Hello, josefil666-ga!
I have provided some references to a few of the more popular books
about Fidel Castro. There is also some very good information online if
you would like to obtain a general background about the Cuban leader.
General information online
===========================
For a good overview about Fidel Castro online, see Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
The Spartacus site also has a good overview of Castro
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDcastroF.htm
Fidel Castro History Archive
http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/
Online Articles and Books
==========================
The Questia website allows you to read books online for a fee. You
can access the database monthly, quarterly or yearly. You can also use
the free trial subscription to see if you like the resource!
Books and articles about Castro (click the X to close the annoying popup!)
http://www.questia.com/library/fidel-castro.jsp
BOOKS
******
"Fidel: A Critical Portrait," by Tad Szulc (Feb. 2000)
========================================================
http://www.amazon.com/Fidel-Critical-Portrait-Tad-Szulc/dp/0380808889/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-7073991-2787356?ie=UTF8
From Publishers Weekly:
"With Castro's cooperation (which included many hours of taped
conversation), interviews with scores of his friends and associates,
and access to Cuban archives, this former New York Times foreign
correspondent has produced the first major biography of one of the
most puzzling and little-known world leaders of our day. Material
includes an analysis of Castro's relationship with the Cuban Communist
Party before the revolution, details on the CIA's initial support and
later assassination attempts, and convincing suggestions on how the
Bay of Pigs affair led directly to the Cuban missile crisis."
==
"I first read this book over ten years ago, but have yet to find a
better biography of Fidel Castro. The author, Tad Szulc, has known
Fidel since 1959, when he covered the Cuban Revolution for the New
York Times......."
"The Real Fidel Castro," by Leycester Coltman (March 2005
===========================================================
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Fidel-Castro-Leycester-Coltman/dp/0300107609/ref=pd_sim_b_2/102-7073991-2787356?ie=UTF8
"In a remarkably evenhanded and illuminating biography, Coltman
(former British ambassador to Cuba) reveals how Fidel Castro
repeatedly has frustrated his foes: surviving defeat, exile, and
imprisonment to bring down Batista in the early 1950s; misleading
American politicians long enough to secure absolute power over his
island nation; forging an advantageous alliance with the Kremlin; and
preserving his regime in a post-Cold War world dominated by Cuba's
powerful capitalist neighbor. Long personal conversations enable
Coltman to penetrate a psyche still opaque to most scholars...."
"Guerrilla Prince," by Georgie Anne Geyer (2002)
=================================================
http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Prince-Georgie-Anne-Geyer/dp/0740720643/ref=pd_sim_b_5/102-7073991-2787356?ie=UTF8
From Library Journal:
"Geyer, a syndicated journalist long familiar with Latin America and
intrigued by Castro, has crafted a major biography of this enigmatic
and fascinating figure. Her work differs from Ted Szulc's Fidel: A
Critical Portrait ( LJ 1/15/87) in that it focuses on Castro's
personality, on his personal rather than policy motivations, and
offers a detailed psychological portrait. Geyer used some 900
interviews obtained over many years to document Castro's brutal
treatment of thousands of Cubans and his fanatic hatred of the United
States. The reader is left with a persuasive picture of a paranoid,
erratic megalomaniac, whose personal life is a microcosm of his public
behavior. Highly recommended."
"Inside the Cuban Revolution - Fidel Castro and the Urban
Underground," by Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller. Harvard
University Press (2002)
================================================================================
http://www.cfr.org/publication/4591/
"In her book, Council Senior Fellow Julia Sweig shatters the mythology
surrounding the Cuban Revolution in a compelling revisionist history
that reconsiders the roles of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and
restores to a central position the leadership of the Cuban urban
underground, the Llano. The only scholar inside or outside of Cuba
allowed access to the complete collection in the Cuban Council of
State?s Office of Historic Affairs, Sweig illuminates the classified
records of the underground operatives in Castro?s 26th of July
Movement. Her story details the ideological, political, and strategic
debates between Castro?s mountain-based guerrilla movement and the
urban revolutionaries in Havana, Santiago, and other cities."
"Castro: Profiles in Power," by Sebastian Balfour (2000)
=========================================================
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&endeca=1&isbn=0582437474&itm=10
"Balfour's illuminating study is more than a personal biography,
although it traces Castro's evolution from student leader to head of
state. It analyses the peculiar historical conditions that enabled
Castro to seize and maintain power, arguing that his popular appeal
rested on a identification with a century-old struggle for national
regeneration."
==
FOR MORE BOOKS...have a look at the following list:
http://browse.barnesandnoble.com/browse/nav.asp?visgrp=nonfiction&N=578222&Ne=257782+257909+578222&z=y
DOCUMENTARY
*************
If you would like to watch a documentary about Castro, see:
American Experience - Fidel Castro (PBS)
=========================================
http://www.shoppbs.org/searchHandler/index.jsp?searchId=17850504711&keywords=Fidel+castro&y=9&x=37
"Fidel Castro has survived U.S. hostility, an invasion, several CIA
assassination attempts and an economic embargo. His face has become an
iconic image worldwide, yet the man himself remains an enigma to all
but a few. Through interviews with relatives, childhood friends,
fellow rebel leaders, Bay of Pigs veterans, human rights activists and
journalists, this program constructs an intimate portrait of the most
resilient of leaders."
"Fidel: The Untold Story (2001)
================================
http://www.amazon.com/Fidel-Untold-Story-Castro/dp/B00009IAYC/ref=pd_sim_b_3/102-7073991-2787356?ie=UTF8
"Documentary about Fidel Castro, covering 40 years of Cuban
Revolution. Rare Fidel Castro footage..."
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
**********************
You might want to take a look at the Castro Speech Database
http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro.html
===
I hope these references are helpful!
Sincerely,
umiat
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