Colonial Reckoning

Reviews / Votes

"A work of deep reflection and wide research, Colonial Reckoning proposes a new framework for understanding the nineteenth-century Cuban wars for independence. Louis A. PErez Jr. demonstrates that these were in many ways civil wars, during which Spain recruited tens of thousands of Cubans to fight against the insurrection and for the maintenance of Spanish sovereignty. PErez argues that there emerged after independence a fractured nationality in which a seemingly disloyal portion of the population was figuratively written out of membership in the nation. That habit of mind, he suggests, at times emerges in different forms in Cuba today." - Rebecca J. Scott, author of (Degrees of Freedom: Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery) "Louis A. PErez Jr. accomplishes what few authors do when covering such well-known topics as Cuban independence: he takes a story we know well and not only provides a new interpretation depth of analysis but reframes it to show that independence was as much a civil war to the death between Cubans as it was a call for Cuba Libre." - Matt D. Childs, author of (The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery) "An accomplished historian, PErez shows that Cuba's heroic mythology of national liberation often omits the messy fact that many Cubans-white and Black-aligned with the colonialists, first from Spain and later from the United States." - Richard Feinberg (Foreign Affairs) "PErez successfully complicates long-held and relatively unquestioned historiographical assumptions while foregrounding a series of frequently overlooked factors: the precarious balance of political, economic and social forces undergirding Spain's authority over Cuba . . . . PErez' book, in short, manages to enrich a somewhat petrified historical narrative, adding subtlety and ambiguity to an inherited, mythical tale of heroes and villains drawn mostly in black and white." - Alejandro Quintero Maechler (ReVista) "Lou PErez has managed to write a refreshingly novel book about this foundational period in Cuban history. With his typical eloquent prose and in possession of unparalleled knowledge of Cuban history and sources, the author revisits the wars to analyze the improbable military victories of the insurgent forces; the endurance of the colonial project, which managed to fend off significant military challenges for several decades; the political realignments forced by the conflicts; and the long-standing tensions, hostilities, and hatreds that permeated a population that 'had endured a war of ruinous proportions' (p. 172). It is a learned, widely researched, well-crafted, and carefully argued book, authored by a distinguished historian." - Alejandro de la Fuente (Hispanic American Historical Review) "PErez's impressive and heart-churning book succeeds in many ways. It also provides a key perspective on the newly independent Cuba at the start of the twentieth century." - Jorge Dominguez (International Journal of Cuban Studies)