Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): An American History

This is a serious book about Cuba. It is not an easy read and you'd have to be seriously interested in Cuba to find it worthwhile. That said, it;s by far the best book on Cuba and the United States I have ever read--the author's approach is to emphasize the interconnections between the US and Cuba, which are deeper than most people think. Tampa's cigar industry dates to Cuban exiles in the 1880s and 1890s, and in the Tampa area, Cuban coffee and the Cuban sandwich are common and on many menus. The author's writing is clear and flows very well. Her knowledge of both Cuban and American history is deep and the book is extremely informative. I think progressives will like the book more than conservatives, because she sees villains on both sides of the narrow waters that separate the island from the U.S.

If you like survey histories and don't know much about Cuba (and you live in the US), I highly recommend this book. Not only does it cover key events and forces inside and outside Cuba that have shaped it, it's very readable and with on-the-ground anecdotes and quotes, brings to life how events probably felt to the people in or around them. BUT - to take it a level beyond "interesting & readable history book," I think this type of book is *important* to read. Personally, Cuban history was not covered in my public k-12 education in the US, except for the Cuban missile crisis. And due to the embargo, my knowledge of the place and its people has been pretty minimal. (And I think that is probably a very common experience.) Which is unfortunate, because Cuba is one of the US's few direct neighbors. Our histories, like with Mexico or Canada, are very intertwined. Havana has been a cultural hub for the entire hemisphere for the last 500 years, due to where it sat on the gulf stream trade routes between Europe and the Americas, with as much of a musical influence as NYC and New Orleans. Our relationship with Cuba even shapes presidential elections, or led to a nuclear missile crisis... To ignore it is to miss an important part of our own history, and how you treat your neighbors can cause tragic boomerang impacts. To that point, Ferrer frames Cuba's history as an "American" one, that it is hemispheric and intertwined with the US. What she brought to light (for me as a US citizen) was how the US has hungrily viewed Cuba as a place where we can extend our influence & economy. In that self-absorbed mindset, we've missed seeing Cuba's distinct history. We elbowed into their revolution from Spain and claimed them as a de facto vassal via the Platt Amendment. Then an era of progressive and revolutionary Cuban activism during the first half of the 20th century gained political "independence" from the US, at first from the Platt Amendment, then also economically with the nationalization of US-owned holdings under Castro. And thus relations deteriorated completely. Obama's effort to reconnect was a step in a new direction, more as partners and neighbors, but that change is doing some zig zags. Ferrer ends on a hopeful note about we all play a part in shaping the future. So as the book wrapped up, I wondered what a voter in the US might do. Even with a rapprochement, the economic imbalance (small poor country adjacent to a juggernaut) yields these high voltage differences that cause shocks when they connect. US investors eagerly bought up land & plantations a century ago when the revolution had suggested opportunity for all Cubans, then there were flash waves of migrants over the last sixty years. In electric systems you need good transformers that step-down the voltage level, and the question is what could those transformers be between the US and Cuba in the coming decades. No matter what, Cuba is our neighbor. And becoming better neighbors requires getting to know them, empathizing with their perspective, understanding how you're viewed and what your impacts are on them. A book like this is an important part of that journey, and it was great to read. Strongly recommend!

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Ferrer is an excellent and engaging writer, and gives the reader an impressive recounting of 500 years of Cuban history. The book is definitely worth reading. On the other hand, she seems to have tunnel vision about some of the more troubling aspects of the history of the Cuban government, and I wonder whether her political views have caused her to eliminate important facts. Her central thesis is that Cuba has been a target of repression and manipulation by Western governments, principally the United States, for centuries. This, perhaps unfortunately, leads her to describe the exploits of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara as those of swashbuckling saviors out to protect the little people. As a result, she glosses over the deprivation of due process and the many murders that Castro and Guevara engaged in, which the Cuba Project estimates exceeded 10,000. She does not talk about the regime’s use of concentration camps, or extrajudicial imprisonment. Nor does she talk about the racism discovered in Che’s diaries after his death, particularly about people of color and Mexicans. She writes glowingly about Castro instituting agrarian reform (in other words, confiscation of land), better health care, higher wages, and equality between men and women. But she has no good explanation for the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who fled the country (including on improvised rafts), even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. She tries to get around this by contending first, that some of these people supported Fulgencio Batista, and second (not kidding) that refugees from Cuba were principally unhappy because Castro made them repeat “revolutionary” slogans. That struck me as ridiculous. While she complains a lot about the US meddling in Cuban affairs, she is nonjudgmental about the Soviet Union becoming involved in Cuba, even though the heavy-handed Soviet government kept the entirety of Eastern Europe behind walls. One minor point: She manages to describe the Spanish-American War without mentioning the Battle of San Juan Hill. (In fairness, late in the book, she talks about a painting in the White House depicting the battle.) Yes, the battle was a minor skirmish. Yes, the war was pretty much over when it happened. But a future US President was involved in the Battle, which, I think, merits a couple of paragraphs. What was the battle about? How did TR get there? The bottom line is that this is an important, enjoyable, and well-written book. But I would suggest reading it with a bit of skepticism.

Ferrer primes the reader for what is to come by first dispelling the myth of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the United States of America. In 1492 during Christopher Columbus first voyage, he made landfall on the Bahamian island in the America's called "Guanahani" later named San Salvador for the Spanish Crown. The Taino people were indigenous to most of the islands of the north western hemisphere to include the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican republic and many others; and had a culture rich with technology, agriculture, religion and the arts, thousands of years before Columbus arrived. The truth is Christopher Columbus never set foot on the soil of the country we today call the United States of America. The education system in the United States of America teaches us that Columbus discovered America soon after we are taught to read. There are also cities in the United States of America named after Columbus and there is even a painting in the rotunda of our nations capital named "The landing of Columbus" . Last but not least, we even have a holiday honoring Columbus' fictional discovery of America. I look at this narrative of history as a convenient way to humanize what would become the unthinkable. Shortly after the Spanish discovered the abundance of natural resources in Cuba, the Taino people were forced into enslavement and lost 85% of its population by 1520, due to inhumane work conditions, European diseases, combat (Fighting the Spaniards) and suicide. By the year 1550 the Taino people were facing extinction and survived only by mixing with Spaniards, Africans and others. The decimation of the labor force, motivated the trans Atlantic human trafficking of African people, better known as the trans Atlantic Slave trade. The trans Atlantic slave trade lasted 400 years in Cuba and caught on with the near by United States of America where it lasted 366 years. The United States and Cuba collaborated in trade and built an infrastructure to facilitate the trafficking and enslavement of African people. During the American Civil War, Cuba even sent soldiers to the United States to assist the Confederate forces in the hope of preserving slavery. America later started the Spanish American war with the intention of full domination of Cuba. Let me take this moment to mention a few Cuban revolutionaries who were instrumental in the National autonomy Cuba has today. There is Afro-Cuban General Antonio Maceo 1845-1896 2nd in command of the Cuban Army, killed in combat in the first Cuban revolution. General Maceo was such a source of Black pride that even in the United States his name could be heard in the music of James Brown (Mazzio) and many African Americans proudly named their sons after the great General. There was also Afro Cuban intellectual, poet, nationalist Jose Marti 1853-1895 (Killed in combat) also died in the first Cuban revolution against Spanish. Marti was revered as a Martyr and today there is a statue in his honor standing tall in old Havana. Later came the revolutionary lawyer/Marxist and leader of the Cuban people Spaniard/Cuban Fidel Castro 1959-2008 . Castro had a strong distaste for the United States of America and even defeated the American Armed forces in the famous "Bay of pigs" using guerilla warfare. Castro infamously befriended the Soviet union in order to help finance Cuba's economy in trade and effectively kept the United States at bay to this day. Castro would not have achieved his goals without the assistance of Argentine Physician, revolutionary/Marxist Che Guavara 1928-1967. Ferrers use of language, metaphors and irrefutable facts (found on the prologue) gave me the experience of time traveling through a history lesson which began before 1492 and continues today. I thank Dr. Ferrer for her scholarship and talent; all contributing to a Pulitzer prize winning book everyone should read.

I loved reading this book. A main goal was to understand why we don’t have better relationships with Cuba. I still don’t understand. However this was still a very well written and informative history of Cuba.

I appreciate the non biased recitation of Cuban history, inextricably intertwined with American history. I am both American and Afro Cuban, so learning about this history, my history, gives me immense pride. Excellent read.

This is a well written and researched look into the compli cared history of this island nation. It goes into great detail into the geopolitical events that shaped Cuba and made it what it is today.

For most people, their understanding of Cuban history begins with Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution. Or maybe the War of 1898 memorialized by “Remember the Maine,” and Teddy Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill. But Cuban history is much richer as author Ada Ferrer well describes in Cuba: An American History. The book’s title is indicative of the broader perspective the author takes describing Cuba’s history. By American History she doesn’t mean America as in the United States, but rather the Americas of the western hemisphere – North and South America. A century before Fidel Castro, Cuba had its own revered patriots who fought and died in three wars of independence from Spain throughout the nineteenth century. By 1898, Cuba was finally on the verge of winning its independence when the United States entered the war, and soon negotiated the terms of peace without Cuban involvement. For the next sixty years, the United States--its government, business interests and crime syndicates--served as a parent, dominant partner and corruptor. The years under Fidel Castro, from 1960 through 2008, are well described including Castro’s embrace of the Soviet Union, foreign exploits in Angola and other countries, and growing hatred of the United States. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of the tumultuous years after 2008 when Raul Castro succeeded his older brother, and the United States elected its first Black president. Obama soon moved to open-up relations with Cuba declaring that isolating Cuba “hasn’t worked for fifty years.” For most Cubans it was a period of promise which soon ended with Donald Trump’s presidency who “reversed Obama’s thaw, reviving and strengthening the failed policies of the past.” Perhaps it’s asking too much, but with the author’s deep understanding of Cuba it would have been ideal if she could have provided a vision as to how the United States and Cuba could, someday, become partners, rather than enemies, as the United States has done so well with Germany, Japan and Vietnam.