Cuba: A New History

by Richard Gott

This new look at the history of Cuba illuminates the island’s entire revolutionary past as well as the most recent decades of the Castro regime

Events in Fidel Castro’s island nation often command international attention and just as often inspire controversy. Impassioned debate over situations as diverse as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Elián Gonzáles affair is characteristic not only of modern times but of centuries of Cuban history. In this concise and up-to-date book, British journalist Richard Gott casts a fresh eye on the history of the Caribbean island from its pre-Columbian origins to the present day. He provides a European perspective on a country that is perhaps too frequently seen solely from the American point of view.

The author emphasizes such little-known aspects of Cuba’s history as its tradition of racism and violence, its black rebellions, the survival of its Indian peoples, and the lasting influence of Spain. The book also offers an original look at aspects of the Revolution, including Castro’s relationship with the Soviet Union, military exploits in Africa, and his attempts to promote revolution in Latin America and among American blacks. In a concluding section, Gott tells the extraordinary story of the Revolution’s survival in the post-Soviet years.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Latin American History, World History, The Americas

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2004

Reviews

[Natasha Titus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in Miami and living with a Cuban mother has brought up a lot of questions about my ancestry over the years. I've heard many opinions on Cuban politics, but I wanted to form my own perspective. So I searched for a book on Cuba's history. Some of the books seemed to have very few details, and some seemed a bit bias. This book however, is overflowing with detailed information and the author seems to give no opinion of his own. He simply lays out the story in a way that lets you decide how to feel. Gott also tells the story with a global perspective, not just it's history in isolation, but within a broad international context. Not only do you read about one countries fight for freedom, but you also get to see the role played by the United States and Russia. It was interesting to see how Cuba has been used as a pawn in the international game of chess.

After reading this book, I have so much more respect for Castro and the country as a whole. It was such a thrill to read along as Cuba fought through the centuries to hold on to their independence. Although their struggle for freedom may have lead to some less than ideal living conditions especially after their break with the Soviets, they still press on and manage to provide free healthcare and free education to citizens.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to know more about Cuba or about the human spirit and its quest for liberation. My only complaint is that I wish more time would have been devoted to Jose Marti. One page was definitely not enough and I felt very disappointed that I wasn't able to get to know more about him.

Regardless, this book definitely paints the picture of Cuba I desired to see. Its history is filled with resiliency and a passion for revolution.
I'll update this review with some quotes soon.

[Monty Milne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really couldn’t recommend this and am surprised others here talk about it being unbiased. It is nothing of the sort: the author was a Guardian journalist who admitted taking money from the KGB (but he didn’t mean it, it was only done to give him a naughty frisson, so that’s OK then).

True, there is a pretence to objectivity in the acknowledgement of the many failures of the Castro regime. But then no-one could write a history of Cuba with any claim to be taken seriously unless it made some sort of attempt to confront the regime’s economic failure. The analysis does go deeper than “it’s all the fault of the Americans in general and the CIA in particular” - the sugar markets, the Soviet Union, and not least of course the bad decisions of Castro himself are all shown to have played a part.

So far so interesting. I didn’t mind the romanticised descriptions of the revolutionaries – Gott sighs over them like a teenage girl over a boy band – but then so did so many who were young then (and still do – is there a more potent icon than the Che Guevara of countless posters and T shirts?) But I do mind the total omission of some of the nastiest crimes of the regime. Why did Castro round up homosexuals and put them in concentration camps, and why doesn’t Gott even mention it? Does he think – as a left wing friend of mine told me – that “the rights of gays must come second to Cuba’s economic needs” ?

And as for the African stuff, don’t get me started. If the Cuban intervention in Angola was the glorious success that Gott thinks, why did Castro purge the army after it? Executing your top general by firing squad is an odd way to celebrate a military “victory”.

I could go on but...you get the picture. Of course I’m biased too, but then I’m not pretending otherwise. There is a lot of information here about Cuba’s sad and difficult history from the moment of its discovery, but the greater part of the book concerns Cuba in the 20th century, and here Gott is too much of a Castro fanboy for my liking. I hope one day Cuba gets the regime it deserves – where there is equal treatment for all, regardless of race or sexual orientation, and where the cost of an excellent health service isn’t achieved by forcing doctors to moonlight as taxi drivers to feed their families.

There may be a good solid history of Cuba out there which gives a rounded and unbiased account, but this isn’t it.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting history of Cuba - especially the part from when Castro took over. Another big gap in my knowledge filled!
Looked high and low for a history of Cuba and this seemed to be the best - certainly easy to read yet full of information.
Have heard this Netflix documentary on the history of Cuba is really good too so might watch that soon as well:

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/8010...

[Ali AbdulKarim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viva Cuba libre! 🇨🇺

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally finished! I began in 2012(!) for my dissertation on US-Cuban relations. Although it was a little dry from time-to-time, it is very rich in information and I believe it is the most comprehensive read on modern Cuban history and I adored divulging in every detail.

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, very in depth, definitely need a highlighter to highlight names since there are so many throughout the book. Told from a centrist/liberal perspective (I.e. relatively unbiased)

[Ernst Roets · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative and well researched, but surprisingly biased towards Fidel Castro and the communist revolution. The main point seems to be that Castro brought "stability" to Cuba. When discussing the executions of political opponents, he emphasizes that it was a necessary process that merely went too far. The reader is told how Castro "crushed" the "counter-revolutionaries" (private enterprises), how agricultural reform was actually quite modest, how the "internationalist spirit" of the revolution lived on and how Castro is a great reformer. Also, the reader is left wondering why the US initiated sanctions against Cuba in the first place.

The author glosses over the dark parts of Castro's revolution and neglects to mention certain aspects entirely. The book toes the line of the Castro regime in suggesting that virtually everything that is wrong in Cuba should be blamed on the US.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really 4.5 stars: this is an outstanding, and unbiased, account of Cuban history, written by a Brit, starting in the 16th century, up to 2008. My only disappointment (and it is unjustified given that this is intended to be a complete history) was that it devoted over half of the text to pre-Castro Cuba; I was interested in learning about the lead-up to the revolution, and the events since that time. But actually, it is very important to understand Cuba’s historic colonization by the Spanish, the Americans, and the USSR, in order to understand their deep desire to be their own country, under no one’s thumb.

I decided to look for a book on Cuban history after Castro died; his death brought to my awareness the fact that as a child growing up in the American school system and culture, all I had ever been told (not actually taught) was that Castro was evil, and that Communism was evil, and that was all I needed to know. I was 12 years old during the Cuban missile crisis, so American propaganda was at full force then, but as an American child, I never understood it to be propaganda. Now, as a Canadian, I wanted to educate myself about Cuba, and use a non-U.S., non-Cuban source, in order to avoid bias as much as possible. I believe this book was an excellent resource, given those parameters.

The first half was a slog, and I picked away at it over a year. But the second half, starting with the beginnings of the revolution, were fascinating, and a real eye-opener. Sadly, it confirmed for me that the behaviour of the USA then is echoed in its behaviour now in the Middle East - lots of talk about democracy and freedom, with motives entirely driven by economic advantage and ideological beliefs not based in the reality of the countries involved. Just as in Afghanistan, the USA supported South American dictators until it was no longer expedient for them to do so, and then supported dissidents, and then under Clinton began to go on a democracy crusade. In the case of Cuba, the people themselves were actually supportive of The Revolution, because Castro was a rare revolutionary who actually provided free health care and education, and provided state-run employment and job security.

Richard Gott shows Castro’s Cuba, warts and all; but the picture is much more nuanced that I was ever told, and I have come to admire Castro, with all of his failings, for the steady, independent course he followed, despite the often spiteful, always self-interested barriers and roadblocks that the USA put in place to ensure Cuba would not prosper.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nicely leveled and balanced history of Cuba. It is a solid introduction, telescoping somewhat in details to more recent history but covering at a high level the major factors shaping Cuba from the Spanish invasion to 2008 and Fidel's resignation.

The writing is clean, with a consistent level of detail. If you want to answer the question "why is Cuba the way it is" it should fit the bill well. Note that the author is clearly sympathetic to the revolution (but not an unqualified backer of Castro), and appears to come from a journalistic background.

It is interesting to read of events one remembers as an adult as part of "History" but that is part of the price of aging.

[Noah Oanh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Gott's unbiased history book about Cuba did a great job to show the world how a small island in America could stay strong through more than 500 years against many big guys like Spain, America, Russia... Despite all the bloody things that happened to them in the past, I still believe they would never give up on their dream to change the life of their people and change the world.

Still sad a bit when i thought about Che's death - such a inspirational character!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with interesting history but a bit dry at times.

[Eric Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book right before my trip to Cuba, and finished it at Trinidad, Cuba (and I am writing this book review in the loft of my bnb at Trinidad).

Gott’s book has many features of great history works: well researched, presented in a scholarly tone, clearly (chronologically) structured, and makes clear distinction between what is fact and what is opinion. If I have to be picky, I think good historians provide unbiased and comprehensive account of history, whereas great historians compellingly make a central argument/thesis out of their findings. Gott, at least from my perspective, does not provide much personal insights or well synthesized arguments. Notably, he states upfront at the beginning of this book that Cuba’s history is one of violence and conflicts, but at the epilogue, he argues that under Fidel Castro, four peaceful decades has passed by and new changes (ones of “seductions of capitalism”) has been implemented, and he does not foresee any violence, be it internal rebellions or external interventions, after Castro’s death.

To summarize this book, Cuba’s history can be divided into four periods, as a Spanish colony, as an American backyard, as an independent republic, as a Soviet ally and post cold war. In each period, violence is present. In Spanish colonial era, there are rebellions pro independence (by the white whose monetary and political interests were curtailed by the Crown), pro anti-slavery (by the black), and pro US-annexation (facilitated by the political interest of the States under Monroe Doctrine). Yet, these fronts never unite with each other (Haitian revolution, checks and balance among European powers and the States). U.S., becoming one polar of the world, started to expand its geopolitical power and forced the decaying Spanish power out. US occupation did not last long, and its hegemony left the island with anti-American heritage. U.S. backed presidents (the last one being famous Batista) ruled for a few decades before Castro brothers and Che Guevara, through the guerrilla warfare, drove him out. In the second half of twentieth century, Cuba, under the threat of US invasion and constant harassment by Cuba-American exiles, sought allies (with Soviet Union, and gained considerable economic benefits from Soviet countries) and exported revolution to Latin America and Africa. It seems Castro has succumbed to the political reality by backing Soviet up in its intervention of Prague’s Springer and Velvet revolution. However, as a mature politician, Castro’s priority is to keep his party and country above water (whereas Guevara was more idealistic and I guess his actions attracted more pressure from the Western world). Personally I feel between these two different approaches towards revolution, no one is better than the other (like most of issues in the world).

I feel there is a mutual reinforcement/revelation between the last part of this book and my experience here at Cuba. Post cold war, when the economic lifeline of petroleum/food import and lucrative sugar export were gone with the demise of Soviet Union, Cuba turned to tourism and private economy (and hence partial conversion to capitalism, and it is interesting to see Army’s role in it). The two set of currencies in Cuba now, and how expensive private restaurants are, how limited stock unit in market are can all have their origins in the collapse of communism. I partially agree with Gott in that in short term, there will be no foreseeable violence that has been persisted throughout much of Cuban history, but I am a believer of dynamic equilibrium, and I think Castro’s narrative of country identity and moral position will be eroded (sadly) by the passage of time and more changes should be on their way.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is easily the most expansive and detailed history of Cuba I've read, but while there's not really any extraneous information in here, it is incredibly dense. I had to read this in a week for a seminar class and that is NOT how I would recommend going about it. There's just so much detail that having to read and absorb all of it quickly in a short period of time doesn't work very well. I'd space it out over the course of a month or so; all the history is valuable but there's just a LOT of it. Gott's writing style is fairly fluid for a history piece (although there's a lot of nostalgic description of places at the beginning of nearly every section or chapter), and while his sympathies for Castro and the Revolution are clear he remains mostly unbiased throughout the book and provides a great comprehensive history of the island.

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a slog at first but picks up a bit after Castro's Revolution. The style it's written in is almost like a text box with a lot of short sentences and descriptions of events rather than interesting anecdotes which make it a dry read.
However it's quite objective when describing Castro, from the romance of the revolution with Guevara et al, to the descent into miserable Soviet orthodoxy and the high cost people paid for his dictatorship. The USA's influence with unintended consequences is also described quite objectively.

[AnneMarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and comprehensive sweep through Cuban history. I read this while on a trip there and it helped me understand so much context and answer lots of my own questions! I would have like a bit more anecdotal or personal history about the 1950s Revolution figures but the broad strokes were in keeping with the rest of the book. Would love to see an updated version with the last decade in it.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely readable even though it covers the whole of Cuban history. The revolution and the soviet periods are page turners as expected. The Spanish conquest was particularly brutal, a fascinating read.

The charisma of some historical characters (Castro, Che Guevara, Martí) pop out of the page, it’s easy to understand how they lead men into history. Next time, a biography then.

[William Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite concerns regarding Gott's political and ideological connection to Cuba, 'Cuba: A New History' - perhaps better titled 'A Brief History' - provides an undemanding, succinct dip into several aspects of important Cuban history. Even when discussing Castro and post-revolutionary Cuba, despite minor, yet unmistakable, cursory glances into Castro and the regime's limitations - effects of starvation, austerity, mass unemployment, and crushing political dissent - the novel perspective brought about by Gott is rewarding. While producing a more balanced narrative of Cuba into the latter half of the 21st century would have been desirable, it does not detract from the benefits of a panoramic view provided in this work. For instance, by neglecting important consideration to the regime's failures - a history that is probably well-known or at least well-accessible - enabled dedication to consider Cuba's positive global impact. From the exposition of Cuba's role in supporting anti-apartheid movements in Congo, mass education that expunged illiteracy in a few years, and advocating Latin independence from US influence is perhaps missing from the general discourse.

Across 300 pages, Gott provides a deluge of information regarding crucial moments in Cuba's history. Naturally commencing with the establishment of colonies that set Cuba as the focal point of Spanish, and then trans-European, interest in Latin America - a substantial part of the narrative evaluates the influence of racism and slavery in creating Cuba's sociobiology. In particular, Gott calls upon the role of the UK in Jamacia, ever the hostile force of Spain, and the reactions of the white ruling class in Cuba to the Saint-Montogue slave uprising. The liberation of Cuba deliberately coincides with the Spanish-America war that sees the establishment of the first Cuban republic 1902 after a near year-long occupation by the US. Gott justifiable describes Cuba at this time as '... a colony in all by name only'. The foundation of the exploitative Platt amendment, principally formed from the ideology of the Monroe doctrine, permit the flourishment of revolutionary conceptualisation and efforts. A focus on sugar exploitation and civil unrest, namely the 1912 massacre, sets the stage for the deterioration of the republic to dictatorship under the 'tropical Mussolonni' Machado. Naturally, as an economy reliant upon sugar, the price collapse of their primary export in 1925 facilitates the emergence of several milliary leaders, eventually leading to Batista. To Gott's credit, he refreshingly and fairly evaluates the positive benefits Batista produced, like modernisation and the 1940s constitution that placed some emphasis on human welfare and social good. Upon the repetitive collapse of sugar prices again in 1950s results in austerity and greater severity by Batista that formed the basis of the revolution's success. The latter portions of the book predominately focus upon the positive change brought to Cuba under Castro. Naturally, this includes the highlights of the 1960s - 80s: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the role of Cuba in Russian-Sino relations, the philosophical distinctions between Castro and Guevera, the rises and failures of fighting for international socialism predominately in Latin America and Africa. The book finishes in 2003, considering the role of Cuba as one of the few remaining Marxist-Leninist states, and the continual interplay between the US and Cuba brought about by different presidents: the moderates like Carter, the hardliners like Bush, and those with a fragile and frail back-bone like Clinton.

Overall, a remarkable work of scholarship that provides a suitable entry point for understanding Cuban history, albeit with an active effort to overcome the paucity of Castro criticism.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great book. If you are looking for a survey history of Cuba this book is perfect. It covers over 500 years in about 300 pages. The pre-revolutionary history was very interesting to me especially the first half of the 20th century with US involvement and Batista's start as a reformist leader and turn to US-backed dictator.

Gott gives you all the necessary background to understand why the Cuban Revolution happened. I'm glad I read this book because you still hear so much about Cuba's politics and how Castro was this evil dictator. Reading this book allows you to understand Castro in a Cuban context and also why the United States is still so hostile to Cuba. The Cuban exile community is such a strange group as well, their efforts seem totally futile.

After reading about the hardships Cuba went through in the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union, it enforces my opinion that the Soviet collapse was a massive tragedy. Mainly because it left Cuba and the Eastern European countries without any alternative to US capitalism and austerity. Cuba and Vietnam are the only countries I know of who have attempted to resist this neoliberal takeover but Gott predicts that it is slowly overtaking Cuba through the reliance on the US dollar and tourism. You would expect that US sanctions and anti-Cuba policy would have softened after 1991 but they intensified.

A final takeaway from this book is that Castro's revolution was far more nationalist than Communist based. Castro never promoted Marxist thought when they first overtook Cuba in 1959 and was reluctant to ally with the Cuban Communist Party. It wasn't until the US cut off imports to Cuba because of Castro's nationalization of US business that Castro was forced to turn to the Soviet Union. Then of course he embraced Communist ideology because Cuba flourished in its relationship with the Soviets and the US was offering nothing in return. This has proven to be true with the collapse of the Soviet Union as Cuba's ideology has returned to pushing nationalist rhetoric and puts little emphasis on the socialist aspect of the past.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a serious book. I've just gone to Cuba, and read this before and during my trip. I wish I'd started it earlier, as, once I was on the trip, it was harder to concentrate. But I learned a lot (as we used to say in the south, a whole lot). It's a very balanced book, not glossing over the problems arising from the Cuban government, but also recognizing the extraordinary difficulties that Cuba has faced from the early days of the revolution. A lecturer on our cruise (not a Communist sympathizer, btw) pointed out that there'd been well over 200 attempts on Castro's life arising from the US. An artist we met who's created an artistic collective in his own neighborhood has to fly to foreign countries to buy broken tiles for their mosaics and then pay extra baggage fees to ship them home because of our sanctions. The Soviet Union is long dead (and our President is a great admirer of the Russian President), and Cuba is in no position to threaten the US at all. Why are we still at this?

[IDolciLibri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a ton and I appreciate how much information was contained in the pages.

Richard Gott, though, seems... very willing to overlook the crimes of the United States in ways that he wasn't willing to overlook the crimes of the Soviet Union. It was remarkably uncomfortable at moments for somebody who has some awareness of what the USA has done in Latin America.

This is a book to read, in my opinion, with the understanding that we all have our biases, and nobody can truly be a reliable narrator.

[Also if you are looking for information on what it means to be Cuban or have lived in Cuba through the ages, this isn't really for you. This book is heavily looking at the international relations (mainly Soviet and USA) and what was going on that guided/forced Cuba's history to go the way it did. I have read this book and yet I have no idea what average daily life was like within Castro's regime for the most part.]

[Christian Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of Cuba over the last 500 years. Normally, with history so general, I come away feeling like I've retained very little, but Gott puts a lot of detail and care into every event that he talks about. I learned a lot that I didn't know before, and it was told in a neutral voice, which is hard to find in "third world" history, let alone revolutionary history. I enjoyed it; it was a good general introduction.
8/10

[Will Hall Leiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is perfect for providing a good overview of Cuban history; a good place to start if you are interested in learning about Cuba. The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is that it is necessary to do further reading to gain a more in depth understanding of certain aspects of Cuban history.

[Robert Cavanagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This certainly was a big read, took the best part of 2 months with some interruptions
Gave me all the knowledge needed for this holiday to bore and to know the things we’re looking at. To cover ~500 years in fairly good detail was no mean undertaking.
Also correctly predicted what would happen when Fidel died/retired is impressive

[Alec Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heavy book to get through but a fascinating journey through Cuba's history starting way beyond recent memory - gives insight into how Cuba's history with imperialism would result in the problems facing the country today.

Given to me by Professor Par Kumaraswami and Professor Antoni Kapcia of the Cuban Research Forum in Nottingham.

[Andy Iakobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was convinced to spend a week at a Cuban resort by my mom & sister... not my ideal vacation, but I'm starting to look forward to it now that I have a better understanding of Cuba's history. Great all-around history book.

[Chandler Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was very interesting and informative but I’m a bit disappointed that he didn’t discuss the crimes of the Castro regime. Only a brief mention of La Cabana and no mention whatsoever of the UMAP concentration camps and the mistreatment of homosexuals on the island.

[Adam B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly captivating descriptions of Cuba, its revolutionaries that we know of and the less famous ones, and the insane levels of intervention by foreign powers into the goings on of the island nation. Free Cuba from the United States embargo

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable and enlightening.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accesible para estudiantes y muy interesante. Gott's Cuba tiene información para todo audiencias.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of the history of Cuba. Overarching theme, the centuries of revolutionary liberation movements.