History : Caribbean & West Indies

When tourists seek an escape from the worries and dilemmas of everyday life, the crystal blue waters and white sands of the Caribbean islands seem like the answer to a prayer. Yet this idyllic image hides a tumultuous history marked by strife and division over race, political power and economic inequality. Olwyn M. Blouet explores the colourful history of ‘the Caribbean’ over the last 50 years, revealing it to be a region positioned at the heart of some the most prominent geopolitical issues of modern times. Navigating a rich mélange of cultures and histories, Blouet unearths a complex narrative that is frequently overlooked in histories of the Americas. In stark contrast to widely-read guidebooks, this chronicle unflinchingly probes two strikingly different worlds in the Caribbean islands – those of the haves and the have-nots – created by the volatile mixture of colonial politics, racial segregation and economic upheaval. The strategic political relations between Caribbean nations, Cuba in particular, and the world powers during the Cold War; the economic transformations instigated by tourism; and the modernizing efforts of Caribbean nations in order to meet the demands of a globalizing twenty-first-century market are among the numerous issues explored by Blouet in her efforts to redress the historical record’s imbalance. The Contemporary Caribbean also explores the nations’ proud histories in sports such as cricket and baseball, their famed cuisines, and the uneasy balance today between local traditions and the vestiges of colonial influence. An informative and thought-provoking account, The Contemporary Caribbean is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this flamboyant and diverse, yet troubled part of the world. more...

Price: $28.95

“With the first study to address the development of a free, mixed-race Caribbean community using historical and archaeological evidence, Armstrong has provided a new direction for research and challenged accepted notions of Caribbean family structure. more...

Price: $59.95

The recent retirement of Fidel Castro turned the world’s attention towards the island nation of Cuba and the question of what its future holds. Amid the talk and hypothesizing, it is worth taking a moment to consider how Cuba reached this point. Antoni Kapcia provides this with his incisive history of Cuba since 1959. Kapcia’s history takes the Cuban Revolution as its starting point, analysing the process of social revolution, its benefits and disadvantages, popular participation in the revolution and the development of its ideology. Kapcia probes Castro’s rapid rise to national leader, exploring his politics of defence and dissent as well as his contentious relationship with the USA from the beginning of his reign. The book also considers the evolution of the revolution’s international profile and Cuba’s foreign relations over the years, investigating issues and events such as the Bay of Pigs crisis, Cuban relations with Communist nations like Russia and China, and the flight of asylum-seeking Cubans to Florida over the decades. The collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991 catalysed a severe economic and political crisis in Cuba, but Cuba was surprisingly resilient in the face of the catastrophe, Kapcia notes, and he examines the strategies adopted by Cuba over the last two decades in order to survive America’s longstanding trade embargo. A fascinating and much-needed examination of a country that has served as an important political symbol and diplomatic enigma for the twentieth century, Cuba in Revolution is a critical primer for all those interested in Cuba’s past – or concerned with its future. more...

Price: $28.95

In 1942 Pauli Murray, a young black woman from North Carolina studying law at Howard University, visited a constitutional law class taught by Caroline Ware, one of the nation's leading historians. A friendship and a correspondence began, lasting until Murray's death in 1985. Ware, a Bostonian born in 1899, was a scholar, a leading consumer advocate, and a political activist. Murray, born in 1910, with no resources except her intelligence and determination, graduated from college at 16 and made her way to law school, where she organized student sit-ins to protest segregation. She pulled her friend Ware into this early civil rights activism. Their forty-year correspondence ranged widely over issues of race, politics, international affairs, and—for a difficult period in the 1950s—McCarthyism. In time, Murray became a labor lawyer, a university professor, and the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Ware continued her work as a social historian and consumer advocate while developing an international career as a community development specialist. Their letters are products of high intelligence and a gift for writing, revealing portraits of their authors as well as the workings of an unusual female friendship. They also provide a wonderful channel into the social and political thought of the times, particularly regarding civil rights and women's rights. more...

Price: $35.00

The first complete study of Cuban involvement in the Angolan War, from the first contacts in the 1960s to the full-scale military occupation of the 1980s more...

Price: $180.00