America's Banquet of Cultures: Harnessing, Ethnicity, Race and Immigration in the Twenty-first Century(Praeger, 2000)
Fernandez has eloquently critiqued America's obsession with race, color, and immigrant `dangers'....Fernandez valiantly demands that we genuinely cherish ethnic and cultural difference. All levels.
—Choice
...a provocative blend of observation and policy suggestions....useful in teaching undergraduates, particularly for those instructors who like to use unconventional thinking and opinion to shake students free from the shackles of their everyday assumptions.
—Contemporary Sociology
* Endorsement From Rex Nettleford
Vice Chancellor University of the West Indies
The Americas of which the United States is but one, albeit an iconic part, continue to invite deep analysis, insightful commentary, and practical directions towards a future capable of coping creatively with the dilemma of difference. Ronald Fernandez's America's Banquet of Cultures is a timely contribution to the continuing discourse on ethnicity, race and the immigration that underlie the textured diversity which is already the hallmark of 21st century life on planet Earth. It is indeed an invaluable and welcome addition to the expanding literature in the still emerging field of Cultural Studies.
The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico and the United States in the Twentieth Century(Praeger, 2nd edition, 1996)
The author of Los Macheteros: The Violent Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence here provides a well-written historical narrative of the island's political evolution vis-a-vis the United States from 1898 to the present. Fernandez argues that, despite slight modifications in the relationship, Puerto Rico remains dependent on the United States. Throughout, he introduces many interesting figures and offers perceptive insights into political and economic developments which have influenced the relationship, including the consequences of the Internal Revenue Service's decisions on resident and nonresident taxes and the gross ignorance of Harding appointee Governor Reilly, in the early 1920s. Highly recommended as a readable general overview.
—Library Journal
. . . one of those rare works which is genuinely useful to both scholars and general readers. This volume contains a significant amount of new insights and documentation, making it interesting to the specialist, while also providing enough background and clear analysis to educate those with little or no knowledge of Puerto Rican affairs . . . this volume makes an important contribution to our understanding of Puerto Rico's colonial dilemma.
—Journal of Third World Studies
Cruising the Caribbean: U.S. Intervention and Influence in the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century (Common Courage, 1994)
Cruising the Caribbean was chosen as one of the best books in print by the Reader's Guide of the New York Review of Books.
An eminently readable account of a century of the Unted States' disastrous Caribbean policy.Going far beyond the standard polemics of the left and right, Fernandez showsw us why American policy makers...have consistently championed policies that have led to misery and oppression in one of the world's most beautiful and benighted of regions. A must read for every American who, 'Cruising the Caribbean", has wondered "why do these people hate us".
Attorneys William H. Kunstler and Ronald Kuby
Mappers of Society: The Lives, Legacies and Times of Great Sociologists (Praeger, 2003)
With a sharp sense of humor, Fernandez's book offers to readers insight into the minds of some of the sociological greats, along with encouragement to use those insights to understand and perhaps improve the contemporary world. This is one of those rare theory books that I believe students will actually enjoy reading, and because Fernandez is clearly excited about the promise of sociology, readers are likely to catch his enthusiasm and be more excited about sociology as well....[t]his book would be an excellent choice for social theory courses pitched at virtually any level.
—Teaching SociologyApril 2004
