Guantanamo, Cuba, and US History: A Reading List

As the first university press in the South, UNC Press pioneered in tackling issues of the day through the honest, and sometimes gritty, lens of reality, in order to challenge the status quo in a historically diverse and complex region. Our association with the oldest public university in the nation inspires in us a commitment to bring new and established peer-reviewed research to academic and general audiences—notably recognized for our publishing on US and world history—a mission that informs all we do.

Learn about the interconnected history of Cuba and the United States through the following selection of UNC Press titles. Request them at your library, or order directly via uncpress.org and receive a 30% discount on print format books during our American History Sale using promo code 01UNCP30.

Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in U.S. Prison Camps since World War II by A. Naomi Paik
“A useful and necessary tool for thinking about how discourse on rights is continuously unchallenged and marked by U.S. global dominance. Rightlessness is an indispensable text that must be used to understand how other populations are rendered rightless, particularly during this moment in time where discourse on rights is privileged political discourse entangled with the expansion of the imprisonment regime.”—Hemispheric Institute

Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile by Michael J. Bustamante
“Bustamante successfully highlights the diversity of opinion on and off the island, demonstrating the limitations of popular stereotypes. The macro-history he tells is well-known to cubanólogo, but his framing of the 1959–79 period recovers stories that are too-often obscured by the construction of political narratives.”—NACLA

The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines by Justin F. Jackson
“This is an innovative study of military-colonial labor relations in the Philippines and Cuba. . . . Jackson’s perspective offers a fresh take on empire studies—truly top-tier research.”—Zach Fredman, author of The Tormented Alliance

The Louis A. Pérez Jr. Cuba Trilogy, Omnibus Ebook:
Includes The War of 1898, On Becoming Cuban, and Cuba in the American Imagination
“Pérez is one of the pioneers who tenaciously continued to work on Cuba despite the obstacles posed by both Washington and Havana.”—New York Times

Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana
by William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh
“LeoGrande and Kornbluh’s exhaustive and masterful diplomatic history will stand as the most authoritative account of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations during the five decades of Cuban President Fidel Castro’s rule.”—Foreign Affairs

Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898 by Ada Ferrer
“This study combines in-depth archival research in Cuba with a judicious use of more recent writing on race, nationalism, and postcolonial theory. Ferrer is particularly successful at showing how notions of freedom, citizenship, race, labor, and cubanidad were all contested social constructs that were forged in the context of Cuba’s two wars for independence.”—Latin American Research Review