Review by Choice Review
Books on Cuba, are reaching a saturation point and this volume is a case in point. Rabkin (Cornell University) breaks no new ground and exhibits no new scholarship in her retelling of the events leading up to the Cuban revolution, the revolution itself, and the years from 1959 to the present. Aside from the fact that the "Hoover Institution" series, of which this book is a part, had not yet published a book on Cuba, there appears to be no good reason for this current effort. All of the chapters follow what is by now a well-worn path. The author begins with a chapter on objectivity (which she promptly discards), continues with an examination of Cuba before Castro, then segues into a series of chapters on domestic aspects of the Castro years, and ends with a discussion on Cuban foreign policy and some thoughts on the current rectification campaign. Rabkin's observations on Cuban foreign policy and on Castro as "blinded by his anti-American sentiment" are less than helpful in assessing past Cuban-US relations and in charting the future of these relations. Readers are advised to read instead Wayne Smith's The Closest of Enemies (CH, Jun'87). -E. A. Duff, Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
