Insurgent Cuba

Insurgent Cuba

Author	Ada Ferrer
Publisher	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date	October 25, 1999
ISBN	0807847836

Insurgent Cuba, Race, Nation, and Revolution is a 1999 non-fiction book by Cuban-American historian Ada Ferrer, and published by The University of North Carolina Press. The book examines the Cuban independence movement from 1868 to 1898, a period marked by scientific racism and imperialism. The book highlights the collaboration of whites, mulattoes, and blacks and the critical roles they played in their fight against Spanish colonial rule. Major setbacks early in the war were due to divisions between elite white Cubans and formerly enslaved Black people and mulattoes. Their struggle led to the creation of an anti-racist movement. Cuban nationalist writers supported the movement by challenging Spanish claims that the insurrection was a race war. They argued that racial differences did not exist among true Cubans.The conflict ended in 1898 with the intervention of American racially segregated forces. The text explores the tensions between the ideals of racial unity and the presumptions of racial hierarchy during this period.

Reception

The Journal of American History referred to the book as "the best overview in English of the role of race in the Cuban independence movement. . . . This book makes clear both the great accomplishments in day-to-day race relations that were achieved and the deep structures of race that still stood when the Yankees intervened."

The Journal of Military History also provided a positive review, highlighting that "Ferrer cuts against the grain of a romantic, nationalist Cuban historiography that tends to see only what was inclusive and progressive in the wars for liberation. Anyone who wants to understand modern Cuba should read Ferrer’s account of the Cuban insurgency."

Ferrer was awarded the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize for her book *Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation and Revolution 1868–1898.