Forrest D. Colburn's Books

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

By: Forrest D. Colburn

This book investigates studies on colonialism and anti-colonialism from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. The author begins by recounting the deleterious impact of colonialism and then focuses on the heady days of anti-colonialism nationalism. He traces how the system fell apart: leaders, especially those of the second-generation, often turned out to be inept and corrupt; structural obstacles led poor countries to continue to depend on the export of commodities; advanced countries promised to help, but did not prove useful; when growth was possible, here and there, the fruits of development were seldom distributed widely. This project will appeal to the academics, researchers, and students in the fields of comparative politics, development studies, government, and economics.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

157

Publisher

Springer Nature

Published Date

ISBN 10

3030547167

ISBN 13

9783030547165

Managing the Commanding Heights

Nicaragua's State Enterprises

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Managing the Commanding Heights

Nicaragua's State Enterprises

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Revolutions have often occurred in poor countries. Although triumphant revolutionaries may lack the resources to assume complete responsibility for their country’s economy, they do tend to nationalize what Lenin called the “commanding heights”—those enterprises that meet the strategic needs of the polity. How these enterprises are administered is consequential, and at times decisive, for the course of revolutionary change. In Managing the Commanding Heights, Forrest D. Colburn explores the Sandinistas’ management of Nicaragua’s state enterprises, with an emphasis on the critical agrarian sector. Central to the book are three lively and instructive case studies that provide a penetrating glimpse into life in post-revolutionary Nicaragua. In analyzing these cases, Colburn explains the intentions of the Sandinista elite and links them with choices made at individual enterprises. Colburn argues that state enterprises have been politically useful but economically unsuccessful. Even with the unseen political advantages of state enterprises, the pronounced financial losses of nationalized farms and factories exacerbate the economic—and ultimately political—vulnerability of a regime already weakened by counterrevolution. The evidence demonstrates trenchant limitations to a revolutionary state’s capacity to improve popular welfare. State capacity is undermined by multiple factors: international constraints on the autonomy of post-revolutionary regimes, sheer poverty, the unintended but inevitable political manipulation of the economy, the lack of managerial ability among even well-intentioned elites, and a revolutionary mentalité that erodes rationality. These same difficulties have bedeviled other post-revolutionary regimes, notably those in Africa. Managing the Commanding Heights is essential reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of revolutionary regimes and the possibilities for radical change in poor countries. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

164

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520414780

ISBN 13

9780520414785

Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Peasant rebellions are uncommon. "Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance" explores peasants' foot dragging, feigned ingorance, false compliance, manipulation, flight, slander, theft, arson, sabotage, and similar prosaic forms of struggle. These kinds of resistance stop well short of collective defiance, a strategy usually suicidal for the subordinate. The central argument about peasant resistance is presented in the opening chapter by James Scott in which he summarizes and extends the thesis of his book on Malaysia's peasantry, "Weapons of the Weak". Scott's ideas are employed and refined in the ensuing seven country studies of peasant resistance: Poland, India, Egypt, Colombia, China, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

251

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315491443

ISBN 13

9781315491448

Latin America at the End of Politics

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Latin America at the End of Politics

By: Forrest D. Colburn

After decades of ideological struggle, much of it in the service of an elusive socialist ideal, Latin America has embraced liberalism--democracy and unfettered markets. But liberalism has triumphed more by default than through exuberance. The region's democracies are fragile and lethargic. Despite pronounced social inequality, widespread poverty, and other difficulties, the populace is not engaged in deep discussions about state and society. The end of ideological contests has dampened political conflict, but likewise lessened the sense of urgency for solving trenchant problems. Political fatigue and devotion to acquisition have smothered egalitarianism as even an ideal. There is an uneasy social indifference. Latin America at the End of Politics explores this period of circumscribed political passions through deft portrayals of crucial political, economic, social, and cultural issues: governance, entrepreneurs and markets, urban bias, poverty, the struggle for women's equality, consumerism, crime, environmental degradation, art, and migration of the poor. Discussions of these issues are enriched by the poignant narratives of emblematic individuals, many of whom are disoriented by the ideological void of the era. Forrest Colburn's highly original analysis draws on his deep scholarly and personal familiarity with Latin America. The collage of issues discussed, set in a provocative framework, offers a compelling interpretation of Latin America in the aftermath of the last century's ideological battles--and a way to begin to talk about the region's future.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

155

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691187533

ISBN 13

9780691187532

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Nation-States as Works in Progress

By: Forrest D. Colburn,Arturo Cruz S.

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Nation-States as Works in Progress

By: Forrest D. Colburn,Arturo Cruz S.

Why do some countries progress while others stagnate? Why does adversity strengthen some countries and weaken others? Indeed, in this era of unprecedented movement of people, goods, and ideas, just what constitutes a nation-state? Forrest Colburn and Arturo Cruz suggest how fundamental these questions are through an exploration of the evolution of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica over the last quarter of a century, a period of intriguing, often confounding, paradoxes in Central America's development. Offering an elegant defense of empiricism, Colburn and Cruz explore the roles of geography and political choice in constructing nations and states. Countries are shown to be unique: there are a daunting number of variables. There is causality, but not the kind that can be revealed in the laboratory or on the blackboard. Liberalism—today defined as democracy and unfettered markets—may be in vogue, but it has no inherent determinants. Democracy and market economies, when welded to the messy realities of individual countries, are compatible with many different outcomes. The world is more pluralistic in both causes and effects than either academic theories or political rhetoric suggest.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

137

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

029278256X

ISBN 13

9780292782563

Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua

State, Class, and the Dilemmas of Agrarian Policy

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua

State, Class, and the Dilemmas of Agrarian Policy

By: Forrest D. Colburn

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

158

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520323955

ISBN 13

9780520323957

My Car in Managua

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

My Car in Managua

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Histories of revolutions often focus on military, political, or economic upheavals but sometimes neglect to connect these larger events to the daily lives of "ordinary" people. Yet the peoples' perception that "things are worse than before" can topple revolutionary governments, as shown by the recent defeat of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua and the governments of Eastern Europe. Providing the kind of prosaic, revealing details that more formal histories have excluded, My Car in Managua offers an objective, often humorous description of the great difficulties and occasional pleasures of life in Nicaragua during the Sandinista revolution. During a year's work (1985-1986) at the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE), Forrest Colburn purchased a dilapidated car—and with it an introduction to everyday life in Nicaragua. His discoveries of the length of time required to register the car (approximately six weeks), the impossibility of finding spare parts (except when U.S. dollars were applied to the search), and the fact that "anyone getting into a car in Managua can be charged a small fee [for car watching] by anyone else" all suggest the difficulties most Nicaraguans faced living in a devastated economy. Drawing on experiences from visits throughout the revolutionary period (1979-1989), Colburn also sheds light on how the Revolution affected social customs and language, gender roles and family relationships, equality and authority, the availability of goods and services, the status of ethnic minorities, and governmental and other institutions. Illustrations by Nicaragua's celebrated political cartoonist Róger Sánchez Flores enliven the lucid text.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

150

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292789777

ISBN 13

9780292789777

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Nation-States as Works in Progress

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Nation-States as Works in Progress

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

137

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292717210

ISBN 13

9780292717213

Latin America at the End of Politics

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Latin America at the End of Politics

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

155

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691187533

ISBN 13

9780691187532

The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries

By: Forrest D. Colburn

In the aftermath of World War II, a surprisingly large number of poor countries were upset by revolution: Vietnam, China, Cuba, Algeria, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, Afghanistan, Iran, and Nicaragua. Revolutionaries in these geographically and culturally disparate countries came to power through different routes, but once in power they had remarkably similar ideas about how to remake their states and societies. In this passionate analysis of the course of these revolutions, Forrest Colburn suggests that shared institutional and policy choices of revolutionary elites arose from a fashionable political imagination. Paradoxically, in an era marked by the demise of European colonialism, it was Europeans--mainly Marx, Engels, and Lenin--who supplied the vision of what could replace colonialism. Colburn traces the diffusion of this intoxicating political imagination not to the Soviet Union, but instead to Western Europe and North America, where socialism was rarely more than political fantasy. In Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, this imagination inspired revolution, but more importantly led to sadly flawed ideas about how to eliminate poverty and inequality. The vogue for revolution in poor countries withered away in a descent accelerated, but not initiated, by the East European events of 1989-1991. This lucid book clarifies why so many countries were so profoundly wrecked in the frenzied pursuit of a dreamt-up world.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

135

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691036764

ISBN 13

9780691036762

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

By: Forrest D. Colburn

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

154

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

3030547159

ISBN 13

9783030547158

Book's by Forrest D. Colburn

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

Managing the Commanding Heights

Managing the Commanding Heights

Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance

Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance

Latin America at the End of Politics

Latin America at the End of Politics

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua

Post-Revolutionary Nicaragua

My Car in Managua

My Car in Managua

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Varieties of Liberalism in Central America

Latin America at the End of Politics

Latin America at the End of Politics

The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries

The Vogue of Revolution in Poor Countries

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

Colonialism, Independence, and the Construction of Nation-States

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email