5 comments about Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman.

1. Flying Close to the Sun was an interesting look at how SDS and other anti-war activists decided that confrontation, even violent confrontation was the only true way to exact meaningful politcal change. It also showed that many new leftists were anti-Vietnam war but not anti-war. I am sure many would be all too comfortable in the culture wars of today.
   
   Ms. Wilkerson comes across as a person with strong beliefs and a true committment to back them up with action. Yet, she also comes across as self-absorbed and naive. She didn't seem concerned that her father's town house had been destroyed and that other innocent people could have been killed. She acknowledged that her cohorts had shown terrible judgement in messing with explosives but didn't seem to realize the town house explosian damaged the anti-war movement and helped move this country to the right.
   
   The book was still a great read and did a nice job of describing the political climate of the late sixties. It showed, through her own strainted family relations, the dynamics of what was then labeled as the "generation gap." Yet, at times I thought the book wasn't reflective enough even though it looked back events almost 40 years old.



2. As a student of the era, this account by Cathy Wilkerson has been a long time coming. Often the social change of the late Sixties gets filed under "Civil Rights Movement" and "Anti-War Protests", and not enough attention is given to the Women's Movement. Ms. Wilkerson's point of view is important because it adds to the very short list of women who have told their side of the SDS/WUO.
   
   For the reader less familiar with the era, the amount of violence directed at those in the movement can be shocking. As Ms. Wilkerson relates the loss of life at the hands of the government and authorities, we are reminded that 4-Dead-In-Ohio is only a small part of the price that was paid in pursuit of freedom and justice. There's no real need beyond this to understand where the anger and sense of desperation originated that drove groups like the Weather Underground to violence.
   
   Although some have criticized the literary quality of this book, I found it quite a good read; a sincere memoir not from a professional history writer, but from a key architect of a piece of history.
   
   Social change is never linear or instantaneous, but comparisons of the Sixties to the present show the dramatic effects of the aforementioned movements. Politics aside, there are two minority candidates making serious bids for the White House. The military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is crumbling from the bottom up, as the young men and women of today make it clear that the sexual preference of the person watching their back is not an issue. Along with this optimism about our progress, there is still a recognition that many needs for serious change abound; this book adds to the volume of information that will help the next generation of revolutionary thinkers bring about serious non-violent social change.



3. Cathy Wilkerson is best known to the world today as one of the two survivors of the March 2, 1970 bomb explosion at a Weatherman safe house in New York City which killed three of her friends and collaborators.
   
   Wilkerson writes an interesting narrative of her transformations from a WASPy 1950's era Swarthmore College grad into a professional activist to a street fighter, then a terrorist, a wanted fugitive, a mother, a prison inmate, and today a NYC math teacher. Wilkerson gives the most emphasis in her book to the first three, and it is an emphasis that will probably be of most interest to readers.
   
   Wilkerson notes throughout her book that the New Left had a tendency toward bullying tactics for both organizational governance and in formulating programs of action [p.205]. This tenancy was extreme in the case of SDS in general and the Weathermen in particular. To wit: "It was a [leadership] style that embraced certainty as a primary credential for leadership." Wilkerson detects this tendency but never struggles against it and never says why, either. This is a issue I would have liked to see her address.
   
   Another issue that Wilkerson identifies but never addresses in depth is the whole idea of SDS as an organization for the long-run. As a student-based organization SDS had the fatal flaw that being a college student is a transitory phase in most people's lives. At some point people want to stop going to classes and get on with their lives. So where does the committed student activist go then? [p.236]



4. A great tale of radicalization. The meditative Wilkerson, from the start at the center of the action, is judgmental of herself and of strategies of the Vietnam War and civil-rights activism. She doesn't try to get inside the heads of her fellow SDS and Weather activists, instead substituting minutia about herself. This can make for a very narrow narrative, but it keeps the history tight, more of an impassioned autobiography than speculative memoir.



5. If you want to know about the endless internecine conflicts in SDS, you'll find lots to absorb you here. If you're looking for an account that captures the energy of that era and the emotional evolution of a participant, look elsewhere. The writer's clunky, oddly detached, heavily rhetorical style doesn't engage the imagination; it comes to life only briefly, when she describes the townhouse explosion from which she escaped. She spends a lot of time exonerating and justifying herself in retrospect, chronicling the many reservations she said she had about Weatherman's tactics and analysis but that she suppressed at the time. Not much illumination of the era or of the writer.

1 comments about Mandela: An Illustrated Autobiography.

1. 
   This book recounts the life of Nelson Mandela beginning in childhood up to the present age. It is written by Mandela himself - it's honest, straightforward style seems to be an honest attempt by Mandela to portray himself objectively, avoiding the tendency to be self-serving.
   
   A fascinating book. It begins with Mandela in his young childhood living in a pre-industrial society of native Africans in the countryside of South Africa where white settlers have dominated industrialized society. It is an engaging society, - perhaps more advanced than our own - as one must reconsider what it means to live in harmony and in cooperation; A true democracy, based on the ideals that all are equal.
   
   Mandela undergoes culture shock when he runs away from his traditional homeland to seek his fortunes in the big city of Johannesberg. Here is encounters white society up close, and is mortified at the inequity that exists between the native blacks, and the immigrant whites that make every attempt to dominate their country and exploit its indigenous peoples.
   
   Mandela encounters a small group of educated, free-thinking educated blacks, and joins the African National Congress. Here he encounters several other oppressed peoples: Indians, Communists, and liberal whites. He slowly makes his life's objective to be a freedom fighter. A fighter for civil rights for all people. A life of struggle, where one must be willing to pay the ultimate price. And he nearly does.
   
   He becomes the inspiration for downtrodden average black citizen, nearly enslaved within their own country. He willingly faces grave danger, is tried several times for his political ideals, denounced as "treason" and is eventually sent to prison "for life."
   
   Mandela's life in prison is austere. But he and his colleagues never yield in their commitment to freedom for all South Africans. His wife, Winnie is an example of true dedication - equally a woman of integrity and worthy of the highest praise. She undergoes severe hardships being married to a "freedom fighter."
   
   Mandela avoids the tendency to give up in the face of severe conditions, showing true mettle as he remains dedicated to the rights for all people to live free in racist South Africa. 27 years later having risked his life and surviving harsh prison conditions, he emerges a national hero.
   
   A must read for anyone - Mandela is history in the making.

1 comments about Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of "Crazy Cooter".

1. I've met Ben and he is exactly how he presents himself in this book -- a witty, charismatic man who has overcome adversity and remembers where he come from. This is a good, inspiring story of recovery.

5 comments about Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.

1. Outstanding book written by a courageous man. I'm a centrist and not a far left liberal but, until reading this book, I never knew a Republican politician for which I was able to have even the tinest bit of respect. We definitely do need a third party, or better yet the ability for people that don't align with a particular party to have a chance to win an election. People like Chafee - people who put the best interests of America's citizens first rather than best interests of a party machine - would then be able to survive. Imagine a government of people like that! Spread the word about this book so people become inspired to demand this of our politicians.



2. Former Senator Lincoln Chafee has written an engaging book that connects anecdotes from his political life with thoughtful observations on ethics, power, and diplomacy.
   
   The Senator's disillusionment and disenchantment are thoroughly examined here. Although, as a son of the late Senator John Chafee, he was well acquainted with the realities of party politics in America, he went to Washington with idealistic notions about the possibilities of bi-partisan cooperation born of his experience in local government. Sadly, he was to find out exactly how regressive and obstinate both the national executive and legislative bodies have become.
   
   This is an admirable effort from a man who has managed to retain his ideals despite the disappointing realities he encountered. This book is well worth your time and money, and I recommend it very highly. We need more people like Lincoln Chafee in public life.



3. As a transplanted Rhode Islander living in New York, I understood why Lincoln Chafee lost his Senate seat in November of 2006 to the lackluster and uninspired Sheldon Whitehouse. An independent, moderate voice from the Ocean State fell victim to the Bush Administration's myopic paranoid agenda. At its best moments, Against the Tide, paints a striking portrait of idealogues centralizing power and marginalizing dissenting voices and their opponents time after time refusing to stand up and speak out for what they knew was right.
   
   Chafee often repeats stories (he was a blacksmith on the plains of Canada, if you didn't already know) and the prose is stilted in places, but the book as a whole is a success. I hope it gives my former neighbors a pang of guilt that we are no longer represented in the Senate by Lincoln Chafee and his sense of duty and principle. His replacement is not cut from that cloth.



4. This book is a must read because it describes how politics and government work or perhaps why it doesnt work. Mr. Chaffee's description of his experiences are told in such a direct and honest fashion. He interweaves his political experience as a local politician and that of a congressional candidate. He provides information regarding different foreign policy efforts of the current administration and why they failed, i.e., the palestinian and Israeli peace process. This is a refreshing look at our governmental system and the players in it. Mr. Chaffee's writing style made me feel as if he was telling the story directly to me.



5. Written by a true congressional maverick, I loved the inside information and enjoyed the local flavor as well.

4 comments about Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist (The Working Class in American History).

1. PG 203 & 208 reference Governor Davis H. Waite. The author mis-spells Davis as David, a very common mistake for researchers and historians.

   Otherwise good information here on most Debs topics. Read more on Debs & Waite in my future book. Frank S. Waite




2. The book was clearly not written by an author, but by a researcher. The book has lots of info, but sometimes tends to get off subject, and is sometimes a bit hard to follow. A good read none the less. A very interesting man and that translates into a good book.



3. He was dubbed an undesirable citizen by so-called progressive Teddy Roosevelt. The best biography of Debs to date. It shows his working class background and radical roots in his family. You can see his evolution from democrat and trade unionist to socialist and industrial unionist. His frustration with mainstream politics leads to his trade union agitation. The failure of the AFL railroad brotherhoods to work together spurs him on to create an industrial union of all railroad workers called the American Railway Union. While in jailed in Illinois after the Pullman Strike of 1894 is crushed he becomes a socialist. He helps unites the various factions into the Socialist Party of America in 1901. That same year he merges the broken ARU with the Western Federation of Miners to form the American Labor Union, which adopts socialism. He helps form the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905 which seeks to organize all workers into One Big Union. He leaves the IWW when in rejects politics. During WWI while other socialists give in to nationalism he remains militantly anti-war. In 1917 he refuses to support America's enterance into the war and remains undecided on the Russian Revolution. While in prison for trying to subvert the war effort he recieves over a million votes for president. His party disintegrates in dispute between Hawks and Doves, and reformers and revolutionaries. A fascinating story.



4. Here you will learn about Debbs the union activist and organizer, Debbs the socialist party organizer and Debbs the husband, brother, friend and lover. And you might get the impression that the advocacy and political activity of Debbs must be measured almost exclusively by the impact it had on the unions, the socialist party and his intimates. I had hoped to read more about Debbs' impact beyond these circles. How did the nation look on Debbs, especially during his presidential campaigns? What did the other major and minor party candidates make of him? These questions remain largely unanswered by the books end.

   At times, the book treats Debbs' presidential campaigns almost in passing. The campaigns are not treated as events interesting primarily because of the impact they had on the nation. If the US thought Debbs dangerous enough to incarcerate him during WW1, it is difficult to imagine why a history depicting Debbs' larger political and cultural influence would be difficult to produce.

   The book describes well how Debbs framed his leftism in an American voice: how he found within the discourse of individualism a foundation for socialism. But, of course, that direction was all but forgotten after the benighted enthusiasm for the Bolsheviks.

5 comments about Fidel Castro: Biografía a dos voces.

1. I appreciate very much the book, in original language. It gives the backstage of a big part of Cusa's hystory. The parts that I believed where the one's where Fidel Castro is remembering his life. When he was a children, in an ancient and poor country, where he had the oportunity to make bigger his natural instinct deploring the acts against the human right.
   From this pages comes out a incredible part of Castro, made of sensibility, believe in equality, friendship. A complete different look on what we are used to know him.
   Also all the Cuban's Revolucion comes out like a big and strong believe that peoples had to help the cubans to grow up and take his own identity.



2. The extensive and deep interview-conversation of Spanish-born, France-resident writer-journalist Ignacio Ramonet with Fidel Castro is surprising in that a leader so reluctant to grant interviews agreed to spend, as Ramonet says in his introduction, one hundred hours of mostly candid revelations about his life, including childhood, adolescence, student days, rebellious spirit, personal sense of justice, and his bravery not only in battle but also to face the immense power and extreme hostility of a United States scarcely 90 miles across the ocean.
   Most autobiographies are self-serving, and although this "Biografia a dos voces," or in English My Life Fidel Castro, is not an autobiography in a strict sense, neither is a classical journalistic interview with challenges when necessary to clear up apparent contradictions or controversial statements or judgments.
   The book reveals a deep devotion of Castro towards Che Guevara, great affection and admiration. His insights of how valuable Che was to the Revolution first as a doctor and then as a fighter and commander are of tremendous value to anybody interested in Cuba's tormented history.
   I have with me the first edition in Spanish and the recent Andrew Hurley translation of the third edition.
   There are substantial additions and changes to the first version, including in the latest edition an exchange of letters between Castro and Nikita Khrushchev during and after the Missile Crisis of October 1962.
   In one of the letters, dated October 26, 1962, Fidel dangerously suggests that the Soviets should consider an atomic attack against the United States.
   Castro shows in the book a deep knowledge on an array of subjets, including on political, military, economic and scientific matters.
   He also shows his political prejudice when he asserts, without offering any proof, that the September 11, 2001, attacks against the Twin Towers were organised by the "same American institutions and services" who trained those who actually carried them out.
   When Fidel says that no-one has suffered torture in Cuban jails since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 and that the Cuban Bay of Pigs prisoners in 1961 were treated according to strict Geneva Convention rules, and that the cause of his country's woes throughout is history since independence from Spain has been the "Empire" to the north makes one think whether he has more than a point.
   He is also believable when he says his Revolution has done away with illiteracy, that medicine in Cuba has advanced to the extent that now Cuba exports doctors and, despite the criplling US siege, its economy remains solid - after surviving "the special period" following the Soviet Union collapse.
   People like Fidel only come once in history, and perhaps History will indeed absolve him.
   Hugo Uribe
   Sydney, Australia



3. I have just read Biografia a dos voces - a biography of Fidel Castro, in which Ramonet asks searching questions of Fidel Castro during one hundred hours of interviews. The book is a 'tour de force' and shows Castro to be a man of great integrity, an intellectual and a truly exemplary figure of the twentieth century, contrary to opinions generally held in the US. I read this book on a visit to Cuba and witnessed first hand the truths this book contains. If you wish to know first hand the life of one of the greatest men of the last century read this book. The Spanish version also comes with a DVD of highlights of the interviews, which gives a memorable vision of this great statesman.



4. A great book, and the shipping was faster than i have spected.
   Thanks!



5. Great book, great insite in the mind of the last 'ultimate' leaders in this day and age. Nice touch by ading photos and as a special bonus the dvd. For any fan or interested in history.

1 comments about Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, ... Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way.

1. This is my first Amazon review. I felt I had to write a review for this wonderful book. On one hand, this is an inspiring account of the passion and vigor that catalyzed the civil rights and feminist movements in this country (in stark contrast to much of the hollow rhetoric these days). On the other, it is an entertaining and poignant portrayal of an incredibly complicated character in American history. The form of the book, something of a round table discussion between Abzug and those who knew her, helps the reader to get a sort of 360 degree history with multiple views of single events. It is a finely wrought and powerful portrayal of Abzug and of the history of our country. I hope particularly that young women (and men) will read it and be inspired.

5 comments about The American Agent: My Life in the CIA.

1. Holmes is a very detailed man. He tells his lifestory in great detail. Some of it is interesting, some of it is not. He does an excellent job in describing the agency and how it operates. Unfortunately, you have to read or go through a lot of junk to get there.
   
   If you want the "quick and dirty" info about the CIA and how it operates, do not get this book. If you want great details about our operations in the Congo, Laos, and Asia and you have plenty of time, this is the book to read.



2. Good insite into the internal politics at the CIA. Pulls no punches regarding who (historically) supported the agency's mission and who did not.
   
   Good perspective of what our field agents face abroad, their lifestyle, challenges with landguages, cultures, etc.
   
   Slightly disappointed Holm did not go more into specific or theoretical cases. Also, he rants a bit too much at the end to get 31 yesrs of frustratio off his chest.



3. Some of the content of the book is fascinating. I enjoyed when he discussed operational details, but they seemed few and far between. As other reviews have said, the book seems focused on house hunting and the like. I also found his writing style to be a bit up and down. It almost reads like a first draft, with a strange flow.
   I would recommend the book for anyone who is interested in the subject because there is not that much available that describes life inside the Agency. That being said, it is by no means a great read.



4. A wonderful account of an interesting career. If you are into government, intelligence, foriegn politics, or just plain old spy novels, you should definately read this book.



5. I love everything CIA. But his book gets off to a super slow start. 120 pages in and all the character has been in the hospital the whole time doing rehab. I realize this is a true story, but it is kinda boring at first.
   
   I may try to finish it... I am not sure.

5 comments about The Voice of Hope: Updated and Revised Edition.

1. I have been intrigued with the situation in Burma since watching the movie Beyond Rangoon some time ago. It was therefore with great interest that I ordered this book as soon as it was available. In "The Voice of Hope" Alan Clements brings us into the present with this tragic situation through the person of Aung San Suu Kyi and her incredible life. But what sets this work apart from histories, biographies, and oddly enough even self-help material - is the powerful integration of beliefs and action found in Aung San Suu Kyi's life and philosophy. In reading chapter seven alone, ("Saints are Sinners who go on trying") I was personally and deeply moved by the clear connectedness described between her experience with a repressive government and the need for thinking people everywhere to courageously fulfil our potential as thinking, "questing" individuals. The repressive government in Burma is shown to be an extreme and yet still relevant metaphor for intellectual repression in all its forms. And Aung San Suu Kyi's message offers specific insight together with believable emotional support for those who struggle to reconcile what we discover and know through our own searching with what we are expected to believe by others. If it helps anyone who is deciding whether this book is worth the money - I can only say that as one who buys and reads more than 100 books a year - this book has earned a unique place in my library and in my heart. I would trade every other book I have read this year for Alan Clements' latest contribution. Thank you.



2. This book shocked me awake to the realities of countries where freedom is not enjoyed as in the United Sates. The government's repression and horrific inhumantiy are just unbelievable. But, more amazing is the dedication to nonviolence which Aung San Suu Kyi and her party follow in their democracy movement. Her manner in speaking of Burma's serious situation is so calm, hopeful, and loving that it makes one reinterpret and recast their interactions with their own worlds. One may also reflect on one's place in humanity and see that Burma's tragedy, Burma's fate, is our own and we must act now. Aung San's hope and strength are qualities we would do well to adopt as our own. I do not think it is possible for one to read this book and NOT feel urged to take some form of real action (via letter writing, publicizing the issue, etc).



3. I have always been fascinated by Burma in all its aspects and I wanted to be more informed on the current political and social situations. The subject is certainly very interesting but I personally found the book itself very boring and repetitive: The concepts and ideas are repeated dozens of times in different chapters, over and over again. This book would have been much more powerful and appealing with 100 pages instead of 300.



4. In this book, as in "Freedom from Fear" and "Letters from Burma", Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi exposes to the world the grim realities of her land and her people, seen through her very eyes. As always, she is able to jump with great ability from more personal and sentimental accounts of the situation, to hard data, from recollections of her childhood, to perspectives on Burma's future. Always filled with thrill and dense with emotions, her writings are for the expert and the ignorant alike, easy to understand, yet of high value historically and academically. For anyone wishing to know more about Burma and the struggle of her people for human rights, this is must reading.



5. Now in an expanded second edition including an interview with U Gambira (a leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance that organized the protests of September and October 2007), The Voice of Hope: Aung San Suu Kyi Conversations with Alan Clements is an extensive interview with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Laureate, mother of two, and practicing Buddhist who led the pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988. The movement was harshly crushed by the military junta that renamed Burma as Myanmar. Alan Clements, the first American ordained as a Buddhist monk in Burma, met with Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from her first house arrest in July 1995. She delivered her perception of engaged compassion and spoke of how she maintained her hope and optimism despite continued governmental oppression. "You must not forget that the people of Burma want democracy. Whatever the authorities may say, it is a fact that the people want democracy and they do not want an authoritarian regime that deprives them of their basic human rights. The world should do everything possible to bring about the kind of political system that the majority of the people of Burma want and for which so many people have sacrificed themselves." A singularly powerful and also deeply spiritual testimonial on behalf of a troubled nation.

5 comments about Selected Writings (Penguin Classics).

1. Here at last--in English--is a comprehensive selection of Martí's writing, translated by a masterful hand. It leaves all other attempts at this task far behind. Esther Allen meets the challenges of Martí's exuberant and complex style with extraordinary success. This book will be a landmark text for college courses on Martí as a Latin American and Latino writer, and is an excellent introduction for the general public. Bravo to all involved in this effort to bring Martí to American readers!



2. Marti was a prodigy, a genius, yet he is little known in the U.S. either for his prose or poetry. Those who have heard of him may associate him with Radio Marti or know him as a Cuban revolutionary.

   While this beautifully rendered translation includes a broad spectrum of Marti's works, some not previously translated, his descriptions of America in the latter half ot the nineteenth century are by themselves sufficient reason to buy this book.

   Marti, coming from a different culture, sees things about America that we do not, and he describes them with a passion lacking in the reportage of his North American contemporaries.




3. One of the most amazing writers, and a wonderful small volume, showing the diversity of his talents through many years in a great translation (the poems include the Spanish and English texts). "Our America" is an essay on the cosmopolis that is Latin America, and essays on Emerson and Whitman are among the best that exist. Furthermore, one can forget that Marti spent perhaps more time in New York than anywhere else in his life, and his writings on some of the everyday things there, particularly "A Chinese Funeral," my favorite piece in the book, give one a great sense of the city from a unique and often unrepresented perspective. There is no American literature without Jose Marti.



4. Jos Julian Mart y Prez was born in Havana, Cuba on January 28, 1853. He is one of the most renowned writers in the history of Cuba and Latin America. In 1874 Mart earned a Law degree from the University of Zaragoza in Spain. He essentially devoted his life to the cause of independence and to the foundation of a new Cuban nation. As we perceive in the Montecristi Manifesto, Mart was a talented humanist, born out of time; an idealist and martyr that left a legacy on Cuban affairs.
   
   As a philosopher, he attempted to navigate through the intricate mountings of thoughts. "Mart embarked early in life on a mission of political struggle and literary achievement. At fifteen, he wrote an epic poem in praise of Cuba's war of independence against Spain. At seventeen he was imprisoned and sentenced to hard labor for his political activities. For the rest of his life he wrote about and worked unstoppably for the freedom of Cuba. He founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party. His political involvement was accompanied and complemented by a constant and relentless outpouring of poetry, literary prose, journalism and political writing. In 1895 he returned to Cuba with a military force to embark upon another revolution and soon thereafter encountered a suicidal heroic death in battle."
   
   The final battle of his life came in 1895 on Cuban soil, in a place called Dos Rios, after going to the enemy front lines, fighting against the Spanish domination in his beloved land. The expedition that brought the continuation of the war of independence into Cuba commenced in and departed from Florida and passed through the Dominican Republic, on its way to Cuba. Before departing to the east of Cuba, Jos Mart and the General Mximo Gmez, Commander in Chief of the Liberating Army, made public a document in the town of Montecristi, a manifesto exposing the goals of a revolutionary war about to begin. This was an important document that provided the guiding principles for a new Nation or a Republic, as Mart had dreamed.
   
   The Montecristi Manifesto, as it is known in Cuban history, declared the revolution began not in 1895, but 1868, when the Grito de Yara was proclaimed by Carlos Manuel de Cspedes and the Ten Years War (1868-78) against Spanish domination took place. In this manuscript Mart pointed out interesting principles related to Cuba and Latin America, and even of a global undertone. It says: "The war of independence in Cuba...is a far-reaching human event and a timely service that the judicious heroism of the Antilles lends to the stability and just interaction of the American nations and to the still unsteady equilibrium of the world."
   
   The humanistic undertaking of the Manifesto is rooted on the idea of a fully and stable constituted republic with freedom of thought. That republic was to be, not the triumph of one Cuban party over another, but the victory of all elements of the society. Here he establishes the significance of necessary sacrifice for a sublime purpose as the transformation of the old colonial system, a call for harmony and wisdom, and the mandatory establishment of human rights. It denounced the corruption of the metropolis: "The revolution makes use of this language without fear because the mandate to emancipate Cuba once and for all from the irremediable ineptitude and corruption of the Spanish government." Spain was not the only preoccupation on Marti's thoughts; the forces pointing to an annexation of Cuba to the United States were rampant and seemingly viable.
   
   Marti saw in the liberation of Cuba the angular stone to stop the expansion of the North American imperialism. In his last and unfinished written letter to his longtime friend Manuel Mercado, then the Mexican undersecretary of the Interior, he pointed: "Every day now I am in danger of giving my life for my country and my duty-since I understand it and have the spirit to carry it out-in order to prevent, by the timely independence of Cuba, the United States from extending its hold across the Antilles and falling with all the greater force on the Lands of our America. All I have done up to now and all I will do is for that."
   
   The United States was expanding his dominion and influence around its neighbors. The Monroe Doctrine declared by the U.S. President James Monroe in the seventh annual address to Congress, on December 2, 1823, became the United States' policy regarding Latin America, limiting the rights and activities of the European powers in the western hemisphere. In the beginning, it was merely a declaration of policy, but within years, the idea of annexation of the so called backyard (including the Antilles) was supported by Cubans inside and outside the island, thinking that the annexation of Cuba to the Union would be a benefit; even today, such a concept is not a dead thought for many.
   
   Mart, a secular visionary, had the ability to see beyond the horizon in the entrails of the North American monster. In the same letter to Mercado he wrote: "The nations such as your own and mine, which have the most vital interest in keeping Cuba from becoming, through an annexation accomplished by those imperialists and the Spaniards, the doorway-which must be blocked and which, with our blood, we are blocking-to the annexation of the people of our America by the turbulent and brutal North that holds them in contempt." This so called monster, the United States, had seen in its Latin-American backyard a fertile campground to extract raw materials, dreaming one day, maybe, to be able to add more stars to the American flag.
   
   This monster has not changed too much since then. Its Transnationals, under the concept of democracy and prosperity, can annexate the innocent intentions of a nation. Today, Mart's concerns are incredibly up to date. Is that monster ready to conquer the Latin American lands? As it refers to a military occupation, that is perhaps and most certain a utopia. But things actually have not changed. The United States of America exhibits the same power thirst for money, wherever the possibility arrives. Within the Cuban exiled population, new modern oligarchs see the opportunity of enrichment, possibly after an overturn of the actual political system in the island. Cubans from both outside and inside the island must take Marti's flag again and fight with dignity for a better Cuba, for the principles of justice, and not a mere copy of the savage capitalism that monopolizes even your will, and all that money can buy.
   
   After the 1959 revolution, a new revolution is obligatory. That revolution brought a real independence to the island, but soon the egoist and dictatorial way of the government chose to incline the heart of the country to the red European bear. The Soviet Union made of Cuba a mere atheist puppet, a satellite of the communist interests in the world, an idle society, permanently dependant and attached to its belly button, through an umbilical square line of thought imposed on every Cuban. The Cuban Nation needs no more umbilical lines or written schemes of imported societies from the north, east, west, or south political science books. Our Judeo-Christian values had nothing to do with the reign of the dollar, the euro, or the peso. A mature society based on freedom and equality, justice for all, and dignity that embrace a brilliant future must to be built in godly honesty, sincerity and temperance.
   
   The times of Cuban legends must be buried in the deep sea that surrounds the archipelago. Martyrs, heroes, caudillos, and good-looking stars are enjoyable in the history books; hence, the history of the island should be written in present time. Cuba has no need for last names or bank account numbers to be counted as the many stars in its national blue sky. It is necessary to proceed in a peaceful but profound continuance of the transforming revolutionary process that began in 1868; Cuba has enough heads and hearts to build a society as the Montecristi Manifesto proclaimed: "A country must find a manner of government that can satisfy both the mature and cautious intelligence of its literate sons and the necessary conditions for the assistance and respect of its other people...From its origin, the patria must be constituted in viable forms, forms born of itself."
   
   
   Nac en un Archipilago
   rodeado de azules mares
   donde el disentir
   se silencia con deshonra
   
   All me impusieron al abuelo Lnin:
   destructor,
   apstata cegado
   y mediocre constructor de un porvenir atascado
   
   Ahora vivo en Troya
   y conozco al Caballo desenfrenado.
   Se afana mirando al tablero
   donde las carreras se apstan
   y el dollar se amontona
   para agasajar al incrdulo
   
   Hacia dnde vas
   Caimn que te escapas?
   Quin te lleva, florido ensoador?
   Has dejado de contar tus palmas reales;
   desmantela el oro,
   ese que te pertenece,
   no el que en el Atlntico profundo
   tus colonizadores sepultaron.
   
   Alejandro Roque.



5. This collection of Marti's essays and letters are excellent reading for Marti scholars and beginners alike. The works are in chronological order and cover the most pivotal periods of Marti's life. Both of Marti's strongest qualities, the poet and the freedom fighter, are represented with conviction. This book is a definite must read for anyone looking to explore the mind one of the greatest literary figures of all time.