Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920

by Eileen J. Suárez Findlay

Book Overview

Feminists, socialists, Afro-Puerto Rican activists, and elite politicians join laundresses, prostitutes, and dissatisfied wives in populating the pages of Imposing Decency. Through her analyses of Puerto Rican anti-prostitution campaigns, attempts at reforming marriage, and working-class ideas about free love, Eileen J. Su rez Findlay exposes the race-related double standards of sexual norms and practices in Puerto Rico between 1870 and 1920,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822323966
• ISBN13: 9780822323969
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

fascinating insights

I am the grandchild of a Puerto Rican woman who lived on the island about the time this book was written. I was absolutely fascinated by the book and found it explained a lot about attitudes toward race and sexuality that prevailed in my own family that I'd always found contradictory and inexplicable.I generally avoid books written by academicians because their writing style is usually turgid, wordy and devoid of life. Not so this book. While it does carefully document its subject, the writing is lively and engaging.A must-read for anyone who wants insight into a fascinating aspect of Puerto Rican culture.

Accessible and well written

Well researched and engaged with the scholarly discussion, yet readable and at times very elegantly argued. The book contributes to discussions of race and sexuality and should be of interest to many more than the few academics in Latin American history and women's studies. Those people, and many others interested in those and related fields, however, MUST read it!