When Peru's Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) launched its people's war as democracy was being restored in 1980, few took notice. By mid-1992, however, Peruvian democracy was in a shambles and Sendero was announcing imminent victory. How could a small Maoist band, which formed in the 1960s at a university in provincial Ayacucho under the guidance of a little-known philosophy professor, have become the most radical and dogmatic expression of Marxist revolution in the Western Hemisphere?

And how were the tables turned so abruptly that less than a year later the government of Peru could assert the threat from Shining Path had virtually ended? What is the possibility that the guerrillas have simply shifted back to their original long-term strategy for revolutionary victory?

1. In this second edition of The Shining Path of Peru, these and other key questions are addressed. The autogolpe and the capture of Sendero's leader are discussed, as are other important post-1992 developments. Also included is a substantial new segment on Peru's complex political history.