For years, Ocean Press (like Pathfinder Press) has been plying a very particular and familiar trade on Cuba: namely, reproducing collections of ‘documentary’ material from Cuba, i.e. speeches and writings from Cuban leaders such as Fidel Castro or Che Guevara. Hence one should not be surprised at this collection, which does exactly that, compiling 28 speeches, or extracts of speeches, made by Castro from 1953 to 2007. However, one might have wished for a ‘Fidel Castro reader’ that, at this particular time, offered more; as the Revolution completes its 50th anniversary and as Fidel retires from the political scene, a mixture of analysis and documentary would have been welcome, a compendium of studies of and commentaries on Fidel Castro as well as speeches by him. Unfortunately, that is not the case and, instead, we have what we have and what we might have expected.

The collection consists of 20 complete speeches and open letters in English translation, preceded by a very useful 27-page chronology of Castro's life and of both the insurrection and the Revolution (useful because it clarifies the precise dates of any number of key events within the Revolution), a very brief biographical introduction (which tends towards the hagiographical, for example raising Fidel Castro's profile in pre-1953 events such as the 1948 bogotazo), and a long speech by the Cuban foreign minister (and former Castro aide), Felipe Pérez Roque, which, although it does offer some useful insights into aspects of Castro's character, nonetheless also tends towards hagiography with its listing of 15 ‘virtues’ of Fidel.

With such a collection, therefore, we are inevitably limited to asking what has been included and what omitted, and, overall, to commenting on what the collection tells us. On the former, most of the key speeches (‘key’ because they marked a turning point or tell us something about the evolution of Castro's thought or of the Revolution's trajectory) are included, which is virtue enough in this essentially reference work. These include his 1953 defence speech, ‘History will absolve me’; the April 1961 declaration of socialism and the June 1961 Palabras a los intelectuales, thankfully with the correct wording of the (in)famous phrase ‘Within the revolution, everything; against the revolution, nothing’; the Second Declaration of Havana (1962); and several other notable speeches from 1965 to 1971 (not least the announcement of Che's departure from Cuba and Cuba's commitment to armed struggle in Latin America, made at OLAS).

However, there are curious gaps. The First Declaration of Havana (1960) is omitted, for example, although, when compared to its successor two years later, it demonstrates well the Revolution's journey from passionate ideological uncertainty to a more clearly anti-imperialist stance. Likewise the December 1961 ‘I am a Marxist-Leninist’ speech, which, if included, could have helped to settle an argument once and for all. Neither of his significant speeches against ‘sectarianism’ (against the PSP and Escalante in March 1962 or against the ‘microfaction’ in 1968) are included, which is regrettable, as they do indeed tell us much about the Cuban ‘heresy’ of those years. Then there is nothing between 1970 and 1979, except for his farewell speech in Allende's Chile; hence no 1970 zafra speech (admitting failure), and no speech from the notorious 1971 Education and Culture Congress.

Conversely, however, what is included beyond the ‘canon’ is often useful: for example, the 1986 ‘rectification’ speech and a 1999 speech in Venezuela foreshadowing the post-2000 ‘Battle of Ideas’. After 2005, however, complete speeches give way to rather frustratingly short extracts, most notably from his November 2005 speech to Havana students, when he warned of the danger to the Revolution from within, from complacency and the corrosive effects of neoliberalism. The overall result is classic Ocean Press material: a very useful reference work (not least in its compilation of such material into one vast volume), adding to our documentary stocks on Cuba, but unfortunately adding little in the way of analysis of the Revolution. Taken together they tell us more about the 1960s than any other period, but – not least because the more orthodox 1970s and 1980s are largely ignored – curiously highlight the consistency in Castro's thinking and the Revolution's development over the five decades, which, given perceptions of his inconsistency, is no bad thing. Overall, it adds to our knowledge but, as ever, leaves us to infer analysis and interpretation.