The best bibliographical guide is John Lombardi et al., Venezuelan History: A Comprehensive Working Bibliography (Boston, 1977). Since 1970, the Biblioteca Nacional has irregularly issued the series Bibliografía venezolana and Anuario bibliográfico venezolano. For historiography, see Germán Carrera Damas, Historia de la historiografía venezolana: Textos para su estudio (Caracas, 1961), Cuestiones de historiografia venezolana (Caracas, 1964) and Historiografía marxista venezolana y otros temas (Caracas, 1967). A useful chronological guide is A. Arellano Moreno, Guía de historia de Venezuela, 3rd ed. (Caracas, 1977). The Diccionario de historia de Venezuela, 3 vols. (Caracas, 1990), edited by Manuel Perez Vila and published by the Fundacion Polar, is invaluable.

Several collections of printed source material have appeared. The most impressive general series is Ramón J. Velásquez, El pensamiento político venezolano del siglo XX: Documentospara su estudio, 15 vols. to date (Caracas, 1983–). See also Naudy Suárez Figureroa’s Programaspoliticos venezolanos de la primera mitad del siglo XX, 2 vols. (Caracas, 1977)- Allan R. Brewer-Carías, Las constituciones de Venezuela (Madrid, 1985), discusses and reproduces the texts of all constitutions. José Augustín Catalá has edited and reprinted documents relating to the dictatorship of Pérez Jiménez and the clandestine resistance of the Acción Democrática (AD) – frequently taken from the 1960s trials of perezjimenistas. See Libro negro 1952 (Caracas, 1974); Documentos para la historia de la resistencia, 4 vols. (Caracas, 1969); Los crímenes de Pérez Jiménez (various subtitles and volumes, Caracas, 1971); and Los jerarcas impunes del perezjimenismo (various subtitles and volumes, Caracas, 1971). José Rivas Rivas has compiled and reproduced newspaper clippings which cover the period from 1936 to 1958 in Historia gráfica de Venezuela, 3 vols. (Caracas, 1961)

Venezuela's political, economic and social development in the twentieth century has been unique in Latin America. In 1900, Venezuela was a poor and caudillo-dominated Caribbean country. Export agriculture based on coffee and cacao produced some modest wealth for the planter class, but neither the Andean nor the coastal hacendados could be said to constitute a national modernizing elite. Poor communications and regionally based rural economies meant that national loyalties remained weak. Moreover, the nineteenth-century civil wars had played havoc with hopes for economic prosperity, national integration and even political stability as successive regional politico-military cliques came to power in Caracas.

Economic growth accelerated around the turn of the century. Under the dictatorship of the Táchira caudillo Cipriano Castro (1899–1908) foreign companies intensified asphalt exploitation; and from 1914, under the dictatorship of another Tachira caudillo, Juan Vicente Gomez (1908–1935), Venezuela's economy began to undergo a singular transformation with the discovery of rich oil fields in the western province of Zulia and in the eastern coastal region. However, the impact of the oil industry upon Venezuela would not be fully evident until after Gómez's death. Moreover, political life changed little before 1936, except for an expansion of government jobs and a very modest strengthening of central government. Economic patterns and class structure also registered only slight shifts. Many of Gómez's cronies entered the elite by selling concessions to foreign oil companies, and a larger and more affluent middle class arose as Venezuelans found professional employment with the oil companies and in the growing public sector.