Where is Nicaragua

by Peter Davis

Overview

From Simon & Schuster, Where is Nicaragua? is Academy Award winner Peter Davis' "essential reading" as said by The New York Times.

Recounting the author's visit to Nicaragua, this book offers a history of the years prior to the revolution and analyzes how a small, impoverished, unstrategic country has been transformed into the obsession of a major power's administration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780671657208
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	04/15/1988
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Peter Davis graduated from Harvard University. He was an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning writer and producer from CBS News. He won an Academy Award from his film Hearts and Minds. He lives in New York City with his wife and children.

Editorial Reviews

In this lively, partly subjective narrative, Davis (whose Hearts and Minds is remembered by many as the finest documentary on the war in Vietnam) explores the relationship between Nicaragua and the United States, a relationship he calls ``a play that oscillates between farce and tragedy.'' The book is based on two trips to Nicaragua (1983 and 1986) during which Davis sought out Nicaraguans of every class and political stripe, including President Daniel Ortega and opposition spokesman Miguel Cardinal Obando. The interview with the former is particularly revealing, as Ortega discusses his definition of freedom, calling the American version ``a monster.'' Also interviewed is a stay-behind Marine who was involved in the Great Sandino Chase in the 1920s, whose reminiscences are chilling reminders of Vietnam and may unwittingly describe the kinds of operations American troops soon will conduct again. Davis is successful in conveying the complex, contradictory and unique flavor of la situacion, managing along the way to make some wry observations on a subject ordinarily treated with the utmost somberness. (April)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

What can writer and filmmaker Davis, a neophyte student of Central America, offer that dozens of other books on Nicaragua have not already provided? A cogent, thoroughly integrated portrait of Nicaragua's history, culture, politics, personalities, and contemporary ambience. Yes, he interviews the right leaders and spokesmen, and his vignettes are perceptive, but more important are conversations with ordinary folk, or someone like Stanley Atha, a marine who fought Sandino and lived out his life in Nicaragua. Davis's interpretations favor the Sandinistas; nevertheless, he paints a clear picture of the ambiguities, contradictions, and absurdities of U.S. policy as well as inconsistencies in the Sandinista logic. Highly recommended. Roderic A. Camp, Latin American Studies Dept., Central Coll., Pella, Ia.

Library Journal