History of the Cuban Revolution

The Trial of Fidel and the Moncada defendants gets underway. Fidel makes a famous speech.

This is the season finale of the show. Conditions get so bad in Cuba that nobody minds democracy comes to an end.

We bring the Grau administration to an end with one last caper and take account of its failures and successes.

The corruption and violence of the Grau regime takes a toll on the Autenticos, as their firebrand, Senator Eddy Chibas, causes a split in the party.

President Ramon Grau San Martin and his party, the Autenticos, come to power in 1944 and make a mess of things.

Batista inaugurated as President with great fanfare. We explore where this promising democratic experiment will lead and cover the second World War.

We explore the theory of historical materialism, and how Marxism survived the voyage across the Atlantic to adapts to Cuban conditions.

In this episode I take a break from Cuban history to explain Marxism as we get closer to the revolution. Indebted to Alex Callinicos's The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx for helping me summarize the theory.

Cuba enters the rough 1930s, a decade marred by violence, economic hardship, and military rule. It exits with a new, progressive constitution, and a Republic.

The One Hundred Days Government, in an uneasy alliance with Batista, battles its opposition and is swept away by counter-revolution.