GILLIAN MC GILLIVRAY. Blazing Cane: Sugar Communities, Class, and State Formation in Cuba, 1868-1959. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.

Abstract

On first read, specialists in Cuban history may find it pleasantly surprising to discover just how fresh and innovative Gillian McGillivray’s book is. Not so long ago, it was the rare study of Cuba that would not interrogate or assume the significance of sugar, rural labor, and capitalism to the island’s history. Today, the scholarly landscape looks quite different. Attention to urban life, popular culture, and transnational politics have largely drawn historians away from the countryside, leaving the field of rural history to lie fallow.