"Drawing admirably on their respective talents as a journalist and scholar, Constable and Valenzuela have provided the best overview thus far available of the long authoritarian chapter in Chile's democratic history-its causes, evolution and demise. Written with sensitivity, creativity and verve, it takes up the roles of military officers, lawyers, technocrats, the business elite, politicians and the poor in shaping General Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and eventually in making possible the return to democratic life. A compelling account."--Foreign Afairs website (Oct. 14, 2010).