Lives don't get much more quixotic or passionately driven than that of the Nicaraguan revolutionary Gioconda Belli. She may have been educated by nuns and dazzled all as a well-heeled society girl, but Gioconda lifted her "guilt of privilege" by joining the Sandinistas in her twenties, to serve and then lead in their underground resistance. If part of her wanted to fulfil society's classic code of femininity and produce four children (which she did), there was also part which wanted the privileges of men - the freedom to carry out clandestine operations, to forge the Sandinista resistance effort even with toddler and infant in tow.'Conspiracy came easy to me,' confesses Belli. She hid political pamphlets from her first husband as she hid her love affairs with remarkable men. This book is a journey of the heart, through marriages and grand passions, as well as an insider's view of a revolutionary movement. From Nicaragua and its intrig ue to Cuba where she locked horns with Castro, to exile in Costa Rica where she organised an underground network, back to a triumphant if short-lived Sandinista government where she was in charge of State television, Gioconda Belli' s life is one of real-life intrigue - political and romantic - and hard-won wisdom. And as a novelist and poet, Belli has created her self-portrait with great skill and eloquence. Read more

Written by a master storyteller, Tycoon's War is the remarkable account of an epic imperialist duel,a violent battle of the capitalist versus the idealist, money versus ambition, and a monumental clash of egos that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans. This incredible true story,impeccably researched and never before told in full,is packed with greed, intrigue, and some of the most hair-raising battle scenes ever written. Read more

An extraordinary and vivid introduction to the country of Nicaragua and its politics from the Booker-winning author of Midnight’s Children.In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of revolution.Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986. What he discovered was overwhelming: a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions, of strange heroes and warrior-poets. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the foreign minister, a priest, to the midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room.His perceptions always heightened by his sensitivity and his unique flair for language, in The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie brings us the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and life-or-death struggles are an everyday occurrence.‘Stirring and original’ New York Times‘A masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting’ Edward Said Read more

When he died in 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of the Vanderbilt dynasty, was wealthier than the U. S. Treasury. But he had nearly lost his fortune in 1856, when William Walker, a young Nashville genius, set out to conquer Central America and, in the process, take away Vanderbilts most profitable shipping business. To win back his empire, Vanderbilt had to win a bloody war involving seven countries. Tycoons War tells the story of an epic imperialist duel-a violent battle of capitalist versus idealist, money versus ambition-and a monumental clash of egos that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans. Written by a master storyteller, this incredible true story, impeccably researched and never before told in full, is packed with greed, intrigue, and some of the most hair-raising battle scenes ever written. Read more

For the last two years, the author has been investigating the secret funding of the Contras by the White House. Here, she identifies the network of National Security Council staff (led by Colonel Oliver North), CIA operatives and ex-agents who set up this illegal support system, after the passage of the Boland Amendment in October 1984 made it illegal for the US government to give direct and indirect aid to the Contras. There is a detailed account of how mercenaries were recruited from all over the world and sent to CIA-run training bases in Costa Rica; how money was obtained through various means, ranging from the Iran arms deal to an arrangement with cocaine smugglers bringing drugs into Florida in return for quarterly payments into Contra bank accounts; how guns were procured, flown to US-controlled military bases in Central America, and then delivered into the hands of the Contras. The author, a British journalist, has worked for CBS News since 1978. Read more

An extraordinary and vivid introduction to the country of Nicaragua and its politics from the Booker-winning author of Midnight’s Children.In this brilliantly focused and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Salman Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of revolution.Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986. What he discovered was overwhelming: a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions, of strange heroes and warrior-poets. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the foreign minister, a priest, to the midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room.His perceptions always heightened by his sensitivity and his unique flair for language, in The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie brings us the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and life-or-death struggles are an everyday occurrence.‘Stirring and original’ New York Times‘A masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting’ Edward Said Read more

A detailed history and analysis of the Nicaraguan Revolution and the American response to it Read more

While the major conflicts in American history have become all too familiar, America's small wars" have played an essential but little-appreciated role in the country's growth as a world power. First published in 2002, The Savage Wars of Peace quickly became a key volume in the case for a new policy of interventionism. Max Boot shows how America's smaller actions,such as the recent conflicts in Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, and Afghanistan,have made up the vast majority of our military engagements, and yet our armed forces do little to prepare for these low intensity conflicts."A compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars that helped promote America's rise in the last two centuries, The Savage Wars of Peace is now updated with new material on the repercussions of America's far-flung imperial actions and the impact of these ventures in American international affairs. Read more

AfterIn the wake of the US invasion of Nicaragua in 1912, the country came under the rule of the Somoza family, which imposed a brutal and corrupt military dictatorship. A low-scale insurgency of students, supported by peasants and other anti-Somoza elements of the society developed already in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the country became embroiled in a brutal insurgency. Supported by Cuba, a coalition of students, farmers, businessmen, clergy and a small group of Marxist launched a major war in 1978, which resulted in the downfall of the Somozas, a year later.The Sandinista government established in Managua of 1979 found the country ruined by the long war and natural disasters, and nearly half of the population either homeless or living in exile. Attempting to restructure and recover the underdeveloped economy, Sandinisas introduced a wide range of reforms and a cultural revolution.Considering the Sandinistas for ‘Cuban-supported Marxists’ and therefore a major threat for the US domination of Latin America, in 1980-1981 the USA began supporting the creation of the Contrarevolutionary forces (better known as ‘Contras’), and thus helped provoke a new war that was to rage through Nicaragua for most of that decade, and is going to be covered in Volume 2 of this mini-series.Leaning upon extensive studies of involved armed groups, and their insurgencies in the 1960s and 1970s, ‘Nicaragua, 1961-1990, Volume 1’ is providing an in-depth coverage of military history during the first phase of one of major armed conflicts of Latin America in modern times. Guiding the reader meticulously through the details of involved forces, their ideologies, organisation and equipment, this book is offering a uniquely accurate, blow-by-blow account of the Nicaraguan War and profusely illustrated with more than 120 photos, maps, and colour artworks Read more

The revolution in Nicaragua was unique in that a large percentage of the combatants were women. The Role of Female Combatants in the Nicaraguan Revolution and Counter Revolutionary War is a study of these women and those who fought in the Contra counter revolution on the Atlantic Coast. This book is a qualitative study based on 85 interviews with female ex-combatants in the revolution and counter revolution from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, as well as field observations in Nicaragua and the autonomous regions of the Atlantic Coast. It explores the reasons why women fought, the sacrifices they made, their treatment by male combatants, and their insights into the impact of the revolution and counter-revolution on today’s Nicaragua. The analytical approach draws from political psychology, social identity dynamics such as nationalism and indigenous identities, and the role of liberation theology in the willingness of the female revolutionaries to risk their lives. Researchers and students of Gender Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and Political History will find this an illuminating account of the Nicaraguan Revolution and counter revolution, which until now has been rarely shared. Read more

In 1979, the Sandinista government established itself in power in Managua, the capitol of Nicaragua. It found the country ruined by the long war against the Somosa dictatorship and natural disasters alike, and nearly half of the population either homeless or living in exile. Attempting to restructure and recover the underdeveloped economy, Sandinisas introduced a wide range of reforms and a cultural revolution. Considering the Sandinistas to be ‘Cuban-supported Marxists’ and therefore a major threat to the US domination of Latin America, in 1980-1981 the USA began supporting the creation of the Contrarevolutionary forces (better known as ‘Contras’), and thus helped provoke a new war that was to rage through Nicaragua until 1988. Leaning upon extensive studies of the armed groups involved, and their combat operations of the 1981-1988 period, Nicaragua, 1961-1990, Volume 2 provides an in-depth coverage of military history during the second phase of one of bloodiest, and most-publicised armed conflicts of Latin America in modern times. Guiding the reader meticulously through the details of the involved forces, their ideologies, organisation and equipment, this book offers a uniquely accurate, blow-by-blow account of the Nicaraguan War and is profusely illustrated with more than 120 photos, maps, and colour artworks. Read more

From Bob Woodward, legendary investigative reporter, Veil is the story of the covert wars that were waged by the CIA across Central America, Iran and Libya in a secretive atmosphere and became the centerpieces and eventual time bombs of American foreign policy in the 1980s.With unprecedented access to the government's highest-level operators, Woodward recounts one of the most clandestine operations in our nation's history. Read more

In 1976, at age twenty-five, Stephen Kinzer arrived in Nicaragua as a freelance journalist―and became a witness to history. He returned many times during the years that followed, becoming Latin America correspondent for the Boston Globe in 1981 and joining the foreign staff of the New York Times in 1983. That year he opened the New York Times Managua bureau, making that newspaper the first daily in America to maintain a full-time office in Nicaragua.Widely considered the best-connected journalist in Central America, Kinzer personally met and interviewed people at every level of the Somoza, Sandinistas and contra hierarchies, as well as dissidents, heads of state, and countless ordinary citizens throughout the region.Blood of Brothers is Kinzer’s dramatic story of the centuries-old power struggle that burst into the headlines in 1979 with the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship. It is a vibrant portrait of the Nicaraguan people and their volcanic land, a cultural history rich in poetry and bloodshed, baseball and insurrection. Read more

Uniquely comprehensive and comparative, praised for its devotion to social and cultural developments as well as politics and economics, The Epic of Latin America is once again revised and brought up to date, with chapters on the great upheavals of the 1980s. The book received the Gold Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California for outstanding literary achievement by a California author and was selected by the American Library Association as one of the "fifty best books of the year." Read more

“I did not go to Nicaragua intending to write a book, or, indeed, to write at all: but my encounter with the place affected me so deeply that in the end I had no choice.” So notes Salman Rushdie in his first work of nonfiction, a book as imaginative and meaningful as his acclaimed novels. In The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie paints a brilliantly sharp and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the terrain, and the poetry of “a country in which the ancient, opposing forces of creation and destruction were in violent collision.” Recounting his travels there in 1986, in the midst of America’s behind-the-scenes war against the Sandinistas, Rushdie reveals a nation resounding to the clashes between government and individuals, history and morality. Read more