In this expansive and contemplative history of Cuba, Louis A. Perez Jr. argues that the country's memory of the past served to transform its unfinished nineteenth-century liberation project into a twentieth-century revolutionary metaphysics. The ideal of national sovereignty that was anticipated as the outcome of Spain's defeat in 1898 was heavily compromised by the U.S. military intervention that immediately followed. To many Cubans it seemed almost as if the new nation had been overtaken by another country's history. Memory of thwarted independence and aggrievement - of the promise of sovereignty ever receding into the future - contributed to the development in the early republic of a political culture shaped by aspirations to fulfill the nineteenth-century promise of liberation, and it was central to the claim of the revolution of 1959 as the triumph of history. In this capstone book, Perez discerns in the Cuban past the promise that decisively shaped the character of Cuban nationality.
Louis A. Perez Jr is J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the Academia de la Historia de Cuba, Perez is author, most recently, of Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos.
Absolutely no one knows Cuba like Perez. . . . A challenging addition to the ever-growing body of Cuban histories.--Library Journal All students of nationalism will learn much from this brilliant book, and to students of Cuba it will be absolutely indispensable.--American Historical Review An important book that will reshape what we think about both nineteenth-century Cuba and the post-1959 period of the Cuban people.--The Americas Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--Choice If there is one book about Cuban history you should read in your lifetime, it is this.--Latin American Review of Books Perez continues to be at the forefront of the historiography of Cuba and its people. Those interested in the history of Cuba will find this book promising and useful.--Colonial Latin American Historical Review Perez is a gifted author and historian and this book is, overall, a masterpiece, a worthy read not only for Caribbean historians, but for historiographers in general. The casual reader, too, would find value in the book due to its ability to provide a general survey of prominent historical figures and events while at the same time covering historiography.--New West Indian Guide Perez [is] a masterful historian of Cuba.--Foreign Affairs Proves both mesmerizing and penetrating in its deconstructive gaze.--HAHR The work of a master historian . . . [and] essential reading for those seeking to understand the nature of Cuban history.--International Affairs
