Havana Nocturne

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Havana Nocturne

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061795585
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (617 download)

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Book Synopsis Havana Nocturne by : T. J. English

Download or read book Havana Nocturne written by T. J. English and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In modern-day Havana, the remnants of the glamorous past are everywhere—old hotel-casinos, vintage American cars & flickering neon signs speak of a bygone era that is widely familiar & often romanticized, but little understood. In Havana Nocturne, T.J. English offers a multifaceted true tale of organized crime, political corruption, roaring nightlife, revolution & international conflict that interweaves the dual stories of the Mob in Havana & the event that would overshadow it, the Cuban Revolution. As the Cuban people labored under a violently repressive regime throughout the 50s, Mob leaders Meyer Lansky & Charles "Lucky" Luciano turned their eye to Havana. To them, Cuba was the ultimate dream, the greatest hope for the future of the US Mob in the post-Prohibition years of intensified government crackdowns. But when it came time to make their move, it was Lansky, the brilliant Jewish mobster, who reigned supreme. Having cultivated strong ties with the Cuban government & in particular the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista, Lansky brought key mobsters to Havana to put his ambitious business plans in motion. Before long, the Mob, with Batista's corrupt government in its pocket, owned the biggest luxury hotels & casinos in Havana, launching an unprecedented tourism boom complete with the most lavish entertainment, the world's biggest celebrities, the most beautiful women & gambling galore. But their dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara & others who would lead the country's disenfranchised to overthrow their corrupt government & its foreign partners—an epic cultural battle that English captures in all its sexy, decadent, ugly glory. Bringing together long-buried historical information with English's own research in Havana—including interviews with the era's key survivors—Havana Nocturne takes readers back to Cuba in the years when it was a veritable devil's playground for mob leaders. English deftly weaves together the parallel stories of the Havana Mob—featuring notorious criminals such as Santo Trafficante Jr & Albert Anastasia—& Castro's 26th of July Movement in a riveting, up-close look at how the Mob nearly attained its biggest dream in Havana—& how Fidel Castro trumped it all with the revolution.

Havana Nocturne

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061147710
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis Havana Nocturne by : T. J. English

Download or read book Havana Nocturne written by T. J. English and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2008-06-03 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In modern-day Havana, the remnants of the glamorous past are everywhere—the old hotel-casinos, vintage American cars, and flickering neon signs speak of a bygone era that is widely familiar and often romanticized, but little understood. In Havana Nocturne, T. J. English offers a riveting, multifaceted true tale of organized crime, political corruption, roaring nightlife, revolution, and international conflict that interweaves the dual stories of the Mob in Havana and the event that would overshadow it, the Cuban Revolution. As the Cuban people labored under a violently repressive regime throughout the 1950s, Mob leaders Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano turned their eye to Havana. To them, Cuba was the ultimate dream, the greatest hope for the future of the American Mob in the post-Prohibition years of intensified government crackdowns. But when it came time to make their move, it was Lansky, the brilliant Jewish mobster, who reigned supreme. Having cultivated strong ties with the Cuban government and in particular the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista, Lansky brought key mobsters to Havana to put his ambitious business plans in motion. Before long, the Mob, with Batista's corrupt government in its pocket, owned the biggest luxury hotels and casinos in Havana, launching an unprecedented tourism boom complete with the most lavish entertainment, the world's biggest celebrities, the most beautiful women, and gambling galore. But their dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others who would lead the country's disenfranchised to overthrow their corrupt government and its foreign partners—an epic cultural battle that English captures in all its sexy, decadent, ugly glory. Bringing together long-buried historical information with English's own research in Havana—including interviews with the era's key survivors—Havana Nocturne takes readers back to Cuba in the years when it was a veritable devil's playground for mob leaders. English deftly weaves together the parallel stories of the Havana Mob—featuring notorious criminals such as Santo Trafficante Jr. and Albert Anastasia—and Castro's 26th of July Movement in a riveting, up-close look at how the Mob nearly attained its biggest dream in Havana—and how Fidel Castro trumped it all with the Cuban Revolution.

Havana Nocturne

Author : T J English
Publisher : William Morrow
ISBN 13 : 9780062155238
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (552 download)

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Book Synopsis Havana Nocturne by : T J English

Download or read book Havana Nocturne written by T J English and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 2016-06-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning journalist and historian offers the complete story of how the Mob infiltrated Havana in the 1950s, made a fortune--and lost it all to Fidel Castro. 16-page b&w photo insert.

The Corporation

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062568973
Total Pages : 592 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis The Corporation by : T. J. English

Download or read book The Corporation written by T. J. English and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A mob saga that has it all—brotherhood and betrayal, swaggering power and glittering success, and a Godfather whose reach seems utterly unrivaled. What a relentless, irresistible read.” —Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Border A fascinating, cinematic, multigenerational history of the Cuban mob in the US from "America’s top chronicler of organized crime"* and New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne. By the mid 1980s, the criminal underworld in the United States had become an ethnic polyglot; one of the most powerful illicit organizations was none other than the Cuban mob. Known on both sides of the law as "the Corporation," the Cuban mob’s power stemmed from a criminal culture embedded in south Florida’s exile community—those who had been chased from the island by Castro’s revolution and planned to overthrow the Marxist dictator and reclaim their nation. An epic story of gangsters, drugs, violence, sex, and murder rooted in the streets, The Corporation reveals how an entire generation of political exiles, refugees, racketeers, corrupt cops, hitmen, and their wives and girlfriends became caught up in an American saga of desperation and empire building. T. J. English interweaves the voices of insiders speaking openly for the first time with a trove of investigative material he has gathered over many decades to tell the story of this successful criminal enterprise, setting it against the larger backdrop of revolution, exile, and ethnicity that makes it one of the great American gangster stories that has been overlooked—until now. Drawing on the detailed reporting and impressive volume of evidence that drive his bestselling works, English offers a riveting, in-depth look at this powerful and sordid crime organization and its hold in the US.

The Mafia in Havana

Author : Enrique Cirules
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780980429237
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (292 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mafia in Havana by : Enrique Cirules

Download or read book The Mafia in Havana written by Enrique Cirules and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Havana, capital of Cuba, was once a playground for the rich, the famous - and the infamous. In the early 20th century, before the revolution, Cuba was the world of Sinatra and the showgirls, mambo and marijuana, run by shady characters like 'Lucky' Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Prize-winning author Enrique Cirules takes readers into this shockingly glamorous and fantastically seedy world. In an extensive investigation into the former Cuban underworld, he exposes the close ties that existed between the Mafia, US business interests and intelligence agencies.

Havana Before Castro

Author : Peter Moruzzi
Publisher : Gibbs Smith
ISBN 13 : 142360993X
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (236 download)

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Book Synopsis Havana Before Castro by : Peter Moruzzi

Download or read book Havana Before Castro written by Peter Moruzzi and published by Gibbs Smith. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a trip to the golden age of Havana in this gorgeously illustrated volume of vintage photographs, postcards, brochures, and other ephemera. Featuring hundreds of historic images and cultural artifacts, Havana Before Castro documents how the Cuban capital evolved from a Prohibition Era getaway destination to a heady blend of glittering nightclubs, outrageous cabarets, all-night bars, and backstreet brothels. Here, captured in one amazing book, is the drama, passion, intrigue, and opulence of a legendary city during its heyday—before the Castro regime took over and Americans were banned from travel to this tropical paradise. In chapters covering such topics as Cuban rum and cigars, the world-famous Tropicana Club, and Havana’s association with the mob, author Peter Moruzzi provides essential historical context for the many fascinating and evocative images.

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

Author : Tom Gjelten
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1440629986
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (46 download)

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Book Synopsis Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba by : Tom Gjelten

Download or read book Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba written by Tom Gjelten and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-09-04 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this widely hailed book, NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten fuses the story of the Bacardi family and their famous rum business with Cuba's tumultuous experience over the last 150 years to produce a deeply entertaining historical narrative. The company Facundo Bacardi launched in Cuba in 1862 brought worldwide fame to the island, and in the decades that followed his Bacardi descendants participated in every aspect of Cuban life. With his intimate account of their struggles and adventures across five generations, Gjelten brings to life the larger story of Cuba's fight for freedom, its tortured relationship with America, the rise of Fidel Castro, and the violent division of the Cuban nation.

The Havana Mob

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : Mainstream Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9781845961923
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis The Havana Mob by : T. J. English

Download or read book The Havana Mob written by T. J. English and published by Mainstream Publishing Company. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the 1950s, as the Cuban people laboured under a violently repressive regime, the Mob-financed revelry in Havana never stopped. Tourists from around the world flooded in to gamble, go to the racetrack, see an elaborate floorshow at the Tropicana, hear some of the hottest music around and perhaps partake in the kinky sexual activities that flourished on the fringe of the most colourful and exciting nightlife scene of the twentieth century. It may have seemed like fun and games, but for the Havana Mob it was a deadly serious business. Led by Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano - and with the full compliance of President Fulgencio Batista - the Mob set out to create a financial empire that would rival the 'glory days' of Prohibition in the US. For a time, the plan seemed to be succeeding beyond their wildest dreams, but they were sowing the seeds of their own demise. Behind the scenes, Fidel Castro was building opposition to what he portrayed as the debauchery and corruption of capitalism run amok in Havana - the result was revolution. The Havana Mobcaptures a unique and exotic chapter not only in the history of organised crime but also in the history of the United States, and for the first time the story is told through interviews and the first-hand accounts of those who were actually there.

Born to Kill

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1453234276
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (532 download)

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Book Synopsis Born to Kill by : T. J. English

Download or read book Born to Kill written by T. J. English and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “riveting” true story of the Vietnamese gang that terrorized Manhattan’s Chinatown, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Westies (Newsday). They are children of the Vietnam War. Born and raised in the wasteland left by American bombs and napalm, these young men know a particular brand of cruelty—which they are about to export to the United States. When the Vietnamese gangs come to Chinatown, they adopt a name remembered from GI’s helmets: “Born to Kill.” And kill they do, in a frenzy of violence that shocks even the old-school Chinese gangsters who once ran Canal Street. Killing brings them turf, money, and power, but also draws the government’s eye. Even as Born to Kill reaches its height, it is marked for destruction. This story is told from the perspective of Tinh Ngo, a young gang member who eventually grows disenchanted with murder and death. When he decides to inform on his brothers to the police, he enters a shadow world far more dangerous than any gangland.

Find Me in Havana

Author : Serena Burdick
Publisher : Harlequin
ISBN 13 : 1488073902
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Find Me in Havana by : Serena Burdick

Download or read book Find Me in Havana written by Serena Burdick and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of THE GIRLS WITH NO NAMES, a new historical novel based on the dazzling story of one of Hollywood’s most celebrated Hispanic actresses and her daughter’s search for closure. “Told in a series of letters, FIND ME IN HAVANA is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of mothers and daughters, and the American Dream that comes with the biggest price of all. I couldn’t put it down!” — Heather Webb, USA Today bestselling author Cuba, 1936: When Estelita Rodriguez sings in a hazy Havana nightclub for the very first time, she is nine years old. From then on, that spotlight of adoration—from Havana to New York’s Copacabana and then Hollywood—becomes the one true accomplishment no one can take from her. Not the 1933 Cuban Revolution that drove her family into poverty. Not the revolving door of husbands or the fickle world of film. Thirty years later, her young adult daughter, Nina, is blindsided by her mother’s mysterious death. Seeking answers, the grieving Nina navigates the troubling, opulent memories of their life together and discovers how much Estelita sacrificed to live the American dream on her own terms. Based on true events and exclusive interviews with Nina Lopez, Estelita’s daughter, Find Me in Havana weaves two unforgettable voices into one extraordinary story that explores the unbreakable bond between mother and child, and the ever-changing landscape of self-discovery.

Dangerous Rhythms

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063031434
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis Dangerous Rhythms by : T. J. English

Download or read book Dangerous Rhythms written by T. J. English and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From T. J. English, the New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne, comes the epic, scintillating narrative of the interconnected worlds of jazz and organized crime in 20th century America. "[A] brilliant and courageous book." —Dr. Cornel West Dangerous Rhythms tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: a relationship fostered in some of 20th century America’s most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership. By offering artists like Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald a stage, the mob, including major players Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, provided opportunities that would not otherwise have existed. Even so, at the heart of this relationship was a festering racial inequity. The musicians were mostly African American, and the clubs and means of production were owned by white men. It was a glorified plantation system that, over time, would find itself out of tune with an emerging Civil Rights movement. Some artists, including Louis Armstrong, believed they were safer and more likely to be paid fairly if they worked in “protected” joints. Others believed that playing in venues outside mob rule would make it easier to have control over their careers. Through English’s voluminous research and keen narrative skills, Dangerous Rhythms reveals this deeply fascinating slice of American history in all its sordid glory.

The Sugar King of Havana

Author : John Paul Rathbone
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101458917
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sugar King of Havana by : John Paul Rathbone

Download or read book The Sugar King of Havana written by John Paul Rathbone and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-08-05 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fascinating...A richly detailed portrait." -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Known in his day as the King of Sugar, Julio Lobo was the wealthiest man in prerevolutionary Cuba. He had a life fit for Hollywood: he barely survived both a gangland shooting and a firing squad, and courted movie stars such as Joan Fontaine and Bette Davis. Only when he declined Che Guevara's personal offer to become Minister of Sugar in the Communist regime did Lobo's decades-long reign in Cuba come to a dramatic end. Drawing on stories from the author's own family history and other tales of the island's lost haute bourgeoisie, The Sugar King of Havana is a rare portrait of Cuba's glittering past—and a hopeful window into its future.

Summary of T. J. English's Havana Nocturne

Author : Everest Media,
Publisher : Everest Media LLC
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 42 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (225 download)

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Book Synopsis Summary of T. J. English's Havana Nocturne by : Everest Media,

Download or read book Summary of T. J. English's Havana Nocturne written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-05-30T22:59:00Z with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In October 1946, Luciano, who had been deported from the United States just seven months earlier, traveled to Cuba. He was there to meet his childhood friend and longtime criminal associate Meyer Lansky. #2 Luciano and Lansky visited Cuba, where they had lunch at the Grand Hotel. They were there to celebrate Luciano’s early release from prison and his deportation to Sicily. He had been irate that he had been deported to Sicily, as he had no intention of staying in Italy. #3 Luciano spent two weeks in Havana, meeting with associates and visiting the sites he used to know so well. He was able to relax for the first time in ten years. He had breakfast in bed, and then walked around his estate and supervised the four gardeners as they planted flowers. #4 Luciano was in Havana waiting for the Mob to arrive for their planned empire in Cuba. He spent his time either cultivating political connections or enjoying the many sensual pleasures Havana had to offer.

Cuba Or The Pursuit Of Freedom

Author : Hugh Thomas
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 9780306808272
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Cuba Or The Pursuit Of Freedom by : Hugh Thomas

Download or read book Cuba Or The Pursuit Of Freedom written by Hugh Thomas and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 1998-03-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first-time paperback edition, now updated, describes and analyzes Cuba's history from the English capture of Havana in 1762 through Spanish colonialism, American imperialism, the Cuban Revolution, and the Missile Crisis to Fidel Castro's defiant but precarious present state.

The Savage City

Author : T. J. English
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061824550
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (618 download)

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Book Synopsis The Savage City by : T. J. English

Download or read book The Savage City written by T. J. English and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1960s, uncertainty and menace gripped New York, crystallizing in a poisonous divide between a deeply corrupt, cynical, and racist police force, and an African American community buffeted by economic distress, brutality, and narcotics. On August 28, 1963—the day Martin Luther King Jr. declared "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—two young white women were murdered in their Manhattan apartment. Dubbed the Career Girls Murders case, the crime sent ripples of fear throughout the city, as police scrambled fruitlessly for months to find the killer. But it also marked the start of a ten-year saga of fear, racial violence, and turmoil in the city—an era that took in events from the Harlem Riots of the mid-1960s to the Panther Twenty-One trials and Knapp Commission police corruption hearings of the early 1970s. The Savage City explores this pivotal and traumatic decade through the stories of three very different men: George Whitmore Jr., the near-blind, destitute nineteen-year-old black man who was coerced into confessing to the Career Girls Murders and several other crimes. Whitmore, an innocent man, would spend the decade in and out of the justice system, becoming a scapegoat for the NYPD—and a symbol of the inequities of the system. Bill Phillips, a brazenly crooked NYPD officer who spent years plundering the system before being caught in a corruption sting—and turning jaybird to create the largest scandal in the department's history. Dhoruba bin Wahad, a son of the Bronx and founding member of New York's Black Panther Party, whose militant activism would make him a target of local and federal law enforcement as conflicts between the Panthers and the police gradually devolved into open warfare. Animated by the voices of the three participants—all three of whom spent years in prison, and are still alive today—The Savage City emerges as an epic narrative of injustice and defiance, revealing for the first time the gripping story of how a great city, marred by fear and hatred, struggled for its soul in a time of sweeping social, political, and economic change.

The Art of the Heist

Author : Myles J. Connor
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061872717
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (618 download)

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Book Synopsis The Art of the Heist by : Myles J. Connor

Download or read book The Art of the Heist written by Myles J. Connor and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-04-10 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the most beguiling criminal memoirs ever written….A rare gem of a book.” — T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne How did the son of a decorated policeman grow up to be one of Boston’s most notorious criminals? How did he survive a decades-long feud with the FBI? How did he escape one jail sentence with a fake gun carved out of soap? How did he trade the return of a famous Rembrandt for early release from another sentence? The Art of the Heist is a roller-coaster ride of a life, the memoir of America’s most infamous art thief Myles Connor. Once a promising young rock musician, the son of a respected policeman, Myles Connor became one of Boston’s most infamous criminals—a legendary art thief with irresistible charm and a genius IQ whose approach to his chosen profession mixed brilliant tactical planning with stunning bravado, brazen disguises, audaciously elaborate con jobs, and even the broad-daylight grab-and-dash. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art . . . no museum was off-limits. The fact that he was in jail at the time of the largest art theft in American history—the still-unsolved robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum—has not stopped the FBI from considering him a prime suspect. The Art of the Heist is Connor’s story—part confession, part thrill ride, and impossible to put down.

Cuba Libre!

Author : Tony Perrottet
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735218161
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis Cuba Libre! by : Tony Perrottet

Download or read book Cuba Libre! written by Tony Perrottet and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-01-22 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising story of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and the scrappy band of rebel men and women who followed them. Most people are familiar with the basics of the Cuban Revolution of 1956–1959: it was led by two of the twentieth century’s most charismatic figures, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara; it successfully overthrew the island nation’s US–backed dictator; and it quickly went awry under Fidel’s rule. But less is remembered about the amateur nature of the movement or the lives of its players. In this wildly entertaining and meticulously researched account, historian and journalist Tony Perrottet unravels the human drama behind history’s most improbable revolution: a scruffy handful of self-taught revolutionaries—many of them kids just out of college, literature majors, and art students, and including a number of extraordinary women—who defeated 40,000 professional soldiers to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Cuba Libre!’s deep dive into the revolution reveals fascinating details: How did Fidel’s highly organized lover Celia Sánchez whip the male guerrillas into shape? Who were the two dozen American volunteers who joined the Cuban rebels? How do you make land mines from condensed milk cans—or, for that matter, cook chorizo à la guerrilla (sausage guerrilla-style)? Cuba Libre! is an absorbing look back at a liberation movement that captured the world's imagination with its spectacular drama, foolhardy bravery, tragedy, and, sometimes, high comedy—and that set the stage for Cold War tensions that pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war.