The History of Cuba, Vol. 5

Written in the glow of Cuba's newly won independence, this fifth volume of Willis Fletcher Johnson's monumental history offers a passionate survey of the island's natural wealth and cultural vitality. Johnson frames Cuba as a place of extraordinary promise: a tropical paradise with soil fecund enough to feed empires, a climate that shapes both agriculture and temperament, and a strategic position that has made it the prize of empires. But beneath the enumeration of sugar yields and harbor depths runs a deeper argument: that Cuba's greatest resource has always been its people, woven from Spanish, African, and indigenous threads into something distinctly Cuban. The text captures a particular historical moment, when the island had thrown off Spanish dominion but had not yet entered the long shadow of the Cold War. For readers interested in American imperialism, Caribbean history, or the forgotten optimism of the early 20th century, this volume serves as both primary source and portrait of a nation imagined into being.