Subject Specialist:
Law, Political Science, International Affairs
814-863-1347
e-mail: hms2@psu.edu
Helen Sheehy
Title: Head Social Sciences Library
Subject Specialist:
Law, Political Science, International Affairs
814-863-1347
e-mail: hms2@psu.edu
Background Notes
from the U.S. Department of State. Basic survey of the country.
Honduras, a country study
"Presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world." Has excellent background information on the various ethnic groups in Honduras.
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
From the U.S. Department of State. Human rights problems are always a concern in Latin American countries. These reports give the Department of State’s official position on how well each country is doing.
Political Handbook of the World
A survey of the political structure of the country.
Bianco, Adriana. "Zamorano: Model of Education and Development". Américas. Jul/Aug 2009, vol. 61 issue 4, pp. 54-55
To locate a copy of this article copy/paste the title into LionSearch.
eHRAF World Cultures
The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) are designed to facilitate the cross-cultural study of human society, culture, and behavior. It provides full-text access to source material on a wide variety of cultures around the world, as well as a cultural summary and bibliography for each culture covered.
eHRAF Collection of Archaeology
Similar to the World Cultures database but focused on the archaeology of various countries.
Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805-1852. Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan is an original edition available in the Special Collections Library. Several reprints are available in Pattee Library.
A wonderful 19th century travellogue! Stephens was an early explorer who was one of the first Americans to document the Mayan civilization. Volume one in this set has information on Honduras and Copán. Wonderful drawings by William Catherwood. It also serves as an excellent ethnography of Honduras from this time period. Available online at the HathiTrust.
Andrews, E. Wyllys. Copán : the history of an ancient Maya kingdom
Webster, David L. Copán : the rise and fall of an ancient Maya kingdom
From 1980-1997, Dr. Webster was involved in field work at Copán as part of Penn State's Copán Archaeological Project
Anderson, Mark David. Black and indigenous : Garifuna activism and consumer culture in Honduras F1505.2.C3A53 2009
Online edition of Black and indigenous
Click on the linked titles below to go to the CAT record to see if the book is available and to find its library location.
Bonta, Mark. Seven names for the bellbird : conservation geography in Honduras
Mark Bonta grew up in Tyrone, PA and worked in the Cloud Forests of Honduras. He is now an Associate Professor of Geography at Delta State University in Mississippi.
Check out his web page for a number of interesting articles on Honduras.
Chapman, Anne. Masters of animals : oral traditions of the Tolupan Indians, Honduras
Shaw, Mary. According to our ancestors : folk texts from Guatemala and Honduras
Gold, Janet N. Clementina Suárez : her life and poetry
Castillo, Roberto. The bugler | El corneta / translated by Edward Waters Hood
Gonzales, Oscar. Central America in my heart | Centroamé́́rica en el corazón
Quesada, Roberto; translated [from the Spanish] by Hardie St. Martin. The ships
To find more books go browse the shelves! You will find other books in English and in Spanish from Honduran authors in the PQ7509.2 area of the Libraries .
Simthsonian Global Sound has a range of audio files with traditional music representing the various regions in Honduras.
Naxos Music Library has a smaller selection of Honduran music.
For more recent music videos try YouTube. Search for
Agurcia, C. (2005) Central America: Honduras. Continuum Encyclopedia Of Popular Music Of The World — an article about popular music in Honduras [link to PDF Full Text is on the left]
Filmakers Library Online — streaming video. Just search Honduras.
MacCameron, Robert. Bananas, labor, and politics in Honduras, 1954-1963
Dodd, Thomas J. Tiburcio Carías : portrait of a Honduran political leader.
Leonard, Thomas M.. The History of Honduras
The History of Honduras [online edition]
Euraque, Darío A.. Reinterpreting the Banana Republic : region and state in Honduras, 1870-1972
Coleman, Kenneth M. Political culture, governance, and democracy in Honduras, 2008 [electronic resource]
To get the full text of these articles copy/paste the title of the article into LionSearch
Ruhl, J. Mark. "Honduras Unravels"
Journal of Democracy, 2010, volume 21, issue 2, pp. 93-107
In June 2009, the Honduran armed forces ousted President Manuel Zelaya in the first successful military coup in Latin America since 1991. Zelaya's overthrow was precipitated by a constitutional crisis that pitted the leftist president against the Supreme Court, National Congress, Supreme Electoral Tribunal, and both major political parties. An interim civilian government backed by the military resisted international and domestic pressures to reinstate Zelaya for months and held scheduled elections to select his successor. The new president assumed office in 2010, but the outlook for democracy remains uncertain. Competing elites no longer trust democratic rules, and the mass population continues to be disillusioned with elected leaders' failure to address poverty, corruption, and crime.
Bucheli, Marcelo. “Multinational corporations, totalitarian regimes and economic nationalism: United Fruit Company in Central America, 1899-1975”
Business History, volume 50, issue 4, pp. 433–454. 2008.
The U.S. multinational United Fruit Company has been considered the quintessential representative of American imperialism in Central America. Not only did the company enjoy enormous privileges in that region, but also counted on authoritarian governments in dealing with labor unrest. The literature assumes that United Fruit and the dictators were natural allies due to their opposition to organized unionism. This paper shows that this alliance could only survive as long as the multinational provided the dictators with economic stability for the country. However, when the multinational proved to be incapable of doing that, the dictators allied with the working class to confront the multinational and extract higher rents from it.
Mollett, Sharlene. "Racial narratives: Miskito and colono land struggles in the Honduran Mosquitia"
Cultural Geographies, 01/2011, volume 18, issue 1, pp. 43-62
This article examines the multiple ways race and racialized processes are embedded in Miskito Indian and ladino colono land struggles in Honduras.
Arqueta, Mario R. "Social, economic, and political aspects of the Carias dictatorship in Honduras -- Historia de los Sin Historia, 1900-1948"
Latin American Research Review 29. 1 (1994): p. 238.
Use LionSearch — Like Google, LionSearch has a simple interface and searches a broad array of the Libraries' resources including The CAT and many of the Libraries' subscription databases. To take full advantage of the power of LionSearch, use the facets on the left side of the screen. I recommend excluding newspaper articles (there are better ways to find that material). Limiting to scholarly publications and using the date limits and subjects will help you refine your search.
Use Academic Search Complete — Sometimes less is more and this database searches a more selective list of high-quality academic journals across a broad array of subjects. A good place to start.
Sometimes a subject-specific database is the answer, but with over 400 Libraries' databases to choose from it's difficult to find the right one. Maybe one of the databases listed on the research guide for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology or Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management is the answer - or - try one of our many other Libraries' research guides to find a really targeted subject-specific database for your topic.
Unfortunately there are few English-language news sources in Honduras. Here are some links to online Honduran news sources. Use a translator like Bablefish to help you out if you don't read Spanish
Honduras is one of the poorest nations in the Western hemisphere. Here are some statistics to give you a sense of what the country is like:
UNICEF — focus on health and children
UNData (United Nations Data) — a wide range of social, economic, and agricultural data to pick and choose from:
Honduras profile — a basic profile culled from this data.
World Development Indiicators — a core set of development indicators. Draw charts that compare Honduras to other countries.
FAOSTAT — everything you could ever want to know about agriculture.
