Today Goodreads.com published its nominations for "Book of the Year 2021". As an avid read, especially of history and biographies, I immediately went to see the books nominated in the category of "Best History & Biography" hoping to find Ada Ferrer's excellent Cuba: An American History in it. I was stunned not to see it there. More surprising, I saw Malcolm Gladwell's "The Bomber Mafia" included in the list. Gladwell is a very well respected observer of pop culture and noted pundit of social phenomena, but I am surprised his latest effort would be included in the history catalog. Granted his topic is historical (he discussed the role of technology during World War II), but his formal background isn't in history.
Ferrer, on the other hand, is a recognized and highly acclaimed historian who teaches at New York University. Check out a recent interview she gave here.
For me, Ferrer's effort sits alongside Paul Preston's magnum opus Franco: A Biography. Her narrative is excellent and instructive and she deftly avoids oversaturation of facts, names and citations. Her pace is very easy for the casual reader. I lived in Cuba for seven years and have a strong grasp of Cuban history, but I still learned a lot from Ferrer's book.
So why didn't her book make the Goodreads.com "Best Books of 2021" list? I think part of the issue is that people, in general, do not read history as much as they used to. Any author whose thesis tangentially includes history, will be considered "history". But for me, the real issue is that many Americans are not that familiar with Cuban history, informing their knowledge of that country by propaganda foisted on the public by the Cuban exile community in Miami. It is not an exaggeration to say that for many Americans, Cuban history began in 1959. Many Americans know who Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are. But very few know who Gerardo Machado, Ramon Grau San Martín, Frank País, Salvador García Agüero, Antonio Maceo and José Martí were. Ferrer addresses this when she writes, "People interested in Cuba make the mistake of thinking too much about Fidel Castro." Referring to how Castro survived his incarceration, she adds, "Fidel received his freedom, thanks to civic activists, many of whose names have bee lost to history." But where Ferrer really succeeds in her masterly work is displaying the US relationship with Cuba that extends to before the creation of the North American country. American conception of Cuba is formulated on two poles: 1) it is communist; 2) it is a victim of American imperialism. Until now, not much attention has been given to its relationship with the US, especially around slavery and sugar mill ownership (US senator James DeWolf owned a sugar mill and slaves in Cuba in the early part of the 19th century); or the progressive elements that briefly entered government in 1933.
I like the depth of Ferrer's research and her writing easily transmits a wealth of historical information to the reader. It is unfortunate that Goodreads.com deemed Cuba: An American History unworthy of inclusion in the list of best books of 2021.
