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Library Journal Review

El Salvador has been characterized by a repressive oligarchy exploiting the impoverished majority, but when Duarte took office in 1984, Americans had hopes of democratic rule. His failure has been due in part to a U.S. attempt to maintain the status quo in the face of a perceived Soviet threat. Our $2 million per day subsidy has resulted in massive human rights abuses, no progress in democracy, a land in shambles, and an impasse in a war that has killed or displaced one-third of the population. While authoritative and informative, this book should not take precedence over such books as Walter LaFeber's Inevitable Revolutions ( LJ 12/1/83); or, for an opposing view, R. Bruce McColm's El Salvador, Peaceful Revolution or Armed Struggle? (Freedom House, 1982). Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Civil strife and internal warfare invariably lead to publication of photo-documentaries that depict the horrors visited on the population. This book, which focuses on El Salvador, is among the best to emerge from the recent and contemporary strife in Central America. Based on extensive field experience by the coauthors, this is a well-written, even impassioned narrative that emphasizes the human suffering attendant upon Salvadoran events of the past decade. Sharply critical of the US presence, it also singles out those political forces in El Salvador that are viewed as agents of a conservative status quo. Although the authors express the views of the political left, they are neither irrational nor unreasoned. Extensive interviews with Salvadorans caught amid civil conflict are accompanied by photographs that effectively document the character of destruction and depredation. Not intended as a scholarly work, but it documents the events that have ravaged El Salvador, to which there seems little respite in the immediate future. For upper-division undergraduate students and general readers. J. D. Martz Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus