Cuba: The Measure of a Revolution

Cuba was first published in 1972. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

How has the revolution affected the lives of the Cuban people? Are they better off now than before Castro came to power in 1959? If so, in what ways? This book presents a careful measurement of the economic, social, and political consequences of the Cuban revolution. The findings are conclusions are likely to upset common assumptions about Castro's Cuba and to prove discouraging to those who have been optimistic about the ultimate benefits of the revolution.

Lowery Nelson is particularly qualified to assess present-day Cuba for he is the author of an earlier landmark study, Rural Cuba, published in 1950 by the University of Minnesota Press (Fidel Castro said in 1959 that his regime was adopting many of the reform measures which Dr. Nelson recommended in Rural Cuba).

In his new book Dr. Nelson traces the early years of the revolution from 1953–1959 and provides a brief history of the island prior to the time. He then devotes several chapters to a study, largely economic, of agricultural production and the mark-up of the labor force both before and since the revolution. In the third portion of the book, sociological in nature, he discusses education, social institutions, and social structure in the two periods.

With ample documentation the author shows that on the eve of the revolution Cuba's capitalistic economy was relatively prosperous whereas under the socialist-communist Castro regime virtually every aspect of productivity has lagged. He attributes the decline not only to governmental mismanagement but also to low morale on the part of workers who, he says, have lost faith in the regime and its goals. Cubans have lost personal and political freedoms too, he finds, and in conclusion he says that the revolution has been a tragedy for Cuba and its people.