Between Legitimacy and Violence

Marco Palacios is Professor of Latin American History at El Colegio de MÉxico in Mexico City. He is the author of numerous books in Spanish as well as Coffee in Colombia, 1850–1970: An Economic, Social, and Political History. He is a coauthor of Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society.Richard Stoller is Coordinator of Selection and International Programs in Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. He has a Ph.D. in Latin American studies.

“Marco Palacios’s comprehensive, skilled narration of Colombia’s turbulent ‘long twentieth century’ is the best one-volume history of that country we have. There is nothing else available in English that provides even a shadow of the complexity and completeness of Palacios’s book.”-Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, author of Dulcinea in the Factory: Myths, Morals, Men, and Women in Colombia’s Industrial Experiment, 1905–1960 “A skillful historian, Palacios gives the public a sharp, broad and yet very complete view of Colombia’s twentieth-century history . . . . Students of Latin American studies will benefit greatly from this valuable account of Colombia’s history. Anyone interested in Colombia and its history will find this a most valuable and complete history guide. The author is an authority in the field and his own life experiences have permitted him to step outside the turmoil and violence of Colombia to produce a book that gives an intellectual, organized, and logical order to its turbulent history.” - Debora Cordeiro-Rosa (The Latin Americanist) “Marco Palacios’ account of Colombian history is a must-read for historians, economists, political scientists, and geographers. It is an intricately woven story that highlights the complexities of Colombian history. . . . A rich interpretation of Colombian history is presented with the expressed intent of revealing how the past affects current thinking and events.” - Sheila Amin Gutiérrez de Piñeres (EIAL)

• Tables viiiAcknowledgments ixPrologue to the Second Colombian Edition xi1. From Liberal Decay to Regeneration 12. Liberal Economics, Conservative Politics 483. From the Expansion of Citizenship to the Plutocratic Elite 934. In the Shadow of the Violencia 1355. An Elusive Legitimacy 1706. Great Transformations within Continuity 214Epilogue 246Bibliographical Essay 269Index 293