History of Cuba, or Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics

Ballou, Maturin Murray, 1820-1895Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 357K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics by Maturin Murray BallouAuthor: Ballou, Maturin Murray, 1820-1895,Language: English, Class: F1751: History of the Americas: West Indies. Cuba, Release Date: Jun 14, 2010

Editor's review

This is a nineteenth-century traveler's account of Cuba's history and observations, written in English by Maturin Murray Ballou and classified by Project Gutenberg under Caribbean history: Cuba. Its value lies in interweaving historical narrative with travel observation: it both traces the island's historical development and records on-site impressions of tropical scenery, city life, and local customs. For today's readers, it is more like a window onto the nineteenth-century Caribbean world, with prose that carries the ease and curiosity of travel literature of that era. It suits those interested in Cuban history, colonial-era Caribbean society, or the tradition of travel writing. Readers should note that the author's perspective carries the limitations of his time and position; his judgments and phrasing should be examined as both historical source and literary text, not taken as a modern scholarly work. It works well as background reading or supplementary material for specialized research, and for readers who enjoy slowly reading old travel accounts.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Cuban history and nineteenth-century Caribbean society
Readers who enjoy classic travel literature and are willing to read old accounts slowly
History enthusiasts seeking background material on the colonial West Indies

Not a good fit for

Serious researchers seeking a systematic general history of Cuba within a modern scholarly framework
Readers expecting a light contemporary travel guide or practical travel information

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to see how historical narrative and travel observations are distributed, then choose chapters by interest.
Mark passages that reflect period bias as you read and compare them with today's historical scholarship.
Consult maps or material on Cuban geography alongside the text to strengthen your sense of places and routes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a general history of Cuba or a travelogue?

Both. The title itself signals the dual nature of "history of Cuba" and "notes of a traveler in the tropics," and the author interweaves historical narrative with personal travel observations. It is not as systematic as a modern academic history; it is closer to the nineteenth-century travel-writing tradition of using observations to bring out history, and works well as background and source material.

Are the views in the book reliable to today's readers?

It is necessary to distinguish historical value from reliability of views. The author recorded nineteenth-century Cuban society and travel observations, which have value as historical reference; but his perspective carries the limitations of his time and position, and some judgments and phrasing reflect the prejudices of European travelers of the era. It is best read critically as a historical text rather than accepted directly as modern scholarly conclusion.

What reading approach suits this Project Gutenberg edition?

This edition is a free public-domain electronic text in the original English, usually without modern notes or introduction. It suits slow chapter-by-chapter reading on an electronic device, or consultation as supplementary material for specialized research. For a systematic understanding of Cuban history, consult modern scholarly works and annotated editions as well to fill in background and perspective.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Ballou, Maturin Murray, 1820-1895 Author

Maturin Murray Ballou (1820-1895) was a nineteenth-century American author, with nineteen of his works held in this library. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life are difficult to ascertain, yet his subjects reveal a writer of wide interests in travel and biography. He wrote travel accounts such as Aztec Land, Due West: Or, Round the World in Ten Months, and Due North: Or, Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia, recording foreign landscapes and journeys. He also produced A History of Cuba and The Pearl of India, showing attention to tropical regions and colonial history. His output includes popular fiction such as Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain, set in the Revolutionary era, and a biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou. His plain, readable prose combines observation with narrative appeal, and his works are also classified under inspirational growth.