Americas : Havana Nocturne How the Mob Owned Cubaand Then Lost It to the Revolution
Havana Then and Now (Then & Now) | 
 | 80% Recommended by our customers.
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Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: 2009-06-09
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List Price: $15.99
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- ISBN13: 9780061712746
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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 Great book that reads like a novel
I am fascinated by Cuba and the Mafia's influence in Cuba before the revolution so I think I'm in the target audience for this book. Even so, I still loved this book. I read a lot and have read a lot about Cuba but T.J. English wrote this book that reads like a crime novel. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it!
Wonderful, exciting, informative
A wonderful and well-written book. Insight into how and why THE MOB enjoyed such a good relationship with the island of Cuba and her
politicians. Only 90 miles from our shores, yet much was going on ~ all taking place prior to Castro. This is a MUST read for anyone
interested in history, or Cuban history in particular. Does not read like a dull history book...Highly recommend.
A balanced and engaging read
This is an informative and enjoyable book. I believe the author has it about right in his portrayals of Batista, the mobsters, and Fidel. He is not strident, but his disapproval of the course that Fidel's revolution took is clear. (That, however, is not what the book is about, though I felt it needed to be mentioned because for so many the be-all, end-all regarding Cuba is where one stands on Castro.) English is writing about the period before Castro became dictator although this necessarily runs into the early years of the revolution as some of the mobsters tried to make a go of it with the new regime.
One overriding concern I had throughout the book: what of the Roman Catholic Church? Certainly the church was an integral part of Cuban life and I cannot believe it did not play an important role in developments. Of course, I don't expect the church to have been involved in the casinos and the nightlife, but something's amiss here: the church is seemingly nonexistent. (It is mentioned once as offering to help broker a deal in which Batista would go into exile quietly, leaving a coalition government behind, a deal he rejects.)
Things went wrong with Cuba. How? English lets us see much, but because the institution that provided the moral foundation for the nation is unexamined, there's much more to learn. Still, a fine book.
Good interesting reading about the Mob's rule in Harvana.
I have to agree with one of the previous reviewers and say that English took some of propaganda of the Castro regime and painted the Batista regime very poorly. Batista was a dictator who fleeced Cuba, and favored the Mob. I am not sure Fidel is any better, because sex tourism has returned to the islands during Cuba's economic difficulties. Batista had elections, although I have not heard any lately in socialist Cuba.
This book shows how Meyer, Lucky, and other Mob figures played a dominant role in the history of post WWII Cuba. It shows how much of the island was for sale and the exploititive nature on the Yankees during this time. Tourism, razzle-dazzle, gambling, and other things clearly made Cuba feel like a colony of the northern neighbor.
Although over 300 pages, this is a great book about the Cuba of Batista's time. I read it one day, and understood the pecking order of the Mob. Mobsters, communist guerrillas, and pretty show girls keep this book alive.
Blindly Wild
A lesson in history..how the mob took Havana, but were under estimated the undercurrents of political unrest which brought down the whole country..
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