Borderline Citizens is a timely and accessible historical account of the entanglement of US imperialism, law, and Puerto Rican migration. As thousands of Puerto Ricans remain without relief a year after Hurricane María, Borderline Citizens is at once a cautionary tale of the disenfranchising effects of US imperialism and a reminder of the ferocity of a people in the face of injustice.
~Choice
With its combination of creative research, incisive argument, and timely contribution, Borderline Citizens would be an excellent text for graduate courses in immigration and in the history of the United States and the World. For scholars of empire and migration, this should be essential reading.
~H-Net
Borderline Citizens offers new and provoca- tive interpretations that deepen our understanding of U.S. Empire and Puerto Rican migration. The book is a timely contribution to an ongoing debate about colonialism and the legal status of Puerto Rico, making it a required reading to anyone interested in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Empire, and colonialism in general.
~Diplomatic History
This is a well-researched, detailed, and informative book that valuably contributes to the study of early twentieth-century Puerto Rican emigration to Hawaii and the States.
~American Historical Review
Borderline Citizens is a must-read for scholars interested in colonial migrations, empire, and citizenship.
~Journal of American Ethnic History
By bridging legal and labor histories, and using a transnational approach rooted in extensive archival research in Puerto Rico and the United States, McGreevey illuminates the intersections between political marginalization and economics incorporating that created "borderline" citizenship. He provides historical nuance to the roles of organized labor and labor migrations to Hawaii, the southern states, and Arizona. Hopefully these significant contributions will be fully integrated into U.S. history.
~The Journal of American History
Robert C. McGreevey's Borderline Citizens offers a very useful contribution to the labor history of Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Borderline Citizens stands as an important addition to the historical scholarship that, hopefully, will encourage greater engagement on the part of U.S. historians with the problematics of empire in Puerto Rico.
~Centro
McGreevey demonstrates skill in contextualizing the debates and overlapping concerns about migration, political rights, and the role of the US Constitution in colonial ventures. He provides enough historical background about Puerto Rico that nonspecialists may grasp the contours of the subject, but the book is rooted enough in US historical narratives that it could easily be assigned in US graduate or undergraduate courses.
~Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas
McGreevey's book helps us to sharpen our analysis of the ever-shifting boundaries of citizenship at a time when we are witnessing a resurgence of the kinds of public debates around fitness that we saw at the turn of the twentieth century, and which are powerfully captured in Borderline Citizens.
~Law and History Review
[O]ne of McGreevey's great contributions is his analysis of the limits of the classification of individual as "legal/citizens" or "illegal/noncitizens." [I]ts most compelling story is that of the interaction among labor leaders and movements in Puerto Rico and the United Sates.
~Society of U.S. Intellectual History
