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Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know |  | Author: Julia E Sweig
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.83
as of 11/21/2009 10:31 CST details
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 84832
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 019538380X
Dewey Decimal Number: 972.91064
EAN: 9780195383805
ASIN: 019538380X
Publication Date: July 17, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 Apologist, Revisionist Nonsense October 28, 2009
J. Longoria (NEW ORLEANS, LA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
CUBA IS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN ITS FLORA AND FAUNA, ITS PEOPLE, ITS CULTURE, FOOD AND MUSIC. BUT THERE IS NOTHING TO LEARN FROM THIS BOOK. THERE IS NOTHING REDEEMING OR LAUDABLE ABOUT A TOTALITARIAN GOVERMENT THAT SYSTEMATICALLY AND BRUTALLY REPRESSES ALL HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS. FIDEL CASTRO IS NOT THE AGRARIAN, UTOPIAN REVOLUTIONARY IDOL SOME STILL ADHERE TO. HE IS A MURDERER AND HAS LED A MOVEMENT THAT HAS DESTROYED THE "PEARL OF THE ANTILLES". "WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW" CAN BE FOUND OUT BY INTERVIEWING THE THOUSANDS OF POLITICAL AND THOUGHT PRISONERS LANGUISHING IN HELLISH PRISONS THROUGH OUT THE COUNTRY.
The lady has no clue. September 12, 2009
David Sierra (St. Petersburg, FL, USA)
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Another American apologist of a system that does not work for any Cuban, except for those at the top with whom she talked and gathered information for this book.
 Simply the best yet written August 6, 2009
Kirby Jones
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have been traveling back and forth to Cuba since 1974 - that's more than 35 years now. I thought I knew a lot about Cuba - that is until I read Julia Sweig's book. So readable and understandable. For anyone who has never visited Cuba or for those who have made such a trip, reading this book will not only increase your knowledge of Cuba but an understanding of why and how things happened. Without hesitation, this is a must read.
CUBA. What Everyone Needs to Know by Julia E. Sweig August 3, 2009
Jacqueline Barnitz
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Easily one of the best studies of Cuba and its cultural scene to come out in the last few years. It gives a very well documented historical background that goes back to the nineteenth century tracing the path of Cuban history from its liberation from Spain with United States help, and the poet and activist Jose Marti to the present and the Castro brothers. Rather than defend one side or another of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s, Sweig offers a well balanced analysis of all the factors in what amounts to the most objective study I have yet read. It carefully documents United States involvement and interests in Cuba without prejudice. Readers should come away from this book with a clearer understanding of the complexities of Cuban politics and its relations with the rest of the world, not just Russia and the U.S.
Impressive and Comprehensive August 1, 2009
Dan Erikson (Washington, DC)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
In this new book, Julia Sweig draws on her impressive knowledge of Cuba to great effect. The book seamlessly traces Cuba from its early colonial history through the Cuban Revolution, its aftermath, and outlines the contemporary issues now that Fidel has left power. The book can be read in one sitting or used as a reference, and the Q&A format works well because all the right questions get asked. I especially enjoyed the historical section which gives a great synopsis of Cuba's early origins, as well as the current political analysis. The book matches the ambitions of its title and then some---it should be a first resort for the curious and the expert alike!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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