CONTEMPORARY CENTRAL AMERICA

Through class lectures, discussions, essay tests, a term paper, assigned readings, and slide and video presentations, this class shall review the history of the five Central American nations and their relationships, political, economic, and social, with the United States. Such concepts as economic dependency, neocolonialism, developmentalism, free market economic theory, grassroots democracy, militarism, liberation theology, and socialism will be discussed in depth, along with the general history of the five countries. The problems of indigenous peoples, human rights abuses, class stratification, and recent changes in religion, including phenomenal growth of Pentecostalism, shall be emphasized. By so doing, it is hoped that the student will come to a sophisticated understanding of the contemporary crises in Central America.