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In this piece by a collective of scholars, activists, and artists, the authors clarify what they mean by “Transnational Hispaniola” and why they believe this conceptualization of the island complements the work done by social movements combating sexism, racism, and homophobia. They assess the responses to their efforts so far — by people in the Dominican Republic and in the United States — to reflect critically upon the promises and limitations of this work. They end by explaining their goals for the future challenges as they plan a third (but hopefully not final) conference, this time in Haiti.

After the 2010 earthquake, many stakeholders in Haiti and across the globe worked together to increase Haitian mango harvest for export, ostensibly as a way to improve people’s lives. To date, however, no study has examined how such an increase may be affecting the producers beyond statistical measures. Using archival research and fieldwork in the Artibonite Department in Haiti, this article examines the social consequences of the labour process of Haitian peasants as they pick and process mangoes for export. After describing the biogeography of the mango, I describe the different systems of labour used in mango harvesting. I argue that the growth and harvesting of Haitian mangoes for export reflects social differentiation between those who can organize labour according to monetized relations and those who incorporate the domestic unit into commodity production. Furthermore, as more production shifts to work based upon monetized relations, the balance of economic power shifts towards adult men.

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For the taste of an old-school historian like this reviewer, Kline spends too much time on theory and method and on saying first what he intends to say, then saying it, and finally saying that he said it. Despite being a full-fledged authority in his own right, he makes seemingly excessive use of direct and indirect quotations from his sources (written and oral). However, he displays encyclopedic knowledge of the various negotiation processes, comparing success rates (relatively high with the paramilitaries, low with the FARC, somewhere in between with the ELN), and suggesting reasons for the differences. It is hard to imagine a more basic reference on these processes than what Kline has written. He is somewhat more disposed to give Uribe the benefit of various doubts, whereas many of the other authors question the depth of Uribe's true interest in seeking a nonviolent outcome. Kline also, while noting the standard NGO complaint that Uribe's muchvaunted paramilitary demobilization was too generous to some very unsavory characters, is prepared at least to raise the question of how a similar result might have been achieved by harsher means. His is not an easy book to read, but one still worth reading.

In the introduction, Mayes and Jayaram describe the Transnational Hispaniola paradigm for an audience new to studies of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The introduction also includes a brief description of each chapter of the collection.