This new and thoroughly revised edition of Nicaragua details the country's unique history, culture, social reality, economics, foreign relations, and politics. Its historical coverage considers Nicaragua from before independence as well as during the nationalist liberal era, the US marine occupation, the Somoza dictatorship, the Sandinista regime, and the conservative restoration following 1990. The Fourth Edition documents how the more enduring reality of this Central American country may not be the Sandinista Revolution but the historical and ongoing interventions by which the United States — the “eagle†to the north — continues to shape Nicaraguan political, economic, and social life. The new edition also includes a fully updated annotated bibliography.