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Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s

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New York City, September 1960. Fidel Castro has just arrived for the opening of the UN General Assembly.

Wild rumours are circulating that the Cubans 'killed, plucked, and cooked chickens in their rooms . extinguishing cigars on expensive carpets'; Castro - in his trademark olive fatigues - receives a rapturous reception from the local African American community, and holds court with political and cultural luminaries including Malcolm X, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Nikita Khrushchev ('about as welcome to the US as the Black Plague' - Time), Amiri Baraka, and Allen Ginsberg. His fervour in promising the politics of anti-imperialism, racial equality, and leftist revolution makes him an icon of the 1960s.

In this brilliant slice of modern history, Simon Hall reveals how these ten days were a crucial hinge point in the trajectory of the Cold War. Encompassing international geopolitics, decolonisation, the nascent Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and radical student counterculture, Ten Days in Harlem revolutionises our understanding of the unique melting pot that was the Sixties - and beyond.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2020

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About the author

Simon Hall

72 books43 followers
Simon Hall, is best known as the BBC’s Crime Correspondent and the author of The TV Detective novels. He describes some of the remarkable events he has witnessed in his time as a television reporter.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for Roman Clodia.
2,915 reviews4,690 followers
August 3, 2020
Compelling, unpredictable, at times scarcely believable, and riotously entertaining, the week and a half that Fidel spent in New York constituted a story that, the New Yorker declared, 'no sensible playwright would dare to compose'

An excellent example of how microhistory can hone in on a small topic, unpack all its details, and also ripple out to touch on surrounding issues of context and contiguity. Simon Hall is confused by GoodReads with another writer of the same name and is amusingly and incorrectly identified as the author of the TV Detective books - um, no, he's actually a Professor of Modern History at Leeds and so this is a book which is executed with academic rigour (endnotes after each chapter, a full primary and secondary bibliography at the end, an impressively granular index) as well as being an admirably readable crossover text - the writing is engaging, the huge amount of research is digested and presented with a light hand, and there's a frequently humorous edge to the telling which doesn't undermine the serious nature of the politics. Kudos, too, to Faber & Faber for producing a book that appeals to a general readership but which maintains all the scholarly apparatus necessary for an academic readership.

Focusing on Fidel Castro's visit to New York in 1960 to make an address at the United Nations, this traces how, spurned by the US Government and the upmarket hotels where diplomats and delegates usually stayed, Castro and his entourage decamped to an unknown hotel in Harlem where they were greeted rapturously by the local African American population. Castro was visited there by everyone from Malcolm X, Nehru, Nasser and Khruschev, and when he was deliberately snubbed by Eisenhower by being excluded from a Presidential luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria to which other Latin American heads of delegation had been invited, Castro instead had lunch with the employees of his hotel, treating them to steaks and beer and declaring he was 'honoured to lunch with the poor and humble people of Harlem'. It was a spectacular own-goal by Eisenhower's administration and certainly not the only one recounted in this book.

Spanning the freighted politics of the era from pre-Civil Rights segregation and a global uprising against colonialism to the Cold War (the Bay of Pigs fiasco and Cuban Missile Crisis happened just a year later) and tightening Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, this also gives us the glorious light moments when Khrushchev delightedly plays the maracas Castro has just given him, and when Castro himself is disappointed that Nasser doesn't bring him a crocodile from Egypt!

Huge thanks to Faber & Faber for an ARC via NetGalley.
Profile Image for Kammy.
159 reviews8 followers
September 8, 2020
Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this book via netgalley!


This book was a Pleasant surprise! it is so brightly detailed that you feel like you are right in the middle of the action. The author went well beyond to adequately research every detail associated with Castro’s ten days in New York. All these details make it easier for you to visual being in the crowds in front of the Theresa or sitting at the General Assembly admiring Castro’s freshly pressed fatigues for four hours. I could Almost smell Castro’s cigars! highly recommended for history buffs! Viva la revolution and the beginning of the 1960s!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Caio Garzeri.
85 reviews2 followers
March 6, 2025
Tem um olhar bem interessante sobre esse episódio curioso que foram os dias do Fidel no Harlem em 1960. Não tem nada de muito analítico, é bem narrativo, mas super bem escrito. Me fez ficar contrastando esse mundo super cheio de possibilidades (e esperança, apesar de tudo?) dos anos 1960 e a emergência dessas lideranças políticas bizarras dos últimos anos.
Profile Image for Dovide.
57 reviews2 followers
August 28, 2025
What a delightful and captivating read! This is absolutely one of my favourite books of the year, I cannot recommend it enough.

With vivid and engaging writing, Simon Hall recounts the ten fateful days a Cuban delegation spent in Harlem during the 1960 UN General Assembly, weaving the event into a rich tapestry of historical and cultural analysis.

By following the Cuban protagonists and their various hijinks, the reader is treated to a fascinating primer on a pivotal moment in history. Hall uses the visit as a lens to examine the Cuban Revolution, the undercurrents of the Cold War, the plight of African-Americans and Black radical resistance, and the broader anti-imperialist struggles of the emerging Third World. The chapter-a-day structure creates a compelling narrative, and I was constantly surprised and intrigued by the direction of Hall's analysis.

He ultimately makes a powerful case for the global significance of this event, arguing that these ten days were a catalyst for the decade to come. As he concludes: “Fidel's visit to New York in September of 1960 was, … a 'Cold War watershed'. The trip put the Cuban leader firmly on the world stage, confirming his international standing and strengthening his own commitment to lead the global struggle against imperialism. For the Americans, his antics, as well as the contents of his speech before the Assembly, confirmed their belief that ‘he had to go’. The excellent personal chemistry with Nikita Khrushchev served to cement a critically important alliance with the Soviet Union and, in the process, offered a powerful illustration of how the Cold War's focus was shifting, inexorably, from Europe to the Global South. Meanwhile, Fidel's move to Harlem placed a global spotlight on America's 'race problem', inspired adulation from an emergent New Left and helped to usher in a new decade of political, social and cultural tumult in an appropriately irreverent, rebellious and anarchic manner.

They were ten days, then, that launched the Sixties, and changed the world.”

I will be thinking about this book for a while, and am already looking forward to revisiting it in the future.
Profile Image for Brayden Raymond.
567 reviews13 followers
January 28, 2024
I am tempted to drop to 4.5 but this is quite the page turner. The more I learn about Fidel the more I am a fan.

The author does a good job navigating the events and exploring them colorfully which I appreciated. There were a few mistakes throughout which I noticed (the Cuban exiles bay of pigs invasion did not involve b52 bombers but rather b26 bombers for example) but I'll let it slide. It is clear the author is willing to let history speak for itself and doesn't disparage Cuba's revolution that is too often found. The author also does a good job highlighting the other events surrounding The 10 days in Harlem, such as the conflict in the Congo , as well as the civil rights fight in the US which instill a sense of just how important Cuba and Fidel's role in the world is and was.

Let's face it, quite simply the Cuban Revolution is one of the greatest events of the 20th century, right in the center of an era of decolonization and battles against Imperialism. Cuba's ongoing support for the global south places them as a Champion of people worldwide. As recently as the Covid-19 pandemic while shackled with disgusting economic sanctions , Cuba developed its own Vaccination for the Virus and sent Doctors around the world to assist countries that needed help.

It's a shame (but not surprising) that the West is motivated primarily by profit and felt so threatened by the notion that a nation may want to control its own economic freedom.

Viva la revolución
Profile Image for Reid Sharkey.
7 reviews
December 11, 2023
Really engaging read. I have not read many history books that have such a great balance of analysis, humor, and storytelling. all with the ever present backdrop of 1960s Harlem. Hall weaves the events of Castro's stay in NYC with the greater context of the Cold War with great tact.

The first half of the book is the stronger half in narrative, but that is to be expected with the events of the Cold War needing to be explained at an increased frequency throughout the book. Despite the detail heavy (although still digestible) latter half, quotes from Khrushchev, Nixon, Castro, and other 60s luminaries of the era are a source of uncanny explanations of the motivations of entire nations and political careers.

The book continually shines in its continual reference to the people of Harlem. Perspectives on the events of the Fidel's stay in Harlem are sourced from artists, hotel staff, musicians and civil rights leaders. These accounts are crucial to justifying the title; it is a history book centered around Harlem, not one that just happens to take place in it.


Profile Image for David Allwood.
172 reviews3 followers
October 17, 2020
A fairly dull but well-researched insight into a long forgotten moment in the Cold War. In 1960, soon after leading a successful revolution in Cuba, Castro flies into New York City to address the United Nations. Castro’s visit turns into a pivotal moment at the height of the Cold War as he strategically builds political bonds with Khrushchev, Nasser, Malcolm X, and even the African-American population of Harlem. These relationships prove to be significant as Castro leads Cuba into Socialism over the ensuing years. A fascinating historical anecdote but presented by the author dryly with many incidental digressions.
Profile Image for Fran Henderson.
448 reviews7 followers
September 13, 2023
Pacing was weird, was anti communist and I’m not sure if you can really say the politics of the 1960s came from just those 10 days. But interesting nonetheless and I liked the pictures
Profile Image for aela.
84 reviews
January 8, 2025
a surprisingly fun read! the book manages to maintain the momentum that comes from this little ten day snapshot of Fidel's life while still providing the necessary context and explaining the aftermath. creates the kind of sensation you get from watching a big, long, one-shot action scene. marked it slightly down because parts of the book get a bit repetitive, explaining things that happened on previous days as if they hadn't been included in prior chapters.
Profile Image for Katheryn Thompson.
Author 1 book59 followers
February 27, 2021
Ten Days in Harlem focuses on Fidel Castro's visit to New York in 1960, to make an address at the United Nations, in order to tell a much bigger story. I chose this one because, encouraged by recently watching The Trial of the Chicago 7, I wanted to read more about the revolutionary 60s. This book is the perfect starting point. Clear, compelling, and completely accessible.
Profile Image for Tanroop.
104 reviews76 followers
October 11, 2025
Not groundbreaking or anything but a fun read, written in an engaging narrative style
26 reviews
October 22, 2024
Microcosmic; a vignette interwoven with a broader history. Cool, digestible. For me, a nice supplement to the Cuba season of Blowback.
Profile Image for Shawn.
175 reviews6 followers
November 22, 2020
This is a 3.5 of 5.

In 1960, Fidel Castro, relatively fresh from the overthrow of Batista travels to New York to address the UN General Assembly. He spends Ten Days in Harlem at the Hotel Teresa and Simon Hall uses this as a focus to explore tangential aspects of the 1960s, anti-imperialism, and the evolution of the cold war quest for axes of control between the US and the USSR.

In short, Hall gives a light coverage of the various meetings that took place during those ten days as a means of illuminating various tangents. There is an interspersion of quotes from personages involved, references to various contemporary historical events, and a temporal skeleton. He does a good job of identifying the importance of the place and the personages of the meetings but provides little colour or ambiance – where this is a great opportunity to do so. He makes a few interesting assertions around accidental seizing of opportunities by Castro, Kruschev, and Nasser to embellish or exposit appearances for political appeal. Castro is cast as somewhat wet behind the ears in arriving at the US, but quickly gaining schooling in international showmanship.

This is a good, but easy read. I am glad to have read but come away wondering if I shouldn’t have learned more given the volume of scholarship. Coming from an academic, the entire work is well cited (I found the footnoted between each chapter needlessly disruptive to the narrative) although at the end one feels that there were more citations than content. The ten days are significant, but to me, there was potentially unrealised to have teased out the greater significance and possibly been able to capture more of the atmosphere which must have been palpable.

All in all, the presentation is tepid and dry where it presented an opportunity for greater drama and storytelling. The is also a sense, in the brevity (although sources re heralded), that the breadth of sources is limited and that the presentation not only one-dimensional but also lacking nuance. Conclusions don’t inspire discussion – things are cut and dried.

My criticisms are subjective. What might a historian author such as Éric Vuillard do with this as presentation as a stage play rather than a templated documentary….hmm?
Profile Image for Lo.
108 reviews4 followers
December 15, 2022
With the World Cup, seasonal depression, and a
somewhat boring read, this book took ages for me to
finish. Simon Hall does a great job giving context to
Castro's speech to the UN, history of Harlem, Cuba,
and the UN itself, but it isn't analytical or new in
anyway. I get it is an historical depiction of the
events, but it almost goes against the argument
made by Hall of Castro's poignant speech that
changed the trajectory of the Cold War. From
mentioning the speech in blurbs for only a few pages,
not many quotes from the speech itself, and outlying
that Gamal Nasser's speech was much more
transformative and better received by all parties
(though that can be taken from his non-aligned
partiality and Castro's growing Soviet partiality).
The book talked more of the Hotel Theresa than it did
Nkrumah, Nasser, Khrushchev, and even Castro. The
brilliant move of Castro residing in Harlem did
highlight the Jim Crow North, but the lasting effects
of Non-Aligned and newly freed states having seats
in the UN were far more pressing.
Hall goes on to say in that "the trip put the Cuban
leader firmly on the world stage, confirming his
international standing….. for the Americans…confirmed
their belief he had to go…and offered a powerful
illustration of how the Cold War's focus was shifting,
inexorably, from Europe to the Global South... They
were ten days that launched the Sixties, and changed
the world."
Profile Image for Grace Cuddihy.
82 reviews
January 20, 2023
The topic of this book was very interesting, but it fell flat on the execution which was disappointing. The book made odd choices that I didn’t understand, and it left me wanting more information. For example, the author spoke about Castro’s race reforms in Cuba, and said that “Historians would later speculate about the effectiveness and motivation behind these reforms” (paraphrasing). But he just left it at that! I would have liked to know more there— was it ineffective? What were possible motivations? He also covered Castro’s infamous 4.5 hour speech at the U.N., but didn’t talk about the contents very much, which was disappointing. There were things that I liked about this book though! I liked that the author had a very neutral perspective on U.S./Cuba relations, which is difficult to pull off. I also appreciated how much time the author spent addressing the significance of Castro choosing to stay at a hotel in Harlem, and I liked how the photos were dispersed throughout the book when they were specifically relevant, instead of them being in one chunk in the middle as is common. If you are interested in the topic it’s worth a read, but I myself am on the hunt for books that cover this in a way that feels more satisfying.
Profile Image for Cameron Cohen.
11 reviews
February 18, 2025
I am not a quick reader, but I devoured this book in record time. I often found myself neglecting my work to continue the journey of this book. While I tend to enjoy history books I so often find them difficult to continue reading. That was not an issue with this book. This book focuses on a short span of time and captures the international excitement of not just the Cuban revolution but of the decolonization movement as a whole of the 1960s. The only short coming is a look at the broader implications of this visit. However the book does cover some of these implications in its last chapter. A must read for anyone interested in the time period, Cuban revolution, Fidel’s cult of personality or anyone just looking for an exciting historical book.
Profile Image for Nish G.
16 reviews1 follower
January 21, 2022
Hall does a good job at showing how Cuba’s future was heavily influenced by Castro’s infamous ten days, but he does not limit his book to this.

There are not only attempts to show how the external forces influenced the Cuban revolution but how the revolution itself influenced foreign affairs. These are told through documentation of brief meetings with Castro and this willing to visit him in Harlem.

The book is written in a breezy and concise manner, and gives context and history to events it references, however in the end, though well documented, heavily researched and smoothly written, is unable to really show how these events “made the 60s”
Profile Image for Gerrod Harris.
96 reviews
July 10, 2023
Before totalitarianism and before supporting Russian expansions into Eastern Europe, there was a moment where Castro was one of the good guys: a revolutionary leader who championed liberation, education, and the arts while fighting against imperialism and racism. Simon Hall explores this moment thoroughly and makes a compelling case for Castro's legacy as a forward thinking anti-colonialist who's presence was critical for understanding '60s global politics, while remaining relevant today.
Profile Image for Corinne Fitzgerald.
206 reviews1 follower
August 13, 2024
Wonderfully readable, this book looks at the ten days Castro was in Harlem but throws in so much extra contextual information about the African bloc and the situation in the Congo and Nigeria, and it looks at Soviet relations with the US and Britain. Very interesting, informative and funny!
I especially loved the picture of Castro during his record-breaking UN General Assembly address!
Profile Image for Craig Werner.
Author 16 books217 followers
March 17, 2021
Grounding the discussion in the ten fascinating days Fidel Castro spent in Harlem in 1960, Hall spins a surprisingly encompassing narrative of the early 60s. Trustworthy boil-downs of the Congo, the Cold War, the U-2 incident and many others.
Profile Image for Fionnán.
21 reviews
April 24, 2025
There's a photo in this of Nasser meeting Castro that is very cute, other then that its a solid history which introduces the personalities of the main players really well and gives a good overview of the early Cold War
8 reviews
May 3, 2025
not really a political text and not very biased one way or the other, although USA necessarily comes across as unreasonable and like a bully.

just a fun read about the several stories and anecdotes that sprung up from a moment in history.
Profile Image for Mark.
175 reviews8 followers
October 30, 2020
A fun read! On the heels of The Poisonwood Bible, which was ironic as Cameroon figures prominently in the time line. Early in the pandemic I read & enjoyed Young Castro so this was also well timed.
12 reviews1 follower
August 13, 2022
It really was just Fidel’s world and we were just living in it. Hilariously dry and incredibly insightful and informative.
Profile Image for Giovanni García-Fenech.
227 reviews7 followers
November 9, 2022
A very entertaining account that goes beyond Fidel's watershed visit to the US and into the heady beginnings of the anti-colonial Third World movement. P.S. Eisenhower was a jerk.
Profile Image for Cole Harber.
55 reviews4 followers
May 28, 2023
Starts as a five, ends as a three. Kinda like communist Cuba, or ache Guevara (ache Guevara is very funny btw)
Profile Image for amb.
156 reviews4 followers
December 28, 2024
This was very fun! I almost wish it was more expansive. I wanted more detail here and there
Profile Image for Quinn Roberts.
32 reviews
June 5, 2025
If goodreads let me do decimals I'd give it a 4.5. I genuinely really enjoyed it and it has made me want to do my own deep dive on Cuban history and politics.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

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