Introduction.
Chapter 1 – The Bohemian Origins of Che Guevara’s Politics
Chapter 2 – Che Guevara’s Revolutionary Politics – Ideas and
Practices.
Chapter 3 – Che Guevara In Power.
Chapter 4 – Che Guevara’s Political Economy.
Conclusion
Review copies will be sent and interviews will be lined up with ,
KPFK Pacifica Station, Los Angeles, and other Pacifica Stations,
KBOO as well as to the editors of Jacobin and In These Times.
We will take out program ads in the Latin American Studies
Association annual meeting in New York in May of 2016. The American
Sociological Association annual meeting in early August and the
American Political Science Association early September.
Samuel Farber: Samuel Farber was born and raised in Cuba and is a long time socialist who has written extensively on Cuba and the Cuban Revolution. He is the author of Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959. A Critical Assessment published by Haymarket Books in 2011.
In his previous books, the respected Marxist scholar Sam Farber
has explored the paradoxes of the Cuban revolutionary experience
with acute insight. Now, using sources unavailable to previous
biographers, he scrupulously reconstructs the political thought of
the twentieth century’s foremost revolutionary icon, illuminating
the contradictions between Che’s radical egalitarianism and his
austere elitism. Although he will always be revered for his heroic
internationalism, Che’s ideas diverged sharply from classical
Marxist conceptions of self-emancipation and workers’ democracy.
Therein, as Farber shows so brilliantly, is the real tragedy of
Third World revolution.”
Mike Davis, Professor Emeritus, University of California,
Riverside, and author of Planet of Slums
"Across the world, Che Guevara is either branded a demon or
idealized as a saint. Sam Farber chooses neither route, offering a
complex and serious analysis of Guevaraa passionate and honest
radical who could unfortunately never embrace socialism in its most
democratic essence."
Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin
"In this erudite, clear-headed, and unsparing account of the life
and thought of one of the twentieth century’s iconic revolutionary
and anti-imperialist figures, Samuel Farber writes from the left,
as someone genuinely sympathetic to the stated goals of the Cuban
revolution. He shows that Che Guevara’s concept of socialism
included an inordinate sympathy for the single-party state of the
Russian model, and that this led him to an elitist dismissal of
independent trade unions and of worker’s democracy. In
counterposing Guevara’s social vision to that of Karl Marx and of
later anti-Stalinist leftists, Farber evokes unrealized
emancipatory possibilities for Cuba in the 1960s, possibilities
that have again become real for us today, in the era of Occupy and
the Arab revolutions."
Kevin B. Anderson, author of Marx at the Margins
"With characteristic precision, and methodical attention to detail,
Samuel Farber interrogates the writings and politics of perhaps the
most widely recognized revolutionary figure of the twentieth
century Che Guevara. Farber’s biting, but measured, critique of
Che’s ideas and practice, deserves to be read widely and debated at
length. The unity of socialism, democracy, and revolution to which
this book hopes to contribute in theory, has never been more
urgently required in praxis."
Jeffery R. Webber, author of Red October: Left-Indigenous
Struggles in Modern Bolivia
"This book by Samuel Farber, a scrupulous historian and committed
socialist, is indispensable and should be a part of the library of
every young person who, impelled like Che, by a rebellious mind and
a sense of justice, searches for an alternative to the inhuman,
unjust, and predatory system that its high priests want to present
as natural."
Guillermo Almeyra, Argentinian columnist for the Mexican journal
La Jornada
“Farber makes a substantial case against the Cuban state as it took
shape after the revolution, particularly in regard to Guevara’s
authoritarian attitudes, and his preference for a highly
centralised Stalinist economic model.” –Counterfire “What impresses
in Farber’s book is the way in which he interweaves a critical
assessment of Guevara’s politics with general arguments about the
meaning of socialism.” –rs21
“In his previous books, the respected Marxist scholar Sam Farber
has explored the paradoxes of the Cuban revolutionary experience
with acute insight. Now, using sources unavailable to previous
biographers, he scrupulously reconstructs the political thought of
the twentieth century’s foremost revolutionary icon, illuminating
the contradictions between Che’s radical egalitarianism and his
austere elitism. Although he will always be revered for his heroic
internationalism, Che’s ideas diverged sharply from classical
Marxist conceptions of self-emancipation and workers’ democracy.
Therein, as Farber shows so brilliantly, is the real tragedy of
Third World revolution.”
—Mike Davis, Professor Emeritus, University of California,
Riverside, and author of Planet of Slums
"Across the world, Che Guevara is either branded a demon or
idealized as a saint. Sam Farber chooses neither route, offering a
complex and serious analysis of Guevara—a passionate and honest
radical who could unfortunately never embrace socialism in its most
democratic essence."
—Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin
"In this erudite, clear-headed, and unsparing account of the life
and thought of one of the twentieth century’s iconic revolutionary
and anti-imperialist figures, Samuel Farber writes from the left,
as someone genuinely sympathetic to the stated goals of the Cuban
revolution. He shows that Che Guevara’s concept of socialism
included an inordinate sympathy for the single-party state of the
Russian model, and that this led him to an elitist dismissal of
independent trade unions and of worker’s democracy. In
counterposing Guevara’s social vision to that of Karl Marx and of
later anti-Stalinist leftists, Farber evokes unrealized
emancipatory possibilities for Cuba in the 1960s, possibilities
that have again become real for us today, in the era of Occupy and
the Arab revolutions."
—Kevin B. Anderson, author of Marx at the Margins
"With characteristic precision, and methodical attention to detail,
Samuel Farber interrogates the writings and politics of perhaps the
most widely recognized revolutionary figure of the twentieth
century — Che Guevara. Farber’s biting, but measured, critique of
Che’s ideas and practice, deserves to be read widely and debated at
length. The unity of socialism, democracy, and revolution to which
this book hopes to contribute in theory, has never been more
urgently required in praxis."
—Jeffery R. Webber, author of Red October: Left-Indigenous
Struggles in Modern Bolivia
"This book by Samuel Farber, a scrupulous historian and committed
socialist, is indispensable and should be a part of the library of
every young person who, impelled like Che, by a rebellious mind and
a sense of justice, searches for an alternative to the inhuman,
unjust, and predatory system that its high priests want to present
as natural."
—Guillermo Almeyra, Argentinian columnist for the Mexican journal
La Jornada
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