Beginning in the late 1970s, revolutionary movements would shake Central American societies
and shape U.S. foreign policy with direct military and covert intervention in the region. Often
framed as the final battleground of the so-called Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet
Union, scholars of Central America prefer to emphasize the complexity of internal social and
political forces and the U.S.’s continual efforts to undermine national sovereignties and control
anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian movements in its “back yard.” This course will allow
students to examine the historical formation of three distinct militarized and antidemocratic
states, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, and the revolutionary movements that sought to
radically engage in social transformations between the 1970s and 1990s. Principal themes of the
course include: capitalist development and structural inequalities; revolutionary ideologies;
organizational development and objectives of Central American revolutions; US interventions;
social transformation and change; and lasting impacts of revolutions.