McCook, Stewart. The World Was My Garden. 1935. https://laus2020.voices.wooster.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/260/2020/01/McCook-The-World-Was-My-Garden-Tropical-Botany-and-Cosmopolitanism-in-American-Science-from-The-Colonial-Crucible-499-507.pdf

The World Was My Garden allows us insight into the growth and expansion of the US agriculture research infrastructure and one of the largest collections of localized plants. It highlights the development of agriculture and the study of herbivory on these colonized lands to then bring this tropical botany back to the U.S. This then did allow for growth in the job industry, bringing the solution to previous agricultural issues and the installation of USDA led regulations in disease legislation. Stuart McCook is a professor with a focus on the environmental history of tropical plants, allowing for a very insightful interpretation of this information. He allows a mature academic read of the then-new revolutionizing academia of plant sciences, while also opening up the conversation of imperialism for capital.

Navarro-Rivera, Pablo. The Imperial Enterprise and Educational Policies in Colonial Puerto Rico. https://laus2020.voices.wooster.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/260/2020/01/Navarro-Rivera-The-Imperial-Enterprise-and-Educational-Politices-in-Coloinal-PR-from-The-Colonial-Crucible-163-174.pdf

Associate Professor Pablo Navarro Rivera provides an elaboration of the hegemonies and re-structurization of Puerto Rican culture in the exchange back and forth as colony of Spain and territory of the U.S. With Puerto Rico being succumbed by the colonization of Spain, once the undertaking of the region came under the handle of the U.S, education began to be seen as the “new way” of conquering. This colonizing attitude towards education became the reasoning behind many Puerto Ricans being sent off to American educational facilities. In a sense of conformist logic, the U.S felt that if Puerto Ricans were able to more closely identify with Americans that it would be more reasonable for this expansion into a territory. This sponsored the idea of allowing a select few the opportunity to Study in America with a grant scholarship, to learn how to act “civilized,” in an almost military fashion. This ideology remains very nationalistic as in regards to the U.S government, people of Puerto Rico, among others, consist of those who are “uncivilized.” In these actions of “re-education”, the U.S formed governance over Puerto Rico in land, culture, and identity.