Customer Reviews

Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution

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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)

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.

At least two reviews have been posted recently claiming Professor Perez is wrong about the facts he offers on social and economic conditions in Cuba before the victory of the revolution in 1959. I have placed a comment under the more extensive of the two challenges, but I want to alert others who may not look at the comments to the reviews, that in general, but especially on Cuba and its revolution, a subject on which feelings run very deep, a challenge to factual material presented by a leading academic expert such as Professor Perez (no relation to this writer) cannot be credited unless the source is given, and preferably a reliable or authoritative source that can be independently verified.

In this case, the author of the longer challenge writes with such assertiveness and specific detail that I imagined I was reading first hand testimony from someone who was there, although the reviewer doesn't say that. Even then, on Cuba, such accounts need to be taken with a grain of salt and the person should be encouraged to provide authoritative or reliable and verifiable sources to corroborate at least the overall picture they are presenting if not all the specific details.

But as it turns out, in the case of the comment that challenges Professor Perez so vigorously, it comes from someone whose profile page has another review where he makes it clear he was born in 1973. He is in his 30s, but he'd need to be well past retirement age to know from personal experience the assertions he makes challenging Professor Perez on the facts about Cuba in the late 1950s. Yet the critic provided no sources.

Among many of us Cuban emigres (and our descendants) a myth has developed that I would caricature as, "Nothing was wrong with Cuba before 1959; nothing has been right ever since." But that is more a reflection of the depth of feeling about the Cuban Revolution from those who were negatively impacted than a true portrait of what the island was then and what has happened since. (And feelings run just as deeply on the other side, too.)

As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Professor Perez's record and standing in the academic community makes his book authoritative. I would completely discount those kinds of negative reviews claiming the book is inaccurate until and unless they are backed up with sources.

Covering almost 4 centuries of history even of a small country as Cuba is a daunting task. Perez, however, does a wonderful job in making a succinct and clear overview of the general narratives that have shaped the island. Beginning with a brief introduction to the native population of the island before the Spanish discovery of Taino and Ciboney tribes to the present years of the revolution. What I think was important was how the author provided a geographical overview of the island so as the reader can become acquainted with the territory. While for many Cubans this may not be necessary for those with little or even just some knowledge of Cuba this preliminary step is extremely helpful. I enjoyed this book most of all because it gives a narrative to each historical epoch. From the bleak beginnings of Cuba as a country that was depopulated over and over as more Spaniards moved to the Spanish colonial mainland to how and why Havana was able to grow as an important city for Spanish interests. Again because the author cannot cover everything many will criticize that he missed this or that. Personally my biggest surprise was that he didn't mentioned the events that lead to the Spanish-American War. He does extensively note the long history of U.S. intentions to annex Cuba. But the explosion of the Maine and the events leading to the U.S. occupation are not mentioned at all. With respects to keeping a bias opinion and the accuracy of his evidence...well with regards to all the modern developments (i.e. 2000-present) the author is quite accurate and he does give a succinct and clear idea of the main events. With respect to the Pre-1959 I cannot attest for much. The author at least does try, so it seems, to a keep a non-biased view throughout his book. He neither staunchly praises the Revolution nor demonizes. He notes its few achievements and its key problems. The author does note how Cuba is one of the most developed economies in Latin America by 1958 in comparison to most Latin American countries on many levels including # of radios, televions, literacy, infant mortality etc. At the same time, this doesn't mean that there aren't many problems with Cuban society before 1959 there are and A LOT. And the author does keep note of these. Some things I would like to have seen mentioned were key public works of Havana i.e. The Capitolio built under the Machado administration, the Hotel Nacional build in 1930 and most importantly Habana Libre, Riviera. These last were built just a year or 2 prior to the Revolution I would like to see more in depth economic analysis of these years preceding the Revolution. Despite these minor setbacks I think Perez has done an astonishing job and hope to read other books by him

As an anthropologist, I found this book an invaluable introduction to Cuban history, and I would certainly use it as a text for undergraduates.

Perez starts with Cuba's geography and a quick review of its pre-Columbian peoples, and ends with Cuba in the Post-Cold War World. The book is readable and concise, and gave me insights into U.S. designs on Cuba that began with our second President. Perez goes through Cuba's history in extricating itself from Spain only to be dominated by the U.S., and then gives a very good account of Cuba under its various presidents up until the Revolution. His account of the Revolution and its roots is dispassionate and unbiased, though it won't seem like that to right-wing exiles who would like to see everything about Castro totally demonized.
I disagree with other reviewers that the role of the U.S. is not included. It certainly is. With 329 pages, you can't go into extreme depth on all topics to everyone's tastes, but I for one was surprised by how old U.S. ambitions toward the island are. If you want to get into Cuba-U.S. relations in more depth get Perez' book "Ties of Singular Intimacy."

This third edition is an updated version that includes events in the exile community up to 2004, and includes a nice political chronology at the end, along with a 75 page guide to the literature. Make sure you get this one and not the older edition if you want an updated history. The older edition is blue with a white stripe across the middle. You can get the other one used here on Amazon for cheap if you don't need to go past 1996.

THIS is the book to read on Cuba if you want to get a thorough idea about its history without making the commitment necessary to read Hugh Thomas' book, which is about 1400 pages, or longer collected volumes.

I do not recommend this book for the casual reader nor for the beginning student of Cuban History.

This text is filled with errors in various places. The most distorted portion seems to deal with the Pre-Revolutionary, Pre-Castro Cuba. Mr Perez explains, for example, that "approximately 892,000 Cubans were fully employed in 1958 and of these 62 percent earned $75 (US) a month or less."

The fact is that Cuban union workers earned about $40 per week in 1958. The lowest paid workers were those who worked in construction. They were paid more than what Mr. Perez believes. Bricklayers earned an average of $4 a day and other construction workers about $7 per day. Construction work in the decade of the 1950's was on the increase - not decrease. And even if we were to accept the figure of $75 per month (for which I'd love to know the source) this would be a decent salary in the Cuba of the 1950's. Rents at that time were as low as $15 or $20 per month, for apartments. Rent control existed in Cuba as far back as 1940. (Although new construction, anything built post-1940, did not have to be rent-controlled.) A gallon of gasoline in 1958 cost about $0.32...

Writing about Cuba in 1958, on page 304 of the Second Edition, Mr. Perez continues, "The neighborhoods of Luyano, Jesus del Monte and Las Yaguas were crowded with tens of thousands of poor, unemployed, unemployable, living in squalor and destitution, eight to a room in hovels of tin sheeting and cardboard without sanitary facilities, garbage collection, sidewalks, or street lighting, and increasingly without hope."

The statement above is only true of one neighborhood called 'Las Yaguas,' but the statement is not accurate about the other neighborhoods.

The fact is there were no 'Yaguas' in Jesus del Monte, nor in Luyano. Jesus del Monte had broad avenues, theaters, churches (The Passionists), homes - new construction of poured concrete and slab - built in the mid 20th century after the Great Depression and WWII, so that by 1958 the homes in this part of the city would have seemed new. In 1958, Luyano was also a middle class neighborhood. It too was a neighborhood composed of new homes, new construction - such as the home built by my own grandmother in 1953 on the corner of Fontz and Cumbre, hospitals (such as 'casa de socorros') etc.

Las Yaguas was a slum. It was home to perhaps as many as 5000 people. President Batista attempted to move its residents into new housing in the 1950's, into something akin to public housing here in the US, in a place called 'Mantillas,' but the people moved back to 'Las Yaguas' on their own because in Las Yaguas they paid no rent. Theose people would routinely illegally vandalize the homes in Mantillas - selling toilets or whatever they could - and return on their own to Las Yaguas.

Castro then did finally move these indeed 'unemployable' people, as Mr. Perez describes them, out of Las Yaguas and into government-built housing after 1959. But this success was only due to Castro's mandate, this is to say it was something achieved by force, practically at the point of a gun.

Leonardo Puig
Union City, NJ

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 agree with L. Puig's review contending that the book is full of innaccuracies.

I was finishing my career at a Havana private university some fifty years ago when the opportunity to escape the "tropical paradise" presented itself upon graduation.

During all my school years I studied history textbooks published by Cuban scholars who actually lived and worked in Cuba. Among the most respected ones were Dr. Manual Marquez Sterling, Dr. E. Portell Vila, and the most popular, Dr.Ramiro Guerra.
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Reading Mr. Perez's book I couldn't help but wonder about the methodology used by the author to put his book together. In fact, reading his description of Las Yaguas, Luyano, Jesus del Monte etc. made me wonder if he ever visited Havana...or the island for that matter.

Andrew J. Rodriguez
Award-winning author: "Adios, Havana," a Memoir

Louis Perez -I had a cousin by that very name- is very well documented, but focuses on economics and statistics with a vengeance, touching ever so lightly on other aspects of Cuban history, like its culture through the centuries. He is repetitive. The good news is, he is a very good analyst of events and people. I can say that, because I lived some of the history he writes about and heard some more from parents and grandparents.