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This book is suitable for children of ages 9-14. The island of Puerto Rico or "rich port" has long been known as a centre of trade and commerce in the Caribbean. It is also a small island with great physical and social diversity. This book is full of beautifully photographed images of the island's mountain ranges, forests, and desert. Clearly written text will explain Puerto Rico's special status as a Commonwealth. The topics include: how the island of Puerto Rico was formed; the Caribbean National Forest - the island's largest nature reserve and the only rainforest in the U.S. National Forest system; the phosphorescent bays where billions of microscopic marine creatures, called dinoflagellates, flash and glow with circles and shooting shafts of blue light when the water they live in is disturbed; coral reefs; the arrival of Puerto Ricans in America; the city of San Juan; and the old fortifications of El Morro and San Cristobal. ... Read more

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When the United States took control of the Philippines and Puerto Rico in the wake of the Spanish-American War, it declared that it would transform its new colonies through lessons in self-government and the ways of American-style democracy.In both territories, U.S. colonial officials built extensive public school systems, and they set up American-style elections and governmental institutions.The officials aimed their lessons in democratic government at the political elite: the relatively small class of the wealthy, educated, and politically powerful within each colony.While they retained ultimate control for themselves, the Americans let the elite vote, hold local office, and forulate legislation in national assemblies.American Empire and the Politics of Meaning is an examination of how these efforts to provide the elite of Puerto Rico and the Philippines a practical education in self-government played out on the ground in the early years of American colonial rule, from 1898 until 1912.It is the first systematic comparative analysis of these early exercises in American imperial power.The sociologist Julan Go unravels how American authorities used "culture" as both a tool and a target of rule, and how the Puerto RIcan and Phliippine elite received, creatively engaged, and sometimes silently subverted the Ameriicans' ostensibly benign intentions.Rather than findding that the attempt to transplant American-style democracy led to incommensurable "culture clashes," Go assesses complex processes of cultural accommodation and transformation.By combining rich historical detail with broader theories of meaning, culture and colonialism, he provides an innovate tudy of the hidden intersections of political power and cultural meaning-making in America's earliest overseas empire."...a fine example of multidisciplinary research where history and sociology effortlessly interact."-P.N. Abinales, Professor Kyoto University ... Read more

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Publisher: F. J. HeerPublication date: 1905Subjects: Puerto RicoHistory / Caribbean ... Read more