A review of nine books on Central America shows that academicians are mistaken to discuss Central American reality in paired opposites such as reform versus revolution or Communism versus democracy, the region has immense human needs, and research on the area needs to be more comparative and theoretical. More work needs to be done in state-society relations, particularly with the evolution of the public sector, the role of the military, the politics of terror, and the popular response to crisis. Additional items on the research agenda should include international aspects of the Central American struggle such as transnational movements of people, capital, and arms and the interweaving of the region's economic history into the economic patterns and development of the western world.
