Guantanamo: A Working-Class History between Empire and Revolution / Edition 1

by Jana K. Lipman

Overview

Guantánamo has become a symbol of what has gone wrong in the War on Terror. Yet Guantánamo is more than a U.S. naval base and prison in Cuba, it is a town, and our military occupation there has required more than soldiers and sailors—it has required workers. This revealing history of the women and men who worked on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay tells the story of U.S.-Cuban relations from a new perspective, and at the same time, shows how neocolonialism, empire, and revolution transformed the lives of everyday people. Drawing from rich oral histories and little-explored Cuban archives, Jana K. Lipman analyzes how the Cold War and the Cuban revolution made the naval base a place devoid of law and accountability. The result is a narrative filled with danger, intrigue, and exploitation throughout the twentieth century. Opening a new window onto the history of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and labor history in the region, her book tells how events in Guantánamo and the base created an ominous precedent likely to inform the functioning of U.S. military bases around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520255401
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	12/02/2008
Series:	American Crossroads , #25
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jana K. Lipman is Assistant Professor of History at Tulane University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction: Between Guantánamo and GTMO
Prologue: Regional Politics, 1898, and the Platt Amendment
1. The Case of Kid Chicle:
Military Expansion and Labor Competition, 1939-1945
2. “We Are Real Democrats”:
Legal Debates and Cold War Unionism before Castro, 1940-1954
3. Good Neighbors, Good Revolutionaries, 1940-1958
4. A “Ticklish” Position: Revolution, Loyalty, and Crisis, 1959-1964
5. Contract Workers, Exiles, and Commuters:
Neocolonial and Postmodern Labor Arrangements
Epilogue: Post 9/11: Empire and Labor Redux

Appendix: Guantánamo Civil Registry, 1921-1958
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Lipman offers a new and compelling angle on the crisis."—London Review of Books

"Lipman's account is impressive, original, and well researched. . . . Should interest foreign relations scholars, Latin America area specialists, and labor historians."—H-Net Reviews

"Splendid. . . . Lipman shows successfully that Cuban workers mattered."—
International History Review

"Lipman has produced a grounded, powerful critique of United States policy."—Estudios
Interdisciplinarios De America Latina Y El Caribe (Eial)

Editorial Reviews

Lipman’s account is impressive, original, and well researched. . . . Should interest foreign relations scholars, Latin America area specialists, and labor historians.

H-Net Reviews

Lipman offers a new and compelling angle on the crisis.

London Review Of Books

Lipman has produced a grounded, powerful critique of United States policy.

Estudios Interdisciplinarios De America Latina Y El Caribe (Eial)

Splendid. . . . Lipman shows successfully that Cuban workers mattered.

International History Review

Splendid. . . . Lipman shows successfully that Cuban workers mattered.

Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|International History Review

Lipman has produced a grounded, powerful critique of United States policy.

Estudios Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|Interdisciplinarios De America Latina Y El Caribe (Eial)