Cuba Libre

A 500-Year Quest for Independence

By (author) Philip Brenner American University, Peter Eisner former editor at Washingt

Publication date:

31 August 2017

Length of book:

438 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

238x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742566699

This timely book provides a balanced and deeply knowledgeable introduction to Cuba since Christopher Columbus’s first arrival in 1492. With decades of experience studying and reporting on the island, Philip Brenner and Peter Eisner provide an incisive overview for all readers seeking to go beyond stereotypes in their exploration of Cuba’s politics, economy, and culture. As Cuba and the United States open their doors to each other, Cuba Libre gives travelers, policy makers, businesspeople, students, and those with an interest in world affairs an opportunity to understand Cuba from a Cuban perspective; to appreciate how Cubans’ quest for independence and sovereignty animates their spirit and shapes their worldview and even their identity. In a world ever more closely linked, Cuba Libre provides a compelling model for US citizens and policy makers to empathize with viewpoints far from their own experiences.
A productive partnership between Brenner, a veteran Cuba expert, and Eisner, an accomplished journalist, has brought forth an eminently accessible, engaging journey through five centuries of Cuba’s tortured yet hopeful history— a story unified, in the authors’ view, by the island’s heroic struggles for self-determination. The indigenous Taino chief Hatuey courageously resisted European domination in the sixteenth century. Hundreds of years later, Cubans launched a bloody struggle for independence from Spain, and Fidel Castro led a socialist revolution to purge the island of U.S. influence.... Cuba Libre concludes with an empathetic and balanced discussion of the dilemmas facing Cuban society today.