Cuba and Western Intellectuals Since 1959

This book explores the relationship between the Cuban Revolution and Western intellectuals and activists during the early days of the Revolution in the 1960s. Analyzing the cases of France, Britain and the United States, it records the rise and fall of the personal and intellectual attraction that developed between a new generation of committed intellectuals and the Revolution. This challenges dominant scholarly views about the early development of the Cuban Revolution and provides the building blocks for a renewed understanding of the Revolution that is relevant to current political and ideological transitions taking place in the island.

“This fascinating and important book describes the attitude of western intellectuals towards the Cuban Revolution in the early years after 1959, and examines the way in which many of them participated in Cubas cultural and political debate. Looking at the intellectual and political climate in France, Britain and the United States at the end of the 1950s, Artaraz explores the important impact made on the (predominantly leftwing) culture of these countries by the interaction of its intellectuals with Cuba. This book examines the debates within the Cuban intellectual community and their identification with intellectual currents abroad. A nuanced and provocative study.”--Richard Gott, Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London

“This excellent book, coming at an opportune moment when the 1960s are being reassessed, brings a welcome new light to bear on the troubled relationship between the heterodox radicalism of the Cuban Revolution and the radicals of ‘the West (inspired in turn by their own idiosyncratic readings of that phenomenon). With great perspicacity, Artaraz gets inside the thinking of all the actors in this relationship and unearths a pattern of thinking that reveals much about the politics of the time.”--Antoni Kapcia, Professor of Latin American History and Director of the Centre for Research on Cuba, University of Nottingham

"Artaraz [has] done his analysis with admirable detachment...[he] makes an important and original contribution."--New West Indian Guide

Kepa Artaraz is currently a lecturer at the University of Brighton and member of the forum for the Study of Cuba, University of Nottingham. He has published articles in a number of journals such as Social Policy and Society, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Entelequia and Critical Social Policy. 

A new political dawn: the Cuban Revolution in the 1960s * Cuba: the myth and the reality of an original revolution * Who cared about the Cuban Revolution then and who cares now? * Geopolitics and race: The Cuban Revolution and the US New Left * British intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution: Neutralism or revolution? * French intellectuals and Cuba: A revolutionary working model? * Cuba and the Third World: Evolution of a concept and a relationship * The New Left: activists or intellectuals? * Conclusion: Cubas new dawn