Analysis Of Louis A. Perez In The War Of 1898: The US

Hist 167 Xochilt Puga Perez Precis Louis A Pérez in The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1998) examined how Cuba and the U.S. developed an intricate relationship over time which led to the eruption of the war and the intervention led to several repercussions to this day. Perez argued that a lot of ambiguity surrounded the Spanish American War and had been useful for those who wrote about the war and American self identity. In addition, Perez created a Cuban narrative, using uncommon sources in order to combat the classical discourse on the war.
Perez offered the readers an extensive amount of Cuban and American historiography.
It did not focus solely on American sources and included first-hand Cuban accounts describing war experiences with letters and journals. Perez incorporated U.S. archives and all the historical scholarship written about the war. The emphasis on these sources was on Cuban and how since 1898 all the literature from the U.S. did not completely acknowledge the Cuban struggle. “It has contributed to a historiography with contradictions...blurred distinctions between interests...intentions...confused popular sentiment with official policy (Pg. xiii)
Perez noted that the U.S. “assumed a position as protector of the interests of Cuba.” The U.S knew without Cuba under their influence would not be able to completely accomplish their interests which were central to its policy. These assumptions that the U.S. was a protector led many to fear the results of a potentially independent Cuba. Trumbull White depicted the Cuban Army as inept, “after three years of not being well armed and not having captured a city was due to their inferiority” (Pg 51). Perez concludes the chapter by saying how Cuban sources were neglected once