What do you think?
Rate this book
Historia general de Puerto Rico
Entender el pasado para comprender el presente no parece un empeño intelectual retador hasta que lo intentamos. Diversos historiadores han encontrado claves en los siglos precedentes para apreciar las contradicciones en nuestra sociedad y las ambigüedades en nuestras instituciones. Pero la historia enseña algo, o son más bien los historiadores los que- revistiéndose del manto de Clío- asumen la tarea de enseñar? Esta revisión de la Historia general de Puerto Rico no dilucida esas discusiones, pero si pretende poner al día nuestros entendimientos sobre la formación y el desarrollo de nuestra sociedad. En las últimas décadas se ha publicado mucho, pero no siempre se ha logrado hacer una síntesis de los avances logrados por los investigadores. Una vez más esta edición actualizada de la Historia general intenta realizar esa tarea.
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1986
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 26, 2026
I’m sure at one time this was a quintessential read on Puerto Rican history. Unfortunately in a world where books like “Puerto Rico: A National History” by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo and “War Against All Puerto Ricans” by Nelson Denis exist, it just no longer is. History books are perceived to be dry, but they do not need to be! They become boring when you spend 20 pages discussing how many ships docked in a particular harbor and get bogged down in tedious details. You can discuss the mundane details of real life without being boring, and unfortunately this book falls at this.
Also, and I caveat I have probably read more history books about Puerto Rico than the average person, but this book has glaring omissions. The author spends the majority of the first like 200 pages discussing Spanish rule, which is interesting to an extent, but I feel like there’s a reason many history texts of Puerto Rico get to the Spanish American war sooner. Meléndez-Badillo gets to 1898 by page 75, but that doesn’t happen here until page 230. We spend more time discussing shipping patterns than the U.S. occupation and the ramifications that are having a MAJOR impact today. And I know this book was written in 2005, but people understood that the repeal of Section 936, for example, would have massive impacts on the Puerto Rican economy already and yet it gets a single page towards the end of the book.
I just don’t love this book. I don’t think you always need to read the most contemporary history book to get a better image of a nations history, but this book is just maybe a little bit too dated now. It does not have the staying power that something like “The Black Jacobins” does.
Also, and I caveat I have probably read more history books about Puerto Rico than the average person, but this book has glaring omissions. The author spends the majority of the first like 200 pages discussing Spanish rule, which is interesting to an extent, but I feel like there’s a reason many history texts of Puerto Rico get to the Spanish American war sooner. Meléndez-Badillo gets to 1898 by page 75, but that doesn’t happen here until page 230. We spend more time discussing shipping patterns than the U.S. occupation and the ramifications that are having a MAJOR impact today. And I know this book was written in 2005, but people understood that the repeal of Section 936, for example, would have massive impacts on the Puerto Rican economy already and yet it gets a single page towards the end of the book.
I just don’t love this book. I don’t think you always need to read the most contemporary history book to get a better image of a nations history, but this book is just maybe a little bit too dated now. It does not have the staying power that something like “The Black Jacobins” does.
July 12, 2017
Did you ever start reading a history book and could not put it down? This is it!
December 20, 2023
Incredibly thorough and well-written. It was a slow read at times, but that is expected with history books. 10/10 recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about Puerto Rican history, culture, and politics through the ages.
Read
September 2, 2014Zukommt Books like Biographie Puerto Rico San Juan Cruise iPods
August 11, 2026
everybody knows that Picó’s Historia general is the great introductory text on Puerto Rican history. the first edition came out in 1980; my mother studied from it in college—it was later updated in 2005 in light of more recent scholarship. it has held up remarkably, despite its age.
both padre Picó and i are, in a sense, outsiders to Puerto Rican history: he was a Jesuit priest studying thirteenth-century France, asked to teach the subject by Fordham University in New York. my own mind has been on minarets, olive trees and Semitic verbs for longer than i care to admit. but i went back home recently, and felt that i had dots to connect. they are now connected.
i adore Baroque art and literature. it has come to my attention that there is no Puerto Rican Baroque because there was no Puerto Rican Baroque: throughout the 17th century, the island of San Juan Bautista had a stable population of about six thousand souls, most of them women, a great many of them dependent on smuggling, impossible to tax, and living ungoverned.
Puerto Rico in the long 19th century is a mirror image of Spain in its struggles between liberals and conservatives. you see all the same names: Juan Prim, Primo de Rivera, trienios, sexenios, etc. The great separatist revolt of the Grito de Lares is made possible by the Glorious Revolution; chattel slavery ends in Puerto Rico with the First Spanish Republic.
the sides that one grows up with in Puerto Rico on the status question are not the ones that existed in the years after 1898. the downfall of the Spanish system created a space for the pro-statehood syndicalist movement of Santiago Iglesias; Albizu’s Nationalist Party, though anti-imperialist to the bone, was made up in large part of the former Creole ruling class, Catholic and Hispanophile, defending their material interests.
i feel now that i have gotten to know “the storm that we call progress”, as we have seen it from our little corner of the world, and the slave revolts and attempts at revolution that have tried to stop it, a great deal better.
both padre Picó and i are, in a sense, outsiders to Puerto Rican history: he was a Jesuit priest studying thirteenth-century France, asked to teach the subject by Fordham University in New York. my own mind has been on minarets, olive trees and Semitic verbs for longer than i care to admit. but i went back home recently, and felt that i had dots to connect. they are now connected.
i adore Baroque art and literature. it has come to my attention that there is no Puerto Rican Baroque because there was no Puerto Rican Baroque: throughout the 17th century, the island of San Juan Bautista had a stable population of about six thousand souls, most of them women, a great many of them dependent on smuggling, impossible to tax, and living ungoverned.
Puerto Rico in the long 19th century is a mirror image of Spain in its struggles between liberals and conservatives. you see all the same names: Juan Prim, Primo de Rivera, trienios, sexenios, etc. The great separatist revolt of the Grito de Lares is made possible by the Glorious Revolution; chattel slavery ends in Puerto Rico with the First Spanish Republic.
the sides that one grows up with in Puerto Rico on the status question are not the ones that existed in the years after 1898. the downfall of the Spanish system created a space for the pro-statehood syndicalist movement of Santiago Iglesias; Albizu’s Nationalist Party, though anti-imperialist to the bone, was made up in large part of the former Creole ruling class, Catholic and Hispanophile, defending their material interests.
i feel now that i have gotten to know “the storm that we call progress”, as we have seen it from our little corner of the world, and the slave revolts and attempts at revolution that have tried to stop it, a great deal better.
July 14, 2021
Para aquellos que buscan una forma de conocer la historia de Puerto Rico en un libro, este es uno de los mejores.
March 21, 2023
Lectura obligada para todo puertorriqueño que quiera entender mejor su país.
February 11, 2024
Siempre que leo a Fernando Pico tengo solamente una palabra: magistral!!!
January 19, 2020
Este libro es un resumen de la historia de P.R. usualmente mis compañeros maestros me hacen referencia de que es el mejor libro de historia de P.R.
July 2, 2022
Me encanta la historia de Puerto Rico ya nos enseña todo lo que nuestros ancestros tuvieron que pasar para que nosotros tuviéramos un mejor país.
August 10, 2023
Excelente libro pero no es para todo el mundo. Muchos datos y data, es bastante cronológico y obviamente es un libro de historia no una novela.
Read
April 7, 2026Grad school read
June 14, 2017
Little more then a textbook describing the events of Puerto Rico's history without any sense of historical narrative. I have read better textbooks then this, but it is not bad or incompetent work in any way. I just feel that the island deserves something more.
The reason that this book fails to engage its readers is because the history of Puerto Rico has always been imposed upon it from above. For better or worse the island has been colony since Ponce de Leon first arrived on its shores in 1508.
It is possible to create an engaging and original narrative of Puerto Rico's history, but not if you insist on describing the island principally in terms of policy and economics which are foreign to it. I will readily agree that economics is the driving force behind most historical, cultural, and technological developments in our history. However, only by examining the interplay between an island's culture and the larger trends that affect it can you truly get a sense of what it is.
The most interesting parts of the book are those in which the author describes the development of Puerto Rico's culture and identity. Many books could be written about these brief snippets he touches upon. However for the most part he prefers to print tables upon tables of demographics and production outputs. Furthermore the ending of the new edition could be better integrated.
Pico created a clear and informative history of Puerto Rico in which he lists what happened and fails to say anything original about it.
The reason that this book fails to engage its readers is because the history of Puerto Rico has always been imposed upon it from above. For better or worse the island has been colony since Ponce de Leon first arrived on its shores in 1508.
It is possible to create an engaging and original narrative of Puerto Rico's history, but not if you insist on describing the island principally in terms of policy and economics which are foreign to it. I will readily agree that economics is the driving force behind most historical, cultural, and technological developments in our history. However, only by examining the interplay between an island's culture and the larger trends that affect it can you truly get a sense of what it is.
The most interesting parts of the book are those in which the author describes the development of Puerto Rico's culture and identity. Many books could be written about these brief snippets he touches upon. However for the most part he prefers to print tables upon tables of demographics and production outputs. Furthermore the ending of the new edition could be better integrated.
Pico created a clear and informative history of Puerto Rico in which he lists what happened and fails to say anything original about it.
March 28, 2024
This book was suggested by a bookseller in San Juan as the best history of the island. It is dense with ideas and stories of the people-something that can be picked up and re-read to see new points. Its focus on the development of the country from the inside, versus just how it was shaped by outside forces gives it an intimate feel. You don’t have to read the introduction to know that this is a passion project, the work of many years of reading, discussing, researching, and asking questions. Because the author passed away just before Hurricane Maria, his history ends there, without the examination of event. There is an extensive notes and bibliography, but unfortunately no index (at least for the English translation) but it is still a wonderful book.
I read it last year when I visited and again this year-it adds something to read the pages of Pico’s history and then look up to see the hills and mountains he mentions-makes the book come alive.
I read it last year when I visited and again this year-it adds something to read the pages of Pico’s history and then look up to see the hills and mountains he mentions-makes the book come alive.
June 10, 2015
This is a very complete look at the history of the island. The picture starts with the very formation of the land; and ends in 2005; when the form of government is shared with the USA. It reviews every possible aspect of the people of Puerto Rico: their culture; their economics; their diet; where they come from and why they are the way they are. Puerto Ricans are a very special kind of human beings: their philosophy of life is a mixture between the fishermen (why work if I have eaten today) and the american dreamer (try to gather as much money and toys as you can in order to attain happiness). From that mixture; one can find really bizarre bedfellows.
July 31, 2015
Resume muy bien la historia de Puerto Rico. Se lo recomiendo a cualquiera que quiera conocer esta magnífica historia de este gran pueblo. Lo único que no me gustó es que en algunas partes se enfocó demasiado en datos no tan importantes como las cantidades exactas de exportación de tal y tal material, también no hablo tanto de los años más recientes como hablo de siglos pasados. Si te gusta la historia léelo.
January 5, 2015
Excelente síntesis de la Historia de un país aún en formación. Es un libro que todo puertorriqueño debe leer, al ser un resumén de muchos siglos de historia claramente hay temas que no son tan ampliamente tratados. Es un libro de referencia que nos adentra en nuestra historia y nos anima a buscar y conocer más de ella.
April 7, 2023
Incredibly dry, and weirdly obsessed with trying to convince you that Puerto Rico wasn't that big a deal to the Spanish empire--which just stands in odd contrast to the sheer amount of investment that must have gone into building the two huge forts in San Juan.
December 14, 2007
A comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico
April 7, 2011
This book its sort of a condense view on the history from Puerto Rico, from it ecological beginnings to more contemporary times. Really good reading. (My copy is in Spanish)
January 19, 2025
A book every Puerto Rican should read.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews