Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2022
The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the author, and they do not represent the views of the Naval Postgraduate School or the U.S. Navy. I would like to thank Elisabeth Friedman and Francisco Monaldi for commenting on earlier drafts of this review. Any remaining errors are entirely attributable to the author.
1. Although Richard Gott's In the Shadow of the Liberator (London: Verso, 2000) marked the beginning of this genre, books for a general audience on Hugo Chávez have continued to appear at a rather steady clip throughout the past decade.
2. A number of histories written in Venezuela reexamine Gómez's rule with an eye to developing a more accurate account. Although not an exhaustive list, these include the following: German Carrera Damas, Jornadas de historia crítica: La evasora personalidad de Juan Vicente Gómez y otros temas (Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Ediciones de la Biblioteca, 1983); Yolanda Segnini, La consolidación del régimen de Juan Vicente Gómez (Caracas: Academia Nacional de Historia, 1982); Tomás Polanco Alcantara, Juan Vicente Gómez: Aproximación a una biografía (Caracas: Academia Nacional de Historia, 1990); Francisco Carreño Delgado, El benemérito: Un bellaco admirable (Caracas: Editorial Texto, 1987); Manuel Caballero, Gómez, El tirano liberal (Caracas: Monte Ávila, 1994).
3. For a fine overview of state formation in Venezuela, see Doug Yarrington, “Cattle, Corruption and Venezuelan State Formation during the Regime of Juan Vicente Gómez, 1908–1935,” Latin American Research Review 38, no. 2 (2003): 9–33.
4. See Terry Lynn Karl, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petrostates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
5. See Terry Lynn Karl, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petrostates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
6. Ibid.
7. See Terry Lynn Karl, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petrostates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
8. See Terry Lynn Karl, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petrostates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
9. See Terry Lynn Karl, The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petrostates (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).