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PUERTO RICO: A Success Story by Ralph Hancock

PUERTO RICO: A Success Story

By

Publisher: Van Nostrand

This is a capable and well substantiated account of Puerto Rico's ""uniquely creative explosion"" which has transformed her from ""the slum of the Caribbean"" to an increasingly prosperous country where the standard of living has doubled in a decade, and the lifespan has also almost doubled. With a brief introduction to Puerto Rico's historical past, the country, the customs, the people, the squalor and starvation and disease which obtained until 1940 when ""Operation Bootstrap"" was launched, this goes on to discuss the economic factors (primarily triggered by tax exemption) which are involved in her renascence; the leadership of Luis Munoz Marin; her status and independence as a colony- and the question of statehood (less favorable to her); the new tourism and boom; and the question of manpower, both down there- and among the migrants here. Not a scenic view for the casual visitor, but primarily a political and economic profile which serves as a demonstration and object lesson for other underprivileged parts of the world.