Francisco Solano Lopez and the Ruination of Paraguay: Honor and Egocentrism

This concise, well-written biography accurately reflects the author’s assessment of the man who . . . has been officially exalted by Paraguayans as the nation’s most admired national hero. . . . Francisco Solano López and the Ruination of Paraguay is a masterful portrait of a nation, an extraordinary dictator, and the evolution of a hero cult that can be debated and read with pleasure by scholars and undergraduates alike. ― The Latin Americanist

Jim Saeger has penetrated the dark heart of one of Latin America’s most ruinous caudillos, Solano López, with on-site research in Paraguay and simpatico insights. This is auténtico political history, written with grace and from years of study. — Allan R. Millett, Eisenhower Center for American Studies and The Ohio State University

Saeger has provided us with a critical biography of Francisco Solano López that places the man in his times, reveals his character defects, and clarifies how the myth of the nationalistic hero emerged. — Vera Blinn Reber, Shippensburg University

Was Francisco Solano López a madman or a national hero? James Saeger answers this question forthrightly, undermining the conventional view and reviving a rational yet novel judgment of the man who dragged his Paraguayan countrymen through a misbegotten war against their far larger and more powerfully endowed neighbors with sad consequences for a population that did not deserve such punishment. Saeger has crafted a thoughtful, solidly documented biography of a deranged figure whose bizarre life is a classic example of the surreal Latin American dictator of literary notoriety. He deploys the sources carefully and fairly and provides his audience, undergraduates and general readers alike, with a compelling story of power gone awry in the pivotal middle decades of nineteenth-century Latin America. An uncompromising new assessment of a long-standing, self-deluding national mythology, this book surpasses biography. It will provoke many a classroom debate on any number of themes. Among them will be the timeless question of the dangers of a surrender of public power to irresponsible central authority and the dire national consequences of political self-delusion. — Vincent C. Peloso, Howard University

At last, an informative and well-written biography of Francisco Solano López. Saeger gives us a finely drawn picture of this national ‘hero’ in the context of his time and place. Bravo! — Susan M. Socolow, Emory University