Dictatorship and Politics: Intrigue, Betrayal, and Survival in Venezuela, 1908-1935 (review)
sought to disseminate the notion that their operations were modernizing Venezuela and held the key to its future progress. The propaganda effort worked. Cooperation witii the companies became a hallmark of centrist and conservative conceptualizations of development among the increasingly powerful middle class. In practice, oil failed to improve the lives of marginalized Venezuelans, but the visible impact of the petroleum sector was sufficiently dramatic to keep the dream of oil-fueled progress alive for decades, blunting die appeal of more radical models of nationalism.