“[A] fascinating new book…bracing and keenly observed…Although newspaper and magazine articles have traversed this ground before, none have done so with the thoroughness and globe-trotting ardor of “Che’s Afterlife.” Mr. Casey has written a book that is not only a cultural history of an image, but also a sociopolitical study of the mechanisms of fame. It is a book about how ideas travel and mutate in this age of globalization, how concepts of political ideology have increasingly come to be trumped by notions of commerce and cool and chic…”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“In this entertaining and provocative book, Michael Casey takes us into the realm where Che’s martyrdom ends and his global branding begins. “Che’s Afterlife” is also a smart and sassy comment about our life and times; well worth the read.”
—Jon Lee Anderson, bestselling author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
“Part detective story, part travelogue, “Che’s Afterlife” is the definitive account of the birth and dissemination of an iconic image. Michael Casey peers behind the photographs and posters of the guerrilla martyr Che Guevara, and finds a riveting tale of art and ambition, of rebellion and merchandising. It is illuminating and essential reading.”
—Héctor Tobar, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Translation Nation
“[Casey] suggests that the power of Che, the brand, is in its ability to be anything to anyone. . . . Readers interested in the impact of visual culture or in better understanding the elusiveness of intellectual property rights, particularly in a global marketplace, will find much food for thought.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A semiotic history of one of the world’s most widely reproduced, ideologically fraught photographs. . . . A comprehensive tour of the icon’s progress. . . . [Casey] maintains a clear focus on what the Korda photo says to him. For all Guevara’s failures as a revolutionary in the Congo and in Bolivia (where he was captured and killed), and for all the violent consequences of his idealism, Guevara remains to Casey a symbol of underdog resilience. Now that the image has been all but divorced from its initial context and meaning, he dreams that it can transcend ideology as well and become an icon of hope.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A tour de force of pop cultural entertainment and analysis. Whether the iterations of the picture appear in an advertising campaign for tennis shoes, on the T-shirt of a Berkeley fashionista, or at a Hezbollah rally, Casey has extensively documented and perceptively explained the remarkable transposability of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century (and beyond). Moreover, like the best students of humankind, he has shown us our own reflection in the icon–that is, how popular culture has come to dominate commerce, politics, even history. Che’s Afterlife will inform historians and delight the public.”
—David D. Perlmutter, Professor, University of Kansas and author of Blog Wars
“Che Guevara’s death was a brilliant career move. His image circled the globe, giving hope to the hopeless and profit to its exploiters. Lively and informative, Che’s Afterlife smartly chronicles the explosive Guevara growth industry in the marketplace of ideas and icons.”
—Tom Miller, author of Trading With the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro’s Cuba
“An evocative and well written account of All Things Che: chronicling the Argentine revolutionary’s remarkable life and early death - followed by his subsequent beatification and spectacular reincarnation as a global brand. Casey’s book is eagle-eyed on the merchandising on Che beginning with the cleverly-cropped Korda photo of the beret-wearing Che. There are insightful interviews with Che’s daughter Aleida and most especially with Che’s illegitimate son, Omar Perez Lopez, a dissident and poet who finds himself picking tomatoes in a labor camp in Cuba that had been established by his father.”
— Ann Louise Bardach, author of Cuba Confidential and Without Fidel
“Michael Casey’s notable history of how the Che Guevara brand was “produced” by different creators has many readings. The most innovative may well be the one that explains how Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution used the myth and image of the Argentine revolutionary to disguise the conservative turn they took at almost the exact moment Guevara died. If Che had not existed, Casey suggests, Castro would have had to invent him.”
—Jorge Castañeda, author of Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara
“Casey traces the uses and misuses of Che’s now iconic image. Traversing several continents, Casey finds Che’s omnipresent image on T-shirts, of course, but also on coffee mugs, alcoholic-beverage containers, and even children’s clothes. Che has become a “brand” for the capitalist world he despised. This is an interesting examination of the processes of mythmaking and commercialization working in tandem to guarantee immortality to a man who failed more often than he succeeded.”
— Jay Freeman, Booklist
“I saw myself in the book time and again, not in any of the political ideologies, but rather as one of the many “young Americans [who] know [Che] only as a T-shirt logo.” Casey’s study is well-researched, well-written, and lots of fun, a book more at home under the cultural studies rubric than biography or history. Recommended.”
“I love books that make me think…What [Casey] comes away with is a fascinating tale of the photographer, the history of the print itself and a global account of the countless places and people that exact image has touched… It’s a fascinating account, and in the post-Warhol age of Shepard Fairey, about as timely as a book gets. By nearly eschewing most political overtones and focusing on the image itself, Casey comes away with as many enthralling tales of simulacrum as he can find people to tell them.”
—Ada Hutchinson, The Weekly Dig
Rather than reciting the tired arguments against the appropriation of the image, Casey picks up where the martyr left off, by attempting to explain the global appeal of a single photograph, what it has meant for the last 49 years, and what it elucidates about our current relationship to visual culture…Che’s Afterlife is worth the read for its historical clarity, Casey’s vivid storytelling, and his adroit analysis of the multilayered meaning of photography as both a vehicle for and a destroyer of ideals.
“[An] amazing book””
—Joffre Swain, Silver Chair Bookstore (Podcast)
“A fascinating new book”
—Barbara Osborn, Deadline LA, KPFK Radio Los Angeles (Podcast)