“This excellent study of American policy toward Cuba deals with the changes in that policy, particularly the interpretation of the Platt Amendment, from 1913 to 1921.”
—Journal of Political and Military Sociology

“Pérez' book is the most scholarly yet written about this important eight-year period in Cuban-American relations. More than that, it presents one of the clearest analyses of how the Platt Amendment both dominated and distorted the Cuban political system.”
—Hispanic American Historical Review

“The author packs a lot of information into this rather specialized study. He deftly clarifies the competition between insurgent Cuban Liberals and their Conservative opponents, and he demonstrates how both groups sought to channel U.S. fears of Cuban disorder to their own advantage. Equally well does Pérez uncover the often murky economic interests of American corporations and officials. Indeed, his section about Norman H. Davis, who served in both high Treasury and State Department posts until 1921 while enriching himself from more than thirty economic projects in Cuba, is fascinating. . . . this is first-rate historical analysis.”
—History: Reviews of New Books