According to McPherson, Spenser has gathered a remarkable international ensemble of scholars who collectively ask what the East-West Cold War meant in Latin America
"When Fidel Castro came to New York in 1960 for the 18th General Assembly at the United Nations, he was flushed with his victory over the dictator Fulgencio Batista, and he had signed the first land-reform bill expropriating land from foreign monopolies to redistribute among landless peasants. That, of course, was a challenge to the United Fruit Company and the United States, and for it he was painted red. When he arrived in New York, he was insulted at the Shelbourne Hotel in midtown, and so he took all of his group and went up to Harlem, to the Hotel Theresa." (author)
An exploration into the social networks of the Anglo-Caribbean African population from the mid 18th to early 19th centuries. Details are given describing the unique identity and culture of an international Black Protestant community established during the period. The transition from White evangelism of slaves to the self-sustained and promoted religious community of the African population is noted. Individual leaders such as William Hammet, William Meredith, and Denmark Vesey are also profiled.
Reviews several books. Not of Pure Blood: The Free People of Color and Racial Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico, by Jay Kinsbruner; From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity, by Juan Flores; Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures, by Frances R. Aparicio.;
this article charts the connection between gendered concepts of 'whiteness' in Anglo-Caribbean contexts and in metropolitan discourses surrounding British national identity, as articulated in eighteenth-century colonial legislation and official correspondence, popular texts and personal narratives of everyday life. It explores the extent to which the socio-sexual practices of British West Indian whites imperilled the emerging conflation between whiteness and Britishness.
Reviews books on American relations with Latin America. Includes The United States and Somoza, 1933-1956: A Revisionist Look, by Paul Coe Clark Jr; The Rich Neighbor Policy: Rockefeller and Kaiser in Brazil, by Elizabeth Anne Cobbs; Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903-1979, by John Major.;
Reviews several books which focused on the social and political history of Haiti. Haiti in the New World Order: The Limits of the Democratic Revolution, by Alex Dupuy; Building Peace in Haiti, by Chetan Kumar; Haiti Renewed: Political and Economic Prospects, edited by Robert Rotberg; The Haitian Dilemma: A Case Study in Demographics, Development, and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Ernest Preeg.;
Presents the essay Recent Literature on Cuba and the United States, based on several books. `Cuba and the United States: Intervention and Militarism, 1868-1933, by José M. Hernandez; Cuba: The Shaping of Revolutionary Consciousness, by Tzvi Medin; Cuba: A Short History, by Leslie Bethell; Other books used.;
Argues that Haitians used music, and particularly religious singing, self-reflexively, in a culturally patterned way, to orient themselves in time and space, and to construct a frame of meaning in which to understand and act in the devastated Haitian capital. Non-Haitian observers noted with astonishment Haitians’ widespread use of song, but could not make sense of the singing.
Reviews several books on slavery. The Abolition of Slavery in Brazil: The "Liberation" of Africans Through the Emancipation of Capital, by David Baronov; The Virgin, The King and the Royal Slaves of El Cobre: Negotiating Freedom in Colonial Cuba, 1670-1780, by María Elena Díaz; The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas, by David Eltis.;
