What do you think?
The Sandinista Revolution: A Global Latin American History
The Sandinista Revolution and its victory against the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua gripped the United States and the world in the 1980s. But as soon as the Sandinistas were voted out of power in 1990 and the Iran Contra affair ceased to make headlines, it became, in Washington at least, a thing of the past.
Mateo Jarquin recenters the revolution as a major episode in the history of Latin America, the international left, and the Cold War. Drawing on research in Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica, he recreates the perspective of Sandinista leaders in Managua and argues that their revolutionary project must be understood in international context. Because struggles over the Revolution unfolded transnationally, the Nicaraguan drama had lasting consequences for Latin American politics at a critical juncture. It also reverberated in Western Europe, among socialists worldwide, and beyond, illuminating global dynamics like the spread of democracy and the demise of a bipolar world dominated by two superpowers.
Jarquin offers a sweeping analysis of the last left-wing revolution of the twentieth century, an overview of inter-American affairs in the 1980s, and an incisive look at the making of the post–Cold War order.
Mateo Jarquin recenters the revolution as a major episode in the history of Latin America, the international left, and the Cold War. Drawing on research in Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica, he recreates the perspective of Sandinista leaders in Managua and argues that their revolutionary project must be understood in international context. Because struggles over the Revolution unfolded transnationally, the Nicaraguan drama had lasting consequences for Latin American politics at a critical juncture. It also reverberated in Western Europe, among socialists worldwide, and beyond, illuminating global dynamics like the spread of democracy and the demise of a bipolar world dominated by two superpowers.
Jarquin offers a sweeping analysis of the last left-wing revolution of the twentieth century, an overview of inter-American affairs in the 1980s, and an incisive look at the making of the post–Cold War order.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
336 pages, Hardcover
Published April 30, 2024
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 5, 2026
The Sandinista Revolution: A Global Latin American History offers a focused reassessment of the Nicaraguan Revolution by placing it within the broader history of Latin America, the international left, and the Cold War. Mateo Jarquín moves beyond viewing the revolution simply through the lens of United States policy and instead emphasizes its international dimensions and lasting significance.
One of the book's strongest features is its attention to the transnational character of the revolutionary period. Research across Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica helps illuminate how political developments in Nicaragua were connected to wider regional struggles, diplomatic relationships, international solidarity, and the shifting dynamics of the 1980s.
The chronological structure also gives the history a strong sense of development, moving through the origins and rise of the Sandinistas, consolidation, war, peace, and the eventual fall of the Sandinistas as the Cold War entered its final stage. This approach allows readers to consider both the revolutionary project itself and the international pressures that shaped its trajectory.
For readers interested in Latin American history, international relations, revolutionary movements, Cold War politics, and inter-American affairs, the book provides a valuable framework for understanding a period whose consequences extended well beyond Nicaragua. Its discussion of democracy, international diplomacy, socialism, and the emergence of the post-Cold War order also gives the subject relevance to broader studies of twentieth-century global history.
With a Goodreads rating of 4.28 from 25 ratings and 2 reviews, the book already shows a positive early reader response while still having considerable room to develop its presence among specialized historical and academic audiences. Its combination of regional history, international politics, and Cold War analysis makes it particularly well suited to readers seeking a deeper understanding of Nicaragua and the wider political transformations of the late twentieth century.
One of the book's strongest features is its attention to the transnational character of the revolutionary period. Research across Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica helps illuminate how political developments in Nicaragua were connected to wider regional struggles, diplomatic relationships, international solidarity, and the shifting dynamics of the 1980s.
The chronological structure also gives the history a strong sense of development, moving through the origins and rise of the Sandinistas, consolidation, war, peace, and the eventual fall of the Sandinistas as the Cold War entered its final stage. This approach allows readers to consider both the revolutionary project itself and the international pressures that shaped its trajectory.
For readers interested in Latin American history, international relations, revolutionary movements, Cold War politics, and inter-American affairs, the book provides a valuable framework for understanding a period whose consequences extended well beyond Nicaragua. Its discussion of democracy, international diplomacy, socialism, and the emergence of the post-Cold War order also gives the subject relevance to broader studies of twentieth-century global history.
With a Goodreads rating of 4.28 from 25 ratings and 2 reviews, the book already shows a positive early reader response while still having considerable room to develop its presence among specialized historical and academic audiences. Its combination of regional history, international politics, and Cold War analysis makes it particularly well suited to readers seeking a deeper understanding of Nicaragua and the wider political transformations of the late twentieth century.
September 24, 2025
This book was good. Similar to Eline Van Ommen's recent book about the Sandinistas, this book places the Nicaraguan revolutionaries in global context, examining how actors in the United States, the USSR, Eastern and Western Europe, and Latin America played key roles in this key arena of the inter-American cold war. The best chapters in this book focus on the efforts of regional actors such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, and Cuba to support the Sandinistas. The rest of the book focuses on the changing international context with the fall of the USSR and the "third wave" of democratization globally, as well as internal contradictions within the Sandinista government that stifled civil society, as well as the Contras and the Reagan administration's efforts to bring down the Sandinistas.
November 10, 2025
This book offers a wonderful regional history of a revolution that often gets overshadowed by the Iran-Contra scandal in dominant narratives of history. It shows how the revolution that overthrew the Somoza dynasty was an effort involving many players within the region, and even gained some allies within Western Europe. It’s also a story of US intervention; this conflict was viewed by the Sandinistas and other regional actors as a power struggle between North and South, questioning the East-West framing the US applied to their many anti-communist crusades. Finally, this shows how entire regions can be impacted by events in a single country; the Sandinista revolution inspired leftist groups in El Salvador and Guatemala, and the peace process between the Contra and FSLN government led to a wave of democratization in the region.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews