Ten Days in Harlem

Rising star Simon Hall captures the spirit of the 1960s in ten days that revolutionized the Cold War: Fidel Castro's visit to New York. New York City, September 1960.

Fidel Castro - champion of the oppressed, scourge of colonialism, and leftist revolutionary – arrives for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. His visit to the UN represents a golden opportunity to make his mark on the world stage.

Fidel’s shock arrival in Harlem is met with a rapturous reception from the local African American community. He holds court from the iconic Hotel Theresa as a succession of world leaders, black freedom fighters and counter-cultural luminaries – everyone from Nikita Khrushchev to Gamal Abdel Nasser, Malcolm X to Allen Ginsberg – come calling. Then, during his landmark address to the UN General Assembly – one of the longest speeches in the organisation’s history – he promotes the politics of anti-imperialism with a fervour, and an audacity, that makes him an icon of the 1960s.

In this unforgettable slice of modern history, Simon Hall reveals how these ten days were a foundational moment in the trajectory of the Cold War, a turning point in the history of anti-colonial struggle, and a launching pad for the social, cultural and political tumult of the decade that followed.

"A highly readable, engaging, astute microhistory of an overlooked event." — Kirkus