Revolutions are a commonly studied but only vaguely understood historical phenomenon. Now updated to include the perspectives of grassroots revolutionary movements and biographies of often marginalized voices, this clear and concise text extends our understanding with a critical narrative analysis of key case studies: the 1910–1920 Mexican Revolution; the 1944–1954 Guatemalan Spring; the 1952–1964 MNR-led revolution in Bolivia; the Cuban Revolution that triumphed in 1959; the 1970–1973 Chilean path to socialism; the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua in power from 1979–1990; failed guerrilla movements in Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru; and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela after Hugo Chávez’s election in 1998. Historian Marc Becker opens with a theoretical introduction to revolutionary movements, including a definition of what “revolution” means and an examination of factors necessary for a revolution to succeed. He analyzes revolutions through the lens of those who participated and explores the sociopolitical conditions that led to a revolutionary situation, the differing responses to those conditions, and the outcomes of those political changes. Each case study provides an interpretive explanation of the historical context in which each movement emerged, its main goals and achievements, its shortcomings, its outcome, and its legacy. The book concludes with an analysis of how elected leftist governments in the twenty-first century continue to struggle with issues that revolutionaries confronted throughout the twentieth century.

A splendid introduction to and survey of revolutionary movements in Latin America beginning with the Mexican Revolution and ending with the left turn embracing Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chávez. Biographies of key protagonists are accompanied by documents and guides to further reading. This is a splendid introduction to Lain American revolutionary traditions with a much-needed focus on the role of women and Indigenous peoples. -- Barry Carr, La Trobe University, Australia
Contemporary Latin American Revolutions offers a geographically and chronologically diverse and theoretically rich array of primary sources, short biographies, and analysis of a spectrum of Latin American revolutionary movements and thought over the course of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The text will be an essential teaching tool to integrate Latin America into more general courses on revolutions, popular movements, and social change and to highlight the enduring significance of revolutions in Latin America’s history. The book gives attention to the grassroots as well as the leadership, to how the region’s racial and ethnic diversity has shaped movements for change, and to the external and global forces that Latin American revolutions have confronted. Really a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to the region’s revolutionary history. -- Aviva Chomsky, Salem State University
Marc Becker, one of the most accomplished and prolific historians of twentieth-century Latin America, has produced a comparative account of revolutions in the region that is rigorous, thought-provoking, and highly readable. He pays due attention to structural factors behind revolutionary projects without losing sight of the centrality of human agency in them. This is the best overview of Latin American revolutions I have read. Scholars and students alike will learn a great deal from this timely and stimulating volume. -- Carlos Aguirre, University of Oregon

Marc Becker is professor of Latin American history at Truman State University. Among his books are The CIA in Ecuador, The FBI in Latin America, ¡Pachakutik!:Indigenous Movements and Electoral Politics in Ecuador, Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador's Modern Indigenous Movements, and Mariátegui and Latin American Marxist Theory.