The first serious biography of Francisco Solano López in English for decades, this richly researched book tells the dramatic story of Paraguay's most notorious ruler. Despite the heroic stature he gained after his death, López was a monumentally flawed leader who made the disastrous decisions in 1864 and 1865 to invade Paraguay's powerful neighbors, Brazil and Argentina, initiating the most devastating interstate conflict in South American history. Drawing on a trove of primary sources, James Schofield Saeger offers a critical analysis of López's personality and often-irrational persecution of enemies, adherents, and siblings. He traces López's preparation for high public office, work habits, control of his nation and army, propaganda, and execution. Concluding with an examination of López's posthumous rehabilitation, Saeger shows how the tyrant who ruined his nation became its most highly honored hero, crowning a campaign by revisionist publicists from 1870–1936, and a useful symbol for later authoritarians. Still largely unchallenged in Paraguay today, this glorification of a martial president is definitively put to rest in Saeger's meticulous study.

"Saeger's text is an important contribution to a greater understanding of the creation of Paraguayan nationalism in the twentieth century. His work sheds light on one of the darkest periods in Paraguayan history while resurrecting the mindset of one of its 'heroes.' Ultimately, Saeger's work will stimulate more work on the War of the Triple Alliance and the men who led all four nations to the bloody battlefield." - The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History

"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