The Historiography of Central America Since 1830

Abstract

A LDOUS HUXLEY SET down, among his reflections on a winter cruise of the Caribbean area in 1933, an arresting dictum on American history. To understand European politics, one should read the history of he wrote. Central America, being just Europe in miniature and with the lid off, is the ideal laboratory in which to study the behavior of the Great Powers. The world's so-called wars of interest have been with very few exceptions, exactly like those of America, he argued, not... wars of interest, but of 'political principle'-in other words, wars of pure passion. This hypothesis accepted, the conclusion becomes axiomatic: the behavior of the world powers can be elucidated by study of the less complex history of America.' Some of the works on American history treated in this survey had already appeared before Huxley's cruise-inspired maxim was published; others quite possibly were prepared without knowledge of it, and still others may have rejected hypothesis, conclusion, or both. Nevertheless, Huxley 's two salient points of emphasis-