Tony Perrottet: Cuba Libre! Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution

KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents:

TONY PERROTTET
CUBA LIBRE! Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution that Changed World History

Advance tickets: $12: T: 800-838-3006 or independent bookstores, $15 door, benefits KPFA Radio 94.1FM

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. Their movement successfully overthrew the island nation's US-backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and has remained to this day an intense socialist provocation to the massive imperial capitalist country only ninety miles north of Cuba.

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, including a number of extraordinary young women-who defeated 40,000 professional soldiers to overthrow the dictatorship of Batista. Cuba Libre!'s deep dive into the revolution reveals fascinating details. He describes how Fidel's highly organized lover Celia Sanchez kept the male guerrillas disciplined, and he portrays a few of the North American volunteers who joined the Cuban rebels. He gained access to private letters, diaries, videos, and other documents no other historian has seen. Perrottet has used these as well as countless interviews to describe the years of guerrilla fighting throughout the Sierra Maestra mountains, the final victory march into Havana, the gradual building of a socialist state, and
the accompanying Cold War tensions.

"Perrottet takes us far beyond the basic facts of the Cuban Revolution to the juicy details that remind us that history is deeply human." - Chris Ryan, NY Times bestselling author

Tony Perrottet, author of five previous books, is a regular guest on the History Channel.

Steve Wasserman is Executive Director of Heyday Books.

$12 advance, $15 door.