Central America Inside Out: The Essential Guide to its Societies, Politics, and Economics

by Tom Barry

This indispensable guide offers a comprehensive, country-by-country look at the current state of affairs in the most explosive region of the hemisphere. Largely ignored by the American public and often exploited by Washington, Central America became a center of U.S. and world attention in 1979 with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua and the continuing guerrilla war in El Salvador. Over the next decade more than $8 billion in U.S. military and economic aid poured into the region as it became an ideological and social battleground.This indispensable guide offers a comprehensive, country-by-country look at the state of affairs in the most explosive region in the hemisphere. Digging from the inside out, Tom Barry provides a trenchant analysis of the region's internal dynamics and international relations, examining in detail each country's government and politics, military, economy, society, and environment, as well as the role played there by the United States.

Genres: History

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Tom Barry was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla leader during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. A former British Army soldier, he applied his military experience to train and lead IRA fighters, becoming a key figure in the war against British forces. He commanded the IRA’s West Cork Brigade flying column, orchestrating major engagements such as the Kilmichael and Crossbarry ambushes. Opposing the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he fought in the Civil War on the anti-Treaty side and later served as the IRA’s Chief of Staff in the 1930s. Barry authored Guerrilla Days in Ireland, recounting his experiences.