War Against All Puerto Ricans, Nelson A Denis
War Against All Puerto Ricans, Nelson A Denis
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War Against All Puerto Ricans
Revolution and Terror in America's Colony

Author: Nelson A Denis

Narrator: Luis Vega

Unabridged: 8 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/03/2025

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

The powerful, untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico and the long history of U.S. intervention on the island, that the New York Times says "could not be more timely."

In 1950, after over fifty years of military occupation and colonial rule, the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico staged an unsuccessful armed insurrection against the United States. Violence swept through the island: assassins were sent to kill President Harry Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burned down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens.

Nelson A. Denis tells this powerful story through the controversial life of Pedro Albizu Campos, who served as the president of the Nationalist Party. A lawyer, chemical engineer, and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard Law School, Albizu Campos was imprisoned for twenty-five years and died under mysterious circumstances. By tracing his life and death, Denis shows how the journey of Albizu Campos is part of a larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism.

Through oral histories, personal interviews, eyewitness accounts, congressional testimony, and recently declassified FBI files, War Against All Puerto Ricans tells the story of a forgotten revolution and its context in Puerto Rico's history, from the US invasion in 1898 to the modern-day struggle for self-determination. Denis provides an unflinching account of the gunfights, prison riots, political intrigue, FBI and CIA covert activity, and mass hysteria that accompanied this tumultuous period in Puerto Rican history.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dan on April 13, 2016

First off, Puerto Ricans are Americans. I just want to establish that right away because I'm always surprised by the number of Americans that don't know that. Also, knowing that, it makes the US policy towards Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans even more depressing. What Denis does here is present a comp......more

Goodreads review by Marisol on May 13, 2015

I could not put this book down! If you have any interest in the history of Puerto Rico and its relationship to the U.S., you must read this book. I was aware of many of the events that took place, however not much of the details. And let me tell you the devil is in the details! The author has meticu......more

Goodreads review by Chris on July 14, 2018

I've been trying to read more non-fiction in recent years, but I'm highly selective on what I pick up. War Against All Puerto Ricans is my most recent selection. Having married into a Puerto Rican family, I thought knowing a little more about Puerto Rican history could be beneficial (especially if t......more

Goodreads review by Mariella on August 01, 2015

Required reading for all. However its incomplete. I learned so much about the other people involved in the revolution but I was surprised that it ended the story in 1965. The struggle continues, and I also would have liked more on the Spanish occupation history as well, who I really don't care that......more

Goodreads review by Zach on January 12, 2025

Sometimes, you read U.S. history and think to yourself 'however much you think you hate the U.S., it's not enough.' Reading through the history of torture, fascism, colonialism, biological warfare, and imperialism in what's been referred to as 'our little region over there' is numbing. And what's mo......more

Quotes

“Sometime in the not-too distant future, we will resolve the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. To understand where we are going, we must know our past—both good and bad. War Against All Puerto Ricans fills an important gap in that historical understanding. It is a book that every student of the US–Puerto Rico relationship should read.” —Congressman José Serrano

"[Nelson Denis] provides scathing insights into Washington's response to Albizu Campos's nationalist party and its violent revolution in 1950 that still has broad implications...his perspective of largely overlooked history could not be more timely."—The New York Times

"War Against All Puerto Ricans is a fascinating read...mind-blowing...women were sterilized, people were tortured, cities were bombed by US planes...A lot of Americans will learn a great deal from reading it. I know I did."—Jerome McDonald, WBEZ Worldview

 "In searing and well-researched prose, former New York assemblyman and El Diario editorial director Denis covers a much-neglected side of U.S. imperialist and colonial practice in Puerto Rico...The historical account he adeptly weaves unabashedly reveals the government's racist and often predatory actions toward its Caribbean colony...This timely, eye-opening title is as much a must-read as Juan Gonzalez's Harvest of Empire."—Shelley Diaz, Library Journal

 “Reveals the true face of American imperialism in its own backyard…Denis's meticulous research reveals an often overlooked element of American history and provides context to the current status of Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory.”—Publishers Weekly

"A meticulous and riveting account of the decades-long clash between the Puerto Rican independence movement, led by Pedro Albizu Campos, and the commonwealth's U.S.-appointed stewards, national police force, the FBI and, ultimately, the U.S. Army"—Ray Mondell, New York Daily News

"A pointed, relentless chronicle of a despicable part of past American foreign policy."—Kirkus Reviews

"An enlightening and engaging read...a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about Puerto Rico. Denis provides a more detailed account, thanks to exclusive interviews conducted over a span of decades, as well as thousands of public records, including recently de-classified FBI documents."—Andre Lee Muñiz, La Respuesta

"A patient, calibrated, fully-researched study of the mendacious, hypocritical way the United States treats its Caribbean colony, castrating its leadership, bombarding its villages, experimenting biologically with its population. Puerto Rico is, in a word, el calabozo. Denis knows the truth first-hand and refuses to sugarcoat it.”—Ilan Stavans, author of Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language

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