In a work of unprecedented scope, Thomas D. Schoonover combines exhaustive multicountry archival research with a sophisticated theoretical framework grounded in world systems theory to elucidate the relations between the United States and Central America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Schoonover's archival research in Central America, Europe, and the United States encompasses public, business, organizational, and individual records. In analyzing this material, Schoonover applies a world systems theory approach with that of social imperialism and dependency theory to underscore the broad, multistate dimension of international affairs. In exploring the international history of Central America, Schoonover describes the role of personalities such as John C. Frémont, Otto von Bismarck, Theodore Roosevelt, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and José Santos Zelaya; the impact of railroad building and canal projects; and the role of pan-Americanism, nationalism, racism, and anti-Americanism.

In summer 2014, a surge of unaccompanied child migrants from Central America to the United States gained mainstream visibility—yet migration from Central America has been happening for decades. U.S. Central Americans explores the shared yet distinctive experiences, histories, and cultures of 1.5-and second-generation Central Americans in the United States. While much has been written about U.S. and Central American military, economic, and political relations, this is the first book to articulate the rich and dynamic cultures, stories, and historical memories of Central American communities in the United States. Contributors to this anthology—often writing from their own experiences as members of this community—articulate U.S. Central Americans’ unique identities as they also explore the contradictions found within this multivocal group. Working from within Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Maya communities, contributors to this critical study engage histories and transnational memories of Central Americans in public and intimate spaces through ethnographic, in-depth, semistructured, qualitative interviews, as well as literary and cultural analysis. The volume’s generational, spatial, urban, indigenous, women’s, migrant, and public and cultural memory foci contribute to the development of U.S. Central American thought, theory, and methods. Woven throughout the analysis, migrants’ own oral histories offer witness to the struggles of displacement, travel, navigation, and settlement of new terrain. This timely work addresses demographic changes both at universities and in cities throughout the United States. U.S. Central Americans draws connections to fields of study such as history, political science, anthropology, ethnic studies, sociology, cultural studies, and literature, as well as diaspora and border studies. The volume is also accessible in size, scope, and language to educators and community and service workers wanting to know about their U.S. Central American families, neighbors, friends, students, employees, and clients. Contributors: Leisy Abrego Karina O. Alvarado Maritza E. Cárdenas Alicia Ivonne Estrada Ester E. Hernández Floridalma Boj Lopez Steven Osuna Yajaira Padilla Ana Patricia Rodríguez

In this remarkable and engaging book, William LeoGrande offers the first comprehensive history of U.S. foreign policy toward Central America in the waning years of the Cold War. From the overthrow of the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua and the outbreak of El Salvador's civil war in the late 1970s to the final regional peace settlements negotiated a decade later, he chronicles the dramatic struggles--in Washington and Central America--that shaped the region's destiny. For good or ill, LeoGrande argues, Central America's fate hinged on decisions that were subject to intense struggles among, and within, Congress, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House--decisions over which Central Americans themselves had little influence. Like the domestic turmoil unleashed by Vietnam, he says, the struggle over Central America was so divisive that it damaged the fabric of democratic politics at home. It inflamed the tug-of-war between Congress and the executive branch over control of foreign policy and ultimately led to the Iran-contra affair, the nation's most serious political crisis since Watergate.

In this study, Thomas Leonard examines the history of relations between the United States and the countries of Central America. Placing those relations in their political, cultural, and economic contexts, he illuminates the role of such factors as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, William Walker's invasions of Nicaragua, Theodore Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904, the "Dollar Diplomacy" of the 1910s, and Ronald Reagan's support of the contra war. Central America and the United States is the fourth volume in The United States and the Americas, a series of books assessing relations between the United States and its neighbors to the south and north: Mexico, Central America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Andean Republics (Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia), Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Canada. Lester D. Langley is the general editor of the series.

In this study, Thomas Leonard examines the history of relations between the United States and the countries of Central America. Placing those relations in their political, cultural, and economic contexts, he illuminates the role of such factors as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, William Walker's invasions of Nicaragua, Theodore Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904, the "Dollar Diplomacy" of the 1910s, and Ronald Reagan's support of the contra war. Central America and the United States is the fourth volume in The United States and the Americas, a series of books assessing relations between the United States and its neighbors to the south and north: Mexico, Central America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Andean Republics (Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia), Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Canada. Lester D. Langley is the general editor of the series.

This book is a concise overview of the recent history of U.S.-Central American relations. Part of the Contemporary Inter-American Relations series edited by Jorge Dominguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, it focuses on the relations between the U.S. and this region since the end of the Cold War. The volume considers economic relations between the two regions, presenting pertinent information on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). It also looks at political issues such as military cooperation, security issues, the drug trade and organized crime, democracy in the region, and migration. Finally, it concludes with an assessment of the direction US-Central American relations are taking at present, moving beyond the black-and-white challenges of Soviet domination in the region to address post-9/11 security concerns. The United States and Central America will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy, Latin American politics and politics and international relations in general.

Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are five small countries, and yet no other part of the world is more important to the US.

Prior to the 1980s Honduras was an obscure backwater, of little public or policy concern in the United States. With the advent of the Reagan administration, however, Hondurans found themselves at the center of the US-Central American imbroglio, a launching pad for the administration's contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and for counterinsurgency operations against guerrillas in El Salvador. Placing events in the context of Honduran history, the authors provide penetrating insights into the causes of revolution in Central America and the sources of stability that enabled Honduras to escape the civil strife that consumed its neighbors. At the same time, the work offers a fascinating account of Honduran domestic politics and of the personalities, motives, and maneuvers of policymakers on both sides of the U.S.-Honduras relationship—too often a tale of intrigue, violence, and corruption.