Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos - Tapa dura

The writing is elegant and free of jargon. . . . Anyone interested in self-justifying narratives of empire and especially the place of metaphor in shaping those narratives, should read this seminal contribution to inter-American cultural history. --The Americas Impressive collection of visual material.--American Literary History An indispensable study of U.S. policy towards Cuba. . . . A necessary preface for all other analyses of the subject.--Diplomatic History Review Perez breaks important new ground by exploring the singular influence of metaphor --linguistic constructions that located US-Cuban relations within the norms of everyday life in US domestic culture. . . . Perez's approach is interdisciplinary and erudite.--Dennis Merrill, H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews Perez assembles a rich archive of U.S. representations of Cuba, both textual and visual.--NACLA Report on the Americas A pivotal book, one making an important tie between social psychology and historical scholarship. . . . Well written and organized. . . . Not only a Latin Americanist but any historical scholar would benefit greatly in reading this book.--Fides et Historia Brilliant. . . . Illustrate[s] how an avid US self-interest was transformed into selfless moral enactment.--The Nation Argues that Cuba was a laboratory of American imperialism. . . . Skillfully analyses how the metaphor of neighbour and neighbourhood was employed to justify U.S. intervention in Cuba in the late 1890s. . . . Includes a remarkable number of pictorial descriptions of Cuba from a wide range of American newspapers and magazines.--Times Literary Supplement Both the author and the University of North Carolina Press are to be commended for their publication. This is, in short, a text that will be of great interest to students of American expansionism specifically and to students of empire generally. For scholars of Cuban history, it is a must read.--American Historical Review [An] excellent and highly recommended study. . . . One of the most important contributions to the debate about US-Cuban relations. . . . Should be required reading for policymakers, Latin Americanists, and Cuban exiles everywhere.--Latin American Review of Books Brilliant. . . . Perez's study--the latest in a series of perceptive books on US-Cuba relations by this prolific historian--illustrate[s] how an avid US self-interest was transformed into selfless moral enactment.--The Nation A quietly ferocious critique of US foreign policy as seen through the lens of Cuban-US relations.--Virginia Quarterly Review Quoting both U.S. political leaders and the popular press [and] reproducing many period cartoons, Perez demonstrates that the Cuba that took shape in the American imagination beginning in the early nineteenth century was constructed around metaphors of proximity, neighborhood, and racialism.--Latin American Research Review An engaging and well-researched investigation into metaphors used by US politicians, journalists, and writers to depict Cuba. . . . Essential reading for Cuban experts, and it should be of interest to US and Latin American cultural historians.--Journal of American Studies Adds to Perez's already impressive body of writing on U.S.-Cuban relations. Those new to his work will be in awe of his deep knowledge of the topic and subtle command of the material. We longtime admirers meanwhile will be reminded why he stands as a doyen of the field.--Journal of American History In Cuba and the American Imagination, Louis A. Perez Jr. adds to his impressive oeuvre on US-Cuba relations in the twentieth century. . . . Compelling. . . . As the potential for change and dialogue between the United States and Cuba appears viable for the first time in decades, Perez's study remains prescient. . . . Perez's argument that metaphors matter and demonstrate hierarchies of power is convincing.--EIAL: Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe In a thought-provoking conclusion, Perez describes how arrogant and infantilizing metaphors from the 19th century continue to shape American policy toward Cuba.--The Chronicle of Higher Education A worthy addition to the award-winning oeuvre of Perez. . . . Will attract a broad readership of those interested in foreign policy, American studies, and Latin American Studies.--Clio Challenging, insightful, and comprehensive. . . . Perez is arguably the most original and competent scholar of Cuban history in the United States. His book has the potential to be an epoch-changing work.--Thomas Schoonover, H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews This is exactly the kind of book policymakers and the chattering classes ought to be reading--something beyond the ignorant regurgitations of past thinking.--Our Man in Boston Perez draws on politicians' speeches, newspaper editorials and comic strips published over the century and a half before the revolution to show that Cubans were consistently represented not as agents of their own destiny but as innocent victims.--London Review of Books Instructive on imperial-colonial relationships as well as connections between the past and the present. Instructors at all levels will appreciate the breadth of editorial cartoons that Perez provides. . . . One cannot read this work without being aware of the eerie parallels between the American-Cuban experience and that of America's recent role in the war in Iraq; this alone will make Perez's work of interest to many historians today.--Canadian Journal of History [This] book needs to be read not only by scholars of U.S.-Cuban relations, but by anyone interested in the self-constructions of the United States.--New West Indian Guide [A] brilliant and intellectually challenging analysis of the metaphors that have shaped and informed the American view of Cuba over the last 200 years. . . . An essential book for those seriously interested in a deep understanding of Cuba-U.S. relations.--Progreso-weekly.com

This title presents the images of beneficence, acts of aggression.For more than two hundred often turbulent years, Americans have imagined and described Cuba and its relationship to the United States by conjuring up a variety of striking images - Cuba as a woman, a neighbor, a ripe fruit, a child learning to ride a bicycle. One of the foremost historians of Cuba, Louis A. Perez Jr. offers a revealing history of these metaphorical and depictive motifs and uncovers the powerful motives behind such characterizations of the island.Perez analyzes the dominant images and their political effectiveness as they have persisted and changed since the early nineteenth century. Drawing on texts and visual images produced by Americans ranging from government officials, policy makers, and journalists to travelers, tourists, poets, and lyricists, Perez argues that metaphor was central to the U.S. imperial project as a way of transforming the pursuit of national self-interest into the lofty, disinterested purpose of moral duty. With particular focus on the pivotal eras of the war of 1898 and the 1959 Cuban revolution, Perez demonstrates how these descriptions served the foreign policy interests of the United States. As charged and coded modes of persuasion and mediation, these images sanctioned and sustained the moral logic of U.S. power over Cuba. Perez further argues that the metaphors in service to America's imperial impulses over Cuba were subsequently projected over the world at large.