Synopses & Reviews
This six-volume project covers the historical experience of people and societies of the Caribbean region from the earliest times to the present. Volume V of the General History of the Caribbean provides an account of the historical development of the Caribbean region from around 1930 to the end of the twentieth century. Its wide-ranging study of the economic, political, religious, social and cultural history of this period brings the series up 10 the present day. It embraces the 'turbulent thirties', including the Cuban Revolution of 1933 and the labour protests in the British Caribbean of 1934-9; the strategic position occupied by the region during the Second World War; the development of proletarian movements and trade unions and their links with political parties; decolonization; political evolution in the French and Dutch Caribbean, the 'turn to the left' made in the 1970s by a number of anglophone Caribbean countries, notably Grenada; the Castro Revolution and its aftermath in the 1990s; ethnicity and race consciousness and their effects in uniting or dividing communities and nations; international relations and regional cooperation; changes in social and demographic structures (including the role and status of women); education, migration and urbanization; and the beliefs and cultural experiences which underpin Caribbean identity. The final chapter provides an overall survey of changes in the quality of life in the Caribbean during the twentieth century. This volume (the first one published) begins with an overview of the slave trade, African slavers and the demography of the Caribbean up to 1750. Scholars go on to study the demographic and social structure of the Caribbean slavesocieties in the 18 and 19 centuries, their evolution and significance, the social and political control in the slave society and forms of resistance and religious beliefs, as well as Maroon communities in the circum-Caribbean. The phenomenon of pluralism and creolization is analysed. The volume closes with a study of the disintegration of the Caribbean slave systems.
Synopsis
This major six-volume project, co-published with Macmillan, covers the historical experience of the peoples and societies of the Caribbean region from the earliest times to the present day. The major objective of Volume V of the