Description
Book SynopsisAsks how a virulent anti-Americanism developed in a Nicaraguan society that also seemed to embrace Americanization fervently and explores the historical roots of this paradox
Trade Review“Extraordinarily engaging,
Confronting the American Dream is far and away the best work ever written on the convoluted path of elite/Conservative disenchantment with the U. S. imperial project in Nicaragua. Its relevance to broader historical and contemporary phenomena throughout Latin America and well beyond is really quite remarkable.”— Lowell Gudmundson, coauthor of
Central America, 1821–1871: Liberalism before Liberal Reform“This is a beautifully argued and researched book—one of the most important and revealing case studies we have in U.S.–Latin American relations. But it goes far beyond that. Without ever significantly moving past the 1930s, Michel Gobat has provided an indictment of the early-twenty-first-century embrace of ‘American empire’ and, in a model of scholarship, provided stunning insights into the ironies—and tragedies—of the misuse of U.S. power.”—Walter LaFeber, author of
America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945–2002Table of ContentsIllustrations ix
Tables x
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part I: Manifest Destinies, 1849–1910 19
1. Americanization through Violence: Nicaragua under Walker 21
2. Americanization from Within: Forging a Cosmopolitan Nationality 42
Part II: Restoration, 1910–1912 73
3. Challenging Imperial Exclusions: Nicaragua under the Dawson Pact 75
4. Bourgeois Revolution Denied: U.S. Military Intervention in the Civil War of 1912 100
Part III: Dollar Diplomacy, 1912–1927 123
5. Economic Nationalism: Resisting Wall Street’s “Feudal” Regime 125
6. Anxious Landlords, Resilient Peasants: Dollar Diplomacy’s Socioeconomic Impact 150
7. Cultural Anit-Americanism: The Caballeros Catolicos’ Crusade against U.S. Missionaries, the “Modern Woman,” and the “Bourgeois Spirit” 175
Part IV: Revolution, 1927–1933 203
8. Militarization via Democratization: The U.S. Attack on Caudillismo and the Rise of Authoritarian Corporatism 205
9. Revolutionary Nationalism: Elite Conservatives, Sandino, and the Struggle for a De-Americanized Nicaragua 232
Epilogue: Imperial Legacies: Dictatorship and Revolution 267
Notes 281
Selected Bibliography 325
Index 351
