Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution

This is a history book, wonderfully thorough, that unfortunately at times takes on the disguise of a dozen monographs torn apart and chronologically slapped back together into one volume. It is an appropriate jumping-off point for further study of Cuba.What Perez presents in Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution is a book that few students of Cuban history can write: it is unbiased. My political and emotional perspective on Cuba is strong and personal, yet try as I may, the two times I've read this book, I did not ever find it tarnished by the rhetoric of propagandists.I recommend this book to teachers and professors searching for a complete and honest history of Cuba for classroom use, and to independent students and learners who really want a strong background knowledge on the long history of Cuba.

Louis Perez has written a good history of internal political developments in Cuba from Columbus to Castro. What is missing, however, is the role of the U.S.; Perez almost totally ignores it. He has a separate volume dealing with U.S.-Cuban relations, but it still seems that more should have been included in this one. Perhaps Perez views Cuban events as just that: purely Cuban with outside influences mattering little.

I read this book 8 years ago (the first edition) and still remember it as being the best Cuban history book available. Perez tells Cuba's history thoroughly, using fascinating details and stories, and does a masterful job at explaining the main tendencies in the island's history. His writing is clear, entertaining and well-referenced. His political position does not dominate his account either and refrains from bashing or glorifying the revolutionary period. If I was going to suggest only one book on Cuba's history, it would be this one. (And I've read most of what's available)