Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico

by Laura Briggs

Original and compelling, Laura Briggs's Reproducing Empire shows how, for both Puerto Ricans and North Americans, ideologies of sexuality, reproduction, and gender have shaped relations between the island and the mainland. From science to public policy, the "culture of poverty" to overpopulation, feminism to Puerto Rican nationalism, this book uncovers the persistence of concerns about motherhood, prostitution, and family in shaping the beliefs and practices of virtually every player in the twentieth-century drama of Puerto Rican colonialism. In this way, it sheds light on the legacies haunting contemporary debates over globalization.

Puerto Rico is a perfect lens through which to examine colonialism and globalization because for the past century it has been where the United States has expressed and fine-tuned its attitudes toward its own expansionism. Puerto Rico's history holds no simple lessons for present-day debate over globalization but does unearth some of its history. Reproducing Empire suggests that interventionist discourses of rescue, family, and sexuality fueled U.S. imperial projects and organized American colonialism.

Through the politics, biology, and medicine of eugenics, prostitution, and birth control, the United States has justified its presence in the territory's politics and society. Briggs makes an innovative contribution to Puerto Rican and U.S. history, effectively arguing that gender has been crucial to the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico, and more broadly, to U.S. expansion elsewhere.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Feminism, Latin American History, Politics, Gender

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2002

About the author

Laura Briggs is the Chair of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concluding essay is amazing.

[redhood · Rating 5 out of 5]

phenomenal must-read that does a really great job setting up and unpacking women's sexuality and reproduction historically and today in PR

[Marina Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting take on reproduction and imperialism in Puerto Rico and how they converge in women's bodies. One of my major issues is a very particular line on page 159:

"This is not an argument that working-class women chose to be sterilized; it is an argument that there is no evidence that there was a repressive campaign to force them. The former is an unsubstantiable claim about subjectivity, the latter, a falsifiable claim about the activities of a repressive state."

I highly disagree with the "unsubstantiable claim," but Briggs highlights extremely insightful points regarding the politics of sterilization in the 1930s/1940s. I'm not saying she is correct, but she makes a very strong case for why we should take a moment to assess the evidence. I would love to see more recent work of Briggs to see if she has found further evidence (or lack thereof). All in all, an excellent resource for looking at sex, science, and imperialism.

Another major critique is the lack of race. There was hardly any notable discussion on race other than Puerto Rican vs white US American. In my opinion, not sufficient contents on racial groups to have "race" in the title of the book.

[s · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked this book more than i thought it would. i like how briggs builds off the work of stoler to think about empires through a politics of comparison--the first chapter that historicizes a history of prostitution policy through the british empire in india and southern and eastern africa and its impact on the prostitution policies of other imperial powers (like the US and there's brief mentions of japan) was well-done and really interesting. in a lot of ways, briggs is not making a new argument (and this is something she acknowledges) in highlighting the more "micro" dimensions of colonial and imperial rule through the feminized "private" space of domesticity/the management of women's bodies through science and medicine knowledge production, but it's still a book worth reading for her relational reading methods and the way she maps those interimperial relations through race, sexuality, science. before i knew it i wad on page 53! can't say that i have that feeling with a lot of academic books lol.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 Interesting look at how working class Puerto Rican women have been portrayed and controlled in the context of U.S imperialism. The book focuses more heavily on the different narratives surrounding Puerto Rican women as opposed to describing the experiences these women had. The author justifies her choice to do this in her epilogue, but I still found a tad disappointing (but that could be just personal tastes). Some chapters are more interesting than others, and sometimes the author's writing style could appear drawn out and a bit unorganized. Overall, it was a very enlightening read

[Raymond Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book examines how, in the pursuit of imperial modernization, military colonial officials and reformers turned the reform of prostitution and the organization of family life into an imperial technology. The author also suggests that colonialism was very much about sexuality and native femininity.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got through half of this and then decided I had read enough for a layperson. It's as bad or worse than you thought it was, and this well-researched and documented short (ish) academic book proves it.

[Elly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this and my mind is spinning. I was initially going to give this 4 stars, but the epilogue is so insightful and important that I had to give 5 stars. I know I'm probably going to have to reread the epilogue again.

[em sky-walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense but an excellent analysis. A little heavy on theory in places but where she is heavy on theory, she explains the theory well.

[Lacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in the real history of the United States, I recommend this book.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Briggs’ argument that U.S. moralism shaped imperialism in Puerto Rico has merit.

[Aura · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst Puerto Rican history books I've ever read. It is not well contextualized in Puerto Rican or Latin American historiographies, which brings a lot of problems to the author's analysis. Does being an American scholar entitle you to completely change the experiences of Puerto Rican women? Sources aren't problematized properly and thus her analysis is relatively weak. If you see this as a good book, you need to read more on Puerto Rico.

[Bekka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent look at exactly what the title says, "Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico". Laura Briggs' examination of these dynamics and the occurrence of forced sterilization in Puerto Rico is a worthwhile read. As a piece of cultural history and theory, I quite enjoyed it. (Hence, an academic read).

[John Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-researched, on a significant and vastly underwritten topic, but I couldn't connect stylistically.