A column by Professor Anthony Maingot, Cuba in a Broader Context places the dynamics and impact of change in Cuba in a historical, cultural, political, economic, and international context. The purpose of the column is to analyze Cuba in a broader temporal and scholarly optic that will help us understand the actual situation on the island. While a comparative perspective sheds light on transformations on the island, Maingot also highlights the national particularities of the case. As a Caribbeanist who has done considerable work on Cuba, he is well suited to connect the general with the specific. Professor Maingot is a firm believer that the union of theory with empirical historical analysis that is sensitive to cultural dimensions reveals likely patterns of social change.

Professor Emeritus of Sociology at FIU and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Cuban Research Institute for the 2006-2007 academic year, Maingot is the co-author of The United States and the Caribbean: Transforming Hegemony and Sovereignty (with Wilfredo Lozano, Routledge 2005) and the author of The United States and The Caribbean: Challenges of an Asymmetrical Relationship (Macmillan 1994; revised version published in Spanish by the Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico in 2005) and the Historical Dictionary of U.S.-Caribbean Relations (Scarecrow Press 2006). Maingot is the former president of the Caribbean Studies Association, the founder and former editor of Hemisphere, and a former associate editor of Caribbean Review.