Cold War historiography has not been kind to Latin America’s political Right. While justifiable according to any decent humanitarian standard, the common condemnation of rightwing state terror has occasionally led to moralizing narratives that obscure the myriad ideologies that motivated local actors to fight the Left with such vigor. This is especially obvious in historical treatment of South America’s military dictatorships, which are often portrayed as barbaric guerrillas hell-bent on aimlessly torturing and killing subversives with scattershot technical support from racist policymakers in Washington.

Thus begins Dr. Thomas Field's review of Jerry Da´vila, Dictatorship in South America published in West Sussex by Wiley Blackwell in 2013. While the book has its flaws, Field believes the book should be widely read.