The Company They Kept

“Full of case histories and graphic descriptions of daily life, Putnam’s study puts a human face on the history of a boom and bust plantation economy. The result is a dramatic social and cultural history of migration, community formation, and economic development that will broaden readers' perspectives on the regional history of the western Caribbean.” — American Historical Review

“[The Company They Kept: Migrants and the Politics of Gender in Caribbean Costa Rica] is also truly innovative in its use of gender in rethinking race relations and ethnic identities in Costa Rica. . . . This is a terrific book. It is well researched, well written and analytically sophisticated.” — Journal of Social History

“A book . . . that will change the way we think about the histories of the Caribbean and Central America.” — International History Review

“A vivid, beautifully written, sophisticated, and insightful book. By focusing on the intersections of gender, migration, work, community, and the subjective dimensions of honor and violence, Putnam provides an entirely new perspective on the history of the banana region of eastern lowland Costa Rica. The book will interest historians and sociologists of gender, of labor, of the Caribbean and Central America, of the African diaspora, and of comparative banana regions.” — Catherine C. LeGrand, McGill University

“An engaging and stunningly well-written work that dissects invented traditions with powerful anti-essentializing effects. In this welcome brand of social history we learn just how culture and values interact with choice and individual personality, quite without much in the way of the State policy or intervention usually thought to shape the arena of family values. Putnam is as 'facety' as her best subjects in showing just how fluid and changing both cultural values and gender roles can be in migrant communities of all kinds.” — Lowell Gudmundson, Mount Holyoke College