Anyone Read any Good Books Lately

Dear IB,
There was a very good thread on this very subject not too long ago. Follow this link:

http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21632

Hope this meets your specs.

Best Regards,
Keith

I can recommend.

Trujillo
The Death of a Dictator.
By: Bernard Diederich

Thanks
Tim H.

IB,
While not an undergrad majoring in DR studies, I do have a BA in Latin American Studies. Is that close enough?

Yes, I've read many of the books, fiction & non-fiction, mentioned in that thread.

If it's an understanding of Dominican history you're after, the best you can probably do in English is "The DOMINICAN REPUBLIC A National History" by Frank Moya Pons. It only goes up to 1995, but is quite comprehensive and unlike many DR history books, relatively balanced (there are many DR histories that are heavily biased). A bit hefty, but all in all worth the read. That's my two cents.

Best Regards,
Keith

You ask.. you shall receive

IslandBreeze... what university offers a major in Dominican Republic Studies??? It must be a specialty because it is very rare that any University in the US offers a degree in a specific country... maybe a degree with a track of a specific country... but normally not a specific degree. The most specific you can get is a degree in Latin American Studies, at least all the universities I have seen, please share if you know of one, as I would love to find more about there curriculum and possible PH.D programs.

Anyway, to answer your questions, I can think of many books that you can read. I have the majority of them myself and they are all very "intellectual", I use them all avidly in my state of the economics dissertation. Some of them are not specific to the Dominican Republic, but have much useful information in them.

Here you go... get a pen and paper:

1. Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History. By Richard Lee Turits

2. A World Safe for Capitalism. By Cyrus Veeser

3. State and Society in the Dominican Republic (Latin American Perspectives, No 15). By Emelio Betances

4. Columbus's Outpost among the Ta?nos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493-1498. By Jose Maria Cruxent, Kathleen A. Deagan

5. Rag-Tags, Scum, Riff-Raff and Commies: The U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-1966. By Eric Thomas Chester

6. The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism. By G. Pope Atkins

7. Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic. By Ernesto Sagas

8. Between Two Islands: Dominican International Migration. By Sherri Grasmuck, Patricia R. Pessar

9. The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930-1945 (American Encounters/Global Interactions). By Eric Paul Roorda

10. Quisqueya LA Bella: The Dominican Republic in Historical and Cultural Perspective (Perspectives on Latin America and the Caribbean). By Alan Cambeira


I could list for hours... but this should keep you busy, so if you need more than that, just let us know. These books will not contain any "fluff" and may be quite difficult to follow if you do not understand certain theories and definitions, however I am sure you will be more than capable!!!

GG, yeah, unless things have changed radically in the last 20 years, the closest you can come to it is a Latin American Studies degree, and only a few universities offer that. There are some programs that offer a country-oriented track (I almost went this route for my masters, back when SAIS still had a Brazil Center headed by Riordan Roett). My guess is that someone could do so for the DR at CUNY, getting the BA in International Studies they offer and designing your own track with help from CUNY's Dominican Studies Institute [http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/dsi/index.html], but that's probably as close as one could come to a DR studies degree.

Regards,
Keith

I wish I could have taken Dominican Republic Studies - but I guess the closest is studying at PUCMM and getting a minor in foreign studies with a concentration on the Dominican Republic.

There are universities that offer caribbean studies - with a focus on all of the caribbean and its diversity and similarities.

One book I bought for my father that h enjoyed is
The Unfinishied Experiment - Democracy in the Dominican Republic

Written by Juan Bosch (translated from spanish) 1965

You can find it by using barnes and noble in the out of print section.

There is also another called
Between two islands - Dominican International Migration
it offers a view on the country during the 70's and 80's an the migration.

For good fiction try in the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Also some of the books by Edwidge Danticat - who is an author born in Haiti who moved to the US when she was young. Both author's offer a great historical fiction in their novels.