"This book explores the history of the Dominican Republic as it evolved from the first European colony in the Americas into a modern nation under the rule of Rafael Trujillo. It investigates the social foundations of this exceptionally enduring and brutal dictatorship (1930-1961) and, more broadly, the way power is sustained in such non-democratic regimes.". "The book also explores the massacre of ethnic Haitians in 1937 in the context of this peasant integration, showing how this violence arose out of tensions between local understandings of the Dominican nation in the frontier, a highly transnational and bicultural region, and constructs of a monoethnic nation emanating from the capital and urban cities."--BOOK JACKET.