Find The Imagined Island: History, Identity, And Utopia In Hispaniola Documented By Pedro L. San Miguel Shown In Document

will give a rating because I only read aboutof the book, But since reviews are few here, I wanted to share my impression that this reading is oriented rather at those already knowledgeable about the history of Hispaniola.
To someone like me who wanted to initially educate myself about the history of the island after reading a piece of fiction set there, this reading is a bit too specialized.
I read this book for a research paper, I liked how it offered views from different people with different stances, but I wasnt a fan of the organization of the book, In a landmark study of history, power, and identity in the Caribbean, Pedro L, San Miguel examines the historiography of Hispaniola, the West Indian island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, He argues that the national identities of and often the tense relations between citizens of these two nations are the result of imaginary contrasts between the two nations drawn by historians, intellectuals, and writers.


Covering five centuries and key intellectual figures from each country, San Miguel bridges literature, history, and ethnography to locate the origins of racial, ethnic, and national identity on the island.
He finds that Haiti was often portrayed by Dominicans as "the otherfirst as a utopian slave society, then as a barbaric state and enemy to the Dominican Republic.
Although most of the Dominican population is mulatto and black, Dominican citizens tended to emphasize their Spanish white roots, essentially silencing the political voice of the Dominican majority, San Miguel argues.
This pioneering work in Caribbean and Latin American

historiography, originally published in Puerto Rico in, is now available in English for the first time.
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