In this lecture, we will consider the defining moment in the 20th-century history of the Caribbean: the Cuban Revolution (1959). As well as transforming US-Cuban relations, this event had significant implications for the region, the Americas and, indeed, the wider world.

Suggested reading

Benjamin, Jules R., The United States and the Origins of the Cuban Revolution: An Empire of Liberty in an Age of National Liberation (Princeton, N.J.; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1990).

Chomsky, Aviva, A History of the Cuban Revolution (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).

D’Agostino, T. J. (2003) ‘Caribbean politics’ in R. S. Hillman and T. J. D’Agostino (eds), Understanding the Contemporary Caribbean (London, 2003), pp. 85-127.

Erisman, H. M. (2003) ‘International relations’ in R. S. Hillman and T. J. D’Agostino (eds), Understanding the contemporary Caribbean (London, 2003), pp. 149-177.

Farber, Samuel, The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006).

Heuman, G., The Caribbean (London: Hodder, 2006), chapter 15.

Knight, Franklin W., The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism (2nd edition, Oxford, 1990), pp. 227-256.

Maingot, Anthony P., ‘Caribbean International Relations’, in Franklin W. Knight and Colin Palmer (eds), The Modern Caribbean (Chapel Hill, 1989), pp. 259-291.

Maingot, Anthony P. and Wilfredo Lozano, The United States and the Caribbean: Transforming Hegemony and Sovereignty (London, 2005).

Pérez-Stable, ‘The Cuban revolution and its impact on the Caribbean’ in B. Brereton, (ed.), The Caribbean in the Twentieth Century, vol. 5, (London, 2004), pp. 282-311.

Pérez-Stable, Marifeli, The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Randall, Stephen. J. and Graeme Mount, The Caribbean Basin: An International History (London: 1998), esp. chapters 4 and 5.

Roy, Joaquin, The Cuban Revolution (1959-2009); Relations with Spain, the European Union, and the United States (Basingstoke, 2009).

Williams, Gary, US-Grenada Relations: Revolution and Intervention in the Backyard (Basingstoke, 2007).

Zeuske, Michael, ‘The Long Cuban Revolution’ in Stephan Palmié and Francisco A. Scarano (eds), The Caribbean: A History of the Region and its Peoples (Chicago, 2011), pp. 507-522.