The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration - by Geoff G Burrows (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores the history and impact of an important
New Deal program that improved living conditions across Puerto Rico in the wake
of destructive hurricanes and the Great Depression, while at the same time
resulting in a strengthened colonial relationship between the island and the
United States.

Book Synopsis

Honorable Mention, Living New Deal Book Award

An important New Deal program that shaped the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States

This
book explores the history and impact of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction
Administration (PRRA), the most important New Deal agency to operate in Puerto
Rico and the largest created for any United States territory. Geoff Burrows demonstrates
how the PRRA improved living conditions across the island in the wake of destructive
hurricanes and the Great Depression, while at the same time producing a
reformed, strengthened, and lasting colonial relationship between Puerto Rico
and the United States.

Using previously untapped archival sources and a wide range
of primary and secondary texts, Burrows follows the agency from its founding by
President Roosevelt in 1935 to its ending in 1955, situating its public works
program in both Puerto Rican and New Deal contexts. The PRRA built the
Caribbean's first modern cement plant; implemented widespread rural
electrification through the building of seven hydroelectric dams; constructed
hurricane-proof houses, schools, and hospitals; and improved transportation and
communication across the island. Puerto Rican engineers, planners, and
officials took a leading role in these initiatives, which provided them social
mobility and transformed the island's economy from agricultural to industrial.

The first institutional history and critical examination of
the agency, The
Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration
engages questions about the New Deal's global reach. It investigates how New
Deal agendas refashioned U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and indirectly
contributed to the island's current debt crisis and response to recent natural
disasters such as Hurricane María.

Review Quotes

"A must-read for students and scholars interested in Puerto Rican history, the New Deal, and modernization in the Caribbean and Latin America. . . . Going beyond the binary of resistance or integration, Burrows reminds us how colonialism operated (and operates) in Puerto Rico and how Puerto Ricans have navigated it."--American Historical Review



"Burrows makes a groundbreaking contribution to the regional historiography devoted to the study of the Great Depression. For Puerto Rican, US, and Latin American scholars, this study provides a powerful history that clearly explains how the economic havoc experienced by the United States in the 1930s transcended its national boundaries and affected the destinies of the inhabitants of a Spanish-speaking territorial possession in the Caribbean for years after."--H-Net

"A well-documented and tightly argued account of a key institution of the New Deal as applied to a colonial territory of the United States. . . . Burrows's painstaking research fills in some gaps in the historical record on Puerto Rico and raises provocative questions about the parallels between the economic crisis of the 1930s and the more recent recession on the island (2006-24)."--Hispanic American Historical Review

"Burrows' thoroughly researched and eminently readable study offers a wealth of information and important insights that extend beyond PRAA and the New Deal to include Puerto Rican politics and the "modernization" of the archipelago's economy and infrastructure from the 1930s through the 1950s."--Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies