Carmelo Esterrich’s 'Concrete and Countryside: The Urban and Rural in 1950s Puerto Rican Culture' Reviewed

News Office Staff / Sep 25, 2018

Photo courtesy of Carmelo Esterrich

Humanities, History, and Social Sciences Associate Professor Carmelo Esterrich's new book Concrete and Countryside: The Urban and Rural in 1950s Puerto Rican Culture was recently reviewed for the Journal of Social History.

The book examines how Puerto Ricans responded to modernization during the late 1940s to the early 1960s. The book’s publisher notes that Esterrich's work examines "a wide range of cultural texts, but focus[es] on the film production of the Division of Community Education, the popular dance music of Cortijo y su combo, and the literary texts of Jose Luis Gonzalez and Rene Marques.”
 
In the review for the Journal of Social History, José A. Laguarta Ramírez describes Esterrich’s work as “a fresh look at an otherwise much-studied moment of [Puerto Rico's] modern history" and "a welcome contribution to the cultural studies and social history of modern Puerto Rico."
 
Concrete and Countryside: The Urban and Rural in 1950s Puerto Rican Culture can be purchased from the University of Pittsburgh Press.

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