Scientists played a critical role in the reorganization of plantation agriculture in the Caribbean after slavery. They provided agroexporters with the knowledge, techniques, and attitudes to adapt to a series of ecological threats to their existence. In the process, scientists enabled them to subjugate vast stretches of the Caribbean to a handful of new crop varieties. This created new ecological problems to solve that perpetuated the need for expertise. Stuart McCook has produced a concise, incisive, yet far-ranging defense of this interpretation of the environmental histories of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, and the United States.
McCook’s long chapter on the “Eco-Rationalization of the Caribbean Sugar Industry” is the heart and strength of this book. He highlights the heroic success achieved by Puerto Rican agronomist Carlos Chardón during the 1920s in combating mosaic disease, a virus that devastated fields of high-yielding cane hybrids. Through a series of elegant...
