Deep inside that T-shirt where we have tried to trap him, notes the celebrated Chilean novelist Ariel Dorfman, the eyes of Che Guevara are still burning with impatience. Olivier Besancenot and Michael L wy deftly capture this burning impatience, revealing Guevara as a powerful political and ethical thinker still capable of speaking directly to the challenges of our time.

In this masterful new study, Besancenot and L wy explore and situate Guevara’s ethical, revolutionary, and humanist legacy. They explicate Guevara’s emphasis on the import of the individual coming to understand and accept socialism at a personal level. For Guevara, Besancenot and L wy show, the revolutionary project demands more than a transformation of the mode of production; it demands a profound transformation of the individual, the birth of what Guevara termed the new man. Besancenot and L wy also explore Guevara’s pragmatic approach to the question of state power and unique theoretical contributions to the question of the transition to socialism.

In Guevara, Besancenot and L wy find a life that was lived as an example of revolutionary potential. Guevara’s ethical and political sensibilities, unwavering anti-imperialism, and firm commitment to revolutionary social transformation still ignite hope in all who struggle for a better world.