Task Force-specific Guides Spring 2022

Over a century has passed since the United States Supreme Court decided a series of cases, known as the "Insular Cases," that limited the applicability of constitutional rights in Puerto Rico and other overseas territories and allowed the United States to hold them indefinitely as subordinated possessions without the promise of representation or statehood. Essays in this volume, which originated in a Harvard Law School conference, reconsider the Insular Cases.

"This is a brilliant and outstanding book, quite persuasive in the way it interrogates history. Dr. Rivera Ramos performs the immense service of providing a serious discussion of the complexity of Puerto Rican history and political culture as well as a provocative rethinking of how imperial power works." --Arcadio D az-Qui ones, Princeton University

Born in Civil War-era Cincinnati in 1857, William Howard Taft rose rapidly through legal, judicial, and political ranks, graduating from Yale and becoming a judge while still in his twenties. In 1900, President William McKinley appointed Taft to head a commission charged with preparing the Philippines for US-led civil government, setting the stage for Taft's involvement in US-Philippine relations and the development of his imperial vision across two decades. While biographies of Taft and histories of US-Philippine relations are easy to find, few works focus on Taft's vision for the Philippines that, despite a twenty-year crusade, would eventually fail.