Nicaragua's Conservative Republic, 1858-93 (review)
This slim, well-written political history of nineteenth-century Nicaragua fills an important void in the historiography of Central America. Amidst a welter of impressionistic and partisan studies of this era, Cruz offers a clear but nuanced reading of a wide range of period printed sources that highlight Nicaragua's consistent economic growth and almost incomparable political stability between 1858 and 1893. The traditional claims that Jose Santos Zelaya's "belated liberal revolution" pulled Nicaragua out of a Conservative, oligarchic torpor clearly can no longer be sustained. Cruz offers substantial and compelling evidence of activist governments that promoted export production, education, public works projects (including the region's only nationally-financed railroad), and regular presidential elections. Moreover, if only the scions of Conservative families from Granada and Rivas achieved the top post, they appeared to strike a regional and ideological balance through inclusiveness in secondary political posts. Cruz's conclusion that the period's end came when "Conservative" probity and thrift fell to "Liberal" perfidy and intemperance, however, carries more narrative weight than analytical force.