Overview

Full Product Details

9780745317007

Table of Contents

Reviews

'A sure fire bestseller. Che Guevara has become a modern icon, his image available on every conceivalbe consumer product, something he would not have been happy about. This book contains 400 + photographs of Guevara, many available for the first time. They illustrate his move from middle class upbringing to revolutionary politics and eventual martyrdom.' New Statesman 'This large format book provides an admirable introduction to the life of Ernesto Guevara, and his road to becoming El Che.' The British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America

In 1965, Che Guevara wrote a farewell letter to Fidel Castro, 'how will you harvest the wheat, and keep the fire going, if I take the song away?' He appreciated his own legend. Ernesto Guevara de la Cerna had an idyllic childhood and came to maturity as an intellectual, a Marxist and every US government's worst nightmare. Representing universal youth, he had ambitions to travel, was actively anti-establishment, cherishing the ideal of a 'romantic' death. Nurtured as an atheist and anti-fascist, his journeys throughout South America introduced realities of true poverty and political oppression. A qualified doctor of medicine, in Mexico he met and shared a prison cell with Fidel Castro. This friendship overturned the USA financed government of Baptista in Cuba, and produced his seminal work Guerrilla Warfare. The USA Trade Embargo forced Cuba into 'client status' of the Soviet Bloc, precipitating the 'Bay of Pigs' invasion. A year later The Cuban Missile Crisis followed and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. In 1963, disillusioned by Cuban and Soviet governments, Che Guevara continued his travels to Russia, Africa and the Arabic Nations. The latter states were fermenting revolutions of their own. Whilst supporting Congo rebels he was ousted from government. Turning to support Bolivian rebels on October 9 1967 Guevara was wounded, captured, then summarily executed by the Bolivian Army, in the presence of a CIA representative. The grisly story of his human remains is graphically depicted. Containing everything you will ever need to know of the entire life and death of Che Guevara, this book is superbly presented, if shrouded in uncritical adulation. Ironically, Marxist Che emerges as Christ-like in his purity. Nevertheless, as historical reference, it is an important contribution with an outstanding pictorial record. It is also an unvarnished account of the numerous revolutionary upheavals of the period, albeit expressed from Che's own perspective. Definitely a tour de force. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Fernando Diego Garc?a studied at the universities of Buenos Aires and Heidelberg. He headed a team of researchers who produced Evita: Images of Passion (Thames and Hudson, 1997), which was published in five languages. Since 1993, he has lived in Berlin. Oscar Sola studied at the University of Buenos Aires and the Free University of Berlin. He works as a translator and has lived in Berlin since 1989.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available