Lexington Books
Pages: 196
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9
978-1-4985-9227-7 • Hardback • June 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-4985-9229-1 • Paperback • October 2020 • $41.99 • (£32.00)
978-1-4985-9228-4 • eBook • June 2019 • $39.50 • (£30.00)
Daniel I. Pedreira is author of The Last Delegate: The Political Development of Emilio “Millo” Ochoa
Chapter One: By the House of Their Fathers
Chapter Two: A Child of the 1902 Generation
Chapter Three: Foray into Politics
Chapter Four: A Time for War
Chapter Five: Dr. Belt Goes to Washington
Chapter Six: An Instrument of Peace
Chapter Seven: Building Peace from Scratch
Chapter Eight: Road to Rio
Chapter Nine: Hemispheric Cooperation and Universal Human Rights
Chapter Ten: With Counsel and Wisdom
Chapter Eleven: A Foreigner in a Foreign Land
“An Instrument of Peace: The Full-Circled Life of Ambassador Guillermo Belt Ramírez,” offers an interesting take on U.S.-Cuba relations before the Castro dictatorship came to power. . . . Daniel’s books provide a necessary academic and literary contribution to the broader literature on Cuban history, political science and international relations during the period between the establishment of the Republic of Cuba in 1902 and its demise in 1959.— The Miami Herald
“A much deserved recognition to one of Cuba’s most distinguished diplomats. Well researched and detailed, this book provides a warm yet unapologetic portrayal of Guillermo Belt and his times”.— Luis G. Solís, Florida International University
“A carefully researched account of Guillermo Belt and his impact on Cuba diplomacy. Well written and comprehensive, this book sheds light on and makes a significant contribution to the understanding of an important and little researched period of Cuban history.”— Jaime Suchlicki, professor emeritus and director, Cuban Studies Institute
In presenting the life of Guillermo Belt, Daniel Pedreira has done a great service to Cuban, and indeed Latin American History, and taken an important step in dismounting the Castro Dictatorship´s effort to conceal and rewrite the past. Belt was part of a remarkable cadre of Cuban diplomats who served their country with honor and distinction during turbulent times both in Cuba and the World, since Independence in 1902 until the advent of Tyranny, in 1959. Furthermore, Belt´s career in exile highlights his sense of duty and commitment to his country and to future generations of Cubans.I enthusiastically recommend "An Instrument of Peace" . It is required reading for anyone interested in understanding the true history of Cuba and what the future may hold the day that the country has again joined the ranks of democratic societies. — Aurelio Fernandez-Concheso M., author of "El Diplomatico- de la Gran Depresión a la Guerra Fría"
Even in the darkest of times, wrote Hannah Arendt in the preface of one her books, "we have the right to expect some illumination", and "such illumination may well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given them on earth...." There is a number of courageous individuals in the Cuban history of the 20th century, whose life story is endowed with such a illuminating power and Ambassador Guillermo Belt is undoubtedly one of them. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to eliminate once for all the adversarial effects of Orwellian memory hole created by the six decades of communist rule imposed on Cuba by Fidel Castro and work for the rebirth of Cuban political nation – free and prosperous, capable to rediscover and assess critically its past and find its proper place in the today’s world, alongside with other Latin American liberal democracies, within the family of nations struggling together against all totalitarian tendencies the global humanity is exposed to in the first decades of the 21st century.— Martin Palous, Florida International University