Besides being a useful and very readable overview of the Cuban revolution(s), Ferrer provides a compelling argument about the centrality of race and nationality for understanding not only the revolution itself but also its legacy. Excellent use of primary docs. ( )

A great examination of the connections between race and nationalism in Cuban Revolution at the end of the 19th century. Ferrer looks at the entire 30 years of revolution. It began with a white slave owner freeing his slaves, so emancipation and racial equality was part of the rhetoric from the beginning. It was moderated by the need to gain support from wealthy whites. Eventually, Spanish propaganda was able to portray the rebellion as a race war and divide off whites insurgents from blacks. The second war, call the little war, was in fact largely driven by blacks unsatisfied with the peace agreement from the first war, which did not include emancipation for all slaves. The second insurgency was easier for the Spanish to contain because of a lack of white support and a general war-weariness in the Cuba population.

The next, and final, revolution against the Spanish did not start for another 15 years, in 1895. In the interim, revolutionary propaganda was able to erode white fears of blacks, painting them as honorable and grateful supporters of whites in the first wars. This was made easier by emancipation in 1886 and a large influx of white Spanish immigrants to enlarge the white majority. When the final war was launched, it had wide-spread support and appeared headed for victory in 1898 or 1899. US intervention, supposedly to help the rebels, actually interrupted the revolution and established US dominance on the island for the next 6 decades. Ferrer argues that Cubans racial nationalism was more progressive than was that of the United States, so the system set up by US administrators was closer to Jim Crow than it would have been if the revolution had been allowed to finish and gain control of Cuba. However, she argues that the non-racial ideology of the revolutionaries was already faltering as victory was in sight. Blacks were already being marginalized in the revolutionary power structure using language that promoted "civilized" candidates. So even though the US intervention probably created a more racially discriminatory system than would what the Cubans would have established, the Cuban revolutionaries were already moving toward a renewed racial discrimination.

This book is a strong effort to focus the Cuban Revolution on Cuba. Unfortunately Ferrer ignores, apparently deliberately, external factors. For instance, her description of the actual causes of the war, which should include the influence of US ideology on Cubans educated in the United States, is nearly non-existent. She also does not mention the role of international pressure on ending slavery and she completely dodges discussing US motivations for intervening. Without these factors, it is impossible to get a full picture of the revolution. This particularly frustrating because her analysis of the Cuban side, where focus should rightly be, is outstanding. She appears to purposely limit the quality of her overall analysis for ideological reasons. ( )