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The intimate and highly revealing life story of the world’s longest-serving, most charismatic, and controversial head of state in modern times. Fidel Castro was a dictatorial pariah to some and a hero and inspiration for many of the world's poor, defiantly charting an independent and revolutionary path for Cuba over nearly half a century. Numerous attempts were made to get Castro to tell his own story. But only in the twilight of his years was he prepared to set out the details of his remarkable biography for the world to read before his death in 2016. This book is nothing less than his living testament. In these pages, Castro narrates a compelling chronicle that spans the harshness of his...
This intimate, revisionist portrait of Fidel Castro, showing how an unlikely young Cuban led his country in revolution and transfixed the world, is “sure to become the standard on Castro’s early life” (Publishers Weekly). Until now, biographers have treated Castro’s life like prosecutors, scouring his past for evidence to convict a person they don’t like or don’t understand. Young Castro challenges us to put aside the caricature of a bearded, cigar-munching, anti-American hothead to discover how Castro became the dictator who acted as a thorn in the side of US presidents for nearly half a century. In this “gripping and edifying narrative…Hansen brings imposing research and no...
"Mr. Lockwood's exciting book...holds many surprises for the reader who has seen the Cuban reality up to now only through the distorting prism of propaganda.... [During Mr. Lockwood's latest, 14-week visit to Cuba in 1965] he had 'a seven-day marathon conversation' with [Fidel], the transcription of which, with excellent photographs, constitutes the heart of the book.... A first-rate psychological document, this book is also an historical one in that it contains information necessary to the understanding of several conversional questions, such as the priority given agriculture in the development of the Cuban economy, the dissension between Moscow and Havana, or even the intellectual road by ...
This book is a study of Cuba's economic development under communism over the last fifty-five years. The authors find that Cuba's socioeconomic development has gone backward since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The authors conclude that Fidel Castro's revolution has been an economic disaster for Cuba. The book first outlines Cuba's economic position prior to the revolution. It reviews Cuba's rankings with respect to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the 1950s and examines the strength of pre-Castro Cuba's foreign reserves and the health of its monetary system. It also presents pre-Castro Cuba's investments in health care and education and documents the island's development potential in the 1950s. The last few chapters describe the precipitous decline in all of these areas of Cuba's economy under Castro. Despite the socioeconomic catastrophe of the Castro years, the authors envision a post-Castro Cuba, where this book can provide a benchmark to measure the developmental success that the Cuban work-ethic and entrepreneurial spirit can generate in a free-market system.
FIDEL CASTRO August 13, 1926 – November 26, 2016. “A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.” --Fidel Castro From revolutionary and symbol of strength to Cold War adversary, Fidel Castro was one of the world’s most controversial leaders, and perhaps its most enduring. As Cuba’s towering and charismatic president for nearly fifty years, Castro’s influential leadership captivated allies and enemies alike. By virtue of passionate oration and committed sense of purpose—good or bad—Castro kept the Cuban people devoted and the world enthralled. From his earliest years as a student rebel to his role in Cuba's social reform to The Cuban Missile Crisis, his life is c...
In this important introduction to the career of an enigmatic leader, Sebastian Balfour traces Fidel Castro's path to power, from student leader to head of state. Taking account of recent world developments, he analyses the historical conditions that enabled Castro to sieze and maintain power
In The Double Life of Fidel Castro, one of Castro's soldiers of 17 years breaks his silence and shares his memoir of years of service, and eventual imprisonment and torture for displeasing the notorious dictator, and his dramatic escape from Cuba. Responsible for protecting the Lider maximo for two decades, Juan Reinaldo Sánchez was party to his secret life – because everything around Castro was hidden. From the ghost town in which guerrillas from several continents were trained, to his immense personal fortune – including a huge property portfolio, a secret paradise island, and seizure of public money – as well as his relationship with his family and his nine children from five different partners. Sanchez's tell-all expose reveals countless state secrets and the many sides of the Cuban monarch: genius war leader in Nicaragua and Angola, paranoid autocrat at home, master spy, Machiavellian diplomat, and accomplice to drug traffickers. This extraordinary testimony makes us re-examine everything we thought we knew about the Cuban story and Fidel Castro Ruz.
While Fidel Castro maintains his longtime grip on Cuba, revolutionary scholars and policy analysts have turned their attention from how Castro succeeded (and failed), to how Castro himself will be succeeded - by a new government. This is a comprehensive analysis of corruption in Cuba, and prescriptions for minimizing it in the post-Castro era. While Fidel Castro maintains his longtime grip on Cuba, revolutionary scholars and policy analysts have turned their attention from how Castro succeeded (and failed), to how Castro himself will be succeeded - by a new government. Among the many questions to be answered is how the new government will deal with the corruption that has become endemic in C...