State of Ambiguity

Steven Palmer is Canada Research Chair in History of International Health and Associate Professor at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism: Doctors, Healers, and Public Power in Costa Rica, 1800–1940 and coeditor (with IvÁn Molina) of The Costa Rica Reader: History, Culture, Politics, both also published by Duke University Press.JosÉ Antonio Piqueras is Chair of Contemporary History at Universitat Jaume I in CastellÓn, Spain. He is the author of several books on Cuban and Caribbean history, including Trabajo libre y coactivo en sociedades de plantaciÓn.Amparo SÁnchez Cobos is Assistant Professor of History at Universitat Jaume I in CastellÓn, Spain, and the author of Sembrando ideales. Anarquistas espaÑoles en Cuba.

• Introduction: Revisiting Cuba's First Republic / Steven Palmer, JosÉ Antonio Piqueras, and Amparo SÁnchez Cobos 11. A Sunken Ship, a Bronze Eagle, and the Politics of Memory: The "Social Life" of the USS Maine in Cuba (1898–1961) / Marial Iglesias Utset 222. Shifting Sands of Cuban Science, 1875–1933 / Steven Palmer 543. Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Cuba: A View from the Sugar District of Cienfuegos, 1886–1909 / Rebecca J. Scott 4. Slaughterhouses and Milk Consumption in the "Sick Republic": Socio-Environmental Change and Sanitary Technology in Havana, 1890–1925 / Reinaldo Funes Monzote 1215. Attributes for the Capital of an Austere Republic / JosÉ Antonio Piqueras 1486. Transcending Borders: ¡Tierra! and the Expansion of Anarchism in Cuba after Independence / Amparo SÁnchez Cobos 1817. Steeds, Cocks, and Guayaberas: The Social Impact of Agrarian Reorganization in the Republic / Imilcy Balboa Navarro 2088. Disctrict 25: Rotary Clubs and Regional Civic Power in Cuba, 1916–1940 / Maikel FariÑas Borrego 2319. El naciente pÚblico oyente: Towards a Genealogy of the Audience in Early Republican Cuba / Alejandra Bronfman 25110. New Knowledge for New Times: The Sociedad del Folklore Cubano during the "Critical Decade" (1923–1930) / Ricardo Quiza Moreno 26911. Nation, State, and the Making of Cuban Working Class, 1920–1940 / Robert Whitney 292Bibliography 323Contributors 349Index 353

“Taken as a whole, this provocative collection reveals that the Cuban republic was a vibrant locus of intellectual ferment ranging from the natural sciences and architecture to medicine and the media. It is proof that the history of the Cuban republic requires much more from historians than simplistic accounts of “doctors and generals.”” - John A. Gutiérrez (Journal of Interdisciplinary History) "Professors and graduate students concerned with the background to the Cuban Revolution of 1959 will find much to ponder in the new approaches and material these noted authors offer in State of Ambiguity. By assembling this collection of outstanding essays-all of which are reader-friendly, free of scholarly jargon, and well-referenced-the editors have amply succeeded in their effort to challenge the three dominant views of pre-Castro Cuba by reframing the central concerns of civic and cultural life during the first republic and by opening up new avenues of investigation." - Jane M. Rausch (Journal of Third World Studies)