Description
In Colonial Reckoning Louis A. PErez Jr. examines Cuba's wars for independence in the second half of the nineteenth century, focusing specifically on those Cubans who remained loyal to Spain. Drawing on newspaper articles, personal letters, military battle reports, government commissions, consular reports, literature, and other materials, PErez shows how everyday black, white, and creole Cubans defended the Spanish empire as paramilitary guerrillas alongside white elites. These loyalist Cubans helped the Spanish fight a separatist insurgency composed of a similarly diverse population of Cubans. PErez demonstrates that these wars were so deadly and drawn out precisely because Cubans fought on both sides, each holding myriad competing visions of sovereignty and contested meanings of nation. Complicating mythical and historiographical narratives that Cuban national liberation was a struggle waged between Cubans of color and white elites beholden to Spain, PErez shows that the fight consisted of a great number of factions with unique and evolving motivations. In so doing, he interrogates anew the multifaceted social dimensions and multiple political aspects of the complex drama of Cuban national formation.
About the Author
Louis A. PErez Jr. is J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of numerous books, most recently, Rice in the Time of Sugar: The Political Economy of Food in Cuba.
Reviews
"A work of deep reflection and wide research, Colonial Reckoning proposes a new framework for understanding the nineteenth-century Cuban wars for independence. Louis A. PErez Jr. demonstrates that these were in many ways civil wars, during which Spain recruited tens of thousands of Cubans to fight against the insurrection and for the maintenance of Spanish sovereignty. PErez argues that there emerged after independence a fractured nationality in which a seemingly disloyal portion of the population was figuratively written out of membership in the nation. That habit of mind, he suggests, at times emerges in different forms in Cuba today." - Rebecca J. Scott, author of (Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery) "Louis A. PErez Jr. accomplishes what few authors do when covering such well-known topics as Cuban independence: he takes a story we know well and not only provides a new interpretation depth of analysis but reframes it to show that independence was as much a civil war to the death between Cubans as it was a call for Cuba Libre." - Matt D. Childs, author of (The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery) "An accomplished historian, PErez shows that Cuba's heroic mythology of national liberation often omits the messy fact that many Cubans-white and Black-aligned with the colonialists, first from Spain and later from the United States." - Richard Feinberg (Foreign Affairs) "PErez successfully complicates long-held and relatively unquestioned historiographical assumptions while foregrounding a series of frequently overlooked factors: the precarious balance of political, economic and social forces undergirding Spain's authority over Cuba . . . . PErez' book, in short, manages to enrich a somewhat petrified historical narrative, adding subtlety and ambiguity to an inherited, mythical tale of heroes and villains drawn mostly in black and white." - Alejandro Quintero Machler (ReVista) "Lou PErez has managed to write a refreshingly novel book about this foundational period in Cuban history. With his typical eloquent prose and in possession of unparalleled knowledge of Cuban history and sources, the author revisits the wars to analyze the improbable military victories of the insurgent forces; the endurance of the colonial project, which managed to fend off significant military challenges for several decades; the political realignments forced by the conflicts; and the long-standing tensions, hostilities, and hatreds that permeated a population that 'had endured a war of ruinous proportions' (p. 172). It is a learned, widely researched, well-crafted, and carefully argued book, authored by a distinguished historian." - Alejandro de la Fuente (Hispanic American Historical Review) "PErez's impressive and heart-churning book succeeds in many ways. It also provides a key perspective on the newly independent Cuba at the start of the twentieth century." - Jorge Dominguez (International Journal of Cuban Studies)
Book Information
ISBN 9781478032007
Author Louis A Perez
Format Paperback
Page Count 277
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
About the Author
Louis A. PErez Jr. is J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of numerous books, most recently, Rice in the Time of Sugar: The Political Economy of Food in Cuba.
Reviews
"A work of deep reflection and wide research, Colonial Reckoning proposes a new framework for understanding the nineteenth-century Cuban wars for independence. Louis A. PErez Jr. demonstrates that these were in many ways civil wars, during which Spain recruited tens of thousands of Cubans to fight against the insurrection and for the maintenance of Spanish sovereignty. PErez argues that there emerged after independence a fractured nationality in which a seemingly disloyal portion of the population was figuratively written out of membership in the nation. That habit of mind, he suggests, at times emerges in different forms in Cuba today." - Rebecca J. Scott, author of (Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery) "Louis A. PErez Jr. accomplishes what few authors do when covering such well-known topics as Cuban independence: he takes a story we know well and not only provides a new interpretation depth of analysis but reframes it to show that independence was as much a civil war to the death between Cubans as it was a call for Cuba Libre." - Matt D. Childs, author of (The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery) "An accomplished historian, PErez shows that Cuba's heroic mythology of national liberation often omits the messy fact that many Cubans-white and Black-aligned with the colonialists, first from Spain and later from the United States." - Richard Feinberg (Foreign Affairs) "PErez successfully complicates long-held and relatively unquestioned historiographical assumptions while foregrounding a series of frequently overlooked factors: the precarious balance of political, economic and social forces undergirding Spain's authority over Cuba . . . . PErez' book, in short, manages to enrich a somewhat petrified historical narrative, adding subtlety and ambiguity to an inherited, mythical tale of heroes and villains drawn mostly in black and white." - Alejandro Quintero Machler (ReVista) "Lou PErez has managed to write a refreshingly novel book about this foundational period in Cuban history. With his typical eloquent prose and in possession of unparalleled knowledge of Cuban history and sources, the author revisits the wars to analyze the improbable military victories of the insurgent forces; the endurance of the colonial project, which managed to fend off significant military challenges for several decades; the political realignments forced by the conflicts; and the long-standing tensions, hostilities, and hatreds that permeated a population that 'had endured a war of ruinous proportions' (p. 172). It is a learned, widely researched, well-crafted, and carefully argued book, authored by a distinguished historian." - Alejandro de la Fuente (Hispanic American Historical Review) "PErez's impressive and heart-churning book succeeds in many ways. It also provides a key perspective on the newly independent Cuba at the start of the twentieth century." - Jorge Dominguez (International Journal of Cuban Studies)
Book Information
ISBN 9781478032007
Author Louis A Perez
Format Paperback
Page Count 277
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 499g
