Fidel Castro (Revised)

By Robert E. Quirk

Book Overview

Revised

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393313271
• ISBN13: 9780393313277
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.
• Length: 898 Pages
• Weight: 2.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Quirk on Fidel Castro

Though a bit long and tedious 900 pages, this is an excellent comprehensive and well-organized biography of Fidel Castro: from the days of his childhood to his rise to power in Cuba and the world stage. Quirk's first chapter is probably the best 30-page narration of Castro's pre-revolutionary days, from his childhood in his father's affluent plantation, thru his Havana University days and initial affiliation with Eduardo Chibas' liberal flavored Orthodox Party. Quirk tells us more about life at the Castro estates that by the 1920's, Castro's father had become wealthy, with close to 25,000 acres, one of the largest estates in Cuba. We learn that from childhood Fidel Castro respected and admired his father's strong macho and much feared persona and counted weapons as his most prized possessions- including rifles, pistols and shotguns. His life, as a child and as a revolutionary, was one long love affair with firearms and his speeches would have many references to blood and to the prospects of violence and death. I was highly impressed with Quirk's narration of the early days of the Cuban Revolution (1959-60), a period when Fidel Castro deceived his liberal and moderate allies in the struggle against Batista back from the Moncada days in 1953, was able to form an alliance with the Communists starting in 1959, consolidating his power as defense minister and eventually having a strong enough power base by mid-1960 when he cancelled elections, suppressed freedom of the press, and started a campaign of property confiscation. Castro's interaction with high level cabinet members is covered, showing his micromanagement style and tendency to provide direction in capricious whims on anything from the agrarian reform to housing projects. Events in 1959-60, such as the cancellation of elections and the confiscation of private property, set up confrontations with the U.S., which resulted in the Bays of Pigs in 1961 and the Missile Crises in 1962. However, little mention is made of Castro's interventionism in Latin America starting in 1959. Quirk goes on to end with Castro's heady days of adventurism in Africa and to his authoritarian control of a country that he has wrecked politically and economically. A must read for Cuban Revolution junkies!

Welcome addition

This is book is a welcome addition and sheds much needed light on the phenonmenon of Castro. It is thoroughly researched and quite lengthy-perhaps too much so however. After completing a masters degree in Latin American studies and pouring over the vast literature on Cuba, I definitely recommend this book but suggest reading others on the topic as well. Cuban studies is such a politicized field and it is remarkably difficult to find academics, pundits, and others writing in this area who aren't completely biased in one way or the other. In addition to this book, I recommend books and articles by Jorge Dominguez, who is probably the most noted scholar writing on Cuba today.

intelligent

Don't be misled by the negative reviews presented here, they are more political diatribe I think, than an assestment of an author's work. I found it objective, a difficult task when dealing with such a polarized figure. I found it intelligent. Along with Ellis' biography of James Joyce, one of the most sobering and well done biographies I've read.

Accurate portrayal of the brutal dictator.

This book gives a accurate portrayal of Castro's life. As a Cuban who has suffered under his heavy hand, I have to say the author does a good job. Castro's regime after 40 years is as brutal as ever with numerous crackdown on political dissidents every day. It is funny how some outsiders can go to the island and leave "experts", simply because they spoke to a few people. You have to live many years in Cuba to really know how oppressive Castro's regime has been.