Bibliograph

Young Castro, the making of a revolutionary, Jonathan M. Hansen

Type

Label

Young Castro, the making of a revolutionary, Jonathan M. Hansen

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

illustrationsmapsplates

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Young Castro

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1050141716

Responsibility statement

Jonathan M. Hansen

Sub title

the making of a revolutionary

Summary

"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, and contemplated the meaning of life. As an audacious militant, he staged a reckless attack on a military barracks but was canny about building an army of resisters. As a young politician, he was a gregarious soul attentive to the needs of strangers but often indifferent to the needs of his own family. He began his ideological journey as a liberal democrat who admired FDR's New Deal and was skeptical of communism, only to embrace communism later as a bulwark against American imperialism. This book will change what you think you know about Fidel Castro. The first American historian in a generation to gain access to the Castro archives in Havana, as well as interviews with those who knew him best, Jonathan M. Hansen challenges readers to put aside the caricature of Fidel Castro as a bearded, bombastic, anti-American hothead. In its place, he provides a nuanced and penetrating portrait of a man who, having grown up on an island that felt like a colonial cage, was compelled to lead his country to independence."--Dust jacket

Table Of Contents

Like father -- Mornings on horseback -- School days -- Quixotic (in the finest sense) -- Salad days -- We finally have a leader -- God and the devil -- The great books -- True love -- Exile -- To wake the nation -- Keeping order in the hemisphere -- Plan Fin-de-Fidel -- Fin-de-Fulgencio

Classification