Description: Ever since Fidel Castro assumed power in Cuba in 1959, Americans have been obsessed with the socialist nation ninety miles south of Florida, an obsession fueled in part by successive waves of Cuban immigration and Castro's fiery, larger-than-life persona. Cuban-Americans are today a majorethnic group in Florida, and the exile community is a powerful force in American politics. But what do Americans really know about Cuba? In What Everyone Needs to Know About Cuba, award-winning author Julia E. Sweig, one of America's leading experts on Cuba and Latin America, presents a concise, authoritative, and remarkably accessible portrait of the small island nation, using an innovative question-and-answer format to illuminateCuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years. Following a scene-setting introduction that describes the dynamics unleashed since summer 2006 when Fidel Castro transferred provisional power to his brother Raul, the book sets the stage with a concise overvie...

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