Directory
Bergad, Laird W.

Laird W. Bergad

Faculty

Professor, History
Director, Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies

Research Interests

Latin America & Caribbean

Education

Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh

Contact

+1 212-817-8438

lbergad@gc.cuny.edu

Affiliated Campus(es)

Lehman College

Selected Publications

"The Demographic and Socioeconomic History of Latinos in the New York Metropolitan Area, 1900 - 2015." Work in progress.
Agrarian Puerto Rico: Reconsidering Economy and Society, 1899 - 1940. Coauthored with César J. Ayala, Department of Sociology, UCLA.(Cambridge University Press, January 2020).

Winner of the Manuel Moreno Fraginals Prize for the Best Book on Caribbean Economic History from the Association of Caribbean Economic Historians.

“Slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico” in The Cambridge World History of Slavery: Volume 4, AD 1804-AD 2016 by David Eltis (Editor), Stanley L. Engerman (Editor), Seymour Drescher (Editor), David Richardson (Editor) (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017) pp. 98 - 128.
Hispanics in the United States: A Demographic, Social, and Economic History, 1980 – 2005 (co-author with Herbert S. Klein) (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the United States (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Escravidão e História Econômica: Demografía de Minas Gerais,1720-1888 (São Paulo: EDUSC, 2004).
Slavery and the Economic and Demographic History of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1720-1888 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 298 pp.
The Cuban Slave Market, 1790-1880 (co-author with Fe Iglesias Garcia and Maria del Carmen Barcia) (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Cuban Rural Society in the Nineteenth Century: The Socialand Economic History of Monoculture in Matanzas (Princeton University Press, 1990).
Coffee and the Growth of Agrarian Capitalism in Nineteenth Century Puerto Rico (Princeton University Press, 1983).

Contact

+1 212-817-8438

lbergad@gc.cuny.edu

Affiliated Campus(es)

Lehman College

Books

Agrarian Puerto Rico

by Laird W. Bergad Professor, History, Director, Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies

Fundamental tenets of colonial historiography are challenged by showing that U.S. capital investment into this colony did not lead to the disappearance of the small farmer. Contrary to well-established narratives, quantitative data show that the increasing integration of rural producers within the U.S. market led to differential outcomes, depending on pre-existing land tenure structures, capital requirements to initiate production, and demographics. These new data suggest that the colonial economy was not polarized into landless Puerto Rican rural workers on one side and corporate U.S. capitalists on the other. The persistence of Puerto Rican small farmers in some regions and the expansion of local property ownership and production disprove this socioeconomic model. Other aspects of extant Puerto Rican historiography are confronted in order to make room for thorough analyses and new conclusions on the economy of colonial Puerto Rico during the early 20th century.

Published October 2020
Cambridge University Press, 2020

The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the United States

by Laird W. Bergad Professor, History, Director, Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies

This book is an introductory history of racial slavery in the Americas that is also the first work to systemically survey slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the U.S. from comparative perspectives. Brazil and Cuba were among the first colonial societies to establish slavery in the early sixteenth century. Approximately a century later British colonial Virginia was founded, and slavery became an integral part of local culture and society. In all three nations, slavery spread to nearly every region, and in many areas it was the principal labor system utilized by rural and urban elites. Chapters focus on slave narratives, demography, economy, culture, resistance and rebellions, and the causes of abolition.

Published June 2007
Cambridge University Press, 2007