Heritage of the Conquistadors: Ruling Classes in Central America from Conquest to the Sandinistas - Hardcover

Stone, Samuel Z.; Greenleaf, Richard E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803242077 ISBN 13: 9780803242074

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1990

Synopsis

In The Heritage of the Conquistadors Samuel Z. Stone demonstrates that the ruling families of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are rooted in a common ancestry. This crossbreeding, so to speak, often confuses the outside world's un-derstanding of such developments as the Salvadoran insurgency, the fall of Somoza, and the rise of the Sandinistas.

About this title

About the Author

Samuel Z. Stone, a citizen of Costa Rica, is the author of the prize-winning La Dinastia de los conquistadores: La Crisis del Poder en la Costa Rica Contemporanea (1975) and other works.

Reviews

Stone, a leading analyst from Costa Rica, combines historical and genealogical research to connect the dominance since the Spanish conquest of a small ruling class of families to contemporary implications for political and economic development in Central America. He uses Costa Rica as a case study to illustrate how social origins influence economic production and politics. Despite meticulous research, the connection between ruling class values and policies is not always explicit, nor are other explanations fully incorporated in the arguments, which have a tendency to be somewhat anecdotal. Still, his is a provocative thesis, using an eclectic approach that borrows from popular literature and the social sciences. Recommended for academic libraries.
- Roderic A. Camp, Central Coll., Pella, Ia.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803242077
• ISBN 13: 9780803242074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 241