Shattered Hope

By Piero Gleijeses,

Book cover of Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954

Book description

The most thorough account yet available of a revolution that saw the first true agrarian reform in Central America, this book is also a penetrating analysis of the tragic destruction of that revolution. In no other Central American country was U.S. intervention so decisive and so ruinous, charges Piero Gleijeses.…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked Shattered Hope as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I read historian Shattered Hope while a graduate student at an American university and it forever changed my sense of the complexity and nuance of Cold War-era U.S. interventions in the Americas, in this case, Washington’s overthrow of a democratically-elected leftist head of state: Jacobo Árbenz. Two decades hence, I love the book even more for its boldness and historical rigor but also the author's willingness to break taboos like the widely-held notion that there was little communistic influence in Árbenz’s government. 

From Russell's list on U.S. involvement in Latin America.

Want books like Shattered Hope?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Shattered Hope.

Browse books like Shattered Hope

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Latin America, politics, and international relations?

Latin America 122 books
Politics 763 books