Constructing A Colonial People: Puerto Rico And The United States, 1898-1932 / Edition 1

by Pedro A Caban

Overview

Constructing Colonial People provides a new and comprehensive interpretation of how the United States attempted to transform Puerto Rico from a neglected backwater of the Spanish empire into one of its key props in establishing hegemony in the western hemisphere. The book looks at the formative three-and-one-half decades of U.S. colonial rule, when the colony's key institutions, economic structures, and legal doctrines were transformed. Policy papers, speeches, newspaper articles, and memoirs from the period inform the study with particular detail and insight. Cabán further examines the dynamics of U.S. expansionism during the Progressive Era and examines the normative and ideological constructions that were used to rationalize a campaign of territorial acquisition and colonial administration. He also demonstrates how the military and subsequent civilian regimes directed a process of institutional transformation, state building, and capitalist development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813339030
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	01/26/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1470L (what's this?)

About the Author

Pedro A. Caban teaches courses on the political economy of U.S.-Caribbean relations and Latino politics Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Introduction — U.S. Imperialism and the New Colonial Era — Military Occupation, 1898–1900: Building the Colonial State — The Foraker Act: The Politics and Economics of Colonial Legislation — The Colonial State at Work: The Executive Council and the Transformation of Puerto Rico, 1900–1917 — Resistance and Accommodation — A New Beginning and the Growing Crisis of Legitimacy — The FLT, the Socialists, and the Crisis in Colonial Management

Editorial Reviews

Given the recent controversial Presidential clemency for imprisoned Puerto Rican independence activists, this interpretation of the formative decades of US rule in this gateway to Latin America is especially timely. Caban (Latino politics, Rutgers U.) studies the role Puerto Rico has played in American history since the US transformed this backwater of the former Spanish empire into a hub of its regional hegemony. The author analyzes US Progressive Era expansionism, and the legacy of accommodation and resistance to US military occupation (1898-1900), which left "the new and improved colonial state" in a state of sociopolitical crisis by 1932. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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