Books by Lester D. Langley

A comparative history of three revolutions in the Americas is provided by this work: the American Revolution in 1776; the 1791 slave revolt in the French colony that became Haiti; and the prolonged Spanish American struggle for independence that ended 50 years later.

Brings together Lester D. Langley's personal and professional link to the long American Revolution in a narrative that spans more than 150 years and places the Revolution in multiple contexts - from the local to the transatlantic and hemispheric and from racial and gendered to political, social, economic, and cultural perspectives.

Covers the long period from the colonial era into the twenty-first century, providing an interpretive introduction to the history of US relations with Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. This book provides an informed account of the role and place of the United States in the hemisphere.

This compelling biography offers a unique perspective on the life and career of one of Latin America's most famous and most adulated historical figures. Departing from the conventional, narrow treatment of Bol var's role in the Spanish-American wars of independence (1810 1825), leading historian Lester D. Langley frames this remarkable figure as the quintessential Venezuelan rebel, who by circumstance and sheer will rose to be the continent's most noted revolutionary and liberator. In the process, he became both a unifying and a divisive presence whose symbolic influence remains powerful even today. As the author convincingly explains, he remains the most relevant figure of the revolutionary age in the Americas.

Ambitious entrepreneurs, isthmian politicians, and mercenaries who dramatically altered Central America's political culture, economies, and even its traditional social values populate this lively story of a generation of North and Central Americans and their roles in the transformation of Central America from the late nineteenth century until the onset of the Depression. The Banana Men is a study of modernization, its benefits, and its often frightful costs.The colorful characters in this study are fascinating, if not always admirable. Sam "e;the Banana Man"e; Zemurray, a Bessarabian Jewish immigrant, made a fortune in Honduran bananas after he got into the business of "e;revolutin,"e; and his exploits are now legendary. His hired mercenary Lee Christmas, a bellicose Mississippian, made a reputation in Honduras as a man who could use a weapon. The supporting cast includes Minor Keith, a railroad builder and banana baron; Manuel Bonilla, the Honduran mulatto whose cause Zemurray subsidized; and Jose Santos Zelaya, who ruled Nicaragua from 1893 to 1910.The political and social turmoil of the modern Central America cannot be understood without reference to the fifty-year epoch in which the United States imposed its political and economic influence on vulnerable Central American societies. The predicament of Central Americans today, as isthmian peoples know, is rooted in their past, and North Americans have had a great deal to do with the shaping of their history, for better or worse.

Offers a sweeping panorama of America's tropical empire in the age spanned by the two Roosevelts and a detailed narrative of US military intervention in the Caribbean.