States and Social Evolution: Coffee and the Rise of National Governments in Central America / Edition 1

by Robert G. Williams

Overview

The national governments of Central America were constructed between 1840 and 1900, a time when coffee was transformed from a botanical curiosity to the region's most important export. In spite of their geographic proximity, the national governments that emerged were strikingly different, from Costa Rica's participatory democracy to Guatemala's military despotism. Robert Williams explores Central America's political diversity by following the story of coffee through the nation-building period. With a sensitivity to cultures and institutions before the advent of widespread coffee cultivation, he reveals the various ways that land, labor, and capital were harnessed as coffee advanced from one locale to the next, provoking cultural clashes and sometimes violent reactions as it altered landscapes, people's lives, and even governments. Through careful scrutiny of a tiny region and a single crop in a restless age, States and Social Evolution develops a theory of state formation relevant to other places and times as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807844632
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	10/14/1994
Edition description:	1
Pages:	397
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert G. Williams, Voehringer Professor of Economics at Guilford College, is author of Export Agriculture and the Crisis in Central America.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Williams has written an ambitious comparative history of coffee cultivation and export in 19th-century Central America and of the diverse consequences that the development of coffee had for the formation of the five national governments.—Choice



A major contribution to the historiography of modern Central America. It combines wide-ranging historical research while drawing on important theoretical traditions in an effort to explain the origins of the different political cultures, political systems, and modes of governance within Central America. . . . It will provoke discussion, debate, and more comparative research . . . . A must for scholars interested in exploring the different histories of the countries of Central America during the last two centuries.—International Labor and Working Class History



The strength of this work lies in its ability to show the variability of social, labor, and land tenure patterns with coffee, not just between but within each of the Central American nations. . . . A highly effective presentation of what we currently know about coffee, society, and politics in Central America.—Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College



A work of exceptional quality. It is the first serious work to provide a comprehensive study of coffee production in Central America and relate it to the social and political development of the region. It explains the complex relationships between the political, social, and economic structures of modern Central America better than any other work I know of.—Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Tulane University

Editorial Reviews

A highly effective presentation of what we currently know about coffee, society, and politics in Central America.

Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College

A work of exceptional quality.

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Tulane University

"A highly effective presentation of what we currently know about coffee, society, and politics in Central America.

Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College"

"A work of exceptional quality.

Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., Tulane University"

A major contribution to the historiography of modern Central America.

"International Labor and Working Class History"

Williams has written an ambitious comparative history.

"Choice"

From the Publisher