Lexington Books
Pages: 232
•
Trim: 6 x 8¾
978-1-4985-3717-9 • Hardback • November 2016 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-4985-3719-3 • Paperback • August 2018 • $54.99 • (£42.00)
978-1-4985-3718-6 • eBook • November 2016 • $52.00 • (£40.00)
Philip W. Travis is assistant professor of history at the State College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota
Chapter 1: Imperialism, the Cold War, and the Roots of Revolution
Chapter 2: Revolution in Nicaragua
Chapter 3: Counterinsurgency-Counterterrorism
Chapter 4: Harbor Mines
Chapter 5: The Terrorist and the Freedom Fighter
Chapter 6: Outlaw States
Chapter 7: A War on Terrorism
Chapter 8: War for Peace
Philip W. Travis's original and important book exploits a wealth of new sources. It links Reagan's war on terrorism with his interventions in Central America, with fascinating results.
— George C. Herring, University of Kentucky
Linking U.S. foreign policy in Latin America with the War on Terror in the Middle East, this provocative book shows how President Ronald Reagan initiated a hyper-interventionist tendency in American policy. Regime change, torture, and support for the worst brutality became standard parts of the Reagan Doctrine. Philip W. Travis deftly shows how the president used the label of ‘terrorism’ to justify otherwise unacceptable actions. This is an original and very timely book for readers who care about Latin America, the Middle East, and contemporary foreign policy.
— Jeremy Suri, University of Texas at Austin
In the spirit of Greg Grandin, Philip W. Travis explores the connection between President Reagan’s Central America policy and the deeper patterns that led to the War on Terror. In addition to extensive research in U.S. archives, Travis incorporates interviews with key figures, including Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez. The result is a thoughtful and provocative work that will make many readers think differently about questions of terrorism and regime change. Many have written on Reagan’s war in Nicaragua, but few have connected it to the rhetoric that has come to define the War on Terror. This is a bold work by a promising young scholar.
— Jason Colby, University of Victoria
This is a revealing account of how the Reagan Administration’s war on terrorism against the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime in the mid-1980s was conducted and how, in the author’s view, it came to influence the development of U.S. counterterrorism ever since up to the current period. . . . The extensively researched and balanced case study on the Reagan Administration’s counter-measures against the Nicaraguan Sandinista regime makes this study an important contribution to the literature on this subject.
— Perspectives on Terrorism