Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)History told from the bottom up almost always forces the reader to think about human injustice. This is certainly true of Jana Lipman's compellingly written, well researched study of those who built and worked at the Guantánamo naval base prior to the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Lipman did field research in Guantánamo City and her distillation of the interviews she conducted makes an important contribution to the history of this unique U.S. military installation. As Lipman persuasively argues, Cuban workers had to navigate between being loyal Cuban citizens and trustworthy employees of the U.S. Navy. What is most fascinating to me is Lipman's information concerning those Cuban laborers who were also working to ensure the success of the Cuban Revolution. But what of those workers who liked working for the U.S. government, appreciated the benefits they received, and continued to live in Cuba and commuted to the base long after the Revolution had succeeded? This is an vital part of the history that is missing from Lipman's account.
Stephen Irving Max Schwab, author of Guantánamo, USA: The Untold History of America's Cuban Outpost
Click Here to see more reviews about: Guantánamo: A Working-Class History between Empire and Revolution (American Crossroads)
Guantánamo has become a symbol of what has gone wrong in the War on Terror. Yet Guantánamo is more than a U.S. naval base and prison in Cuba, it is a town, and our military occupation there has required more than soldiers and sailors--it has required workers. This revealing history of the women and men who worked on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay tells the story of U.S.-Cuban relations from a new perspective, and at the same time, shows how neocolonialism, empire, and revolution transformed the lives of everyday people. Drawing from rich oral histories and little-explored Cuban archives, Jana K. Lipman analyzes how the Cold War and the Cuban revolution made the naval base a place devoid of law and accountability. The result is a narrative filled with danger, intrigue, and exploitation throughout the twentieth century. Opening a new window onto the history of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and labor history in the region, her book tells how events in Guantánamo and the base created an ominous precedent likely to inform the functioning of U.S. military bases around the world.
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