Episodes

Saturday Feb 06, 2021
Saturday Feb 06, 2021
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.

Monday Feb 01, 2021
Monday Feb 01, 2021
President Ramon Grau San Martin and his party, the Autenticos, come to power in 1944 and make a mess of things.

Friday Jan 22, 2021
Friday Jan 22, 2021
Batista inaugurated as President with great fanfare. We explore where this promising democratic experiment will lead and cover the second World War.

Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
We explore the theory of historical materialism, and how Marxism survived the voyage across the Atlantic to adapts to Cuban conditions.

Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
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.

Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Cuba enters the rough 1930s, a decade marred by violence, economic contraction, and barracks rule. It exits with a new, progressive constitution, and a Republic.

Thursday May 21, 2020
Thursday May 21, 2020
The One Hundred Days Government, in an uneasy alliance with Batista, battles its opposition and is swept away by counter-revolution.

Wednesday May 20, 2020
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Batista's mutiny turns into a revolution as a pentarchy briefly forms, only to be swept away in 5 days by a reformist student staffed government.