"This meticulously researched and well-written study was awarded the 1997 Kurt Hartwig-Siemens Prize by the Scientific Foundation of Hamburg. Using a wealth of previously unavailable and untapped sources, including Manuel Pardo's bookkeeping accounts and political correspondence, presents a convincing argument that, prior to the War of the Pacific, the Partido Civil met all the prerequisites of a viable political party: bourgeois, liberal, and able to survive its leader's assassination in 1878"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.