History of Cuba from indigenous times to late 1970s. Readable history; emphasis on the 1940s on. Read this in preparation for my trip to Cuba.

This is a history of Cuba from its discovery up until the mid-90s, with about half the book focusing on the twentieth century. It contains an annotated bibliography of suggested readings. I read this book fairly quickly, though near the end I just skimmed. Though there is a lot of interesting information, I can't recommend this book for someone interested in the history of this nation. The writing is dry and the approach to Cuba's history is straightforward and unemotional as if written by Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet fame ("Just the facts, ma'am.") This book is more of a detailed outline of Cuban political history, than the engrossing saga of a beautiful, but unfortunate country that I was hoping for. I could see this used as a basic background reference for a class on Cuban political history--a glorified timeline, but it doesn't inspire one with a sense of understanding about what has happened there. A couple of things I found annoying: Spanish terms or names for groups are thrown in at times, but never translated or explained, even when they are significant. The photographs in the middle of the book are pointless. They were all of Castro and his cohorts--it would have been nice to see some pictures of other political figures important to Cuban history such as Jose Marti, even Batista. I bought this book (paperback) for $1.50 at a Library Used Book Store. It looked brand new, the spine showed no signs of having been opened. The original price sticker (probably bought in a University Bookstore for a class) was still on it: $24.99 (!!) I can't believe anyone would pay that much for this book, unless they had to for a college course. ( )