"Donald E. Schulz is assistant professor of political science at the University of Tampa. He is coeditor (with Jan S. Adams) of Political Participation in Communist Systems (1981) and author of Communist Policy Toward Southeast Asia, 1954-1969 (1970). Douglas H. Graham is professor of agricultural economics and director of the Latin American Studies program at the Undergraduate Center for International Studies, Ohio State University. He is coauthor (with Thomas W. Merrick) of Population and Economic Development in Brazil, 1800 to the Present (1979)."

• Preface -- Structural and Institutional Sources of Stability and Instability -- Ten Theories in Search of Central American Reality -- The United States and the Caribbean Basin in Historical Perspective -- Autumm of the Oligarchs -- Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Central American Church -- The Economic Dimensions of Instability and Decline in Central America and the Caribbean -- Stability and Instability: A Country Focus -- El Salvador: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Living Museum -- Guatemala: The Origins and Development of State Terrorism -- The Revolution in Nicaragua: Through a Frontier of History -- Honduras: Bastion of Stability or Quagmire? -- Fear of Adjusting: The Social Costs of Economic Policies in Costa Rica in the 1970s -- Jamaica: From Manley to Seaga -- The International Dimensions of the Crisis -- Mexican Policy Toward Central America and the Caribbean -- Soviet and Cuban Policy in the Caribbean Basin -- Reagan's Central American Policy: Disaster in the Making -- Postscript: Toward a New Central American Policy