historia económica del Perú (Buenos Aires, 1949) contains information which is still of value. More recently, Ernesto Yepes del Castillo, Perú 1820–1920: Un sigh de desarrollo capitalista (Lima, 1972) has provided an overall interpretation of the nineteenth century, while Julio Cotler, in Clases, estado y nación en el Perú (Lima, 1978) discusses and explains the persistence of the colonial character of Peruvian society and the state after 1821. A useful general history in English is Fredrick B. Pike, The Modern History of Peru (London, 1967). Heraclio Bonilla, Un siglo a la deriva (Lima, 1980), chaps. 1 and 2, and Shane Hunt, Price and Quantum Estimates of Peruvian Exports, 1830–1962 (Princeton, N.J., Woodrow Wilson School, Discussion Paper 33, 1973) have suggested the division of the nineteenth century into economic periods, on the basis of the country’s export performance.

Literature on Brazilian Indians is far richer for the sixteenth than for Subsequent centuries. On contemporary authors and secondary literature, see essay I:5.

On the west and the south in the seventeenth century, the fundamental study, although sometimes confusing, is Afonso d’Escragnolle Taunay, História geral das bandeiras paulistas, II vols. (São Paulo, 1924–50). The majority of documents about bandeirante–Jesuit conflict are in the seven volumes edited by Jaime Cortesão and Hélio Vianna, Manuscriptos da Coleção De Angelis (Rio de Janeiro, 1951–70), and in Jaime Cortesão, Rapôso Tavares a formação territorial do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1958) and Introdução a histōria da bandeiras, 2 vols. (Lisbon, 1964). See also Alfredo Ellis Júnior, Meio século de bandeirismo (São Paulo, 1948), José de Alcântara Machado, Vida e morte do bandeirante (S´o Paulo, 1943), and the works of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda. Many key sources have been translated in Richard M. Morse (ed.), The Bandeirantes: The Historical Role of the Brazilian Pathfinders (New York, 1965). There is contemporary information on the bandeirantes in Pedro Tacques de Almeida Paes Leme, Nobiliarchia Paulistana and Historia da Capitânia de S. Vicente (1772) and in collections of documents such as: Actas da Câmara Municipal de S. Paulo (São Paulo, 1914–), Inventários e testamentos (São Paulo, 1920–) and the large but disorganized Documentos interessantes para a história e costumes de S´o Paulo, 86 vols. (São Paulo, 1894–1961). Aurélio Porto, História das missóes orientais do Uruguai (Rio de Janeiro, 1943) is important, and the history of the Jesuits’ Paraguayan missions is documented in Nicolau del Techo, S.J., Historia de la provincia del Paraguay (Liége, 1673), José S´nchez Labrador, S.J., El Paraguay católico (1770), 3 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1910–17), and Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, S.J., Conquista espiritual … en las provincias del Paraguay, Paraná, Uruguay y Ta pi (Madrid, 1639), and, among modern accounts, Pablo Pastells, S.J., Historia de la Compañia de Jesús en la provincia del Paraguay, 8 vols. (Madrid, 1912–59), Magnus Mörner, The Political and Economic Activities of the Jesuits in the La Plata Region (Stockholm, 1953), and Guillermo Fúrlong, Misiones y sus pueblos de guaraníes (Buenos Aires, 1962).

The best guide to Mexican history in the period is provided by the multivolume, multi-authored Historia de la Revolutión Mexicana, published by the Colegio de México, ten volumes of which cover the period 1928–1952. The first two, Lorenzo Meyer, Rafael Segovia and Alejandra Lajous, Los inicios de la institutionalizatión (Mexico, D.F., 1978) and El conflicto social y los gobiernos del maximato (Mexico, D.F., 1978) deal respectively with the political and social history of the Calles Maximato. Four successive volumes cover the Cárdenas presidency: Luis González, Los artífices del cardenismo (Mexico, D.F., 1979), sets the scene; the same author’s Los días del presidente Cardenas (Mexico, D.F., 1979) deftly captures both the key events and the president’s character; Alicia Hernández Chávez, La mecánica cardenista (Mexico, D.F., 1979) offers acute analysis and original research; and Victoria Lerner, La educatión socialista (Mexico, D.F., 1979) deals with education policy in the 1930s. Historical research on the 1940s – a crucial but relatively little-studied decade – has been pioneered by Luis Medina, Del cardenismo al avilacamachismo (Mexico, D.F., 1978); Bianca Torres Ramírez, Mexico en la segunda guerra mundial (Mexico, D.F., 1979); Luis Medina, Civilismo y modernizatión del autoritarismo (Mexico, D.F., 1979); and Bianca Torres Ramírez, Hacia la Utopía industrial (Mexico, D.F., 1984). Rafael Loyola (coord.), Entre la guerra y la estabilidad política: El México de los 40 (Mexico, D.F., 1986) is a valuable collection of articles dealing with domestic politics, international relations, the economy and culture during the war. Stephen R. Niblo, The Impact of War: Mexico and World War Two (La Trobe University, Institute of Latin American Studies, Occasional Paper, Melbourne, 1988) is a succinct, original study, especially of the socio–economic impact of the war.

The basic bibliographical reference is J. V. Lombardi et al., Venezuelan History: A Comprehensive Working Bibliography (Boston, 1977). Also important is the Diccionario de historia de Venezuela, published by the Fundación Polar under the direction of M. Pérez Vila, 3 vols. (Caracas, 1988). Two modern short histories are J. V. Lombardi, Venezuela (New York, 1982) andj. Ewell, Venezuela (London, 1984).

The political history of the period 1870–1930 can be studied in M. Picón Salas et al., Venezuela independiente: Evolutión politica y social, 1810–1960 (Caracas, 1962), and the later years in R. J. Velásquez et al., Venezuela moderna: Medio siglo de historia, 1926–1976, 2nd ed. (Caracas, 1979). Up until the year 1890 the relevant volumes of F. González Guinán, Historia contemporánea de Venezuela, 15 vols. (Caracas, 1909–25) are still most valuable. Three collections of documents are particularly useful: P. Grases and M. Pérez Vila (eds.), Documentos que hicieron historia (Caracas, 1862); N. Suárez Figueroa, Programas politicos venezolanos de la primera mitad del siglo XX, 2 vols. (Caracas, 1977); R. J. Velásquez (ed.), El pensamiento político del siglo XX: Documentos para su estudio (Caracas, 1983– ; two series so far). See also M. V. Magallanes, Los partidos políticos en la evolutión venezolana (Caracas, 1973).

The works considered in this chapter comprise the published late natural history writings of Henry Thoreau, exclusive of material associated with The Maine Woods. This sounds simple enough, but explanation is required. Of the eight titles here discussed, six were published posthumously: “Walking, ” “Autumnal Tints, ” and “Wild Apples ” appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862, shortly after Thoreau’s death; “Huckleberries ” was published in 1970; and not until 1993 were “The Dispersion of Seeds ” and a selection from his “Wild Fruits ” manuscripts published for the first time in Faith in a Seed. Thoreau himself saw in print only a truncated version of “A Yankee in Canada, ” in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine in 1853, and “The Succession of Forest Trees, ” in both the New York Tribune and Transactions of the Middlesex Agricultural Society in 1860. Because the publication dates do not reflect the order of composition, the latter order is followed here: “Walking ” (1851), “A Yankee in Canada ” (1851), “Autumnal Tints ” (1858-9), “Wild Apples ” (1859-Go), “Huckleberries ” (1860-11, “Wild Fruits ” (1860-1), “The Succession of Forest Trees ” (1860), and “The Dispersion of Seeds ” (1860-1).

While these published titles represent Thoreau’s most advanced work with their texts, the published versions of "Night and Moonlight" (1863) and The Moon (1927) have been shown to be nonauthorial editions and therefore are not discussed here. However, the surviving manuscripts of what apparently was once an intended book on the moon would be a welcome addition to the Thoreau canon, if someone can assemble and edit them. The same is true for the rest of the "Wild Fruits" manuscripts and for other late writings as well, including "The Fall of the Leaf." We should not, though, expect to read either Thoreau’s so-called Indian Book or his so-called Kalendar, because neither of these projects developed beyond the accumulation of raw materials, much of which was shifted to other works.

Nicaraguan historiography is extremely uneven in both quality and quantity. While much of the country’s history remains poorly researched, certain events have attracted enormous attention, notably the proposed inter-oceanic canal in the nineteenth century; the U.S. occupation in the first third of the twentieth century; the Sandino episode; and, more recently, the Sandinista revolution.

The international attention devoted to Nicaragua since the collapse of the Somoza dynasty in 1979 has created a demand for comprehensive bibliographies, previously a neglected area. The most impressive is the three-volume Nicaraguan National Bibliography, 1800–1978, produced by the Latin American Bibliographic Foundation (Redlands, Calif, 1986–7), with more than 20, 000 entries. A more modest, but useful, bibliography is Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Nicaragua (Oxford 1983), in the World Bibliographical Series. For the post-1979 period, there is such a rapid increase in publications every year that any bibliography runs the risk of being out-of-date as soon as it is published. Hans Aalborg, however, has compiled a helpful work for the first five years of the revolution: The Nicaraguan Development Process (Copenhagen, 1984), while a comprehensive bibliography on political economy covering most of the period of Sandinista rule (1979–90) is contained in CRIES, La politica económica en Nicaragua 1979–88 (Managua, 1989).

The Nicaraguan revolution inspired a number of authors to attempt general works on the country’s history. Among the best are Alberto Lanuza, Juan Luis Vázquez, Amaru Barahona and Amalia Chamorro, Economía y sociedad en la construcciín del estado en Nicaragua (San José, C. R., 1983); David Close, Nicaragua: Politics, Economics and Society (London, 1988) and F. Lainez, Nicaragua: Colonialismo espanol, yanki y ruso (Guatemala City, 1987).

THE SPANISH CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT OF AMERICA

Charles Julian Bishko, ‘The Iberian background of Latin American history: Recent progress and continuing problems’, HAHR, 36 (1956), 50–80, is an admirable introduction to the essential bibliographical tools and identifies the areas in which more research is needed, as well as those in which valuable work has been done. The Indice histérico espanol (Barcelona, 1953–), which may be regarded as a sequel to Benito Sanchez Alonso’s indispensable Fuentes de la historia espanola e hispanoamericana, 3 vols., 3rd ed. (Madrid, 1952), with the additional advantage of including brief comments on the books and articles which it lists, has unfortunately shown signs of flagging in recent years.

There is now a good selection of general books on the Iberian peninsula in the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, although Spain is much better served in this respect than Portugal. The classic work of Roger B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and the New, 4 vols. (New York, 1918–34, reprinted 1962) is still useful, particularly for political and institutional history, but has at many points been superseded by more recent work. It is weakest in the areas of economic and social history, where it should be supplemented by Jaime Vicens Vives, An Economic History of Spain (Princeton, N.J., 1969), and vols. 2 and 3 of Historia social y económica de Españay América (Barcelona, 1957), a collaborative enterprise edited by Vicens Vives. A more recent work is V. Vazquez de Prada, Historia económica y social de España, vol. 3 (Los siglos XVI y XVII) (Madrid, 1978).