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Fatal Glory: Narciso Lopez and the First Clandestine U.S. War Against Cuba. By Tom Chaffin. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, I996. Pp. xxii, 282. $3495)
Historians have for too long regarded Narciso Lopez's filibustering attempts in Cuba as driven by Southern slaveholders. This beautifully written and exhaustively researched volume by Tom Chaffin of Emory University provides a valuable corrective to the literature. Lopez, according to the author, led the first forceful attempt to end Spain's control over Cuba and incorporate it into the rapidly expanding American republic in the aftermath of the Mexican War. Five times between I848 and 1851 he tried to throw out the Spanish; but, according to Chaffin, Lopez as leader lacked the necessary "mastery of details" combined with "grand vision" and proved "more cunning than thoughtful." He...