Cindy Forster’s new book, The Time of Freedom, is a compelling and provocative contribution to the slowly expanding body of research on Guatemala’s 1944–54 revolution. While most studies of the period focus on elite revolutionary activism, Forster argues that the true protagonists of the 1952 Agrarian Reform Law were rural workers who, imbued with a sense of campesino identity (as opposed to a proletarian one), laid the foundation for land reform through militant activism. Focusing on two distinct regions—the coffee-producing department of San Marcos and United Fruit’s banana plantations at Tiquisate, Escuintla—Forster comparatively situates the revolution and its antecedents, highlighting what it meant for campesinos.
From a methodological standpoint, Forster offers a persuasive discussion on the use (and abuse) of “official” sources, versus oral history sources—particularly from among the underrepresented working classes. As a corrective to “elite distortions” in the historical record, she suggests a more balanced approach to...
