An intimate, revisionist portrait of the early years of Fidel Castro, showing how an unlikely young Cuban led his country in revolution and transfixed the world.

This book will change how you think about Fidel Castro. Until now, biographers have treated Castro's life like prosecutors, scouring his past for evidence to convict a person they don't like or don't understand. This can make for bad history and unsatisfying biography. Young Castro challenges listeners to put aside the caricature of a bearded, cigar-munching, anti-American hot head to discover how Castro became the dictator who acted as a thorn in the side of U.S. presidents for nearly half a century.

The first American historian in a generation to gain access to the Castro archives in Havana, Jonathan Hansen was able to secure cooperation from Castro's family and closest confidants, gaining access to hundreds of never-before-seen letters and interviews. The result is a nuanced and penetrating portrait of a figure who was determined to be a leader-a man at once brilliant, arrogant, bold, vulnerable, and all too human. A man who, having grown up on an island that felt like a colonial cage, was compelled to lead his country to independence.