Beyond Tradition

Reinterpreting the Caribbean Historical Experience

Heather Cateau & Rita Pemberton

In recent years, Caribbean historians have moved beyond the traditional interpretation of the Region’s historical experience leading to a more dynamic and accurate re-creation of events and processes. Traditional writings on Caribbean history focus on European activity, treating the territories as ‘objects’ of history and glorifying the exploits of military and naval commanders, and the activities of colonial rulers and administrators both in the metropole and in the colonies. While later changes in the direction of the writing of Caribbean histroy sought to make the territories of the region ’subjects’ rather that ‘objects’ of history, such writings remained fixed on planters, plantations and related commercial activities.

The collection of essays follow a chronological as well as a thematic framework spanning the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Written by some of the Caribbean’s younger generation of historians, the essays reflect new directions in the historiography of the region by extending the focus beyond the plantation and the dominant sugar culture to expose a vast range of dynamic economic, social and political activities previously ignored or considered insignificant.

Contributors include: Heather Cateau; Claudius Fergus; Aleric Josephs; Pedro Welch; Rita Pemberton; Johanna von Grafenstein Gareis; Kenneth Vidia Parmasad; Michael Toussaint; Ellis and Learie Luke.

Category: History
Publication Date: 2006
Extent: 274 pages
Size: 6 x 9
ISBN 978-976-637-251-4 / 976-637-251-9
Binding: Paperback
Price: US$24.95