Book review: American value: migrants, money and meaning in El Salvador and the United States

"American Value: Migrants, Money and Meaning in El Salvador and the United States." David Pedersen. University of Chicago Press. March 2013. --- Over the past half-century, El Salvador has transformed dramatically. Historically reliant on primary exports like coffee and cotton, the country emerged from a brutal civil war in 1992 to find much of its national income now coming from a massive emigrant workforce—over a quarter of its population—that earns money in the United States and sends it home. In American Value, David Pedersen examines this new way of life. An excellent account of the history of U.S.-El Salvador relations, writes Alexei Anisin.