The account of Fidel Castro's rise to power is not complete without mention of the failed atacks of July 26, 1953, on the Cuban army garrisons at Moncada and Bayamo. This text views this initial overthrow attempt as a propaganda victory that marked the start of Castro's ascent to national power.

The book makes accessible a selection of speeches and television appearances by Fidel Castro during the first two years of the Cuban Revolution, allowing for a fresh analysis of his ideological evolution towards socialism.

By his mastery of the spoken word, Fidel Castro reveals the unfolding process of the Cuban revolution, its extraordinary challenges, crises, chaos and achievements. Part of a two-volume anthology, this first volume is based on Castro's speeches.

The title of a two-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he led an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba.

The Cuban revolution served as a rallying cry to people across Latin America and the Caribbean. The revolutionary regime has provided vital support to the rest of the region, offering everything from medical and development assistance to training and advice on guerrilla warfare. Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America is the first oral history of Cuba’s liberation struggle. Drawing on a vast array of original testimonies, Dirk Kruijt looks at the role of both veterans and the post-Revolution fidelista generation in shaping Cuba and the Americas. Featuring the testimonies of over sixty Cuban officials and former combatants, Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America offers unique insight into a nation which, in spite of its small size and notional pariah status, remains one of the most influential countries in the Americas.

The Cuban Insurrection Is an In-depth study of the first stage of the Cuban Revolution, the years from 1952 to 1959. The volume depicts the origins of the conflict, details the middle years, and ends with Fidel Castro's victorious arrival In Havana on January 8, 1959. Based on a wealth of hitherto unpublished original material, including confidential military reports, letters from various leaders of the insurrection and data gathered from Interviews held In Cuba and abroad, the book Is a descriptive historical analysis of the struggle against military dictator Fulgencio Batista. The authors challenge the traditional premise that Cuba's Insurrection began in the rural areas and only later expanded into urban areas. Instead they argue that the insurrectionary struggle was based upon combined urban-rural guerrilla warfare against the regular army. Basically, The Cuban Insurrection treats two major movements Involved In the struggle—The Directorio Revolucionario and the M-26-7—and examines the growth, ideology, conflicts, and military strategies of their respective rural and urban organizations. The book Includes a detailed analysis of combat, strikes, uprisings, and expeditions. Original maps and charts illustrate battles, maneuvers, and guerrilla political structures.

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 notable erudition” (Booklist) to Castro’s early life, showing Castro getting his toughness from a father who survived Spain’s class system and colonial wars to become one of the most successful independent plantation owners in Cuba. We see a boy running around that plantation more comfortable playing with the children of his father’s laborers than his own classmates at elite boarding schools in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. We discover a young man who writes flowery love letters from prison and contemplates the meaning of life, a gregarious soul attentive to the needs of strangers but often indifferent to the needs of his own family. These pages show a liberal democrat who admires FDR’s New Deal policies and is skeptical of communism, but is also hostile to American imperialism. They show an audacious militant who stages a reckless attack on a military barracks but is canny about building an army of resisters. In short, Young Castro reveals a complex man. The first American historian in a generation to gain access to the Castro archives in Havana, Jonathan Hansen was able to secure cooperation from Castro’s family and closest confidants. He gained access to hundreds of never-before-seen letters and interviewed people he was the first to ask for their impressions of the man. The result is a nuanced and penetrating portrait of a man at once brilliant, arrogant, bold, vulnerable, and all too human: a man who, having grown up on an island that felt like a colonial cage, was compelled to lead his country to independence.