THE PAGEANT OF CUBA

Excellent reading about a minute part of the world which has always succeeded in reserving a few headlines for herself. Traces the history of Cuba from Columbus to the present day. Excellent background material which explains much of the current upheavals. Thoughtful weighing of the results of the various occupations, Spanish, a touch of French, a bit more British, always the grasping, jealous mother, Spain, in the background; the graft and corruption of the successive regimes; the wickedness and futility of the Spanish-American War; the contribution of American guardianship; the slackening of later rulers down to the horrors of the 1933 rebellion. Cuba, her original inhabitants wiped out by greed -- her new people struggling under poverty -- Cuba existing, with a certain charm and gaiety and leisureliness --caught here in her loveliness and squalor. Illustrated with 50 full-page photographs. Companion volume to the author's Bermuda.