“This is a splendid book. I could not put it down… Rigdon’s discussion of the issues of research project integrity is a tour de force.” • Jorge I. Domínguez, Harvard University

American anthropologist Oscar Lewis secured permission from Fidel Castro to undertake three years of field research on cultural and economic change in Cuba in the decade after the victory of Castro’s M-26 Movement. This book delves into Lewis’ research goals, methods, the training and composition of his field team, and the difficulties of executing the plan in the political climate in Cuba at the time. The government’s reasons for early termination of the research agreement are enumerated and their many discrepancies and inconsistencies evaluated. The experience of Project Cuba offers lessons on the difficulties of doing social science research in any highly surveilled, politically controlled environment however sympathetic the principal investigator.

Subject: Political and Economic Anthropology History: 20th Century to Present Theory and Methodology

Area: Latin America and the Caribbean

LC: GN21.L43 R54 2024

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; SOC019000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Methodology; HIS041010 HISTORY/Caribbean & West Indies/Cuba