The Cuban Embargo

Download The Cuban Embargo PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 0822972719
Total Pages : 237 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cuban Embargo by : Patrick Haney

Download or read book The Cuban Embargo written by Patrick Haney and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2005-02-20 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States and Cuba share a complex, fractious, interconnected history. Before 1959, the United States was the island nation's largest trading partner. But in swift reaction to Cuba's communist revolution, the United States severed all economic ties between the two nations, initiating the longest trade embargo in modern history, one that continues to the presentday. The Cuban Embargo examines the changing politics of U.S. policy toward Cuba over the more than four decades since the revolution.While the U.S. embargo policy itself has remained relatively stable since its origins during the heart of the Cold War, the dynamics that produce and govern that policy have changed dramatically. Although originally dominated by the executive branch, the president's tight grip over policy has gradually ceded to the influence of interest groups, members of Congress, and specific electoral campaigns and goals. Haney and Vanderbush track the emergence of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation as an ally of the Reagan administration, and they explore the more recent development of an anti-embargo coalition within both civil society and Congress, even as the Helms-Burton Act and the George W. Bush administration have further tightened the embargo. Ultimately they demonstrate how the battles over Cuba policy, as with much U.S. foreign policy, have as much to do with who controls the policy as with the shape of that policy itself.

Back Channel to Cuba

Download Back Channel to Cuba PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469626616
Total Pages : 585 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Back Channel to Cuba by : William M. LeoGrande

Download or read book Back Channel to Cuba written by William M. LeoGrande and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-09-14 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History is being made in U.S.-Cuban relations. Now in paperback and updated to tell the real story behind the stunning December 17, 2014, announcement by President Obama and President Castro of their move to restore full diplomatic relations, this powerful book is essential to understanding ongoing efforts toward normalization in a new era of engagement. Challenging the conventional wisdom of perpetual conflict and aggression between the United States and Cuba since 1959, Back Channel to Cuba chronicles a surprising, untold history of bilateral efforts toward rapprochement and reconciliation. William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh here present a remarkably new and relevant account, describing how, despite the intense political clamor surrounding efforts to improve relations with Havana, negotiations have been conducted by every presidential administration since Eisenhower's through secret, back-channel diplomacy. From John F. Kennedy's offering of an olive branch to Fidel Castro after the missile crisis, to Henry Kissinger's top secret quest for normalization, to Barack Obama's promise of a new approach, LeoGrande and Kornbluh uncovered hundreds of formerly secret U.S. documents and conducted interviews with dozens of negotiators, intermediaries, and policy makers, including Fidel Castro and Jimmy Carter. They reveal a fifty-year record of dialogue and negotiations, both open and furtive, that provides the historical foundation for the dramatic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba ties.

Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy

Download Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813048346
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy by : Al Campbell

Download or read book Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy written by Al Campbell and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy was written, in part, to reveal the rigorous research conducted within the country and to clarify the different factors that Cubans emphasize in examining their place on the world economic stage. It also provides unique insights into the island’s fight against poverty, its aging population, and its trade unions. This book will be an invaluable resource for years to come.

Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know

Download Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 019974081X
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know by : Julia E Sweig

Download or read book Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know written by Julia E Sweig and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009-06-06 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since Fidel Castro assumed power in Cuba in 1959, Americans have obsessed about the nation ninety miles south of the Florida Keys. America's fixation on the tropical socialist republic has only grown over the years, fueled in part by successive waves of Cuban immigration and Castro's larger-than-life persona. Cubans are now a major ethnic group in Florida, and the exile community is so powerful that every American president has kowtowed to it. But what do most Americans really know about Cuba itself? In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia Sweig, one of America's leading experts on Cuba and Latin America, presents a concise and remarkably accessible portrait of the small island nation's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years. Yet it is authoritative as well. Following a scene-setting introduction that describes the dynamics unleashed since summer 2006 when Fidel Castro transferred provisional power to his brother Raul, the book looks backward toward Cuba's history since the Spanish American War before shifting to more recent times. Focusing equally on Cuba's role in world affairs and its own social and political transformations, Sweig divides the book chronologically into the pre-Fidel era, the period between the 1959 revolution and the fall of the Soviet Union, the post-Cold War era, and-finally-the looming post-Fidel era. Informative, pithy, and lucidly written, it will serve as the best compact reference on Cuba's internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.

Economic Sanctions as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy

Download Economic Sanctions as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Universal-Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1581123140
Total Pages : 132 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (811 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Economic Sanctions as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy by : Helen Osieja

Download or read book Economic Sanctions as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy written by Helen Osieja and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic sanctions have been used as an instrument of American foreign policy ever since the Taft administration adopted the Dollar Diplomacy. This dissertation analyzes the trade Embargo the United States imposed upon Cuba after the Revolution from different perspectives: from the political, considering the main guidelines of American foreign policy toward Latin America, especially during the Cold War, and from the juridical, considering different perspectives of customary international law. Since the embargo was imposed only after American property had been expropriated without compensation, the dissertation analyzes the legality of expropriation, seen from the perspective of both capital-importing and capital-exporting countries, and the legality of economic sanctions as a legitimate peaceful reprisal. Due to the fact that the American embargo against Cuba is quasi-total, that is, consists of a number of different economic sanctions, it is the aim of this dissertation to analyze each of these, and finally, to assess the effectiveness of economic sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy. Many books and articles have been written about this very controversial embargo, almost as old as the Cuban Revolution itself. For the Cubans, it constitutes and "economic blockade", and a violation of Cuba's right to free trade; for the Americans, it is a reprisal for the confiscation of American property. Nonetheless, since the embargo, as stated above, is not a sanction itself but a number of different economic sanctions, it is the aim of this dissertation to analyze each of the sanctions that comprise the embargo and its legality, according to customary international law. Another aim of this dissertation is to prove why the American embargo against Cuba has only enhanced Castro's power and further centralized it. A brief chapter about the economic sanctions the United States imposed upon Chile under President Salvador Allende and the fall of his regime serves to compare the two cases with some similarities where sanctions were applied- in the first without success and in the second with success. Finally, the dissertation aims to prove that a lifting of the American embargo against Cuba is highly unlikely unless there is a change of regime in that nation of the Caribbean.

Cuban International Relations at 60

Download Cuban International Relations at 60 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793630194
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (936 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuban International Relations at 60 by : Mervyn J. Bain

Download or read book Cuban International Relations at 60 written by Mervyn J. Bain and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-05-03 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cuban International Relations at 60 brings together the perspectives of leading experts and the personal accounts of two ambassadors to examine Cuba’s global engagement and foreign policy since January 1959 by focusing on the island’s key international relationships and issues. Thisbook’s first section focuseson Havana’s complex relationship with Washington and its second section concentrates on Cuba’s other key relationships with consideration also being given to Cuba's external trade and investment sectors and the possibility of the island becoming a future petro-power. Throughout this study due attention is given to the role of history and Cuban nationalism in the formation of the island’s unique foreign policy. This book’s examination and reflection on Cuba as an actor on the international arena for the 60 years of the revolutionary period highlights the multifaceted and complex reasons for the island’s global engagement. It concludes that Cuba’s global presence since January 1959 has been remarkable for a Caribbean island, is unparalleled, and is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Scholars of international relations, Latin American studies, and political science n will find this book particularly interesting.

International Migration in Cuba

Download International Migration in Cuba PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271073675
Total Pages : 205 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis International Migration in Cuba by : Margarita Cervantes-Rodríguez

Download or read book International Migration in Cuba written by Margarita Cervantes-Rodríguez and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-08-26 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the arrival of the Spanish conquerors at the beginning of the colonial period, Cuba has been hugely influenced by international migration. Between 1791 and 1810, for instance, many French people migrated to Cuba in the wake of the purchase of Louisiana by the United States and turmoil in Saint-Domingue. Between 1847 and 1874, Cuba was the main recipient of Chinese indentured laborers in Latin America. During the nineteenth century as a whole, more Spanish people migrated to Cuba than anywhere else in the Americas, and hundreds of thousands of slaves were taken to the island. The first decades of the twentieth century saw large numbers of immigrants and temporary workers from various societies arrive in Cuba. And since the revolution of 1959, a continuous outflow of Cubans toward many countries has taken place—with lasting consequences. In this book, the most comprehensive study of international migration in Cuba ever undertaken, Margarita Cervantes-Rodríguez aims to elucidate the forces that have shaped international migration and the involvement of the migrants in transnational social fields since the beginning of the colonial period. Drawing on Fernand Braudel’s concept of longue durée, transnational studies, perspectives on power, and other theoretical frameworks, the author places her analysis in a much wider historical and theoretical perspective than has previously been applied to the study of international migration in Cuba, making this a work of substantial interest to social scientists as well as historians.

Cuba

Download Cuba PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Government Printing Office
ISBN 13 : 9780844410456
Total Pages : 538 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba by : Rex A. Hudson

Download or read book Cuba written by Rex A. Hudson and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2002 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Describes and analyzes the economic, national security, political, and social systems and institutions of Cuba."--Amazon.com viewed Jan. 4, 2021.

Helms-Burton

Download Helms-Burton PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Editorial Jose Marti
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 100 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (43 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Helms-Burton by : Ricardo Alarcón

Download or read book Helms-Burton written by Ricardo Alarcón and published by Editorial Jose Marti. This book was released on 1997 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

To Make a World Safe for Revolution

Download To Make a World Safe for Revolution PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674034273
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (342 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis To Make a World Safe for Revolution by : Professor Jorge I Doma-Nguez

Download or read book To Make a World Safe for Revolution written by Professor Jorge I Doma-Nguez and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth-century history of Cuba borders on fantasy. This diminutive country boldly and repeatedly exercises the foreign policy of a major power. Although closely tied to the United States through most of its modern history, Cuba successfully defied the U.S. government after 1959, consolidated its own power, and defeated an invasion of U.S.-backed exiles at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Fidel Castro then brought the world alarmingly close to nuclear war in 1962. Jorge Domínguez presents a comprehensive survey of Cuban international relations since Castro came to power. Domínguez unravels Cuba's response to the 1962 missile crisis and the U.S.-Soviet understandings that emerged from that. He explores the ties that link Cuba to the U.S.S.R. and other Communist countries; analyzes Cuban support for revolutionary movements throughout the world, especially in Latin America and Africa; and assesses the significance of Cuban political and economic relations with Western Europe, Canada, and Japan. Some have charged that Cuba does not have a foreign policy, that Fidel Castro merely takes orders from his Soviet bosses. Domínguez argues that there is indeed a specifically Cuban foreign policy, poised not only between hegemony and autonomy, between compliance and self-assertion, but also between militancy and pragmatism. He believes that within the context of Soviet hegemony Cuba's foreign policy is very much its own, and he marshals impressive evidence to support this belief. His book is based on extensive documentation from Cuba, the United States, and other countries, as well as from many in-depth interviews carried out during trips to Cuba.

Cuba in a Global Context

Download Cuba in a Global Context PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780813062174
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (621 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba in a Global Context by : Catherine Krull

Download or read book Cuba in a Global Context written by Catherine Krull and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cuba in a Global Context examines the unlikely prominence of the island nation's geopolitical role. The contributors to this volume explore the myriad ways in which Cuba has not only maintained but often increased its reach and influence in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. From the beginning, the Castro regime established a foreign policy that would legitimize the revolutionary government, if not in the eyes of the United States at least in the eyes of other global actors. The essays in this volume shed new light on Cuban diplomacy with communist China as well as with Western governments such as Great Britain and Canada. In recent years, Cubans have improved their lives in the face of the ongoing U.S. embargo. The promotion of increased economic and political cooperation between Cuba and Venezuela served as a catalyst for the Petrocaribe group. Links established with countries in the Caribbean and Central America have increased tourism, medical diplomacy, and food sovereignty across the region. Cuban transnationalism has also succeeded in creating people-to-people contacts involving those who have remained on the island and members of the Cuban diaspora. While the specifics of Cuba's international relations are likely to change as new leaders take over, the role of Cubans working to assert their sovereignty has undoubtedly impacted every corner of the globe.

Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America

Download Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1783608056
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (836 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America by : Dirk Kruijt

Download or read book Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America written by Dirk Kruijt and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)

Download Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501154575
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) by : Ada Ferrer

Download or read book Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) written by Ada Ferrer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY “Full of…lively insights and lucid prose” (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States—from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day—written by one of the world’s leading historians of Cuba. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important” (The Guardian) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade. Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope” (The Economist). Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.

The Cuban Connection

Download The Cuban Connection PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807888583
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Cuban Connection by : Eduardo Sáenz Rovner

Download or read book The Cuban Connection written by Eduardo Sáenz Rovner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive history of crime and corruption in Cuba, The Cuban Connection challenges the common view that widespread poverty and geographic proximity to the United States were the prime reasons for soaring rates of drug trafficking, smuggling, gambling, and prostitution in the tumultuous decades preceding the Cuban revolution. Eduardo Saenz Rovner argues that Cuba's historically well-established integration into international migration, commerce, and transportation networks combined with political instability and rampant official corruption to help lay the foundation for the development of organized crime structures powerful enough to affect Cuba's domestic and foreign politics and its very identity as a nation. Saenz traces the routes taken around the world by traffickers and smugglers. After Cuba, the most important player in this story is the United States. The involvement of gangsters and corrupt U.S. officials and businessmen enabled prohibited substances to reach a strong market in the United States, from rum running during Prohibition to increased demand for narcotics during the Cold War. Originally published in Colombia in 2005, this first English-language edition has been revised and updated by the author.

Cuba After the Cold War

Download Cuba After the Cold War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 0822974568
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba After the Cold War by : Carmelo Mesa-Lago

Download or read book Cuba After the Cold War written by Carmelo Mesa-Lago and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 1993-08-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten original essays by an international team of scholars specializing in Cuba, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Latin America focus on the fall of communism in Europe and the transition to a market economy. Major themes of this study are the impact of the USSR's collapse on Cuba, how the historic events in Europe have affected the Central and South American Left, their implications to Cuba, Cuba's policies for confronting the crisis, and potential scenarios for the political and economic transformation of Cuba.

Our Woman in Havana

Download Our Woman in Havana PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1468315803
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (683 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Our Woman in Havana by : Vicki Huddleston

Download or read book Our Woman in Havana written by Vicki Huddleston and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2018-03-13 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A top US diplomat’s compelling memoir of her years in Cuba and the tumultuous relationship between the two countries: “Unparalleled insight.” —Culture Trip After the US embassy in Havana was closed in 1961, relations between the countries broke off. A thaw came in 1977 with the opening of a de facto embassy in Havana, the US Interests Section—where Vicki Huddleston would later serve under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. In her memoir of a diplomat at work, she tells gripping stories of face-to-face encounters with Fidel Castro and the initiatives she undertook, like the transistor radios she furnished to ordinary Cubans. Along with inside accounts of dramatic episodes such as the Elián González custody battle, Huddleston also evokes the charm of the island country and her warm affection for the Cuban people. Uniquely qualified to explain the inner workings of US-Cuba relations, Huddleston examines the Obama administration’s diplomatic opening of 2014, the mysterious “sonic” brain and hearing injuries suffered by US and Canadian diplomats serving in Havana, and the rescinding of the diplomatic opening under the Trump administration. She recounts missed opportunities for détente, and the myths, misconceptions, and lies that have long pervaded US-Cuba relations. Our Woman in Havana is essential reading for everyone interested in Cuba, including the thousands of Americans visiting the island every year, as well as policymakers and observers who study the stormy relationship with our near neighbor. “Anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of policy-making in Washington, and any young foreign service officer intrigued by worldly adventures will thoroughly enjoy.” —Ambassador Joseph Wilson, author of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity

Cuba

Download Cuba PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351524763
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (515 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cuba by : Jorge Salazar-Carrillo

Download or read book Cuba written by Jorge Salazar-Carrillo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of Cuba's economic development under communism over the last fifty-five years. The authors find that Cuba's socioeconomic development has gone backward since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The authors conclude that Fidel Castro's revolution has been an economic disaster for Cuba. The book first outlines Cuba's economic position prior to the revolution. It reviews Cuba's rankings with respect to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the 1950s and examines the strength of pre-Castro Cuba's foreign reserves and the health of its monetary system. It also presents pre-Castro Cuba's investments in health care and education and documents the island's development potential in the 1950s. The last few chapters describe the precipitous decline in all of these areas of Cuba's economy under Castro. Despite the socioeconomic catastrophe of the Castro years, the authors envision a post-Castro Cuba, where this book can provide a benchmark to measure the developmental success that the Cuban work-ethic and entrepreneurial spirit can generate in a free-market system.