
Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
An American History
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Narrated by:
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Alma Cuervo
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Ada Ferrer - prologue
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By:
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Ada Ferrer
About this listen
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY
“Full of…lively insights and lucid prose” (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States—from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day—written by one of the world’s leading historians of Cuba.
In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more.
Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important” (The Guardian) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade.
Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope” (The Economist).
Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.
©2021 Ada Ferrer. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"[Alma Cuervo]'s a highly empathetic interpreter of Ferrer's narrative. The story is fascinating, enlightening, and often deeply moving as Cuervo recounts Cuba's sorry history of racial division, enslavement, and exploitation - most vividly, the crushing labor of its sugar plantations." (AudioFile Magazine)
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The themes of the history of Cuba are as vast as they are inspiring. Cuba has stared death in the face throughout its rocky history, and most of the time it has gazed into the eyes of death and smiled. Over and over, oppressors have attempted to seize this island and its riches for their own selfish purposes. And over and over, revolutions have risen up to conquer in an attempt to return Cuba to its people.
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A good quick History of Cuba
- By Amazon Customer on 07-28-20
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Founding Brothers
- The Revolutionary Generation (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic - John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.
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Great!
- By Gotta Tellya on 08-10-16
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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Fidel Castro
- A Spoken Autobiography
- By: Fidel Castro, Ignacio Ramonet
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren, Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 26 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades, people have tried to persuade the leader of the Cuban Revolution to tell his own life story. Ignacio Ramonet, the celebrated editor in chief of Le Monde diplomatique, has finally succeeded. For the first time, in a series of extensive and probing interviews, Fidel Castro describes his life from the 1950s to the present day.
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In His Own Words
- By Roy on 06-09-09
By: Fidel Castro, and others
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Freedom's Dominion
- A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power
- By: Jefferson Cowie
- Narrated by: André Chapoy
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedom—their freedom to dominate others. In Freedom’s Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace.
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Very easily read and I learned a lot
- By Kev All on 02-05-23
By: Jefferson Cowie
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Cuba: A Captivating Guide to the History of Cuba and Havana, The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Richard L Walton, David Patton, Desmond Manny
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The themes of the history of Cuba are as vast as they are inspiring. Cuba has stared death in the face throughout its rocky history, and most of the time it has gazed into the eyes of death and smiled. Over and over, oppressors have attempted to seize this island and its riches for their own selfish purposes. And over and over, revolutions have risen up to conquer in an attempt to return Cuba to its people. The story of Cuba is a tale of courage and sacrifice, of horrific oppression and inspiring vision.
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Ignorance and revisionism posing as history.
- By Luis Sastre on 02-21-19
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Gulag
- A History
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 27 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The Gulag - a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners - was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.
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Nice compliment to Solzhenitsyn
- By Thucydides on 08-03-17
By: Anne Applebaum
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Into Siberia
- George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia
- By: Gregory J. Wallance
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent. Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear.
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History and Adventure
- By David on 03-15-24
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Open Veins of Latin America
- Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
- By: Eduardo Galeano, Isabel Allende - Foreward
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation.
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Please up-date the addition
- By fishrock on 02-20-10
By: Eduardo Galeano, and others
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Tacky's Revolt
- The Story of an Atlantic Slave War
- By: Vincent Brown
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In the second half of the 18th century, as European imperial conflicts extended the domain of capitalist agriculture, warring African factions fed their captives to the transatlantic slave trade while masters struggled continuously to keep their restive slaves under the yoke. In this contentious atmosphere, a movement of enslaved West Africans in Jamaica (then called Coromantees) organized to throw off that yoke by violence. Their uprising - which became known as Tacky's Revolt - featured a style of fighting increasingly familiar today....
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Thoroughly researched; alters traditional understanding of the national hero’s role.
- By L. Shine on 04-14-25
By: Vincent Brown
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The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
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Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
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Total Recall
- My Unbelievably True Life Story
- By: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang, Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
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Chronicling his embodiment of the American Dream, Total Recall covers Schwarzenegger's high-stakes journey to the United States, from creating the international bodybuilding industry out of the sands of Venice Beach to breathing life into cinema's most iconic characters and becoming one of the leading political figures of our time. Proud of his accomplishments and honest about his regrets, Schwarzenegger spares nothing in sharing his amazing story.
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Amazing. I wish I got the extended version!
- By Dustin on 01-30-15
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Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
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Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
What listeners say about Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
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- LFE3
- 04-18-22
Excellent historical record that explains so much
I’ve visited Cuba twice in the early 2000’s. I wish I’d listened to this book before my visits! I highly recommend it to those who will visit the island.
Cuban history is so much more complex than we have been taught. US and Cuban history are inseparable. History must be viewed openly and accurately. Mistakes and horrors of the past will be repeated if they are not acknowledged and taught to our children. The propaganda so important to Che, Fidel, and communist revolution were no less dangerous than the lies and distortions of today’s US conservative movement. Documents like this book, remembering both the successes and failures of the past, are critical to our survival as a civilization.
As the author states, this book is as much a history of the US as it is of Cuba. Our histories are too interwoven to separate. Excellent document and presentation!
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5 people found this helpful
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- kimberly n. abrams
- 06-25-22
Wow!
What a gorgeously written book. An ode to Cuba, I learned so much, not only about Cuba, but the US. The performer is excellent and reads with much empathy and understanding. This may be one of the 5 best books Ive ever read - and I’ve read thousands. I can’t say enough about it. I wish it could have gone on forever.
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- SUSAN V.
- 06-13-22
Everything we didn't learn in school!
What an important perspective on the crucial role Cuba has played in world history!
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- Anonymous User
- 01-28-23
Excellent history of Cuba from from early colonial times to present!
Narrator also does outstanding job bringing this wonderful ,well written history of a
multifaceted culture and its people to life!
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- Dr. J
- 03-04-23
Very enlightening
Narration is excellent. The author captures a very complex history layer in American intervention. Additionally, the author does not sugarcoat Cuba’s racist past and present history. Having visited Cuba, the book is spot on!
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- frank
- 05-30-23
Excellent
So many things I had no idea of as a 1st gen Cuban American I was shocked I had a slim knowledge of my heritage. Great all around. 100% recommend
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- Gail H.
- 05-27-23
History through a Cuban lens
This is a book that covers a lot of history, from the arrival of Columbus and other explorers to the present day. Because of the scope, the book moves quickly, but has good insight into how closely entwined the U.S. has been with Cuba since before the U.S. revolutionary war. The book reveals many ways in which the U.S. has tried to use Cuba for its own purposes, and some will find that upsetting. But it is helpful to understand the trajectory of Cuban history. I’m very glad I read it, to better understand where Cuba is now and parts of U.S. history that I didn’t know.
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- Richard Koenig
- 06-14-23
Excellent Masterclass on the History of Cuba
Well told and entertaining instant classic of the rich history of the Cuban people and their relationship to the Americas and the world.
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- SNandi
- 02-17-24
one of the best novels about America's history
one of the best novels about America's history. very well researched and well represented. would highly recommend
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- Heemoon Youn
- 12-13-24
Cuba is not alone.
Cuba as a nation in the world history shares the common struggles for normal human life against the harsh reality of brutal human nature of greed, selfishness, and violence. like the object description of Cuban history. But at the same time I wish the author could display the thread of hope of Cubans for their future in terms of the lives inthe generations to come.
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