Public violence, a persistent feature of Latin American life since the collapse of Iberian rule in the 1820s, has been especially prominent in Central America. Robert H. Holden shows how public violence shaped the states that have governed Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Linking public violence and patrimonial political cultures, he shows how the early states improvised their authority by bargaining with armed bands or montoneras. Improvisation continued into the twentieth century as the bands were gradually superseded by semi-autonomous national armies,...

Contemporary Latin America presents the epochal political, economic, social, and cultural changes in Latin America over the last 40 years and comprehensively examines their impact on life in the region, and beyond.

• Provides a fresh approach and a new interpretation of the seismic changes of the last 40 years in Latin America
• Introduces major themes from a humanistic and universal perspective, putting each subject in a context that readers can understand and relate to
• Focuses on 'Ibero-America'--Brazil and the eighteen countries that were...