The book’s range from the wars for independence through the present is a strength as it allows Baer to analyze the question of Cuban Protestantism vis-à-vis the pressing social and political questions of each era and to consider how Protestants’ commitments have changed Cuba and have changed over time. . . . Baer’s work adds to the body of scholarship on religion and religious practice in Cuba in ways that illuminate how they intersected with social and political change.

H-Diplo

James Baer offers readers a unique insight into the transnational dimensions of Presbyterianism in Cuba, tracing the 19th-century origins linked to U.S. missions, explaining the growing independence of Cuban Protestants that saw Cuban religious leaders gaining more powerful roles in Cuban organizations, and noting the roles of Protestant leaders working with the revolutionary government from the 1970s to the present. A Social History of Cuban Protestants joins a growing literature that looks at Cuban civil society over the past century, illustrating the role of religious organizations and practitioners in Cuba’s various political struggles. Baer’s history of Protestants generally—and the small but vital Presbyterian church specifically—is a welcome complement to the plethora of business, economic, and political studies of modern Cuban history.

Kirwin Shaffer, Pennsylvania State University - Berks College