Book Description

This Omnibus E-Book brings together all three of Colin A. Palmer's books on the making of the modern Caribbean. Included are: Freedom's Children: The 1938 Labor Rebellion and the Birth of Modern Jamaica This is the first comprehensive history of Jamaica's watershed 1938 labor rebellion and its aftermath. The rebellion produced two rival leaders who dominated the political life of the colony through the achievement of independence in 1962. Alexander Bustamante, a moneylender, founded the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and its progeny, the Jamaica Labour Party. Norman Manley, an eminent barrister, led the struggle for self-government and with others established the People's National Party. Palmer sheds new light on the nature of Bustamante's collaboration with the imperial regime, the rise of the trade-union movement, the struggle for constitutional change, and the emergence of party politics in a modernizing Jamaica. Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana's Struggle for Independence Palmer here tells the story of British Guiana's struggle for independence. The work details the rise and fall of Cheddi Jagan--from his initial electoral victory in the spring of 1953 to the aftermath of the British-orchestrated coup d'etat that led to the suspension of the constitution and the removal of Jagan's independence-minded administration. Bringing the larger story of Caribbean colonialism into view, this work shows how violence, police corruption, political chicanery, racial politics, and poor leadership delayed Guyana's independence until 1966, scarring the body politic in the process. Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean In this first scholarly assessment of Williams (1911-1981), founder of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago's first modern political party and the nation's first prime minister, Palmer explores his life as a scholar and politician and his tremendous influence on the historiography and politics of the Caribbean. Palmer focuses especially on a 14-year period of independence struggles in the Anglophone Caribbean, when Williams helped resolve regional disputes and promoted the creation of a pan-Caribbean federation.