Young Castro: The Making of a Revolutionary

Synopsis

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.

Copyright:

2019

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

512 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781476732497

Related ISBNs:

9781476732480, 9781476732473

Publisher:

Simon & Schuster

Date of Addition:

09/23/25

Copyrighted By:

Jonathan M. Hansen

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.