Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Bolland (sociology, Colgate, and a leading scholar on Belize) correctly credits Belize and Trinidad as the harbingers of Caribbean labor strife during the 1930s, rather than St. Kitts, as many claim. The case studies in this chronologically structured monograph, however, end with Guyana, not with the 1942 labor demonstrations in the Bahamas that were triggered by the labor policies of US contractors who were constructing the air base near Nassau (a result of FDR's agreement with Britain to trade destroyers for bases). Bolland's chapter on the Bahamian archipelago instead showcases a violent feud on the island of Inagua in 1937, which its chief chronicler, Gail Sanders, concludes was not primarily a labor rebellion. Greater emphasis might have been placed on the differences in political culture and the degree of charismatic leadership from one colony to another. Finally, although Bolland concludes that "the responses of the colonial governments were similar ... from colony to colony," he should be aware that whereas Belizean governors jailed Tony Soberanis and otherwise sabotaged his leadership, virtually destroying his movement, Governor Bushe in Barbados went out of his way to encourage Grantley Adams and his party. The UK appears to have learned that jailing leaders and breaking up movements is not the way to promote legitimate leadership or democracy. The book is documented extensively, but it has a tedious, detailed style. Although generally well edited, it has a small number of citation inaccuracies. Recommended for upper-division through faculty.