Even in the period following the electoral defeat of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1990, the revolution of 1979 continues to have a profound effect on the political economy of Nicaragua. Wright's study, which is based on interviews with people from all walks of life -- from government and party officials to academics and campesinos -- as well as on the large volume of literature in both English and Spanish, focuses on the FSLN understanding of the relationships between the state, the party, and mass actors, and the nature of social classes. Wright considers the topics of agrarian reform, the development of mass organizations, the role of labor, and other aspects of the Nicaraguan political economy in order to assess their significance in theoretical as well as practical terms. Book jacket.

This volume is a valuable re-assessment of the Nicaraguan Revolution by a Marxist historian of Latin American political history. It shows that the FSLN (‘the Sandinistas’), with politics principally shaped by Soviet and Cuban Communism, never had a commitment to genuine democracy either within the revolutionary movement or within society at large; that the FSLN’s lack of commitment to democracy was a key factor in the way that revolution was betrayed from the 1970s to the 1990s; and that the FSLN’s lack of rank-and-file democracy left all decision-making to the National Directorate and ultimately placed that power in the hands of Daniel Ortega. Pursuing his narrative into the present, La Botz shows that, once their would-be bureaucratic ruling class project was defeated, Ortega and the FSLN leadership turned to an alliance with the capitalist class.

Uncountable books have been written on the Nicaraguan revolution in 1979, due to the fascination connected with the idea of revolution in general and with its realization in Nicaragua in particular. This book retells the story of the Nicaraguan revolution with the words of women, aiming to show how a high level of transformative energy was accumulated in the Nicaraguan society over time, based on a common utopian vision of a better future for all. The energetic upheaval can be analyzed as a Dionysian ritual. However, the book also follows up on the Apollonian aftermath of the revolution. Martina Handler is a social scientist and a graduate of the Master Program in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation in Innsbruck, Austria.