Fulgencio Batista: From Revolutionary to Strongman [Hardcover]

Frank Argote-Freyre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2006

"Written in an engaging style and based on solid scholarship, this work by Argote-Freyre should make us wonder how we have gone this long without an authoritative treatment of the life and times of the man second only to Fidel Castro in his importance to twentieth-century Cuba. A sorely needed contribution." Lisandro Perez, Florida International University

Pawn of the U.S. government. Right-hand man to the mob. Iron-fisted dictator. For decades, public understanding of the pre-Revolutionary Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista has been limited to these stereotypes. While on some level they all contain an element of truth, these superficial characterizations barely scratch the surface of the complex and compelling career of this important political figure.

Second only to Fidel Castro, Batista is the most controversial leader in modern Cuban history. And yet, until now, there has been no objective biography written about him. Existing biographical literature is predominantly polemical and either borders on hero worship or launches a series of attacks aimed at denigrating his entire legacy.

In this book, the first of two volumes, Frank Argote-Freyre provides a full and balanced portrait of this historically shadowed figure. He describes Batista's rise to power as part of a revolutionary movement and the intrigues and dangers that surrounded him. Drawing on an extensive review of Cuban newspapers, government records, memos, oral history interviews, and a selection of Batista's personal documents, Argote-Freyre moves beyond simplistic caricatures to uncover the real man - one with strengths and weaknesses and with a career marked by accomplishments as well as failures.

This volume focuses on Batista's role as a revolutionary leader from 1933 to 1934 and his image as a 'strongman' in the years between 1934 and 1939. Argote-Freyre also uses Batista as an interpretive prism to review an entire era that is usually ignored by scholars - the Republican period of Cuban history. Bringing together global and local events, he considers the significance and relationship of the worldwide economic depression, the beginnings of World War II, and in Cuba, the Revolution of 1933, the expansion of the middle class, and the gradual development of democratic institutions.

Fulgencio Batista and most of Cuba's past prior to the Revolution of 1959 has been lost in the historical mists. Cuba had a rich and fascinating history before the Marxist Revolution and the reign of Fidel Castro. This captivating and long-overdue book uncovers it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following his overthrow by Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator Batista entered history as an effigy of brutality, corruption and subservience to Yankee imperialism. In this superb biography, historian Argote-Freyre deepens and complicates that picture. This first of two volumes follows Batista (1901–1973) to his 1940 election to the Cuban presidency, covering his impoverished childhood, military career, seizure of control over the Cuban army during the revolutionary upheaval of 1933 and rule as the strongman behind a series of weak civilian governments in the 1930s. There's a leitmotif of violence and thuggery in the saga, but the author portrays Batista as a subtle, restrained political operator. Loath to rule openly by force, he contends, Batista worked to replace military power with political influence as his stock in trade (even allying himself with the Communists to win election), maintained an accommodating but independent stance toward the United States and advanced a wide-ranging social-reform agenda. Argote-Freyre recovers the complex, dynamic Cuban political scene of the early 20th century, with its party intrigue, militant labor movements, guerrilla folk heroes and secret terrorist societies. Balanced, judicious and fluently written, Argote-Freyre's biography offers an important and long overdue scholarly reassessment of a crucial figure in Cuban history. Photos. 26 b&w illus. (Apr.)
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Review

If this volume is any indication of what the second will be like, students of Cuban history have been given a magnificent gift. Essential. --Choice

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (April 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813537010
• ISBN-13: 978-0813537016
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of life in Cuba, February 27, 2007

By 

Lehigh History Student (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fulgencio Batista: From Revolutionary to Strongman (Hardcover)

This two part biography of Batista attempts to paint the dictator in a new light. The author is very proBatista but does raise some interesting and new perspectives on the man. This first book is about Batista's early years up through the point where he is elected president. It does an excellent job of showing US influences on internal Cuban politics. The various presidents that were Batista's puppets show the level of corruption that runs not only through Cuba but throughout all of Latin America. The narrative account does a great job of shedding light on how Cuba looked in the precastro years and in this case shows how transformative the years before Batista really were. It was a time where Cuba was finding its national image and forming itself as a nation. The book is very well written and provides an interesting account on Cuba during this time period. In short highly recommend.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Leading Authority on Cuba, March 11, 2007

By 

P. A. Jones (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fulgencio Batista: From Revolutionary to Strongman (Hardcover)

Frank Argote-Freyre has set himself above other experts on Cuba with the publication of his first volume on Fulgencio Batista. I have never before read an account of any person, or any era, that was better. Talk about disciplined and documented academic research, or talk about lively, easily-read prose, or talk about honest, unbiased analysis, and you have to put Argote-Freyre in the top tier of biographers. As for analysts of Cuba's sad experience, Argote-Freyre has no peer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NINETEEN THIRTIES TO THE NINETEEN FORTIES'S CUBA, October 11, 2006

By 

Cecilio Mendiola Goitia "cuban" (San Juan, PR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fulgencio Batista: From Revolutionary to Strongman (Hardcover)

EXCELLENT BOOK ,VERY WELL DOCUMENTED BOOK ON A VERY INTERESTING YEARS OF CUBAN HISTORY, THAT SOMETIMES IS DIFFICULT TO FIND.MANY INTERESTING FACTS
ABOUT BATISTA'S CHILDHOOD AND RISE TO POWER, I BELIEVE THE CONFLICTS OF THOSE TIMES CREATED THE CONDITIONS FOR CASTRO'S FUTURE RAISE TO POWER IN 1959, GUITERAS PERSONALITY RESEMBLES VERY MUCH CASTRO PERSONALITY AS WELL, AN EXCELLENT BOOK BY ALL MEANS.I WILL RATED A VERY WELL DESERVED 5 STARS