The best available collection of writing in English for anyone wanting a broad and varied introduction to Dominican history, politics and culture. Very much a book for dipping into, which works well for the appealingly diverse sections on religion, popular culture and the Dominican diaspora but means the history sections, necessarily lacking a consistent narrative, work better for those with some prior knowledge of the country's past. * Rough Guide to the Dominican Republic *
Roorda, Derby, and Gonzalez use source materials from onsite actors/observers, government officials, writers, and intellectuals (Dominican and otherwise) to add an intimacy and sense of familiarity to the book's narrative. They blend and merge important and formative events and actors that make up the formal history of the Dominican Republic with accounts designed to help readers understand the Dominican character and bases for social norms. The dozens of essays and accounts (some from contributors more familiar to casual readers, some less familiar), with an appropriate apportioning of emphases on nations influential in Dominican affairs (such as the US), complete a historiography that is both challenging and insightful. In a collection of different tiles in the Dominican mosaic, nothing is really trivial here. Highly Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above. -- W. J. Nelson * Choice *
Curious travelers, study-abroad students and faculty, and Latinamericanists generally will find this book to be a solid departure point to understand issues of race, religion (the Virgen of Altagracia, syncreticism), music, gendered roles (machismo and marianismo), and the turbulent imprint of caudillos on the evolution of the Dominican Republic. Over 150 suggested readings point the way to further explore an island in the Caribbean whose history, culture and politics have much to say about the human condition there and elsewhere. -- Joseph Scarpaci * Journal of Latin American Geography *
The Dominican Republic Reader is a well-crafted study that will engage readers. The documents, essays, and other vignettes are representative of the Dominican Republic's rich and colorful history and culture. -- Michael R. Hall * The Latin Americanist *
A student of Caribbean history or culture, or a student of Latin America, coming to this book would leave with a broad sense of what the Dominican Republic is, what its major historical and cultural issues are and have been, and how its current democracy has been achieved. That is not a bad achievement for a book clearly aimed at an undergraduate reader and held together with essays that illuminate the texts presented to its audience. -- F.S.J. Ledgister * Caribbean Quarterly *
The Dominican Republic Reader represents the most thought-provoking and interdisciplinary volume offered thus far to an English-speaking [audience]. It is a must for any university library, as well as a much-needed addition to any class dedicated to the study of Hispaniola, the Spanish Caribbean, or Dominicans in the United States. -- Juan Jose Ponce-Vazquez * The Black Scholar *
With its broad-minded collection ofdocuments, the reader is a welcome and well-crafted addition to a bookshelf of English-language works on the Dominican Republic and is certain to be just as valuable in the classroom. -- Anne Eller * Hispanic American Historical Review *
