Cuba: A History. Hugh Thomas

First published in 1971, "Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom" is still the most important and authoritative book on this complex and often geopolitically significant country, marrying Hugh Thomas' unique skills as arguably the world's leading historian of Spanish-speaking peoples with an intricate and absorbing subject. This book explores the whole sweep of Cuban history, from the British capture of Havana in 1762 through the years of Spanish and American domination up to the twentieth century and the extraordinary revolution of Fidel Castro. Throughout the 200-year period of its scope, the book analyses the political, economic and social events that have shaped Cuban history with extraordinary insight and panache. Encyclopaedic in range and breathtaking in execution, "Cuba" is surely one of the seminal works of world history.