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Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898. By Ada Ferrer. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. xiv, 273 pp. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8078-2500-X. Paper, $18.95, ISBN 0-8078-4783-6.)
Based upon extensive archival work in Cuba, Spain, and the United States, this book is the best overview in English of the role of race in the Cuban independence movement. It uncovers the ways in which both the symbol and reality of race operated within the military forces created by Cubans who fought three separate wars for independence against Spain between 1868 and 1898.
Ada Ferrer is unsatisfied with interpretations of the final 1895-1898 struggle that focus on the role played by United States imperialism. She is concerned that this fact has reduced Cuban agency and diverted scholars from a close analysis of the independence movement.
Ferrer retrieves the...