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Castroism: Theory and Practice
As Theodore Draper writes in the Foreword to this book—his first since the widely acclaimed Castro’s Revolution: Myths and Realities—here is “a distillation of five years of study and thought about the Cuban revolution.” Using a wide range of authoritative Cuban sources, he re-examines several key aspects of the revolution—from its earliest days—through its different, seemingly contradictory stages, linking the moving present with the receding past. The basic question he seeks to answer is: What is the nature of the Castro regime, and what is its relation to the Communist movement?
To find his answers, Mr. Draper proceeds along several unexplored avenues. He makes the first critical analysis of Che Guevara’s theories on guerrilla warfare, scrutinizing these largely ex post facto formulations in the light of the explosive international Communist dispute [of the 1960s]. And it soon becomes evident how the theory varies from the practice; how the Cuban “variant” departs from the traditional pattern for Communist revolutions. Questioning popular theories on the social nature of Castro’s regime, he dissects the practical meaning of the “agrarian revolution,” and in so doing is led to a wholly new “social interpretation” of Castroism.
In this context of paradox and abrupt shifts in course, the nature of Castro’s changing economic policies and their practical result assume an added importance. For the entire development of Castroism, before and after taking power, has an underlying coherence, in its revolutionary tactics as well as its economic policies.
Castro’s tactics have also, of course, molded his external policies. He has exploited the centrifugal tendencies in the Communist world to pursue his own ends, determined by practical dependence and independent ambitions. With its own brand of revolution, Castroism has freely meddled in the intra-Party struggles of Communists elsewhere in Latin America. Although its success to date [mid-1960s] has probably been disappointing to Castro, the threat remains great, not only for the Party “Old Guard” in Cuba and throughout Latin America, but for a number of shaky democracies.
Theodore Draper sees the Cuban revolution as far from finished, but he does not for this reason believe that history can suspend its verdict. Castroism—its theories and its practice—has had a life of a dozen years [i.e. 1953-1965], and we must now attempt to understand it by trying to see the revolution as a whole. It is not the least of Mr. Draper’s aims to force us to take a hard clear look at the realities of today’s Cuba [mid-1960s] in order to arrive at a solid and viable policy toward Castro’s island.
—from the front and back flaps of the dust jacket
Includes an Appendix and an Index
To find his answers, Mr. Draper proceeds along several unexplored avenues. He makes the first critical analysis of Che Guevara’s theories on guerrilla warfare, scrutinizing these largely ex post facto formulations in the light of the explosive international Communist dispute [of the 1960s]. And it soon becomes evident how the theory varies from the practice; how the Cuban “variant” departs from the traditional pattern for Communist revolutions. Questioning popular theories on the social nature of Castro’s regime, he dissects the practical meaning of the “agrarian revolution,” and in so doing is led to a wholly new “social interpretation” of Castroism.
In this context of paradox and abrupt shifts in course, the nature of Castro’s changing economic policies and their practical result assume an added importance. For the entire development of Castroism, before and after taking power, has an underlying coherence, in its revolutionary tactics as well as its economic policies.
Castro’s tactics have also, of course, molded his external policies. He has exploited the centrifugal tendencies in the Communist world to pursue his own ends, determined by practical dependence and independent ambitions. With its own brand of revolution, Castroism has freely meddled in the intra-Party struggles of Communists elsewhere in Latin America. Although its success to date [mid-1960s] has probably been disappointing to Castro, the threat remains great, not only for the Party “Old Guard” in Cuba and throughout Latin America, but for a number of shaky democracies.
Theodore Draper sees the Cuban revolution as far from finished, but he does not for this reason believe that history can suspend its verdict. Castroism—its theories and its practice—has had a life of a dozen years [i.e. 1953-1965], and we must now attempt to understand it by trying to see the revolution as a whole. It is not the least of Mr. Draper’s aims to force us to take a hard clear look at the realities of today’s Cuba [mid-1960s] in order to arrive at a solid and viable policy toward Castro’s island.
—from the front and back flaps of the dust jacket
Includes an Appendix and an Index
- GenresPolitics
263 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1965
14 people want to read
About the author
Theodore Draper
85 books10 followersTheodore H. "Ted" Draper was an American historian and political writer. Draper is best known for the 14 books he completed during his life, including work regarded as seminal on the formative period of the American Communist Party, the Cuban Revolution, and the Iran-Contra Affair. Draper was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 1990 recipient of the Herbert Feis Award for Nonacademically Affiliated Historians from the American Historical Association.
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February 13, 2026-He treated Castro’s ideological evolution as a impossibility as if to argue one cannot grow over time or become dissolutioned to imperialist propaganda.
-He also paints castros support for armed revolutionary struggle as a negative in his ideology despite that being a consistent view from any non-revisionist communist, some even viewing it as an inescapable necessity. Therefore his criticism is null and void(bc it was being used to paint Castro as not a “true communist”).
-Explains communist subtypes like Castroism or Maoism as complete seperate from communism rather than as a specific field of thought within it.
-Seems to be an attempt at a “gotcha” moment or “exposé” of his supposed contradictions, rather that an actual analysis of his polical theory. I’ve read better explanations of his theory and execution in Castro’s religious talks with Frei Betto.
Overall, seems highly bias and I would go so far as to say misguided & purposely misleading, but interesting nonetheless.
-He also paints castros support for armed revolutionary struggle as a negative in his ideology despite that being a consistent view from any non-revisionist communist, some even viewing it as an inescapable necessity. Therefore his criticism is null and void(bc it was being used to paint Castro as not a “true communist”).
-Explains communist subtypes like Castroism or Maoism as complete seperate from communism rather than as a specific field of thought within it.
-Seems to be an attempt at a “gotcha” moment or “exposé” of his supposed contradictions, rather that an actual analysis of his polical theory. I’ve read better explanations of his theory and execution in Castro’s religious talks with Frei Betto.
Overall, seems highly bias and I would go so far as to say misguided & purposely misleading, but interesting nonetheless.
September 15, 2025
A tour de force coming from an enemy of the Cuban Revolution. Draper saw the "guerrilla road to socialism" for what it was, an exceptional occurrence that could not be repeated in Latin America, yet his concept of Fidel Castro's "declasse revolution" rings hollow. How did Cuba produce a socialist revolution in the absence of class struggle?
June 6, 2018
Theodore Draper was too blinded by the anti-communist dogma of the 1950s and early 1960s in the United States to understand the nature and significance of the Cuban revolution and its relevance to the Cuban people and their history. His work on “Castroism” is now largely ignored and forgotten.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews