Steven Palmer is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Windsor in Ontario. He is the author of From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism: Doctors, Healers, and Public Power in Costa Rica, 1800–1940 (published by Duke University Press). Iván Molina is Professor of History at the University of Costa Rica in San José. He is a coauthor of Stuffing the Ballot Box: Fraud, Electoral Reform, and Democratization in Costa Rica.
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
I. Birth of an Exception? 9
II. Coffee Nation 55
III. Popular Culture and Social Policy 99
IV. Democratic Enigma 139
V. The Costa Rican Dream 183
VI. Other Cultures and Outer Reaches 229
VII. Working Paradise 275
VIII. Tropical Soundings 319
Suggestions for Further Reading 367
Acknowledgment of Copyrights 373
Index 379
