About the Author

Devyn Spence Benson is assistant professor of history and African and African American studies at Louisiana State University, USA.

Reviews

Offers readers an unflinching analysis of the equally significant achievements and failures of the revolutionary government's three-year antiracism campaign.--Latin American Research Review

Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution is well-rounded in its coverage of intellectual, political, and social terrain, and it marshals a wide range of sources in its convincing analysis--American Historical Review

This is an impressive piece of research as it digs deep in order to explain the ways the new government [in Cuba] addressed the thorny issues of race and racial discrimination.--Canadian Journal of History

Succeeds admirably in providing a textured, multifaceted account of the early revolutionary period, and specifically Cuba's contradictory campaign to end racial discrimination.--H-Net

A rare, impressively researched study of Cuban racial politics in the post 1959 era.--New Orleans Tribune

Beautifully weaves together the commonalities of nineteenth-century anticolonial struggles, twentieth-century revolutionary ideologies, and state practices.--Journal of American History

Benson's thoughtful book challenges many ideas about race in Cuba and in general. . . . Provides a perspective not otherwise found in studies of the Cuban Revolution, and stresses Afro-descendants' ownership of their place in Cuba's history. Highly recommended.--Choice

Unearths the substrate of historical successes, hypocrisies, and strategic elisions underlying contemporary debates about Cuban race relations. . . . Powerfully complicates the oft-repeated idea that racism 'returned' to the island during the trying post-Soviet economic crisis of the 1990s.--Michael J. Bustamante, NACLA Report on the Americas