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El Salvador is a source of immense learning about violence, war, and post war politics. This book captures some of the most important themes for scholars as well as peace and development practitioners. It does so through outstanding attention to methodology and sources, and a capacity for critical reflection alongside a deep personal engagement with the post war realities of the country. This is a very significant contribution to our understanding of insurgent and postinsurgent politics. --Jenny Pearce, London School of Economics Ralph Sprenkels's book is a foundational contribution to understanding the postwar period in El Salvador. It combines innovative and insightful political ethnographic methods with deep and precise knowledge of the dynamics among the five groups that made up the now-ruling FMLN. The author offers us the story of what happened to the rank and file that participated in the revolutionary forces, of the forgotten ones who did not rise to power, and of their struggles to survive in a postwar environment for which they were ill-prepared. The research by Sprenkels is key to understanding the dramatic situation of violence and poverty that this Central American country continues to experience. --Horacio Castellanos Moya, author of Senselessness and The Dream of My Return Ralph Sprenkels has produced a seminal book on the 'afterlife' of revolutions. Based on his outstanding research and long commitment with the FMLN, this study is an honest and impartial account about personal fortunes and misfortunes of combatants and loyalists, and the transformation of revolutionary devotion in political routine. --Dirk Kruijt, author of Guerrillas: War and Peace in Central America After Insurgency offers a brilliant analysis of the postwar trajectory of El Salvador's guerrilla force, one of the strongest such movements in Latin American history. Ralph Sprenkels, himself a participant in Central American struggles, balances attention to on-the-ground, lived experience of peasant rebels after peace accords with an examination of the rise of electoral clientelism and institutional genealogies among the former revolutionaries. In a major contribution to the study of post-Cold War political imaginaries, he goes beyond the trope of disillusionment to probe how relations among leaders and grassroots activists transformed over time, eventually rising to political power--at a price.--Ellen Moodie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Uniquely placed to investigate and analyze the social and political developments that followed the Salvadoran civil war, Ralph Sprenkels offers multiple perspectives in After Insurgency. He provides fascinating in-depth case studies, including the post-war development of a repopulated village, a longitudinal ethnography highlighting the lives of individual former guerrillas, and an analysis of the role of their veterans' organizations, which result in a richly detailed tapestry of a complex legacy. This remarkable study will be a rewarding read, not only for scholars of Latin America, but also for those concerned more generally with revolutionary movements, identity politics, and postwar political transitions. --Margaret E. Ward, author of Missing Mila, Finding Family: An International Adoption in the Shadow of the Salvadoran Civil War After Insurgency: Revolution and Electoral Politics in El Salvador reflects a deep and unprecedented access to sources, largely interviews and observations of organizations, but also documentary materials, made available because of Ralph Sprenkels's long personal history of involvement with the organizations and people under examination. No studies of comparable richness exist for El Salvador, and I have yet to read anything on any of the other insurgencies or postinsurgencies in Latin America that equal it. --Erik Ching, Furman University

After Insurgency: Revolution and Electoral Politics in El Salvador reflects a deep and unprecedented access to sources, largely interviews and observations of organizations, but also documentary materials, made available because of Ralph Sprenkels's long personal history of involvement with the organizations and people under examination. No studies of comparable richness exist for El Salvador, and I have yet to read anything on any of the other insurgencies or postinsurgencies in Latin America that equal it. -Erik Ching, Furman University

After Insurgency: Revolution and Electoral Politics in El Salvador reflects a deep and unprecedented access to sources, largely interviews and observations of organizations, but also documentary materials, made available because of Ralph Sprenkels's long personal history of involvement with the organizations and people under examination. No studies of comparable richness exist for El Salvador, and I have yet to read anything on any of the other insurgencies or postinsurgencies in Latin America that equal it. --Erik Ching, Furman University

After Insurgency: Revolution and Electoral Politics in El Salvador reflects a deep and unprecedented access to sources, largely interviews and observations of organizations, but also documentary materials, made available because of Ralph Sprenkels's long personal history of involvement with the organizations and people under examination. No studies of comparable richness exist for El Salvador, and I have yet to read anything on any of the other insurgencies or postinsurgencies in Latin America that equal it. -- Erik Ching, Furman University Ralph Sprenkels has produced a seminal book on the 'afterlife' of revolutions. Based on his outstanding research and long commitment with the FMLN, this study is an honest and impartial account about personal fortunes and misfortunes of combatants and loyalists, and the transformation of revolutionary devotion in political routine. -- Dirk Kruijt, author of <i>Guerrillas: War and Peace in Central America</i> El Salvador is a source of immense learning about violence, war, and post war politics. This book captures some of the most important themes for scholars as well as peace and development practitioners. It does so through outstanding attention to methodology and sources, and a capacity for critical reflection alongside a deep personal engagement with the post war realities of the country. This is a very significant contribution to our understanding of insurgent and postinsurgent politics. -- Jenny Pearce, London School of Economics Ralph Sprenkels's book is a foundational contribution to understanding the postwar period in El Salvador. It combines innovative and insightful political ethnographic methods with deep and precise knowledge of the dynamics among the five groups that made up the now-ruling FMLN. The author offers us the story of what happened to the rank and file that participated in the revolutionary forces, of the forgotten ones who did not rise to power, and of their struggles to survive in a postwar environment for which they were ill-prepared. The research by Sprenkels is key to understanding the dramatic situation of violence and poverty that this Central American country continues to experience. -- Horacio Castellanos Moya, author of <i>Senselessness</i> and <i>The Dream of My Return</i> The book gives a nuanced, humane assessment of the lives of former revolutionaries in peacetime. -- <i>Foreign Affairs</i> After Insurgency offers a brilliant analysis of the postwar trajectory of El Salvador's guerrilla force, one of the strongest such movements in Latin American history. Ralph Sprenkels, himself a participant in Central American struggles, balances attention to on-the-ground, lived experience of peasant rebels after peace accords with an examination of the rise of electoral clientelism and institutional genealogies among the former revolutionaries. In a major contribution to the study of post-Cold War political imaginaries, he goes beyond the trope of disillusionment to probe how relations among leaders and grassroots activists transformed over time, eventually rising to political power-at a price. -- Ellen Moodie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Uniquely placed to investigate and analyze the social and political developments that followed the Salvadoran civil war, Ralph Sprenkels offers multiple perspectives in After Insurgency. He provides fascinating in-depth case studies, including the post-war development of a repopulated village, a longitudinal ethnography highlighting the lives of individual former guerrillas, and an analysis of the role of their veterans' organizations, which result in a richly detailed tapestry of a complex legacy. This remarkable study will be a rewarding read, not only for scholars of Latin America, but also for those concerned more generally with revolutionary movements, identity politics, and postwar political transitions. -- Margaret E. Ward, author of <i>Missing Mila, Finding Family: An International Adoption in the Shadow of the Salvadoran Civil War</i>

Author Information

Ralph Sprenkels is lecturer in conflict studies at Utrecht University. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including Stories Never to Be Forgotten: Eyewitness Accounts from the Salvadoran Civil War.

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