History 1BB3: America and the World: The Twentieth Century

Dr. Stephen M. Streeter

McMaster University, Winter 2002

 

Tutorial 2

Historiography: Changing Views of Sandino in Nicaragua

Introduction:

Historians use the term "historiography" to refer to changing interpretations of key issues in the past. In this tutorial, you will sample portraits of the famous Nicaraguan revolutionary, Augusto Sandino, to see how perspectives of Big Stick diplomacy have changed. The background reading from a prominent diplomatic history textbook provides the context for understanding how and why the United States intervened in Central American and the Caribbean in the early 20th century. Source 1 is a political satire that imagines Sandino arriving in Chicago to monitor a local election. Source 2 is a first-hand account of Sandino by a famous American journalist who wrote many popular stories about his travels through Latin America. Sources 3 through 5 are selections from U.S. history textbooks devoted to inter-American affairs. In source 6, a U.S. historian interviews Nicaraguan historians about Sandino's reputation in Nicaragua.

Background Reading:

Thomas G. Paterson et al., American Foreign Relations: A History, vol. 2 (1995), pp. 181-98

Sources:

1. "Sandino Comes to Chicago" (Los Angeles Times, 1928)
2. Carleton Beals, "Sandino" in Banana Gold (1932), pp. 264-71
3. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Latin American Policy of the United States: An Historical Interpretation (1943), pp. 165-66, 210-213
4. Alexander DeConde, Herbert Hoover's Latin-American Policy, (1951) pp. 79-84
5. Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions (1993), pp. 66-71
6. Mike Wallace, Interview with Nicaraguan Historians, Radical History Review 33 (September 1985): 7-14

Discussion Questions:

1. How do these accounts characterize the U.S. intervention in Nicaragua?
2. How do these sources portray Sandino?
3. What might account for the differences you observe among these portraits of Sandino? [Hint: Think about the significant events in the 20th century that might have influenced the writing of history.]

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