"Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life" ~ By Jon Lee Anderson

[Guerrilla Manila]

If you are truly interested in the life of the Guerrilla icon Che Guevara ... you can read the 800 + page ~


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P34GQ3EEL._PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_.jpg
Che Guevara: a Revolutionary Life
By Jon Lee Anderson




Grove Press, 1998, 814 pages

http://books.google.com/books?id=qfNY7fmDLykC&dq=che+guevara+a+rev olutionary+life&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 (http://books.google.com/books?id=qfNY7fmDLykC&dq=che+guevara+a+revolutionary+life&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0)



... It is an investment in time, but you won't regret one second of it.

Acclaimed around the world and a national best-seller, this is the definitive work on Che Guevara, the iconic rebel whose epic dream was to end poverty and injustice in Latin America and the developing world through armed revolution.

* This is the quintessential reference book on Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It is a first class biography by a world class journalist. Jon Lee Anderson's biography of Che Guevara is unparalleled in its scholarship and accessibility. Anderson uses his investigative skills as a journalist to uncover new information about the life and times of this loved and hated revolutionary. Anderson does so by living and traveling throughout Cuba and Latin America, as well as the former Soviet Union and the U.S., to interview key figures who knew Guevara first hand.

Throughout the biography, Anderson provides readers with detailed and documented access to key events (and books) that influenced Che's thinking and growth as a Marxist revolutionary. Moreover, the author does a good job of citing the original writings of Che and others near him. This makes readers (at least this one) almost feel as if they are firsthand witnesses to history.


....... Unlike many books on Che, Anderson's is thoroughly objective. The author paints a picture of Che that is both factual and well-rounded, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the man and his actions.




--- SOME REVIEWS ---




(Review)


"Combining contradictory sources and an immense amount of detail, Anderson projects a multifaceted view of Guevara as a person, seething with ambiguities and complexities. This is an achievement that makes Che Guevara essential for anyone seriously interested in Guevara or the Cuban revolution."


~ Jane Franklin, The Nation





(Review)


"Superb ... Mr. Anderson does a masterly job in evoking Che's complex character, in separating the man from the myth and in describing the critical role Che played in one of the darkest periods of the cold war".



~ The New York Times Book Review





(Review)


"Che's ideal, that curious mixture of resoluteness and recklessness...is brilliantly evoked in Jon Lee Anderson's massive biography which traces, with exacting precision, the avatars of Che's epic life....The portrait is now as complete as it will ever be."


~ The Times Literary Supplement (London)





(Review)


"An enduring achievement. Other biographies are in the works, but it is hard to imagine that any will match the volume and detail of the research here.... Guevara's victories andfailures, equally spectacular, are part of our common history.... Che lives, not only in this book but in the world".


~ The Boston Globe





(Review)


"Excellent....Admirably honest and staggeringly researched....It is unlikely that after Anderson's exhaustive contribution, much more will be learned about Guevara."


~ Los Angeles Times





(Review)


"The author's fondness for showering the reader with every detail he has uncovered makes this sprawling book sometimes tough slogging, but students of Che's life and deeds need look no farther than Anderson's volume."


~ Kirkus Reviews





(Review)


"The best treatment of its subject to date."


~ The Philadelphia Enquirer





(Review)


"It is Anderson's careful research that will define Guevara for the future".


~ The Denver Post





*** THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE READ IT ... FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ***

[EricTheRed]

I have bought this book a few weeks ago - I'll be treading with caution. The introduction made it out to be that the author was an admirer of Che or, at the very least, tried to present an objective picture. Though, the problem with objective writing is that it strives for 'fairness' and sometimes doesn't put the correct emphasis on circumstances surrounding any given event.

Here is a review of the book from a Marxist perspective;

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/Che_Guevara.htm

[BIG BROTHER]

I have read the book and is great. Is not biased at all and it presents Che in his real image which is one, of a true selfles hero.

[Comandante Guevara]

I also read the book an I must say that it changed my life...I grew up in a rightist family and just to mention his name (or anything red, leftist, communist, etc) was the biggest of all sins (still is...) and never bother to read about him...Well, now my views has changed completely and as you can see by my nickname, I have seen the light...:D. By the way, my brothers and sisters and many other members of my family dont talk to me anymore because of my new points of view.
Be advise that the book can also create this type of transformation to other people, so dont say I did not warned you....
Arthur

[bluerev002]

I read that book!! It was such a long time ago!! But I fully recommend it, it's been on this page a few times, I remember members saying that the author should've made it hardcover...cuz yeah...it's so huge it might break as mine eventually did years later. :crying:

[Xian]

very well researched and one of my favorite biographies, definitely will go down as a classic...

[JimmyJazz]

I liked it. I read it as a high school libertarian many years ago, so I should probably read it again. I did reread the chapter on Guevara in Guatemala recently, and I got a lot more out of it (given that this time I already knew something about the CIA's overthrow of Arbenz). It's pretty clear that the U.S. intervention in Guatemala played a big part in turning Guevara, a young man with Communist sympathies but still looking for a post as a doctor, into Che, the anti-imperialist crusader. So it is ironic in the extreme when good patriotic Americans (liberals included) look at him as "too violent" and similar hypocritical nonsense.

If you read it also check out his own writings (http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/works.htm). My single favorite thing by him, hands down, is "On Revolutionary Medicine", but also great are "Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution", "Message to the Tricontinental" and "Cuba: Exceptional Case or Vanguard?"

The titles aren't always consistent, but those are the titles on the marxists.org archive; if you want a print copy, the book Che Guevara Speaks includes all of those works even if they have different titles.

[Vendetta]

Good read, I'm actually working my way through it right now.

[Oneironaut]

I thought it was an amazing book. I have read it rigorously two times and has allowed me to see where Che may have had faults so that we may improve on his tactics!

[trivas7]

The book contains a lot of inaccuracies. There are much better books to read on Che.
What do you recommend? AFAIK, this is was a fair and complete portrait of the great man.

[Anarch_Mesa]

"Che Guevara a trend"
Should be the books title.

[CHE with an AK]

"Che Guevara a trend"
Should be the books title.

Che Guevara embodied the ideal of solidarity with oppressed people struggling to achieve their own emancipation worldwide. And he embodied this ideal not just via actions of political support staged from a distance but instead by personally participating in (what he saw as) the highest form of struggle the oppressed can wage, i.e. guerrilla resistance against the army of a colonial or neo-colonial state. It is for this overwhelming reason that Che continues to be cherished by today’s activists.

[Agnapostate]

The book is interesting, though the cover is amusing. Che Guevara was an Argentine of Spanish and Irish descent, so why is he made to look as a dark-skinned Indian, particularly when portions of the book focused on the advantage that his white skin gave him over Indians in certain countries in South America?

[Kenco Smooth]

Working through it right now and work is the right word. As compelling and insightful as it is you do sometimes wonder if we need the page long summary of everyone the man ever met. :p

[Atlee]

I have read the book and fully recommend it like so many here also do. It can be chased by Memoirs of a Revolutionist Peter Kropotkin by Nicolas Walter.

[Barry Lyndon]

I liked it. I read it as a high school libertarian many years ago, so I should probably read it again. I did reread the chapter on Guevara in Guatemala recently, and I got a lot more out of it (given that this time I already knew something about the CIA's overthrow of Arbenz). It's pretty clear that the U.S. intervention in Guatemala played a big part in turning Guevara, a young man with Communist sympathies but still looking for a post as a doctor, into Che, the anti-imperialist crusader. So it is ironic in the extreme when good patriotic Americans (liberals included) look at him as "too violent" and similar hypocritical nonsense.

I remember reading this idiotic article in The Guardian by liberal columnist Johann Hari, in which he smears Che Guevara as a 'violent totalitarian' and bemoans that he and the other revolutionaries did not try to make Latin American countries go down the path of 'mixed-economy democracy' like Sweden. He conveniently left out that Che Guevara witnessed first hand what happened to a country(Guatemala) that tried to take a peaceful reformist path- its government was promptly overthrown by the CIA and a brutal right-wing military junta put in its place.

[Kenco Smooth]

I remember reading this idiotic article in The Guardian by liberal columnist Johann Hari, in which he smears Che Guevara as a 'violent totalitarian' and bemoans that he and the other revolutionaries did not try to make Latin American countries go down the path of 'mixed-economy democracy' like Sweden. He conveniently left out that Che Guevara witnessed first hand what happened to a country(Guatemala) that tried to take a peaceful reformist path- its government was promptly overthrown by the CIA and a brutal right-wing military junta put in its place.

To be fair there are many far-left equivalents of Hari. Who will blindly ignore any slight criticism of Che and maintain that he was an absolute paradigm of human behaviour. But that still doesn't defend the extremely one sided take Hari took on the man.

[RedSonRising]

The book is one of my favorites, it is mind-bogglingly thorough in its research and meticulously constructed to create the most complete picture of the man throughout the phases of his life. I love this book.

[Magón]

I read this book I think a year after it came out, maybe later? Really enjoyed it. I never read it fully through the first time. I just read the parts that most interested me at the time while reading about him. But the second time I read it from cover to cover and really enjoyed it. I think I would have supported and happily fought beside Che in his days.

[CHE with an AK]

Recent interview with Jon Lee Anderson on Che and the global rebellions ...

SMCLCa7Pvbs

[CHE with an AK]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/images/forum/july-dec97/che0.gif
THE LEGACY OF CHE GUEVARA
by Jon Lee Anderson
November 20, 1997


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/november97/che1.html