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Offering a comprehensive overview of Puerto Rico's history and evolution since the installation of U.S. rule, César Ayala and Rafael Bernabe connect the island's economic, political, cultural, and social past. Puerto Rico in the American Century explores Puerto Ricans in the diaspora as well as the island residents, who experience an unusual and daily conundrum: they consider themselves a distinct people but are part of the American political system; they have U.S. citizenship but are not represented in the U.S. Congress; and they live on land that is neither independent nor part of the United States.



Highlighting both well-known and forgotten figures from Puerto Rican history, Ayala and Bernabe discuss a wide range of topics, including literary and cultural debates and social and labor struggles that previous histories have neglected. Although the island's political economy remains dependent on the United States, the authors also discuss Puerto Rico's situation in light of world economies. Ayala and Bernabe argue that the inability of Puerto Rico to shake its colonial legacy reveals the limits of free-market capitalism, a break from which would require a renewal of the long tradition of labor and social activism in Puerto Rico in connection with similar currents in the United States.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. xiii)
• Abbreviations(p. xv)
• Introduction(p. 1)
• 1 1898-Background and Immediate Consequences(p. 14)
• 2 Reshaping Puerto Rico's Economy, 1898-1934(p. 33)
• 3 Political and Social Struggles in a New Colonial Context, 1900-1930(p. 52)
• 4 Americanization and Its Discontents, 1898-1929(p. 74)
• 5 Economic Depression and Political Crisis: The Turbulent Thirties(p. 95)
• 6 Cultural Debates in an Epoch of Crisis: National Interpretations in the Thirties(p. 117)
• 7 Turning Point in the Forties: Rise of the Partido Popular Democratico(p. 136)
• 8 Birth of the Estado Libre Asociado(p. 162)
• 9 Transformation and Relocation: Puerto Rico's Operation Bootstrap(p. 179)
• 10 Politics and Culture in the Epoch of PPD Hegemony(p. 201)
• 11 PPD Hegemony Undermined: From Mobilization to Recession, 1960-1975(p. 223)
• 12 Rethinking the Past, Betting on the Future: Cultural Debates from the Sixties to the Eighties(p. 247)
• 13 Economic Stagnation and Political Deadlock, 1976-1992(p. 267)
• 14 Politics and Social Conflict in the Epoch of Neoliberalism, 1992-2004(p. 291)
• 15 Neonationalism, Postmodernism, and Other Debates(p. 316)
• Conclusion(p. 335)
• Notes(p. 343)
• Bibliographical Essay(p. 383)
• Index(p. 399)

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CHOICE Review

With breathtaking ambition, Ayala (sociology, UCLA) and Bernabe (Univ. of Puerto Rico) attempt to interpret the entire breadth of Puerto Rican history from 1898 to 2006. To accomplish this goal, they focus on "cultural debates," which in their view run the gamut from consideration of the independista movement to discussions on birth control, jibaros, and the "culture of poverty." Every aspect of Puerto Rican history is therefore fair game; commentary moves swiftly from dissecting politics and the economy to music, art, and literature, including the cultural production of the diaspora. Especially noteworthy is the skillful weaving of mainland and insular intellectual trends and the cultural permutations created by this bipolar interplay. The result of Ayala and Bernabe's effort is an exciting, if somewhat uneven, volume that stimulates as well as informs; students and scholars on all levels will find much to discuss if not to agree with. On the negative side, a bibliographic essay is no substitute for a standard bibliography of cited works. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. R. M. Delson American Museum of Natural History

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

César J. Ayala is professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Spanish Caribbean, 1898-1934 . Rafael Bernabe is professor and director of the Federico de Onís Hispanic Studies Center at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. He has published three books in Puerto Rico.