Historia de Costa Rica: Breve, Actualizada y con Ilustraciones

by Iván Molina Jiménez

Good background information on the country.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Spanish Literature

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Lowarn Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good place to start: it summarises a lot of stuff in a small book! If you want in-depth analysis of events that occurred, this isn't it, but it does exactly what it sets out to do. The bibliography looks pretty thorough, too.

Culturally estranged as I am from my Costa Rican half, I'm very grateful that books like this exist and are available in English!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book earns a good chunk of its rating just by simply existing. Accessible, concise histories such as these, aimed at a general readership, are nearly impossible to come by. And it mostly achieves its modest goals. The first half of the book is especially good -- the authors take care to deconstruct the Costa Rican myth of a history of benign conquest and colonialism leading directly to an egalitarian paradise in the 20th century. The reality is somewhat harsher, as the authors explain, and substantially more complex.

The book is seriously unbalanced, though, as it deals with a few centuries of history, form pre-Columbian times to about 1930 in about half of its 200-or-so pages, then spends the entire second half of the book focused on the period from about 1930 to around 2005. In the ensuing chapters, the narrative devolves into a mind-numbing alphabet soup of acronyms, statistics, and dollar figures -- it’s a level of specificity that doesn’t really suit this type of survey history. The reader quickly becomes mired in details and loses her orientation to the broader sweep of history. The authors would have done better to dispense with a purely chronological orientation and instead organize the book -- or at least the half dealing with the 20th century -- thematically. It would have been much easier to understand the flow of movements and tendencies in that way, and the book would have been a far more interesting read.

One especially nice feature of the book worth noting is that literally every page is illustrated with an image and/or sidebar quote. The images include maps, charts, drawings/paintings, and photographs, that provide meaningful context and visual resonance for the text presented. And the sidebar quotes run the gamut from colonial era primary sources, to ordinary-person observations of modern era events, adding perspective and amplifying the breadth of the narrative coverage.

[Felipe Gazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molina y Palmer relatan de forma breve y concisa la historia de Costa Rica desde la llegada de los primeros humanos hasta la actualidad.

Resaltan los conflictos y desafíos tanto económicos como sociales que han marcado nuestra historia. Altibajos de progreso económico y social marcado siempre por un melancólico optimismo de su gente que aspira por una Costa Rica prospera e igualitaria.

Esencial lectura de cultura general

[Cristhiam Álvarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Propuesto como un 'tour' sintético y actualizado de la historia de Costa Rica, el libro "Historia de Costa Rica. Breve, actualizada y con ilustraciones" (EUCR, 2006) ofrece una descripción analítica de los principales momentos en el desarrollo de la nación costarricense (desde la época aborigen -12 000 a.C.- hasta 1995), de forma que la persona que lo lee (nacional o extranjera) puede darse una idea de los aspectos esenciales que dieron origen y marcaron a esta nación del istmo centroamericano.

En particular me interesé por el libro pues en mi época de colegio los Estudios Sociales no me aportaron mayor conocimiento sobre la historia del país y tampoco lo hicieron los cursos de Estudios Sociales I y II de la UCR, quería profundizar más, especialmente, sobre la época de la Conquista y la Colonia (pues es aquí que plantean los expertos donde se gestó la idiosincrasia tica).

Al finalizar el libro me siento satisfecho con la expectativa que el prólogo hace y surgieron muchos temas en los que quiero profundizar de la historia de mi país.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have enjoyed some more people stories, and fewer facts and figures, but I did really appreciate the lists of novels I might enjoy. So, I will have to spend some time tracking those down.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gets one extra star for the fact that there's now a history book for Costa Rica available in English. I found this book hard to read, especially the second half of the book which is incredibly wordy and could have used one last pass of revision. The book is incredibly unbalanced, with nearly half of the book dedicated to the 20th century and the rest about all the remaining years of Costa Rican history. I did learn some things from this book, but I think the presentation and organization could be improved.

[Matthew Ostrowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent brief overview, but did not go into many of the complexities nor did it always explain the context for international topics.

[Longie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s good source of CR history, written with an evident leftist socialist bias. “Welfare state - good; capitalism - bad”. Many snide references to the U.S., free trade, capitalism, and the church. If it wasn’t for the moral values propagated by the church, and the assistance and trade provided by the U.S., where would CR inhabitants be? Inequity? Corruption? Unfortunate, but the history of human life on earth.

[Wendy Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the 3rd edition, in English, published in 2018. The book is sequential and covers from 12,000-8000 B.C. to 2016. I read it to get a broad sense of the history. It is dense with names, facts, and acronyms. But I did get an idea of how the country has progressed over time. Notable was the abolition of the army in 1948. I would have liked to learn more about conservation efforts in the country.

[Nico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a broad overview of Costa Rican history. It doesn't go into details, not is it meant to be. It does at times seem overly simplistic or unclear. However, it is a good first book to read as an introduction if one wants to know more about how Costa Rica came to be what it is.

[Ramon de la Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una panorámica histórica muy interesante y de manera global. A través de los datos revelados por el autor podemos conocer a Costa Rica desde su misma fundación hasta la actualidad (2016).

Lectura recomendada.

[Kathy England · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this during a recent trip to Costa Rica. Interesting but not exciting reading.

[Lena M · Rating 3 out of 5]

siempre es bueno practicar español

[Mary Lovegood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una libro muy ameno para tener un primer acercamiento a la historia costarricense.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent beginner's overview of Costa Rican history. Pretty short on details, but it covers from 12,000 BC to 2018 in 188 pages, so that's to be expected.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a short overview of Costa Rican history that was meant to be nothing more than that. It read like a chapter in a history book, very dry and not enough to truly understand the eras it covered, but it wasn't intended to be in depth. It's purpose is to be a jumping off point for further, more in depth reading of Costa Rican history, and in that it succeeded. I did learn that although Costa Rica is part of Central America, it's development only partially mirrored its northern neighbors of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It was regarded as a poor cousin by its more wealthy neighbors on both sides during colonial times, they enslaved, then pushed what was left of their indiginous people aside just like every other invading colonial people, United Fruit Company was as involved in its history as it was in the rest of Central America with some important differences, rather than fight Communism with dictatorship they fought it with social reforms, their army was disbanded and they became a neutral country during the US's anti-Sandinista years and they continue the struggle to make their version of democracy work for them. So the question is, which area of their history do I dive into in more detail?

[Leah Kinthaert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been looking for an English language history of Costa Rica after having visited there several times and was delighted to come across this in the San Jose airport this spring. Come to find out this particular book is the first and only history of that country in English. It's a great read about CR's fascinating history and gives some hint why they are setting a high standard for sustainability (100% renewable energy by 2021) and quality of life (98% literacy rate) Globally; I am ready for more from these authors!

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had visited Costa Rica twice, but it was kinda nice to actually hear the whole story of how the country came together. There were a few names & places I remember hearing during my visits, and I finally got more of a back story on them to better understand what all they meant. It had some helpful maps, diagrams, & photographs of stuff, too.

[Mauricio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un buen libro que condensa en pocas páginas la gran mayoría de la historia de Costa Rica, repasando desde la historia precolombina hasta la actualidad. Da una perspectiva global sobre la cultura e historia costarricense. Los mapas, dibujos y fotos lo hacen todavía más interesante y entretenido.

[Jonah Kruvant · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read it in a single sitting.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite dry and textbooky. It was mercifully short however I think it could have been a much more interesting story if told in another format. I suppose that was not the intent.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly informative.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one up on vacation. Want to learn a little bit about where I've been.

[Jim Collett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this little history in the airport as I was finishing a nice little tourist trip to Costa Rica. I thought it did a good job of giving me a broad survey of the country's history. I did like the sidebars of historic quotes and the frequent photographs (though they were slightly dim).