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A review by ethanhedman
Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer
3.0
The history covered up until the Cuban Missile Crisis is nearly perfect, capturing social, political, economic momentum between Spain, the emergent United States, and Cuba. Ferrer accurately sees Cuba as its was then, a colony that had to obtain its own independence through intense mobilization (often violent).
In the last quarter of the book, I feel that Ferrer misses the mark. During the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the subsequent shared history between the US and Cuba, Ferrer treats both nations as equals in political and military might, without properly acknowledging the one-sidedness of this relationship. The last chapter is an odd commercial for the Democratic party and a condemnation of Trump, which is deserved, but I think loses sight of the larger empiric machine that drives what we do forward. Even the last sentence is some kind of weird call to action for the Cuban people?
An economic embargo is the modern version of laying a siege, intended to starve the population into overthrowing its leader: The United States applied (and continues to apply) one of the most suffocating sieges in modern history on Cuba. During this time, Castro virtually eliminated illiteracy, mother to child transfer of HIV, and continues to produce some of the most doctors and teachers per capita of any country, and consistently sends aid workers around the world during times of natural disasters, even the US (because the united states is musty). I would rather be rich in the US obviously, but I would much rather be poor in Cuba. This concludes my defense of Cuba, which is not a perfect country by any stretch of the imagination.
In the last quarter of the book, I feel that Ferrer misses the mark. During the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the subsequent shared history between the US and Cuba, Ferrer treats both nations as equals in political and military might, without properly acknowledging the one-sidedness of this relationship. The last chapter is an odd commercial for the Democratic party and a condemnation of Trump, which is deserved, but I think loses sight of the larger empiric machine that drives what we do forward. Even the last sentence is some kind of weird call to action for the Cuban people?
An economic embargo is the modern version of laying a siege, intended to starve the population into overthrowing its leader: The United States applied (and continues to apply) one of the most suffocating sieges in modern history on Cuba. During this time, Castro virtually eliminated illiteracy, mother to child transfer of HIV, and continues to produce some of the most doctors and teachers per capita of any country, and consistently sends aid workers around the world during times of natural disasters, even the US (because the united states is musty). I would rather be rich in the US obviously, but I would much rather be poor in Cuba. This concludes my defense of Cuba, which is not a perfect country by any stretch of the imagination.