Reviewed in Foreign Affairs.
Reviewed by Sidney W. Mintz in The Americas © 1962.
From the author’s Preface:
This study attempts to investigate in detail the political activity in Puerto Rico during the very short but interesting period of the New Deal administration in Washington. The interaction between the two governmental centers of San Juan and Washington is, of course, an important center of focus. After a brief introductory chapter, the analysis opens with an exposition of the political picture prior to the election of 1932. The study ends with the close of 1938 after the New Deal has definitely lost its renovating drive on the island. Indeed, we will attempt to show that it was at this time not renovating, but in some ways was reactionary in character.
Excerpt from the Foreword by Rexford Guy Tugwell:
Professor Mathews takes his readers through the trials and adjustments, the arguments and machinations, of some formative years when Puerto Rico was on the verge of some dramatic changes. It is almost a miracle, I have sometimes thought, that Puerto Rico did not in the forties become independent. The Philippines did; and peoples adherent in one or another way with all the old Empires were demanding it. And it was the way neighboring Cuba had gone. Certainly the United States would have been willing. I often said so when I was governor. With President Roosevelt’s concurrence, I habitually told the Puerto Ricans that they need not try to pose as minions, exploited and downtrodden. They were, I told them, friends and brothers. And friends and brothers associate; they do not quarrel. If Puerto Ricans should choose to sever the old relationships, we continentals would see them go in peace and with our best wishes.
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