Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom

At the climax of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the population of the Northern Hemisphere risked extinction. Two hundred years earlier, Cuba - whose position in the Caribbean was the military key to the New World - was similarly the storm centre of the Seven Years Wars between, England, France and Spain. Hugh Thomas' book explores the whole sweep of Cuban history from the English capture of Havana in 1762 through the years of Spanish and United States domination down to the 20th century and the revolution of Fidel Castro. Throughout this 200 year period the author relates the political, economic and social events of Cuba; in particular he sets Cuba's greatest crop, sugar, in the context of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade and the development of Cuba's relations with the United States and the other states of Latin America.