Leid Stories - 07/10/14

Parallel Paths of Struggle: 

The Shared History of African Resistance In Cuba and the United States

Having decisively shattered the myth that noble defiance against Britain’s onerous taxes on the colonies was what fueled the much-gloried War of Independence (when, actually, it was a preemptive strike by the ruling elite to prevent Britain’s possible abolition of slavery and thus protect their slavery-derived social status and wealth), noted historian Gerald Horne returns to Leid Stories with another historical gem.

Just a month after we discussed The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, (check June 4 podcast), we learn today from Horne’s brand-new release, Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba During Slavery and Jim Crow, the hidden history of parallel paths of struggle by Africans in societies predicated on their exploitation and eternal subjugation.

Ideological differences between the United States and Cuba long have served as the context for popular understanding of their individual development and the relationship between them. Horne’s historical lens helps us see clearly the much larger picture.