leadership surveys, taken between 2 thowrkz and 2017 drops from 24rd playing and going from the 33rd to the 22nd spot. where does your favorite president rank? learn that and more about the live and leadership skills of 44 chief executives in c-span's the presidents. it is great vacation reading. available wherever books are sold or at c-span.org/the president. >> thank you. >> hi everybody. thanks for joining us this evening my name is is hillary carr on what have of hazard bookstore i'm pleased to introduce tonight request jonathon m. hanson for presenting new book the making of a revolutionary in conversation with ambassador

jeffrey. before i get started i want to encourage everyone to check out upcoming book schedule on harvard.com/events. for example, on june 25th ash carter will discuss his new book inside the five sided box lessons from a lifetime on pentagon on july 8th charles will present one giant leap a mission that flew us to the moon. after tonight talk we'll have questions from the audience. but pleased to have booktv c-span knowing you'll be recorded and please wait a moment for the microphone to come over to you before asking your question. after the q and a we'll have a signing here at this table we have copies of the young castor available for purchase in next room. we're grateful to you for buying books here at harvard bookstore and your choice supports author series and independent book stores so rewith thank you for that and we thank you for silencing your cell phones for the remainder of the evening so now i'm very pleased to introduce tonight speaker

presenting acclaimed new book young castro jonathon is senior lecturer on social studies at the latin america studies at harvard in "new york times" huffington post, guard general and among others. and he's author of the lost promise of patriotism debating american identity, and guantanamo ton know and american history. said latest book is engaging a huge character study and welcome edition to literature of castro in cuba. publishers weekly call it a skillful volume which is sure to become starngd on castro early life. tonight mr. hanson joined by jeffrey who served as first charge affair at the u.s. embassy in havana following reestablishment of diplomatic relations between u.s. and cuba please join me in welcoming hanson and jeffrey. >> [applause] thank you everybody for coming i want to give a thanks to harvard bookstore and to harvard

bookstore particularly for being a fantastic independent bookstore for so many years if really an anchor in harvard square as, you know, which is why we're all here. i would also like to thank all of you for coming especially in weather like this right, the weather often kills turnout for book readings. but i really appreciate you coming. don't take it for granted and i hope to make it worthwhile for you. finally i want to thank my friend ambassador jeffrey for agreeing to come here tonight to moderate and ask questions jeffrey and i did it a couple of nights ago in a monsoon in new york city so we should have ironed out the wrinkles by this time. so we're going to turn it over quickly to jeff questions to me but before we with do that i thought i would give you in a nutshell sort of the argument of the book. in order to do that, i want to ask the same favor of you all that i ask of readers of the book, which is to suspend for a molt the image you have of a

ranting raving fidel castro clouding green fatigue foaming at the mouth index finger, violently puncturing the air. and instead to story that begins in northwest spain in the province at the ends of the 19th century. the reward for doing so will not be a more likable castro exactly. but one who is aspirations accomplishment and failure make had sense in light of the political and economic conditions that inspired and constrained him. those of you willing to take that leap will learn a few things that may surprise you . signal among them is a castro was not originally the communist that we think we know. the fact he was had inspired by a pretty ordinary idea of the cuba free and independent of foreign rule, and dedicated to the well being of all of its people, castro liberal nationalism as i've cotom refer

to it -- was sigh immediate by a combination of historical factors include history of u.s. cuban relations going back centuries, the opposition of entrench political elite in cuba, and the logic of the cold war. other historical developments converted at a fairly ordinary idealistic reformer toen surprising revolutionary and, of course, castro personality played a role here he was only one calling for a free and independent cuba at midindustry but he meant it when he said it making not only radical but dangerous to entrench politicians less right and center, and to outside forces political, economic, that hold the strings. call it obsession you can call it fixation call it what you will. castro experienced cuba to the

united states like scarlet s tattooed on his chest resolving in a remarkably young age to once and for all win cuba's liberty even at the cost of liberty itself. okay, so what is at stake here why does this history matter? it matters i would say for a lot of reasons. and i'll give you a couple of them before we turn it over to jeff. first as a historian i'm committed to the notion that we can get this history right and that it is valuable to do so in and of itself ireive of its utility i see this book as a -- vindication of historical truth and the possibility potential of the historical archive to redeem us from the bullying and name calling that passes for public debate today. this book is my personal appeal to a fact based world in which original sources provided

foundation for public discourse and even judgment. secondly more concretely ting this history helps with explain not only how castro came to be the communist strong man that he became. but also why u.s. cuban relations remain so stubbornly intractable it is known in broad strokes in latin america, it greets u.s. official who is show up up in the region lecturing about legacies and rule of law and constrain trump administration choices in its dealings with venezuela and trump claim that all options are on the table in the standoff with nicholas maduro. third, evidence of castro early liberal nationalism could be i think for cuban advocates for civil right and transparency, and private sector expansion in cuba today. i just returned from a short trip to the island where cubans

continue to revisit the revolution and reimagine what it might still become. i can't think of a stronger advocate for civil and political liberties for certain kiengdz of private sector activity and for political transparency than the young fidel castro as he took on the dictator as a young man. so with that in mind pill open this up to jeff. >> jonathon thank you very much. it is great to be here. this is a very meticulously research book about a very controversial figure. i think and correct me if i'm wrong we can say that -- you attempted to write it almost from his perspective as he went to long to recreate life as he actually lifted without the benefit of hindsight now you asked us to suspend for a minute

the view we might already have and i have to tell you it is actually very hard to do. but it is worth reading the book to test yourself, and see if you can actually do it. so to set the stage , i think it is important to remind pus that when fidel castro died on november 25th, 2016, then president obama released a statement i'm going to read excerpt of it buzz i think it beframe this is discussion. he said, quote, we know that this moment filling kuhns cuba and cubans recalling in ways that fidel castro altered course of individual live, families and of the cuban nation. history will record and judge the e enormous impact of this singular figure on the people in world around him. close quotes.

so perhaps young castro is first serious contribution to recording that history. so i have a number of question i'm sure the audience does as well. let me start with a pretty basic one had is -- why did the cuban authorities and the castro family grant you access to archives and to them? why now or when you started this? were they looking to create a certain legacy or build a narrative? how did it work exactly? >> okay. thanks, i have two answers to this and second answer comes from evolveing conversation with jeff over last couple of days. the one i would have -- given you before we started to discuss this is that i think this -- castro life comes at a good time for them buzz as i said about you just short remarks in the introduction, the cubans right

now are revisiting revolution themselves and reimagining what it might become. one of the sadnesses about the trump administration pulled back on the obama mall is that it is the depriving cuban of opportunity to make some of their own money and do it in their own way. and castro himself as i suggested as a young man might have supported that kind of those kind of initiative. the other thing was there's a lot of convince of the cuban and places that i wasn't here to judge or treat his wife as a prosecutor scouring life to find evidence to convict the guy we don't like. but i really literally wanted to do it -- going recreate his life going forward with an open mind not knowing exactly what i could find. so i think those several reasons -- that they were sympathetic to the project. now quickly to your -- to first other half of that.

suggested that, you know, make perhaps for the reason that i was describing that, in fact, the cubans are kind of revisiting the revolution themselves they might have liked the idea of having an author a like me with a sympathetic mind. [laughter] fake on this life, and write a sympathetic history that is it might be good for castro legacy to have a book written about him like this. now i'm not so sure about that actually because i think a liberal nationalist castro that i'm describing these pages is certainly to guy castro said he was for the rest of his life after revolution that the story he told all of these -- all of his interviewers with that i was communist conception. so -- so you know that's kind of interesting and complicated but i think so -- there could be several reasons why they were open to it. >> is there anything in the book that the cuban authorities object to? >> well there's -- besides that the fact that i'm

recreating essentially a liberal nationalist they're anecdotes. there's a story from castro university life that just post university life where he was involved in some gang warfare at the university, and to be -- active in cuban politics at time and to participate in much of the gang warfare as even some of his critics acknowledge and castro was involved in an incident in which somebody was shot in the back. and that there's some evidence that castro was person who did the shooting. and i said, i say in pages that we may never know for sure what happened it in this incident. but that there are believable sources and suggest might have been the shooter. and cuban authorities didn't like that and they said to me that no cuban ever across the entire island would read a book in which castro is accused of shooting somebody in the back. now that's not exactly how i wrote it but that's how they read it and that's a example of -- of them not liking what i'm part

of what i'm up to. >> so let me continue with that. because i think we're talking about the same, same part of the book but maybe related. there's a discussion of his involvement in the violence that was part of part of cuban politics in late 1940s. and you mentioned specifically that the cuban historians gloss over it, and castro's enemy exaggerated while ignoring the context. but you also go on to say that many other sources not about this but about other things that change what their stories through the years. that change their accounts might admit they were exaggerating or they have other reasons for doing so. so how do you check all of this? how do you make sure that you get it right? >> uh-huh. that's a fair question. so you know like every good

journalist and historian would confirm the counts that we draw in with other accounts. and so i use books of his critics. and sources that are critical of him and i use book and sources that are in favor of him and i use bock and sources that are neutral toward him what i'm interviewing people in cuba i've interviewed many, many different sources who knew castro i try to avoid simple questions that could be answered yes or no. like is castro a nice person a good person, yes or no because i think those are all essentially compromised. but i tried to do is recreate his life through stories about the things that he did what he was like. what interested him. what interested him. what books he read. so that the answers i got were not sort of wrote answers but they were descriptive answers that reveal something more than that he was a good or bad guy. but if the sources were explosive or particularly contentious i did as you would do. i either said that we may never

know the truth about this. that this was what some persons and other people say this. he said with, she said. and let you decide from the preponderance of evidence. or i -- i, you know, say with a reasonable, reasonable certainty this is how the events looked from my perspective. >> just one more question on process. did you receive everything you requested or did -- do you feel that you received what you needed to receive to do the book? >> so if i feel like i received more than i requested but i don't doubt that i didn't receive all there is. the bulk of the evidence of this book comes from two or three sources. that third source would be many, many different interviews the second collection would be sources that the castro archive in place called -- office of history call archive

and the first source would be his relationship with one who was -- with whom he had a love affair while in jail after a quick attack on a joust to repeat they are remarkable and better access than any american in a case and some ever i was permitted to photograph the archive no one ever had that right before. i have every single page that is available in the volumes there on my computer. but i don't know that every single piece eve evidence is in those volumes. and then, in fact, there's some that i'm in contact with who have asked me did you see this specific letter from x and y and i had to say no. so i know for a second assume i've had all a of the evidence but i -- i know for a fact that i have a lot of evidence. and then it is not in any way

stretch or form -- inherently positive for castro. >> so i think next logical question e then is what surprised you the most in your wrernlg? >> several things surprise me about castro but first intrad as a historian which was astounding intellect and the deputy and those include philosophy andly theture, and history but also science and how things are made. friends, young friends of castro who were on record years later describe taking him home to their house. and he noticing how a father who was a wood worker made certain aspects of the castro kitchen or of the family's kitchen or this or that. so he had a deeply abroad mind but also a deeply curious mind. i have a -- excerpt can i read you? i'll give yo a sense of this. this is from a passage that i

promised my wife i would never read in public anyone never buy the book so i won't read that the section i can't. but i will read section that proceeds it that give you a hingt of his mind one second while i dig it out. i thought i -- i thought i made a mark here. by the way you know there are lots of folks that would disagree request the statement you just made about his profound intellect. again a very controversial figure and there are lots of folks that have lots of different views. >> sure. i would say that -- i'm not sure those people know the depth of his intellect and stubborn and argumentative but that's not what i meant. okay so here we go . so this is in his -- exchange in his letters with

natty again in prison and he's writing to this lady with whom he talks a lot if love. but also a lot if books astounding breath of the book. and this is just a short passage again, just about his love for books. ... proved immediately to prepare. along:by the nicaraguan writer

on the value of the book. as far as castro new, he captured the very mission of all folks, sweden sometimes to forgetting the bitter and somber hours of prison. victor hugo's biography of shakespeare where he compares christ as multiplication of lows of bread to gutenberg's multiplication of relays. gutenberg knew the man was a reader with insatiable appetite for knowledge and desire for knowledge, the ultimate human concern. it describes priests and intellectuals and had become obligatory allowing the immense human bible composed of all the prophets, poets and philosophers to shine resplendent in the world's schools. >> you trace quite thoroughly

his political evolution that only social revolution would bring about the necessary changes, and other interesting theory in the book that turned to communism definitively came after the success of -- there is a contradiction because his family was a capitalist success story and capitalism gave him the education and the opportunities never mind the financial resources to pursue his vision. and an entertaining, everybody regarded the marriage, first marriage to hezbollah as a way to save me, to tranquilize me

with bourgeois concepts. what do you make of that, we have an affect the product of hard-working and successful father and mother who gave everything to their children. he completely turned his back on him. >> try to make this brief and ask for a follow-up. on a plantation that was 42 miles mi. . and just extremely vast. and castro children when he was married to this guy, he was closer in age to children than to castro's father.

it is full of paradoxes. people on the farm who were castro's friends with whom he grew up with peasants, children -- entertainment workers and miserable life that at best gave employment for 3 months a year. he knew all along it was very nice to have what he had at the same time he was aware many other people didn't and there were fundamental inequalities. what does it mean to be a liberal nationalist. we cling to some kind of commitment to private enterprise, maybe social democrats. there is some form of commitment to civil liberties, civil and political liberties and also cling to some sort of

commitment to social liberty, the right to education and democracy and other things and we might also cling to the right to sovereignty, a nation independent of other nations. there are a lot of things going on here. we could believe in all of them while fundamentally putting a few aside while you pursue one or the other. in the name of sovereignty, he kind of lost his mind, put them aside for the time being not knowing this revolution would last because which revolutions in latin america last, not only crushed by the united states but guatemala for example. >> that was a long time ago. it was 5 years -- >> let me follow up on civil and political liberties.

a particularly illuminating part of the book for me was you cite several passages talking about his commitment to civil and political liberties, freedom of expression, habeas corpus, right to vote, the 1940 constitution as the framework for the future and in his trials and tribulation he took full advantage of all of that in his trial following the assault on the barracks, in press conferences, he was able to have and he was able to use these rights. he moved toward more economic and social rights and those became more important.

what do you make of that evolution? is it authentic? is it expedient? we are not supposed to look beyond 1959 so maybe it is an unfair question. it is an obvious one. it was news to me that there was so much of that and so much -- in his own younger professional -- >> to be short, the book tells a story of somebody relying on these rights as a student, as a young politician against the dictatorship and other governments that corrupt in whatever ways. in his interest and evidence, with an interest in social liberties.

and pre-triumph of the revolution 31959. with more education for everybody. and between the cities, they are doing quite well. and he so well grew up in the east. and going together after the new deal, not sure all-americans agree with it. so did he, his emphasis changed but there is this third thing he cared deeply about and incurably deeply about and that is the sovereign independent cuba, right to detect our own country, in charge of its own

affairs ever. after the spanish-american war the united states dominated cuba's politics and economy until the triumph of the revolution. that is by and large right. he chose here to focus on this one thing at the expense of everything else. and all dissidents is treason. this became castro. a great quote, can i read this? this is josé on liberty island, dedication of the statue of liberty on october 28, 1886, french

for him who enjoys the not liberty, in a wild beast before his tamer. and looking up at the man looking arrogantly at the sun. has a hyena bites the bars of his cage, spirit rides within him as if it were poison. as if he were poison. i don't apologize for them. i am just describing, freedom and independence. he said these other things aside for the time being. he says once we have these other things you can have your

civil liberty. >> in liberal nationalism, you posit the original platform was nationalism and this was stymied by a combination of historical factors. and cuban elite as you describe it and essentially the confines of the cold war. as i read that my immediate reaction was where is his responsibility in all that? you address that further on in the book. that was a reaction i initially had. is everything the result of the united states or something

else? as an american diplomat posted in cuba i heard that a lot. that was my reaction. how do you unpack that? i only have one more question. >> really quick excerpt. i'm not exonerating castro at this. he was not the only one calling for this. he is many things at once. he is intractable, bossy, despite growing up income for the mid-many people described his youth as lonely, alone with everything, he had all these quotes.

a short excerpt to allay the fears of the rest of you. certainly not all laying that. this is how the preface ends. so many historical figures, castro's strengths were the source of his greatest weaknesses. at once brilliant and arrogant, charismatic and overbearing, courageous and reckless, pragmatic and quixotic. he had a killer instinct and those in his line of work always do. they possessed a cold is at the nether reaches of the kelvin scale. and not his son who recently committed suicide, not even him self. and to tolerate one person on a day-to-day basis, celia

sanchez. waging and defending the revolution he could be simultaneously stoical and self pitying, and vengeful. it is not easy to explain, many are hard to defend, it accounts for as many of them as possible. in this presentation i tried to -- what they call caricatures of him, stereotypes of him. there is plenty of information for those depictions. castro's streak, whose friends refer to him sometimes, forgive me if i gave you a false

impression and introducing it. >> my last question deals with us diplomacy. and and what struck me, and in the early 50s. dissidents, all sorts of parties, a lot of machinations and i wondered as a former diplomat how was the embassy tracking all this. they understand that follow what was going on. there was quite a bit about

some us decisions much later in the decade in 58 and so forth. any comments on the actions of us diplomats and diplomacy? >> to appreciate someone running on embassy, a man named earl smith, in havana, close to batista and a diplomat trying to keep the lid on cuba at a time of upheaval with increasing violence across the island perpetrated not just by castro but many people who became alienated from batista. in the consulate in santiago close to where castro was waging a political war, there was a portfolio with different -- trying to keep a bead on what was going on among various

groups opposing batista at the time. what you know about the histories of revolution, they happen when they topple another army. they take development among the people, all the people, not just workers or middle-class people and some of them realize castro was moderate among the people, use terrorist tactics, groups that want to burn the island down, then you haven't solved the problem. some of the consulate were picking up on this.

interested in what he was accomplishing in the mountains, doing their jobs. >> let's open it up. any questions? >> questions about castro's economics. i was beating about -- what was said about batista was based on relationships with the united states, intricately involved in running the product of cuba.

castro, has a communist perspective in terms of economic control. what has been a long-term impact up until today, castro's economic policies. >> you are at the edge by asking what happens after the revolution but something about shake of our -- early on long before castro did that. the rebels that were fighting batista were a hodgepodge of ideologies. simply struggling to stay alive in the mountains.

he landed with an expedition that induced 14. he would do anything to stay alive, didn't matter what ideology it was. certainly exploited liberalism to on ideological warfare in the government so that is just to say there were groups of people in his leadership that believed different things, a complete mess, i'm not here to defend communism. this part of cuba he governs during the guerrilla warfare, there were functioning hospitals. some of the journalists who spent two years with him there was no evidence of communist

ideology and thought planting among the rebels so until the revolution there were communists, with the revolution, this wasn't about communism. >> i don't mean to take up a lot of people's time but i did wonder about the specifics, if there was a period in his fight against batista where he was trying to find his way. >> i will repeat the premise of the book, he was not a communist after the triumph of the revolution though there were communists among them. they had conversations about communism, capitalism, fairness, notes on capital, criticism, john stuart -- looking around for people.

he asks a friend of his, and i know i should stop. and was a marvelous successful through the east coast, he came to philadelphia and new york. coming to boston, heading for toronto and canada when his brother raul called, and the

economy is in dire straits, and the economic ministers of the organization of american states in early may and cast through through the economic -- the united states delegation asked for marshall plan of $30 billion, to create internal markets and developing industries we never had because we were treated like a banana republic and capitalism itself wouldn't be the end, the end would be democracy and the betterment of all these people. you could argue, either holy instrument were partly instrumental, it was consistent with a story of advertising -- agitating so much liberal

nationalism and this idea that a fair economy in cuba, not necessarily a communist economy. >> a couple years in argentina, the alliance for progress. which excluded cuba. hell else have a question? >> did you notice in your research anything that changed through the prison experience specifically. did it change anything about it? >> great question. as a father i referred to this as a time out. one we sorely need. don't know if you heard his speeches, it is deep and broad. we debate this manic. in the lead up to this attack,

march 2, 1952. when batista came together, was running from batista's belief, he was agitating silence, to ferment a revolution. he had no political platform, nothing organized, no sense of what to do, no real idea of anything. and began to read carefully not only literature but also history, the history of war tactics and things like this. he became very educated. at one point was thrown into solitary compartment -- confinement for organizing -- batista toward the fifth and wasn't very flattering. he just read and read and read, a shift from great works of

literature and astounding collection of literature in all languages. i presume he read them in spanish. cuba and politics to economics, history to figure out how these guys did what they did. and immensely disciplining time. he re-created a speech, history will dissolve where he laid out revolutionary platforms. he was originally sentenced for 26 years and served 20 months. just in time to get his act together. >> in cuba, instead of revolution, i was thinking it might have been better off today. >> the question is had there not been an embargo might there have been a revolution?

is in question. the premise of the embargo, to make them ferment a revolution just as we are trying to do now. counterfactuals, i don't trade in, but i am sure just can answer this. >> this is your book launch. people have debated this for decades but we came to the conclusion in the last administration the embargo had outlived its usefulness, was a relic of the cold war, and really needed to go. in part to unleash the creativity of the cuban people and to bolster the commercial and private sector activity and other things that were underway. many people much smarter than i

am continue to debate that until the end of history. >> some of the earliest support for castro came from various unions and many union leaders are committed communists, many of whom, some of whom had even fought in the spanish civil war. does castro have any contact with them as young castro, they were lying low and this was our guy. >> great question. there are ties between batista, and to legitimize this it two

times and rely on governmental labor unions to legitimize them. castro turned for instrumental reasons as you are suggesting. one of the failures of castro's revolution in his revolutionary war was failure to develop a strong political party capable of sustaining a victorious guerrilla army. the revolution of 1933, castro knew it in the absence of defending the revolution, lack of political party, in this case he was the army so he had

that and joined with the cuban army and made these militias very quickly but he needed political support and he saw there were these people who needed -- this was a marriage of convenience and he put his lot in with the communists. >> unanimous support from the unions at the beginning. they all supported him unconditionally. my feeling is it had to do with the fact that they view him as somebody they could control and infiltrate communist philosophy. >> there is a lot going on there. castro waged this war in parallel with what went on in the planes, the cities.

he was in the mountains fighting batista. others were waging a political war trying to build political support for the revolution. there is a fellow who died in mid summer of 1957 who is working very closely with those unions who had nothing to do with the communists and trying to build support not only in the unions but in management and among the professions and he had the credibility and connections and astounding ability to make this happen. it is a fact they hated castro and thought of him that way forever. they thought these attacks were simply ridiculous and selfish and narcissistic and they wanted nothing to do with him. in exile in mexico in 1955-56 he was visited at one point by

a couple communists and so they kept their hands off until after the revolution. it was a marriage of convenience. >> i remembered an anecdote, forgot the name of the person living in mexico, a veteran of the spanish civil war and a small furniture factory and castro basically solved the factory and joined castro. he was one of the earliest military advisers in the hills. >> thank you, you said to put my biases aside. i like the guy. brilliance and allies seem to see simple things like the capital of havana, they knew

how to have a party. could he bring that over here? the mafia would have helped him. number 2, every time i see a documentary, you see beautiful american cars refurbished, we could send them plenty to redo, create employment, one of the foreigners, they were sending doctors to venezuela etc.. we could have used them here. all the brilliance, there is something here that i can do to stand firm on communist ideology. it doesn't help to piss off the us. >> i am not sure i understand the thrust of the question. couldn't this all have just worked out? you have a particular take on what working out would have meant but given the history and castro's knowledge of the history of us cuban relations and the way us politics played out at this moment in the cold

war, i don't really blame the government. it was a bipolar world, they were obsessed with communism and they were impressed with communism. i don't think there was a single way, any way castro, he believed in the ideals he was espousing, he really did believe in economic fairness, he did believe in sovereignty and independence and the united states was not willing to grant that. within his progressive program. you combine those things in there is not a way in which he would have happily made a new alliance with the united states. there seems to be an insinuation that he was in it for the money. i argue in the book by the time

he was 25 or so graduating from law school, they granted him the keys to the kingdom. they wanted him to run the business. he could've run the business. there may have been no cuban revolution but it wasn't about to do it because he believed the same thing he was espousing, good education for all, fundamental justice, good jobs, not just the jobs that employ people 3 months a year and dominated by outside influence. i don't think -- i don't know the trumps of that era could march down and hold hands with castro and live happily ever after, don't think that was in the cards. >> another one of the issues to be debated for many years to come. anyone else? >> either one of you might take this on. the cuban character, how much does it have to do with the

fact that the revolution is still on? i understand they are by nature noncompetitive and adaptable, everybody talks about what they are managing to accomplish despite the fact there's almost no economy and all that, do you have a take on that. >> the cuban people are essentially docile. >> i don't know if i would say docile. they don't particularly like a fight. >> they have had some spectacular fights, the spaniards in 1968, the spaniards in the or

independence, we think of that as the battle, in april 1995, 1898. >> does anything about their character explain where things are today? >> i would say it is a difficult question to answer and hard to generalize the national character because you risk diverging yourself into stereotypes and other sorts of things. 's eaches i made about my experience on the island i talked about the similarities between americans and cubans and one of those similarities was a very strong national pride and sometimes that call lives. that's the way i frame it.

it is hard to say. they were the last spanish colony. that might have had an impact. they had an extremely dominant role. there are many factors in these things. it is hard to give a definitive answer. we should ask any cubans who are here what they think. anyway, one more. >> just for the heck of it. >> castro have any opinions on race or white supremacy especially talking about the 40s and 50s, any insight on

that? >> cuba was a post-slavery society like our own and there are racial problems and tensions abound and for some reason blame those tensions on castro and say what kind of revolution would allow these deep rooted structural engines to exist if we solved them ourselves. personally, what do i know about his sense of race relations? different people of all kinds working there, most of them very poor and some of his best friends were the children of haitian and cuban workers. he was himself very comfortable amid this. you may know right now race

relations in cuba are a fraud and that has to do with many different things. if you think for example of the remittance, going back historically. a lot of them originated cubans who left after the revolution and they were either sympathetic to batista or against the revolution and they succeeded in developing businesses and other things, who can blame them? the money that returned to them would return from them and they tended to be very educated historically and that continues. the concept of the bed and breakfast in cuba, the restaurants and other things, a lot of those and many professions in the university

are dominated by people who look like you and me and that remains a problem. they began as interpreters, we go into the entrance of the saratoga hotel and some post signs saying they can't go in. castro as a person was aware of this and was against it and there are episodes in schools, aside from that structurally, race relations remain fraught. what would you say about that? >> there is race relations in every country. i will note in government ministries i visited on a

regular basis, cubans of all colors and all shapes and sizes this notion of everyone being caucasian was wrong. 30 years ago, the inner circle of high government officials in cuba with one or 2 exceptions was caucasian but that has been evolving. there was a lot of forced integration at the beginning of the revolution and a variety of other initiatives to address this issue but like in every other country they were not 100% and that is the way i would look at it. >> a lot of words there.

based on the questions someone needs to write a book starting in 1959 and going forward so thank you all very much for coming and -- [applause] >> thank you for coming out tonight, if you're interested in getting your book signed please sign up on this file to my left. thank you. >> this weekend on booktv, tonight at 8:15 eastern, what do we need men for? e.g. carol talk about experiences of sexual assault

throughout her life, alleged assault by donald trump in the 1990s. >> they take what they want and you have a choice of women. that is how this is reading, all these women, the more women that come forward he is more like genghis khan, alexander the great, jefferson, the mark of a leader in many people's eyes, to a man taking what he wants. >> at 9:00 from freedom fest the annual libertarian conference in las vegas, featuring author john locke with his book the war on guns. >> 45% of the countries of the world don't report firearm homicide data. the countries that don't report firearm homicide data are the countries that have the highest homicide rates. >> coverage from freedom fest continues at 8:00 with former

georgia congressman bob barr talking about his book the meaning of his. >> we allowed public discourse and political activity to sink to the level we don't demand a requisite amount of understanding, education, civility and professionalism and what we do with and demand of our elected officials. what happens then is those important mechanisms such as impeachment are devalued. >> at 9:00 eastern on "after words" in his new book the fifth domain former george w. bush administration special advisor for cyber security richard clark talks about how to make cyberspace less dangerous. >> there are corporations in america that are pretty secure. are they invulnerable to attack?

now but they are resilient. can someone penetrate their network? not sure because there is no perimeter anymore but can they do damage to those companies and the answer is no. >> watch booktv every weekend on c-span2. >> one of the things we like to do at booktv is preview the books, we want to introduce you to james poniewozik, the author of this book, "audience of 1: donald trump, television, and the politics of illusion". tell us about your day job. >> i'm the chief television critic for the new york times.