
Fantasy Island
Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico
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Narrated by:
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Sean Duffy
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By:
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Ed Morales
About this listen
A crucial, clear-eyed accounting of Puerto Rico's 122 years as a colony of the US.
Since its acquisition by the US in 1898, Puerto Rico has served as a testing ground for the most aggressive and exploitative US economic, political, and social policies. The devastation that ensued finally grew impossible to ignore in 2017, in the wake of Hurricane María, as the physical destruction compounded the infrastructure collapse and trauma inflicted by the debt crisis. In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the frontlines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.
Taking listeners from San Juan to New York City and back to his family's home in the Luquillo Mountains, Morales shows us the machinations of financial and political interests in both the US and Puerto Rico, and the resistance efforts of Puerto Rican artists and activists. Through it all, he emphasizes that the only way to stop Puerto Rico from being bled is to let Puerto Ricans take control of their own destiny, going beyond the statehood-commonwealth-independence debate to complete decolonization.
©2019 Ed Morales (P)2019 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"The hurricanes, the debt, the depopulation. Ed Morales has written an urgent, fascinating, and impassioned portrait of Puerto Rico, the world's oldest colony." (Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States)
"Ed Morales has put together a compelling indictment of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico, based on journalistic and academic sources as well as his personal experiences as a New York-born Puerto Rican who cares deeply about his ancestral homeland. His work is an engaging, compassionate, well-documented, and crisply written analysis of the political, economic, and demographic downturn of the Island, after more than a decade of economic recession and almost two years since hurricane Maria." (Jorge Duany, author of Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know)
Featured Article: The 11 Best Latin American History Audiobooks to Help You Explore Latino History
While the vast and beautiful history of Latin America is worth exploring for people of all backgrounds, it is especially powerful for Latinos. Learning the history of their ancestors is an invaluable addition to self-identity and understanding. To inspire your own exploration and journey of discovery, we chose eleven of the most comprehensive and impactful audiobooks on Latin American history.
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- By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, Raymond G. Dobard, Cuesta Benberry, and others
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Leon Nixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1993, Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.
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Wonderful listen.
- By Jane Wolfe on 11-27-24
By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, and others
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The Accursed Tower
- The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.
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Another great book by Roger Crowley
- By tp on 03-13-20
By: Roger Crowley
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The Unidentified
- Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational - in fringe - is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. It seems the more our maps of the known world get filled in, the more we crave mysterious locations full of strange creatures. Enter Colin Dickey, cultural historian and tour guide of the weird.
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Skeptic's Analysis of Weird America
- By Adrian on 11-23-20
By: Colin Dickey
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Untold Power
- The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson
- By: Rebecca Boggs Roberts
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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While this nation has yet to elect its first woman president—and though history has downplayed her role—just over a century ago a woman became the nation’s first acting president. In fact, she was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. For the first time, we have a biography that takes an unflinching look at the woman whose ascent mirrors that of many powerful American women before and since, one full of the compromises and complicities women have undertaken throughout time in order to find security for themselves and make their mark on history.
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Readers voice lacked Edith’s strength
- By Heidi on 08-01-24
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The Urge
- Our History of Addiction
- By: Carl Erik Fisher
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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As a psychiatrist in training fresh from medical school, Carl Erik Fisher found himself face-to-face with an addiction crisis that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of his condition, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that our society’s current quagmire is only part of a centuries-old struggle to treat addictive behavior.
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Nailed it
- By Paully on 11-23-22
By: Carl Erik Fisher
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Lapidarium
- The Secret Lives of Stones
- By: Hettie Judah
- Narrated by: Nina Wadia
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Stones have furnished our earliest technologies and our first art materials. As jewelry and talismans, they have accompanied us in our journeys into the afterlife. We have carried stones over vast distances, erecting temples with them where we gathered to worship our gods. The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures.
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Lovely Bite-Sized Stories
- By Anonymous User on 07-20-23
By: Hettie Judah
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The Book of Not Knowing
- Exploring the True Nature of Self, Mind, and Consciousness
- By: Peter Ralston, Laura Ralston - editor
- Narrated by: Keith O'Brien
- Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Through decades of martial arts and meditation practice, Peter Ralston discovered a curious and paradoxical fact: that true awareness arises from a state of not knowing. Even the most sincere investigation of self and spirit, he says, is often sabotaged by our tendency to grab too quickly for answers and ideas as we retreat to the safety of the known.
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Painful
- By MJ on 05-09-19
By: Peter Ralston, and others
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Last Stand
- George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West
- By: Michael Punke
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In the last three decades of the 19th century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to 23. It was the era of Manifest Destiny, a gilded age that viewed the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up or shot down. Supporting hide hunters was the US Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans.
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Depressing history of American tragedy
- By J. A. Bowen on 05-16-16
By: Michael Punke
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The Glass Universe
- How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars
- By: Dava Sobel
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Number-one New York Times best-selling author Dava Sobel returns with the captivating, little-known true story of a group of women whose remarkable contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.
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But the seeing, which was everything, was better
- By Cynthia on 01-07-17
By: Dava Sobel
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Nuking the Moon
- And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board
- By: Vince Houghton
- Narrated by: Vince Houghton
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1958, the US Air Force nuked the moon as a show of military force. In 1967, the CIA sent live cats to spy on the Soviet government. In 1942, the British built a torpedo-proof aircraft carrier out of an iceberg. Of course, none of these things ever actually happened. But in Nuking the Moon, intelligence historian Vince Houghton proves that abandoned plans can be just as illuminating - and every bit as entertaining - as the ones that made it.
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Manchild writes book filled with his opinion
- By Just One More Opinion On The Internet on 08-31-19
By: Vince Houghton
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Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
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Slow
- By Gary V Howell on 06-07-20
By: Steven Johnson
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Fire and Brimstone
- The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917
- By: Michael Punke
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The worst hard-rock mining disaster in American history began a half hour before midnight on June 8, 1917, when fire broke out in the North Butte Mining Company's Granite Mountain shaft. Sparked more than 2,000 feet below ground, the fire spewed flames, smoke, and poisonous gas through a labyrinth of underground tunnels. Within an hour more than 400 men would be locked in a battle to survive. Within three days 164 of them would be dead.
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Fairly Solid Book With Good History
- By Matthew on 08-18-16
By: Michael Punke
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Money for Nothing
- The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution - the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos - would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles.
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Financial innovation's first song of the siren.
- By Michael Barnett on 09-06-20
By: Thomas Levenson
What listeners say about Fantasy Island
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- Anonymous User
- 07-17-21
I had no idea...
I sincerely loved this book. I love Puerto Rico, the people I've met there, and overall everything I've ever known about the island... but, I had no idea at the severity of the issues at hand. I definitely feel as if the "Fantasy" part was talking to me directly even. I'm simply blown away at the level of problems that island faces. For those interested in these types of books, it's well worth the listen. Enjoy!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-21-21
wow just wow
I was thoroughly impressed. very informative. well written. Pa'lante mi gente!!! required reading for all Puertorriqueños
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1 person found this helpful
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- Hydro Zorrito
- 08-03-22
👁🇵🇷👁
Heartbreaking saga with no end in sight. People kept divided over legal status. Independence is a long way off.
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- shakira julia
- 02-08-21
Gringo Narrattion
The content of this audiobook would have been better served by having the Author narrate his own book instead using gringo narrator who’s attempt at pronouncing Latin words took away from my passion to connect author and his message.
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7 people found this helpful
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- edill
- 05-05-21
confusing take aways
the social side of the book is very informative, but as the book creeps on the economic side it doesn't know how to assign blame, responsibility or understanding. At some points, it acknowledged that the government has been corrupt and incompetent, but then does a 180 and blames neo liberalism for the situation and government you have more control. All of this while arguing against the US government and for it to intervene and leave alone.
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- Michael
- 04-05-21
Needed just a bit more fluency...
Loved it! it was very informative. Though I wish the narrator was more fluent in Spanish so as not to mispronounce words or mess up names of groups like Calle 13 that is actually read Calle Trece NOT "Calle Thirteen." There were also one too many times where the reading was obvious and run-on.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anthony Spicola
- 03-25-23
The Island of Puerto Rico/La Isla del Encanto
A well meaning overview of the problems and obstacles facing Puerto Rico. The author addresses many of the fundamental problems and offers general solutions. Unfortunately the author drowns himself in negativity and very left wing politics that have never been sought by the vast majority of the people of Puerto Rico. I'll leave it to my family, friends, and people living in Puerto Rico to decide the future of the island.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Ruben Baez
- 03-25-22
Very informative book I hope more people Listen
I think if you're interested in learning about Puerto Rico, is empty economic situation, it's political situation come this is the book for you
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1 person found this helpful
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- Santiago Munoz
- 10-07-21
Left Wing Based. Anti American
Very left wing based book. I was looking for a history of Puerto Rico book. Found a anti American one.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Raymond Gonzalez
- 03-15-22
Narrator
Why is there a non Spanish speaker reading this and butchering Spanish words??
Very disappointed
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4 people found this helpful