Havana: The Making of Cuban Culture - Hardcover

Kapcia, Antoni

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 185973832X ISBN 13: 9781859738320

Publisher: Berg Publishers, 2005

Synopsis

Fat cigars, big cars, dirty money, vibrant music, intellectual ferment. Havana, since its creation in 1535, has long offered a unique, bewildering mix of the backward and the hip, the seedy and the sophisticated. In many respects, it shares the characteristics of other colonial or post-colonial cities of the Caribbean and Latin America. But at the same time, Havana created its own niche both as an international city and a dynamic national capital. Despite Cuba's fluctuating fortunes, Havana has always managed to thrive and develop its own unique character as an urban, social, economic, cultural and political site. Havana offers a sweeping account of the city and its cultural development, focusing especially on the last two centuries and on the role played by the city's cultural communities in the search for national identity. The author introduces us to a marginal city with roots in the sixteenth century, taking us through the periods when it was a sugar boomtown, pulled between empires, a decadent metropolis, a site of both cultural revolution and relative stagnation during the development of the Revolution to its revival in the 1990s. He looks at the often creative tensions between external influences (especially Spain, France and the United States) and indigenous cultural pressures. Areas covered include architecture, literature, music, dance, cinema and the press. Cosmopolitan playground and nationalist vanguard, Havana has developed its own style while at the same time both reflecting and directing the complicated politics of the whole of Cuba. This book offers a concise introduction to one of the most intriguing cities of the twenty-first century.

About this title

About the Author:

Antoni Kapcia is Professor of Latin American History at the University of Nottingham and the author of Cuba: Island of Dreams (Berg Publishers, 2000).

Review:

This unique analysis of Cuba's search for a national identity is unrivalled for its understanding of the interaction between elites, culminating in a lucid account of the problems of revolutionary mass culture, brilliantly evoking the uniqueness of Havana as a symbol for one of the world's most vibrant and creative nations. Alistair Hennessy, retired Professor of History and Director for Centre of Caribbean Studies, Warwick University Kapcia's encyclopaedic knowledge provides a kaleidoscope that is truly impressive and eminently readable. Father Geoff Bottoms

About this edition

• Publisher: Berg Publishers
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 185973832X
• ISBN 13: 9781859738320
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256