Revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara prepare to move in on the city of Havana. The owner of a nightclub struggles to hold together his family and the love of a woman. The culture vanishes and the people are transformed.

Jules Benjamin argues convincingly that modern conflicts between Cuba and the United States stem from a long history of U.S. hegemony and Cuban resistance. He shows what difficulties the smaller country encountered because of U.S. efforts first to make it part of an "empire of liberty" and later to dominate it by economic methods, and he analyzes the kind of misreading of ardent nationalism that continues to plague U.S. policymaking. "An original...

The Cuban Revolution was a catalyst in shaping American foreign policy over the past generation. Welch's study is the first detailed evaluation of U.S. policy toward Cuba in the early years of the Castro regime and the first effort to analyze public sentiment during that crucial period. Our response to Cuba was a mirror of our Cold War assumptions and frustrations--and of our apprehensions concerning revolutionary movements abroad.

William Morgan, a tough-talking ex-paratrooper, stunned family and friends when in 1957 he left Ohio to join freedom fighters in the mountains of Cuba. He led one band of guerrillas, and Che Guevara another, and together they swept through the country, ultimately forcing corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista from power. In just a year of fighting, the American revolutionary had altered the landscape of the Cold War. But Morgan believed they were fighting...

"An intimate, revisionist portrait of the early years of Fidel Castro, showing how an unlikely young Cuban led his country in revolution and transfixed the world. Castro got his toughness from a father who survived Spain's nasty class system and colonial wars to become one of the most successful independent plantation owners in Cuba. He grew up to be full of contradictions. in prison, he showed a passion for French literature, wrote flowery love letters,...

Analyzing the crucial period of the Cuban Revolution from 1959 to 1961, Samuel Farber challenges dominant scholarly and popular views of the revolution's sources, shape, and historical trajectory. Unlike many observers, who treat Cuba's revolutionary leaders as having merely reacted to U.S. policies or domestic socioeconomic conditions, Farber shows that revolutionary leaders, while acting under serious constraints, were nevertheless autonomous agents...

Chronicles the life of the little-known Cuban revolutionary who chose the landing site of the Gramma, fought alongside rebels in the Sierra Maestra, documented the revolution, and helped develop the Cohiba cigar brand.

This work presents a concise socio-historical account of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, an event that continues to spark debate 50 years later. It balances a comprehensive overview of the political and economic events of the revolution with a look at the revolution's social impact, and provides an on-the-ground look at the lives of ordinary people. It also features both U.S. and Cuban perspectives to provide a complete and well-rounded look at the...