Cuba: A New History

Great seller, great book. Very interesting introspection into cuban history. Despite going light on the colonial era the book is very interesting. I might not agree with the opinion at every corner about the facts but well worth the read.

Honestly folks, really I needed to come over the pessimistic catastrophic scenarios of contemporary global events and their intrepid interpreters, so here are some books I have recently read instead on Cuban history, on its regional impact and on the Bolivàrian revolution in Venezuela, as an antidote. Despite the massive bibliography on Cuba's revolution, remarkably few books in English cover the island's story from its earliest days. This alone justifies ex-Guardian Latin American specialist Richard Gott's new work, Cuba: A New History, Yale University Press, 2004 [Yale Nota Bene paperback, 2005] 325 pages [alt. 359 incl. Notes]. Like his informative articles on Latin America over the past 40 years, this book is easy to read, comprehensive, thoroughly researched and partisan. Hugh Thomas's 1971 book, Cuba - the inevitable comparison -starts only in 1762, with the British invasion of Havana that gave a major boost to the import of slaves and the sugar industry, and stops with the early years of the Revolution. However, Gott begins with the irruption of the Spanish adventurers in 1511, although he provides some sense of the shifting indigenous populations, Taínos, Guanahatabeyes and Siboneys, who made their way up from the mainland's Orinoco delta through the vast Caribbean archipelago in pre-Colombian times; and he brings the story of the Cuban revolution up to the present day, with an new Epilogue. Gott is also more concerned to trace historical continuities: geographic and climatic determinants (including those `malignant forces which took the form of winds of awesome proportions' that the Taínos dubbed the huracán); piracy and corruption; social and racial strife; the pervasiveness of Africanity and the terrified white consciousness of neighbouring Haiti; all in the context of an overarching dependence on foreign empires, whether Spanish, British, American or Russian. Born in 1783, midway between the US Declaration of Independence and the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Simón Bolívar's life and ideas were stamped--though asymmetrically--by both events. If the British could be driven out of North America by a people belonging to the same race and religion, why not the Spaniards in the South? The three hundred years of colonial rule that had followed the 1521 fall of Mexico were more than enough. And if the wisdom of the French Enlightenment had laid the foundations of the French Revolution, might it not serve the same purpose in Spanish America? Travelling through Europe in the early 1800s, Bolívar would compare the decay and lethargy of the Madrid Court with the ferment of revolutionary Paris, albeit on the eve of Napoleon's coronation. Till the emperor's final defeat and the Restoration, Paris would remain qualitatively superior to Madrid and quantitatively ahead of Philadelphia. And, of course, there was always sly, opportunist and expansionist London, which was not to be ignored. Despite the loss of its American colonies, it

-- of those one-star reviews. They have their own biases and axes to grind, as they link you to rightwing websites full of lies and distortions of their own. These folks want to squelch and slander anyone with a differing point of view, especially regarding Cuba. When talking about "agents of influence," it is pertinent to remember these "reviewers" are likely themselves members of organizations sent here to trash this book. Mr. Gott is a well-respected journalist on Latin American affairs, one who has been avowedly sympathetic to the Left, armed struggle, and the Cuban Revolution. However one may agree or not with his views, they are necessary to read if one would wish a well-rounded education on Cuba. Beware anyone who tries to suppress this book, as they are guilty of the same thing of which they accuse Fidel Castro.

For many, Cuban history started with Fidel Castro's political ascent in the 1950's. Nothing before seems relevant and sadly anything after has been a virtual black hole. Since the revolution of 1959, most writing about the island has been polarized, either ardently sympathetic or passionately hostile. But author Richard Gott, a British journalist and specialist in Latin American history, keeps a level head, guiding us from the first attempt at colonization by the Spanish in 1511 to the present day. By providing a full historical context, the author gives a much needed contextual understanding of an island only ninety miles from the Florida Keys, yet a world away in almost every other respect. Gott dispels many convenient myths, such as the timing of the Communist influence. It didn't start with Castro but actually in 1907 with the Independent Party of Color, when socialists banded together to try to relieve themselves from the oppression they felt from U.S. occupation after the Spanish-American War. The group fomented into an embryonic Communist Party in 1925, which went unabated for years afterward. They even launched their own newspaper and promised then-revolutionary Fulgencio Batista the political support he needed to become Cuba's president during World War II. So, contrary to popular belief, Batista welcomed Communists into his government. But Batista became cruelly repressive during the 1950's, which triggered Castro to launch a failed armed attack on the Moncada fortress barracks in Santiago. It was at this time that Castro met Che Guevara, and Gott vividly describes their first meeting. The two men initially got on very well, brothers in arms. Guevara badly needed a political cause, while he gave Fidel valuable insights into other revolutionary experiments around Latin America. For those who have read and seen the recent movie version of "The Motorcycle Diaries", Guevara's sociopolitical evolution now becomes clear from Gott's account. As we all know, Castro and Guevara combined forces, which led to Batista escaping and Castro taking control in January 1959. What is enlightening in this book is how Castro's energy inspired some of the greatest Latin American novelists of the 20th century, including Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes. He charmed not only Russian politicians like Nikita Khrushchev and African revolutionaries such as Ahmed Ben Bella, but also French intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Castro had a falling out with Pablo Neruda when he implied that Castro may be taking too much credit for the revolution, and one begins to see the megalomania that induced fissures in his power base. Nonetheless, Gott is very thorough when it comes to describing Castro's acumen as a politician, especially as he faced the challenge of becoming more estranged from Guevara, who saw himself as a political visionary compelled to spread the word about the revolution globally. But Castro started

Richard Gott is a British journalist and historian with many years' experience of covering Latin America. He has written a very useful book on Cuba's long struggle for national independence and sovereignty. The first third of the book examines the Cuban people's struggle against Spanish occupation from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The rest of the book looks at Cuba's 20th century struggle against the US empire. The USA intervened militarily in Cuba in 1906-09, 1912, 1917-23 and 1961, always on the pretexts of establishing democracy and order. In 1902 the US state imposed the Platt Amendment on Cuba. Its seventh paragraph gave the USA the `right' to establish permanent military bases on Cuba. It was repealed in 1934, but the dictator Batista signed a new treaty allowing the USA to keep its huge military base at Guantanamo Bay. Gott shows how in 1959 the people defeated the US-backed dictator by relying on their own forces. He observes that the British and Yugoslavian governments armed Batista to the last moment. Gott possibly devotes too little attention to the Cuban people's successes in developing their country. He notes, without exploring, Cuba's remarkable achievements in health and education and he fails to mention its pioneering pharmaceutical industry. But he gives due prominence to Cuba's internationalism, particularly to its selfless military support to the Angolan people in 1988. Nelson Mandela later visited Havana to thank Fidel personally for Cuba's assistance in the struggle against apartheid, "The decisive defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for all Africa ... It made it possible for Angola to enjoy peace and establish its own sovereignty ... and for the people of Namibia to achieve their independence. The decisive defeat of the aggressive apartheid forces destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor. The defeat of the apartheid army served as an inspiration to the struggling people of South Africa." Cuba has a proud record of upholding workers' nationalism and of practical internationalism. Whatever foreign observers hope or fear, the Cuban people will never surrender their national independence and sovereignty.