Cuba Libre!
Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution That Changed World History
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
The surprising story of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and the scrappy band of rebel men and women who followed them.
Most people are familiar with the basics of the Cuban Revolution of 1956–1959: it was led by two of the twentieth century’s most charismatic figures, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara; it successfully overthrew the island nation’s US–backed dictator; and it quickly went awry under Fidel’s rule.
But less is remembered about the amateur nature of the movement or the lives of its players. In this wildly entertaining and meticulously researched account, historian and journalist Tony Perrottet unravels the human drama behind history’s most improbable revolution: a scruffy handful of self-taught revolutionaries—many of them kids just out of college, literature majors, and art students, and including a number of extraordinary women—who defeated 40,000 professional soldiers to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Cuba Libre!’s deep dive into the revolution reveals fascinating details: How did Fidel’s highly organized lover Celia Sánchez whip the male guerrillas into shape? Who were the two dozen American volunteers who joined the Cuban rebels? How do you make land mines from condensed milk cans—or, for that matter, cook chorizo à la guerrilla (sausage guerrilla-style)?
Cuba Libre! is an absorbing look back at a liberation movement that captured the world's imagination with its spectacular drama, foolhardy bravery, tragedy, and, sometimes, high comedy—and that set the stage for Cold War tensions that pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Perrottet (Off the Deep End: Travels in Forgotten Frontiers) offers a fairly balanced, accessible history of the Cuban Revolution and how it was received in the late 1950s both at home and in the U.S. Before Cold War politics made Fidel Castro a bearded villain, he was America's favorite revolutionary, having overthrown Cuba's thuggish, corrupt president, Fulgencio Batista. Drawing on interviews with revolutionaries, accounts from historians from both countries, archival papers, and journalistic accounts, Perrottet traces the revolution's arc from Castro's student years to his 1959 interview on the Ed Sullivan Show (where the host fulsomely compared him to George Washington). Perrottet portrays with an unsparing eye the "wildly incompetent" early battles and campaigns in the Sierra Maestra mountains in the rugged backwater of Oriente Province, which nearly doomed the rebels. He avoids hagiography of the movement or Fidel, Raul Castro, and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, arguing that Castro was motivated by an appetite for power rather than by fealty to political ideology, and had many flaws as a "disorganized, capricious, and petulant" leader. The book, however, is far less insightful about Castro's shift to megalomania after coming to power. But, despite some soft spots, this offers an entertaining and useful perspective on a remarkable political and military upset.
