The Costa Rican revolution of 1948 capped an extended period of social tension and political unrest. This book analyzes the circumstances of 1940-1948 that led to a successful armed uprising. A secondary and related theme is the role of Jose Figueres Ferrer in marshaling disparate groups into a movement sufficiently cohesive to seize and hold power.

In the 1940s the Communists, the Social Democrats (forerunners of the National Liberation Party), and the followers of Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia within the traditional National Republican party competed to lead the middle sector's...