| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Louis A. Pérez, Jr. The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1998. Pp. xvi, 171. Cloth $34.95, paper $16.95.

This volume investigates how the events of 1898 fit into American history and historiography. Louis A. Pérez, Jr. criticizes the narrow perspectives of both contemporary participants in and historical commentators on the Spanish-American War. Indeed, a recurring theme is the inappropriateness of that designation, which fails to acknowledge the Cuban people's struggle for independence that preceded United States action. Equally critically, many U.S. sources deemphasize or completely overlook the role Cuban rebels played in facilitating the successful American invasion and Spanish capitulation. Chapter four, "Constructing the Cuban Absence," is particularly well done, providing ample evidence of the importance of Cuban activities before and during the Santiago campaign. 1

Other sections are less convincing, in part because the author's own biases get in the way. For example, Pérez claims that President William McKinley sought a war declaration to prevent Cuban independence once he knew Spain could no longer control the island. In this formulation, fear of the rebellion's success, not its failure, triggered American intervention. Many Americans, including influential members of the McKinley administration favored transforming Cuba into an American colony before, during, and after the American invasion. But Pérez provides no convincing documentation that the president himself was a leader of or led by this group. McKinley is too complex a character to be dismissed as merely implementing the century-old "no-transfer" principle in 1898. . . .

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