This study of the political, economic, and socio-cultural relationship between the Dominican Republic and the United States follows the evolution of that relationship from the middle of the nineteenth century to the mid-1990s, dealing with the interplay of these dimensions from each country's perspective and in private and public interactions.

From the U.S. viewpoint, important issues include interpretation of the rise and fall of the Dominican Republic's strategic importance, the legacy of military intervention and occupation, the problem of Dominican dictatorship and instability, and vacillating U.S. efforts to "democratize" the country.

From the Dominican perspective, the essential themes involve foreign policies adopted from a position of relative weakness, ambivalent feelings about U.S. intervention, emphasis on economic interests and the movement of Dominicans between the two countries, international political isolation, the adversarial relationship with neighboring Haiti, and the legacy of dictatorship and the uneven evolution of an independent democratic system.