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American history author and historian Jonathan M. Hansen is a lecturer at Harvard University. Born in Philadelphia and educated at Haverford College and Boston University, Jonathan lives with his family in Belmont.
About the Author
Jonathan M. Hansen is a lecturer in social studies and faculty associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, at Harvard University. An intellectual historian by training, he is the author of "The Lost Promise of Patriotism: Debating American Identity, 1890–1920" (Chicago, 2003) and "Guantanamo: An American History" (Hill and Wang, 2011), along with articles, editorials, and book reviews on U.S. imperialism, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and race and ethnicity.
He is currently working on 2 projects: a history of apology, which combines longitudinal analysis of apology in Western culture reaching back to classical literary and sacred texts with a latitudinal examination of apology and reconciliation projects across cultures, continents, and oceans; and secondly, a history of post-traumatic stress syndrome in American wars explores whether and in what forms PTSD existed before the idea of "trauma" became commonplace.
Library Journal
*Starred Review* Hansen (social studies, Harvard; "The Lost Promise of Patriotism: Debating American Identity, 1890-1920") here isn't simply presenting the history of America's naval base (GTMO) on the southeastern coast of Cuba; his story takes readers from the arrival of Columbus to the 2002 arrival of prisoners in the so-called war on terror. The perfect deep-water port, Guantanamo was once the U.S. Navy's ideal base in the Caribbean, but its strategic value had diminished over the years, and it was seldom in the news until the post-9/11 period.
Hansen places GTMO in an international and regional perspective, recalling the role of the base during Castro's revolution in a fascinating chapter and concluding with a revealing chapter on the "Gitmo" prison. He never loses the Cuban perspective and the internal divisiveness here at home about Guantanamo's future.
VERDICT
More comprehensive than Stephen Irving Max Schwab's "Guantanamo USA," this well-researched and well-written book will appeal to all readers but especially to those interested in American history as it relates to Cuba and the Caribbean.
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