Thomas G. Patterson's Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban

Thomas G. Patterson's Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban

In his book Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban, Thomas G. Patterson explores Cuban relationships with the United States during the Batista and Castro regimes. In the 1950’s, when Fulgencio Batista was in power, the United States had an almost imperialistic dominance over Cuba. Patterson uses the word “Hegemony” to describe this dominance. He defines hegemony as “the dominance or preponderant influence that permitted U.S. decisions to condition Cuba’s politics, economy, culture, society, and military. U.S. hegemony empowered North Americans to set and maintain most of the rules by which Cubans lived and by which the Cuban – American relationship was governed” (7). At this time, the U.S. was imposing it self on Cuba without really understanding the people or the culture. The U.S. viewed Cubans as an “emotional, romantic, and childish people suffering from excessive pride” (6). There was obviously little respect for Cubans from the U.S. Moreover, Cubans felt that the strong, multifaceted U.S. influence was causing Cuba to loose its “independent identity” (8).

Economically, Cubans “enjoyed one of the one of the highest standards of living in Latin America” (34). This is predominately due to the fact that Cuba exported half its sugar and two-thirds of it total exports into the U.S., and imported three-fourths of their total imports from the U.S. Although the U.S. (35). Although the U.S. boosted the Cuban economy, Cubans resented that they were still living at an economic level lower than Americans. The average Cuban income was one- third the average of Mississippi, the poorest state in the U.S. in th...

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...ail about the historical facts about the revolution. He provides a historiography that provides social and economic influences on the revolution and presents the events in a chronological order. What I liked about his book is that he presents a study of the U.S. influence on Cuba and the hegemonic relationship they had. He presents a bias against the U.S. not in favor of communism but in favor of Cuban sovereignty. I would recommend this book to specialists and undergraduates because it provides a different look at the revolution. However, even though this book provides historical information on Cuba, the fact that the author does present an opinion disqualifies it for use as a textbook.

Bibliography:

Paterson, Thomas G. Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Pp. 352.