Review of Jana Lipman, Guantanamo: A Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution, 2008

(I wrote this book review nearly a month ago, and I don't have the interest in editing it.)

Jana Lipman. Guantanamo: A Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. If you're curious about my pointless gripes, go to the last two paragraphs.

The welter of recent discussions on Guantanamo Bay and enemy combatants overshadows the long history of the US' presence in Cuba and, in some ways, clouds what Jana Lipman refers to as the base's neocolonial presence. Lipman examines the military installation and its relationship with base workers living in nearby Guantanamo City. She contends that the base's history is inextricable from discussions of labor with Cubans and argues "that the base workers are critical to the evolution of the base" (5). More importantly for me, and something I couldn't agree with more, she comments that "social history is diplomatic history and that local and international histories meet on the ground" (5-6). My work will examine foreign relations history as social history, so her methodological approach intrigues me most.

Lipman blends base workers' oral history, Cuban newspapers, and research in the Cuban archives with traditional American diplomatic and some labor sources. Her reach and ability to weave these fascinating sources is compelling. I may have some issues with the book, but I am impressed with her collection of first-hand accounts and Cuban sources. As one of my advisers asked with amazement when discussing the book during the DH editorial meeting "how did she do that?"

Lipman charts the progression from 1898 to the present in a cogent linear progression. She notes that most histories neglect the base, and, in so doing, ignore the post-1898 story until Castro's seizure of power from Batista and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The base workers navigated difficult straits as they sought to organize as the base's prominence expanded during and after WWII. Work on the base was lucrative and provided security and a comfortable livelihood, but after 1960 working on the base grew difficult as the US and Cuba collided. After 1963, Cuban and American security searches forced workers to strip, walk naked between zones, and suffer other indignities to continue working on the base. Cold War differences boiled over in 1964 and--although some laborers continued their itinerant status--most workers were given the choice of quitting for Cuba or turning their backs on Cuba to labor and live only in the base. Since, various contractors and Caribbean workers, notably Jamaicans, filled the majority of the jobs.

Quite simply, there's a lot to like about this book. Her narrative is fluid, she weaves the sources clearly, and it's an impressive work. I'm curious to see how her book fares in the prize circuit, and I wouldn't be surprised if she wins an AHA or OAH award. At the least, I think the book should be considered for SHAFR's Bernath Prize.

I skimmed the book in a less thorough manner than I should have. So the following questions or problems might have been dealt with in a more convincing manner than I caught. The description of labor at times was a bit thin for my taste. Lipman stresses the international nature of this labor exchange process. At points, however, I'm left wondering if it might be more accurately described as transnational. She treats the issue in the introduction, but I'm not wholly convinced. Similarly, I'm wondering if there is a story of migration and labor in the Caribbean that's absent. That subject is broached as West Indian workers appear early in the book, fades, and then is somewhat reestablished with the introduction of Jamaican workers after '65. Is this a legacy of colonialism or neocolonialism in the region's labor relations and part of a broader story? I wouldn't realistically expect her to issue grandiose claims and stretch herself too thin. Still, I think there are connections she could have drawn.

I prefer not to criticize an author for a book s/he didn't write. As I finished the book, I'm left wondering about neocolonialism and neoliberalism and what Lipman's book tells about those issues. Migration, labor, and capital are tied together in this story and I think it's a marker of a good book to leave one with productive questions.