Sandinistas is about the Nicaraguan revolution and the party that leads it, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). In the early chapters of the book, author Dennis Gilbert tell who the Sandinistas are and what they believe. He probes the inner workings of the FSLN and the party's relations with the organized masses, the military and the revolutionary state. The second half of the book examines the Sandinistas in action, as they deal with peasants, businessmen, Christians, and Yankees. The final chapter covers the history of US-Nicaraguan relations from 1855-1988.

...

In the last decades of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth, a new class--the oligarchy--consolidated its wealth and political power in Latin America. Its members were the sugar planters, coffee growers, cattle barons, and bankers who were growing rich in a rapidly expanding global economy. Examining these immensely powerful groups, Dennis Gilbert provides a systematic comparative history of the rise and ultimate demise of the oligarchies that dominated Latin America for nearly a century. He then sketches a fine-grained portrait of three prominent Peruvian families,...

In the last decades of the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth, a new class--the oligarchy--consolidated its wealth and political power in Latin America. Its members were the sugar planters, coffee growers, cattle barons, and bankers who were growing rich in a rapidly expanding global economy. Examining these immensely powerful groups, Dennis Gilbert provides a systematic comparative history of the rise and ultimate demise of the oligarchies that dominated Latin America for nearly a century. He then sketches a fine-grained portrait of three prominent Peruvian families,...