This book offers a surprising answer: The mob.

Inside this book, you will discover how Batista's friendship with Meyer Lansky allowed the Mafia to become dollar for dollar partners with the Cuban government in the casino hotel industry. This industry came to dominate the Cuban economy in the...

"No previous work so clearly and coherently examines the uniqueness of Cuba within the Caribbean and Hispanic American context. It is indispensable for understanding the development of society and economy in Cuba after 1762."--Franklin W. Knight, Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University

Sherry Johnson s revisionist study contributes to a new understanding of colonial Cuban history in several ways. Most important, it challenges existing interpretations of Cuban history by advancing an alternative to the "sugar is forever thesis. In doing so,...

Cuba is much more than cigars, classic automobiles, and Castro. This remarkable nation has had a long history of relations with larger political powers that were drawn to the island because of its valuable resources and strategic location. Ties between Cuba and the United States have been strong since the mid-nineteenth century, and the theme of U.S. dominance over the island and its people is a primary historical perspective. Cuba's history is told in eight chronological chapters, from its earliest days as a Spanish colony, through its wars for independence and the U.S. occupation in the...

Alfredo Jose Estrada's intimate ties to Havana form the basis for this "autobiography," written as though from the city's own heart. Covering the island's five hundred year history, Estrada portrays the adventurers and dreamers who left their mark on Havana, including Jose Marti, martyr for Cuban independence; and Ernest Hemingway, the most American of writers who became an unabashed Habanero.
Deeply personal and affecting, Havana is the accessible and complete story of the city for the history buff and armchair traveler alike.

Perhaps the foremost social analyst and journalist on Cuban affairs, Carlos Alberto Montaner has written a definitive study of the Cuban regime from the vantage point of the Cuban dictator. This is not simply a history of Cuban communism but rather a personal history of its leader, Fidel Castro. Montaner's extraordinary knowledge of the country and its politics prevents the work from becoming a psychiatric examination from afar. Indeed, what personal irrationalities exist are seen as built into the fabric of the regime itself, and not simply as a personality aberration.

Fidel...