About this title: The post-war worlds longest-serving and most storied head of state presents a compelling chronicle of his life. Drawing on more than 100 hours of interviews and including never-before-seen photographs, this work is the definitive record of an extraordinary life lived in turbulent times.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 1416553282 Standard used condition ie. Could have one of the following-shelfwear, bump, crease, or sun fade to pages. This is a new unread book that received the above wear during its handling at publishers warehouse. May have remainder mark. read more
Edition: Book Club Edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781416553281ISBN:1416553282
Description: Fine in very good dust jacket. Book appears unread. Fine in very good dust jacket, which has just a tiny bit of crinkling along top of spine, else fine. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 723 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 2008
Description: New. NEW, unread book, publisher overstock-FAST SHIPPING! Our savvy customers know Purple Turtle has BEST PRICES AND BEST SERVICE! Satisfaction guaranteed! read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Binding: Glossy Pictorial Wraps
Publisher: Scribner, New York
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781416553281ISBN:1416553282
Description: AS NEW in AS NEW DJ. 8vo (6-1/2 x 9-1/2), 724 pp including Index, Notes and Chronology. Hardbound book is FINE--Unread and AS NEW in AS NEW glossy pictorial DJ. May have a small remainder mark on bottom page block. This is the result of more than 100 hours of recorded recollection told by Mr Castro, the final manuscript checked by Fidel Castro. From his elementary school teachers through the early revolutionary failures, his friendship with Che Guevara, the victory over Batista, his ... read more
Description: Very good. A Very Good copy with a Remainder Mark and wear to the extremities. Buy with confidence from an Independent Bookstore where the owners, a husband and wife team, have over 30 years of combined bookselling experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781416562337ISBN:1416562338
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"This is an autobiography of Fidel Castro. In this book, he talks about his life and how he became the leader of Cuba. I used this book as research for my school project. It had pretty usefull info."
"I read this book at the request of a friend who thought it might be good for a me since, in his opinion, my perspective was too pro-US. Whatever, but I thought it might be interesting. Whatever one thinks about Castro, he certainly was present for some interesting things in history. And I knew very little about Cuban history, so what the hey?
In several ways the book is really fascinating. I do have a bit more sympathy for Castro having read this. It seems that, for all his wrong ideas, he probably was trying to do what he thought was best for Cuba. Anyway, the book...
First of all - it's long and reads like a long book. The bulk of the book is just the transcript of a several day-long interview between Ramonet and Castro. At several points in the book they pat themselves on the back for having the stamina to keep going and I felt like they should be also patting me on the back for the same reason. I can understand why some people were so eager to leave Cuba - it was probably to avoid having to listen to Castro drone on about stuff.
But seriously, there were some riveting parts. For example, the description of the Cuban missile crisis. Castro, it turns out, was very much in disagreement with Kruschev about how to handle that. Who knew? Also, it was really cool to hear about the defense of the bay of pigs invasion from the Cuban perspective. And the whole episode of Jimmy Carter's visit was fascinating. Between these interesting parts, though, there is a ton of Castro showing off how much detail he holds in his head about sugar production, how many doctors they educate, and a gazillion other minutiae that are quite boring to read.
The most valuable thing I took away from this book is a deeper understanding of what's wrong with Castro and his perspective. My image of him before was as a self-indulgent, radical, oppressive dictator. Now I view him as a self-indulgent, semi-radical oppressive dictator who was misguidedly trying to do the right thing for his people.
Perhaps the crux of his misguided view of the US was revealed when he described Kennedy's creation of the Peace Corps. He called this an "anti-revolutionary" group, designed to gain sympathy for the US amongst people of the third world. I was in the Peace Corps. Nobody, myself included, was motivated at all by their feelings about communist revolution, pro or con. Castro's otherwise impressive mind seems to live within some constrains where everything is either for or against the movement."
"This book took me forever to get through. SOmetimes I read pages and realized I spent the whole time actually thinking about dinner and I had no idea what happened. It read more like Castro's tidy record keeping than a thrilling life story. He remembers every insignificant detail which is good but also really bad if you want to be entertained."
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