America's Forgotten Colony: Cuba's Isle of Pines (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107136854)

America's Forgotten Colony examines private US citizens' experiences on Cuba's Isle of Pines to show how American influence adapted and endured in republican-era Cuba (1902-58). This transnational study challenges the notion that US territorial ambitions waned after the nineteenth century. Many Americans, anxious about a 'closed' frontier in an industrialized, urbanized United States, migrated to the Isle and pushed for agrarian-oriented landed expansion well into the twentieth century. Their efforts were stymied by Cuban resistance and reluctant US policymakers. After decades of tension, however, a new generation of Americans collaborated with locals in commercial and institutional endeavors. Although they did not wield the same influence, Americans nevertheless maintained a significant footprint. The story of this cooperation upsets prevailing conceptions of US domination and perpetual conflict, revealing that US-Cuban relations at the grassroots were not nearly as adversarial as on the diplomatic level at the dawn of the Cuban Revolution.

Author: Michael E. Neagle
ISBN-10: 1107136857
ISBN-13: 9781107136854
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/24/2016
Pages: 318
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.23lbs
Size: 9.41h x 6.06w x 0.92d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2017