Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro emerges as an ambitious rebel, from his earliest years into his student years and adulthood.

In gripping detail, Quirk follows Castro as his first, failed attempt to bring down the regime of Fulgencio Batista is followed by the small-scale attacks from the Sierra Maestra mountains that culminate in the dictator's flight from Cuba in 1959 and Castro's sweep into power. The story provides a new account of Castro's relations with the United States and the Soviet Union, including the Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 Missile Crisis, and an analysis of the successes and failures of his regime to the present day.

In its breadth and drama, Fidel Castro is more than the story of one ambitious man steering his nation on a dangerous and doomed course. It is also a parable of a small country caught up in the throes of international rivalries and world revolution.

Here is the making of a revolutionary, vividly narrated in a masterful new biography of the charismatic leader who for more than three decades--and over eight American presidencies--has managed to sustain a communist regime in the western hemisphere. Photographs.

In this masterly biography, the prize-winning historian Robert E. Quirk paints a portrait of the charismatic leader who for more than three decades—and over eight American presidencies—managed to sustain a communist regime in the western hemisphere.

Publishers Weekly

One comes away from this major biography with an image of the Cuban dictator as a man who is a leader but not a thinker or innovator. Emphasizing Castro's often wrongheaded impulsiveness, Quirk ( The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church ) chronicles how his foreign and domestic crash programs have done Cuba more harm than good. Quirk's richly detailed, psychologically acute portrait reveals more about Castro's unique personality and character than do previous biographies. A thorough examination of the leader's homophobia and difficulties with women, for instance, reveals a life spent being looked after by females without being able to form a lasting sexual relationship with any of them--including the 20-year association with protective lioness Celia Sanchez, which the author likens to that between a son and doting mother. Quirk's concluding assessment of the Maximum Leader is harsh: Castro, he argues, has become a caricature of his earlier self. History, far from absolving him, has simply passed him by. Photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)

Robert Quirk, formerly professor of history at Indiana University, lives in Bloomington, Indiana.