The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic 1800-1870

<p>Paraguay plays a very small role in the modern world but for part of the nineteenth century it was a significant regional force. Between 1800 and 1865 it changed from an imperial backwater into a dynamic dictator-led financially sound nation. Then came the terrible War of the Triple Alliance and by 1870 Paraguay had virtually been destroyed.</p> <p>John Hoyt Williams re-creates the era's people places and events in rich detail and a vigorous style but this is much more than a mere narrative. His archival research in Paraguay and several other countries enables him to offer new facts and interpretations correct a number of misapprehensions and explode a few myths.</p> <p>He also provides the clearest most objective portraits available of the three extraordinary men who ruled Paraguay during this time: Dr. José Gaspar de Francia El Supremo; Carlos Antonio López the Corpulent Despot; and López's flamboyant son Francisco Solano López. Discussions of social economic and cultural conditions round out a masterly account of a remarkable historical period.</p>