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Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day
A “wide-ranging, vivid” narrative history of one of the most coveted and complex regions of the the Caribbean (The Observer). Ever since Christopher Columbus stepped off the Santa Maria and announced that he had arrived in the Orient, the Caribbean has been a stage for projected fantasies and competition between world powers. In Empire’s Crossroads, British American historian Carrie Gibson offers a panoramic view of the region from the northern rim of South America up to Cuba and its rich, important history. After that fateful landing in 1492, the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, and even the Swedes, Scots, and Germans sought their fortunes in the islands for the next two centuries. These fraught years gave way to a booming age of sugar, horrendous slavery, and extravagant wealth, as well as the Haitian Revolution and the long struggles for independence that ushered in the modern era. Gibson tells not only of imperial expansion—European and American—but also of life as it is lived in the islands, from before Columbus through the tumultuous twentieth century. Told “in fluid, colorful prose peppered with telling anecdotes,” Empire’s Crossroads provides an essential account of five centuries of history (Foreign Affairs). “Judicious, readable and extremely well-informed . . . Too many people know the Caribbean only as a tourist destination; [Gibson] takes us, instead, into its fascinating, complex and often tragic past. No vacation there will ever feel quite the same again.” —Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars and King Leopold’s Ghost
642 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 19, 2014
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1307 people want to read
About the author
Carrie Gibson
4 books51 followersCarrie Gibson is the author of three works of history: The Great Resistance: The 400-Year Fight to End Slavery in the Americas (2026), El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America (2019), and Empire’s Crossroads: A history of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day (2014). Prior to gaining a PhD in history at the University of Cambridge in 2011, she worked as journalist for The Guardian and Observer in London. She is currently living in Seoul, South Korea.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
May 9, 2019
This book was, in a word, disappointing. It bills itself as a 'new' history of the Caribbean yet it employs the same Eurocentric lens to recount the story of this beleaguered land. I suppose I was hoping for more input from the locals (Creoles, Mestizos, Amerindians, etc.) that make up the West Indies to support the 'new' claim.
The book is very well supported by research until Chapter 12. Then the number of citations drops from an average of 78 citations per chapter (for the first eleven chapters) to 31 for the final three. This last trio of chapters skew toward a more anecdotal perspective. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but it seemed too abrupt a departure from the trend which preceded it.
As a Caribbean man I was hoping for something that would add novelty to my existing knowledge of the region. Gibson's book essentially complements and supplements what most Western-based books already say.
The book is very well supported by research until Chapter 12. Then the number of citations drops from an average of 78 citations per chapter (for the first eleven chapters) to 31 for the final three. This last trio of chapters skew toward a more anecdotal perspective. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but it seemed too abrupt a departure from the trend which preceded it.
As a Caribbean man I was hoping for something that would add novelty to my existing knowledge of the region. Gibson's book essentially complements and supplements what most Western-based books already say.
April 25, 2020
More like 3 and a 1/2 stars.
This is a pretty good history of the Caribbean region but, like all histories of all regions, whatever they are, it suffers from trying to take on too much all at once. This isn't Gibson's fault. She's a fine writer who thankfully veers away from analysis and jargon, taking history for what it is and trying to place the region in its proper context, that is, the empire(s) of the title and the current state of the region as a kind of invented tourist backwater that ignores the myriad social and economic issues.
Gibson succeeds best when she sticks to her guns with what I just mentioned. The early sections on the colonial period are good and she does the best she can to cover scads of little islands and the Central/South American fringe. Once things move into the modern era, the work starts to wilt a little. It's a given that regional histories are going to be dominated by certain entities. Here, as you might have guessed, these are Cuba and Haiti. Weirdly, some space is filled with goings-on in the Central/South American fringe, which I suppose is pertinent, but takes up space where some of the other areas of the actual Caribbean might've been focused on.
Because of the sheer scale of the territories involved, you're not going to get much modern stuff on anything beyond Cuba or Haiti, as everything else is given short thrift because of space considerations. Still, though, it's a fine book if you know nothing about the Caribbean, but will feel lacking if you know some and want more.
This is a pretty good history of the Caribbean region but, like all histories of all regions, whatever they are, it suffers from trying to take on too much all at once. This isn't Gibson's fault. She's a fine writer who thankfully veers away from analysis and jargon, taking history for what it is and trying to place the region in its proper context, that is, the empire(s) of the title and the current state of the region as a kind of invented tourist backwater that ignores the myriad social and economic issues.
Gibson succeeds best when she sticks to her guns with what I just mentioned. The early sections on the colonial period are good and she does the best she can to cover scads of little islands and the Central/South American fringe. Once things move into the modern era, the work starts to wilt a little. It's a given that regional histories are going to be dominated by certain entities. Here, as you might have guessed, these are Cuba and Haiti. Weirdly, some space is filled with goings-on in the Central/South American fringe, which I suppose is pertinent, but takes up space where some of the other areas of the actual Caribbean might've been focused on.
Because of the sheer scale of the territories involved, you're not going to get much modern stuff on anything beyond Cuba or Haiti, as everything else is given short thrift because of space considerations. Still, though, it's a fine book if you know nothing about the Caribbean, but will feel lacking if you know some and want more.
June 21, 2024
What I wish I learned in history classes. This is a masterpiece about the Caribbean Islands that focuses on how economics was and still is at play in how large and more powerful nations collect, trade, occupy and control these islands and the native-born people. The author highlights native-born leaders and the collective efforts and courage that led toward independence.
December 30, 2014
There are many histories of the Americas that begin with Columbus's landing in what were to become known as the West Indies, but this is perhaps one of the few accessible accounts which focus on the Caribbean itself, and which follow through right to the present day. Carrie Gibson's thesis is that the Caribbean was a unique crossroads for global empires, focusing of course on the European empires but showing how power was later conceded to the United States, but without forgetting the minor roles played by other imperial powers such as the Chinese.
Her thesis stands up very well and proves an excellent basis for a book which could easily have become a collection of bit parts given the number and diversity of the islands. Very sensibly, she extends her coverage to the Caribbean littoral, particularly Central America and Guyana and its neighbours, but not forgetting the influence of Florida, Colombia and Venezuela. If she focuses (as she concedes) on the major islands that were Spanish, British and French colonies, that is excusable as it allows a more manageable story.
Another challenge is to encapsulate more than 500 years of history in a single text. Inevitably Gibson is selective, but still manages to capture well the flow of events and their interconnectedness across the different Caribbean territories (not forgetting the very Caribbean nature of the Atlantic coasts of Central America, which until very recently have often had closer relations with Caribbean nations than with their own).
Obviously, several cross-cutting themes emerge, such as the harsh treatment and in many cases the extinction of indigenous peoples, the prevalence of crops such as sugar, tobacco and bananas and the ways in which their cultivation affected social conditions and political change, and the growth of the slave trade which these crops necessitated. Once crop specialisation and the slave trade began, Gibson shows how together they shaped the societies and the politics of the region, not only during the long history of slavery itself but also in its aftermath - in which conditions for black and other poor workers were generally only slightly improved. In particular, she shows how this interaction influenced the development of dictatorships in the larger Caribbean islands and was also crucial to the United States' growing and later determinant role in the region, as it took over from the waning European colonial powers and sought to maintain its growing control over trade and also over political developments which might threaten its commercial dominance.
As I read Gibson’s book, in Cuba, the ‘Cuban Five’ who had been imprisoned by the US since 1998, were released. Gibson wrote an interesting piece in the Guardian on reactions in Havana, while my own impressions came from rural Cuba (see http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/12/29/...). Also in the Guardian, Martin Kettle made the point that the warming of US-Cuba relations doesn’t mean that Cuba is ‘coming in from the cold’ (as it was described in much of the media). Rather it is part of the process by which the US rejoins the modern world, by perhaps starting to give up the imperial ambitions that Britain, Spain and France largely renounced in the last century. Nowhere have these different empires interacted more than in the Caribbean, and Carrie Gibson’s book does justice to the complex history that has resulted, right up to the present day.
Her thesis stands up very well and proves an excellent basis for a book which could easily have become a collection of bit parts given the number and diversity of the islands. Very sensibly, she extends her coverage to the Caribbean littoral, particularly Central America and Guyana and its neighbours, but not forgetting the influence of Florida, Colombia and Venezuela. If she focuses (as she concedes) on the major islands that were Spanish, British and French colonies, that is excusable as it allows a more manageable story.
Another challenge is to encapsulate more than 500 years of history in a single text. Inevitably Gibson is selective, but still manages to capture well the flow of events and their interconnectedness across the different Caribbean territories (not forgetting the very Caribbean nature of the Atlantic coasts of Central America, which until very recently have often had closer relations with Caribbean nations than with their own).
Obviously, several cross-cutting themes emerge, such as the harsh treatment and in many cases the extinction of indigenous peoples, the prevalence of crops such as sugar, tobacco and bananas and the ways in which their cultivation affected social conditions and political change, and the growth of the slave trade which these crops necessitated. Once crop specialisation and the slave trade began, Gibson shows how together they shaped the societies and the politics of the region, not only during the long history of slavery itself but also in its aftermath - in which conditions for black and other poor workers were generally only slightly improved. In particular, she shows how this interaction influenced the development of dictatorships in the larger Caribbean islands and was also crucial to the United States' growing and later determinant role in the region, as it took over from the waning European colonial powers and sought to maintain its growing control over trade and also over political developments which might threaten its commercial dominance.
As I read Gibson’s book, in Cuba, the ‘Cuban Five’ who had been imprisoned by the US since 1998, were released. Gibson wrote an interesting piece in the Guardian on reactions in Havana, while my own impressions came from rural Cuba (see http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/12/29/...). Also in the Guardian, Martin Kettle made the point that the warming of US-Cuba relations doesn’t mean that Cuba is ‘coming in from the cold’ (as it was described in much of the media). Rather it is part of the process by which the US rejoins the modern world, by perhaps starting to give up the imperial ambitions that Britain, Spain and France largely renounced in the last century. Nowhere have these different empires interacted more than in the Caribbean, and Carrie Gibson’s book does justice to the complex history that has resulted, right up to the present day.
September 17, 2022
This is a non-fic as the title suggests about the history of the Caribbean, from the coming of Columbus in 1492 (pre-Columbus cultures are mentioned but briefly because there is not a lot that remained) and to the 2000s. I read it as a part of monthly reading for September 2022 at Non Fiction Book Club group.
The book starts with what was going off in the Iberian peninsula decades before the Columbus voyage, giving a general outline of thoughts and attitudes. The author also clearly states at the beginning that what we know under a single umbrella of the term the Caribbean is actually always was and is a very diverse set of cultures and people – native, imported African slaves, creoles, genetic and ethnic mixing. Because for a long period the isles and Central American coasts were used in agriculture, esp., coffee, tobacco, bananas and sugar cane, all these plants are discussed in detail – their paths to the region and their effect on local development. I think the author is a bit overzealous when she states “that so much of Caribbean history was transformed – deformed – by the worthless commodity of sugar. Of course, it wasn’t financially worthless, then or now, but the human body does not need it to survive.” While technically true, sugar is 100% hydrocarbons, which are part of what people need to consume to survive and because it was evolutionary favorable, humans have a taste for sugar – eating ripen fruits gave more calories and better survival chances (and gives sweet tooth and obesity now), so worthlessness is overstated. There are hypotheses that assume that the industrial revolution was literarily fueled by sugar – giving enough quick energy to workers to work 8-12 hours daily.
The author describes political developments and revolutions on the islands and in some cases I’ve read alternative descriptions of them, which highlight points omitted by this book, for example on Haiti quite different details are given in The Americas In The Revolutionary Era. Also on Panama channel her description, while again technically correct is much less detailed than The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (but the latter is a whole large book on the subject). So, while she states “Angrily, the United States searched for someone to lead separatist Panamanians in a ‘revolution’, the first major incident in a long line of such interference in Central America.” as a purely US meddling, David McCullough wrote that (I cannot find and exact quote, but wiki also mentions that) there were over 80 attempts of Panama to secede from Colombia in 19th and early 20th century. Bearing in mind these different interpretations on parts where I read other sources I cannot be sure about author’s other claims, where she is (so far) the only source I have.
On a small but interesting for me discovery – “Would-be colonizers also came from the Baltic duchy of Kurland, who set up Fort St James in the estuary of the Gambia river around 1651, and later added seven more forts. A few years later, eighty Kurland families went to Tobago to establish a colony, with the intention of growing tobacco to sell to Russia.” – Kurland was on the territory of present-day Latvia, I never thought that they had colonies as well. Also, there is info about the Jamaican religion Rastafarianism, which to my shame I earlier assumed was just a mockery of organized religion.
Overall a solid overview, very wide but therefore a bit shallow. A great first step before delving into more detailed research on a specific theme or another.
The book starts with what was going off in the Iberian peninsula decades before the Columbus voyage, giving a general outline of thoughts and attitudes. The author also clearly states at the beginning that what we know under a single umbrella of the term the Caribbean is actually always was and is a very diverse set of cultures and people – native, imported African slaves, creoles, genetic and ethnic mixing. Because for a long period the isles and Central American coasts were used in agriculture, esp., coffee, tobacco, bananas and sugar cane, all these plants are discussed in detail – their paths to the region and their effect on local development. I think the author is a bit overzealous when she states “that so much of Caribbean history was transformed – deformed – by the worthless commodity of sugar. Of course, it wasn’t financially worthless, then or now, but the human body does not need it to survive.” While technically true, sugar is 100% hydrocarbons, which are part of what people need to consume to survive and because it was evolutionary favorable, humans have a taste for sugar – eating ripen fruits gave more calories and better survival chances (and gives sweet tooth and obesity now), so worthlessness is overstated. There are hypotheses that assume that the industrial revolution was literarily fueled by sugar – giving enough quick energy to workers to work 8-12 hours daily.
The author describes political developments and revolutions on the islands and in some cases I’ve read alternative descriptions of them, which highlight points omitted by this book, for example on Haiti quite different details are given in The Americas In The Revolutionary Era. Also on Panama channel her description, while again technically correct is much less detailed than The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (but the latter is a whole large book on the subject). So, while she states “Angrily, the United States searched for someone to lead separatist Panamanians in a ‘revolution’, the first major incident in a long line of such interference in Central America.” as a purely US meddling, David McCullough wrote that (I cannot find and exact quote, but wiki also mentions that) there were over 80 attempts of Panama to secede from Colombia in 19th and early 20th century. Bearing in mind these different interpretations on parts where I read other sources I cannot be sure about author’s other claims, where she is (so far) the only source I have.
On a small but interesting for me discovery – “Would-be colonizers also came from the Baltic duchy of Kurland, who set up Fort St James in the estuary of the Gambia river around 1651, and later added seven more forts. A few years later, eighty Kurland families went to Tobago to establish a colony, with the intention of growing tobacco to sell to Russia.” – Kurland was on the territory of present-day Latvia, I never thought that they had colonies as well. Also, there is info about the Jamaican religion Rastafarianism, which to my shame I earlier assumed was just a mockery of organized religion.
Overall a solid overview, very wide but therefore a bit shallow. A great first step before delving into more detailed research on a specific theme or another.
August 13, 2014
Read a galley of this while vacationing in the Virgin Islands this month. Not a typical beach read, but Carrie Gibson's writing is clear, lucid, and engaging, and the wide range of colonial adventures and misadventures in the region make for a fascinating read. Much of of the subject matter and episodes were already familiar to me, yet I still learned a great deal. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of this part of the America's and in particular a view into the often overlooked fact that much of previous history was written by and biased toward the European/Western perspective.
October 8, 2022
This book should be must reading for anybody who is interested in racial history or the history of slavery.
The Caribbean was where Europeaners first encountered indigenious people of the "new world." How Europeans viewed/treated the locals would go on to affect relationships throughout the area for the next 400+ years!
The various islands each served as a microcosm of how things might evolve over the next few years.
The Caribbean was where Europeaners first encountered indigenious people of the "new world." How Europeans viewed/treated the locals would go on to affect relationships throughout the area for the next 400+ years!
The various islands each served as a microcosm of how things might evolve over the next few years.
August 18, 2015
This is an excellent account! I'm no expert, but this year I read Slavery by Another Name, The Half Has Never Been Told, and The New Jim Crow. This book provides a broader picture, but an important one, on how we came to be where we are today. As with any good book of history, I want to ask Gibson a million questions about the present. This is really well done, an illuminating overview of a large tumultuous story.
March 3, 2019
The story starts with Columbus who grew up in Genoa when exploration is a new trend. Under the Papal backing of converting non-believers, Portugal started exploring first Madeira for indigenous people as slaves. Later, the frontier moved to the Caribbeans. The European conflict between Catholics and Protestants also extended to the sea. Private citizens are encouraged by the crown to attack Spanish ship. They like to consider themselves loyal citizens as opposed to lawless pirates. These people move around islands when not attacking ships. They hunt wild pigs and sell meat and hides. The jerky meat is call "viande boucanee", and these people are hence known as Buccaneers. That explains the people are European decedents.
The indigenous people are believed to come from South America some 6000 years ago. There are different tribes such as the Caribs and the Tainos. Some are fierce people that fought the Spaniards, others are believed to practice cannibalism. Some became friends with the English as the enemy of the enemy.
A third group of people are slaves brought to the region by the Europeans to cultivate sugar. Sugar is not native to the region. Some enterprise Dutch Jew brought it due to the perfect condition. The sugar trade needed slaves. Unlike the 1500s when the Spaniards and Portuguese brought slaves to Europe, the new slave trade route is from Africa to West Indies and America.
Apart from the ethnic background, the political control is also complicated due to the changing alliances among the European empires and later the US. The French and the Brits are fighting. Then the US with Brits. Territories were exchanged, ceded...
Gradually, controlling the slave population becomes more challenging. Different regions started their own route to independence. The history is complicated with stories of the likes of Castro and Duvalier. Under their own control, the economy of the region also changed. Instead of just sugar, the region starts to export banana, drugs, boos, and the images of paradise.
The Caribbean and central America lay in the "backyard" of the US, which makes them great destinations for field trips during the cloudy and wintry time of the year when kids have a few week-long breaks. I like to find out more about their culture and nature. This book came in handy to give an overview of the region in general. However, the book is too comprehensive to my liking and not synoptic enough.
April 4, 2022
Was very disappointed in this book. Not what I expected and should have paid more attention to the negative reviews. The author being a journalist for the Guardian showed her leanings.
Having been to the Caribbean about 15 times, visiting 9 different beautiful Islands and enjoying the friendly locals very much, it was time to read a history of the region. It had been a long time since reading James Michener's "Caribbean".
According to the author the European Empires, Spanish, British, French and Dutch brought destruction, chaos and disorder through a system of suppression and enslavement. And in modern times the U.S. played not so good a role either. Much of the book went on and on with dates, events, names, showing the author's research skills. This made it a struggle to read
The author did seem to speak well of Cuba. Though this 500 year history can be an uncomfortable fact, I felt beaten over the head. Now should I feel guilt about my upcoming second visit to Barbados?
Having been to the Caribbean about 15 times, visiting 9 different beautiful Islands and enjoying the friendly locals very much, it was time to read a history of the region. It had been a long time since reading James Michener's "Caribbean".
According to the author the European Empires, Spanish, British, French and Dutch brought destruction, chaos and disorder through a system of suppression and enslavement. And in modern times the U.S. played not so good a role either. Much of the book went on and on with dates, events, names, showing the author's research skills. This made it a struggle to read
The author did seem to speak well of Cuba. Though this 500 year history can be an uncomfortable fact, I felt beaten over the head. Now should I feel guilt about my upcoming second visit to Barbados?
August 25, 2022
Covering five centuries, numerous countries and a wide range of topics, this history of the Caribbean tried to weave sweeping panoramic views with numerous details. It felt like a freshman college textbook, informative but dry.
January 15, 2015
As Carrie Gibson notes in the conclusion to her superb history of the Caribbean, "it is much easier to imagine a West Indies without history." The prevailing view of Americans and Europeans of the Caribbean is one seen through the eyes of tourism – a paradise of exquisite beaches and rum drinks with little umbrellas. But as Ms. Gibson so aptly demonstrates, the Caribbean is not a mere footnote of history: it has been a geographic vortex of superpower entanglement and a crossroad of globalism for over half a millennium.
Ms. Gibson creates a lively narrative supercharged with facts, but none offered gratuitously. I knew I was in for a treat as the introduction began with an anecdote about a decapitated statute still standing in a park in Fort-de-France, Martinique. We learn that the statute was of Napoleon Buonaparte's first wife, who was born on the island. Many islanders believed that it was she who convinced Napoleon to reinstate slavery on this island eight years after its abolition. The book is replete with such wonderful stories of human interest and intrigue.
Ms. Gibson's history is not one written in a vacuum, but is a comprehensive worldview of nations that meddled in and forged the complex fabric of the West Indies. After covering what little is know about the native inhabitants, who were all but obliterated by Europeans, her narrative takes full swing with the struggles of the European powers. The relative might of these powers ebbed and flowed like the tides, with the flux of fortunes reflected in the changing control of various islands and coastal regions in the West Indies.
A generation of explorers beginning in the late fifteenth century, aided by new sailing technologies, advances in astronomy, and, imperatively, royal and private investment, set forth on a westward quest for gold, exotic spices, and other riches that eventually led them to the Caribbean. The fascinating twists and turns of geography, climate, and history, including the influx of many peoples, all so well documented by Ms. Gibson, set off a chain of events that Henry the Navigator could never have imagined.
The history of the Caribbean is marred by violence and shameful disregard for human dignity. Ms. Gibson spares us no detail. But the details force the reader to acknowledge the horrific reality that marked the struggles of slaves, indentured servants, and others who have been exploited by those in search of fortune. Perhaps the greatest irony of Caribbean history is that the quixotic search for riches eventually gave way to the harvesting of sugar cane. This "useless by-product of a breed of grass," as Ms Gibson calls it, became the virtual gold of the Caribbean.
It is fascinating to discover the roster of notables throughout history who left their fingerprints on the Caribbean. From Queen Elizabeth to Oliver Cromwell; Louis XIV to Napoleon, and the latter's nemesis in the fight for Haitian independence, Toussaint Louverture, their stories are varied and fascinating. Virtually every US president left his mark on the region, starting with George Washington who fought for the British in Barbados. As Ms. Gibson sardonically remarks, British generals probably wished the future first US President would have died of the smallpox he contracted in Barbados instead of developing immunity to the disease that may have spared his life during the fight for American independence.
Perhaps missing from Ms. Gibson's discussion of great historic individuals with connections to the islands is Alexander Hamilton. Born in Nevis and raised in the Caribbean, he would go on to become the primary architect of the American financial system. He was indisputably one of the most influential world figures ever born in the West Indies, and therefore, I believe would have been worthy of mention.
We learn about the intertwined relations of the Caribbean, the American British colonies, and England, and how clandestine commerce with the islands weighed heavily in the outcome of events leading to American independence. The relationship between the Caribbean and the fledgling Republic altered drastically over time as US influence in the region and the world grew exponentially. Armed with the Monroe Doctrine, the pretext of defending American national interests, and supposedly, the islanders right to freedom from foreign interference, was a thin disguise for what the US wanted: geographic positioning, the exploitation of natural and human resources, and trade policies that favored American interests. In other words, the prize of dominance in the region had changed little from the days of European hegemony.
Imperialism in the West Indies takes an interesting twist in the twenty-first century. Trade wars that once centered around mercantilism and piracy primarily involving the age-old commodities of sugar and rum more recently have triggered WTO actions, as private and public entities fight in international courts for lucrative shares of these and other commodity markets, particularly bananas. Of even more recent interest, Ms. Gibson discusses the posturing of the United States and China in the West Indies. On this development she notes, "As the axis of global power begins to tilt to the east, The Caribbean islands still find themselves in a strategic position."
The islands share common themes, such as slavery, disease, corruption and natural disasters, but Ms. Gibson describes meticulously the individual trajectories that the islands and Caribbean coastal regions followed, giving each a distinctive history. Not surprisingly, the circumstances and prosperity of islands vary significantly today. From what Ms. Gibson calls the relative egalitarianism, albeit impoverished circumstances, of Cuba, to the extreme poverty of Haiti with its man-made buffer zone for cruise ships, she covers the uniqueness of history and culture that lead to the present day individuality of the territories and countries of the West Indies.
Ms. Gibson deals extensively with the histories of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. But many other islands, even the small and seemingly insignificant, warrant her mention, rendering her perspective particularly comprehensive. Thus we learn of the heyday of gangsters and nightclubs in Havana, and of the slave uprisings and brutal reprisals in Hispaniola, but we also discover the story of the violent volcanic eruptions that rocked the tiny island of Saint Vincent in the Lesser Antilles.
The scope of this book is breathtaking: Ms. Gibson does not seem to miss a single beat. From the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the modern sounds of reggae, she covers the array of culture, peoples, and events, both natural and man-made, that have molded the texture of this region. She captures admirably how the tides of fortune vacillated as wars, disease, natural calamities, and money continually changed the balance of power in the region and on individual islands.
Most who visit the West Indies may have little interest in knowing anything about the region other than where to find the most exquisite beaches and best hotels. But I believe everyone who enjoys the natural beauty and man-made comforts of this region would be well served to learn more about the complex culture, people, geography, and history of the region. Perhaps Caribbean cruise ships should consider leaving a copy of Ms. Gibson's masterful history in every cabin. Even a mere perusal of this book could be a significant eye-opener for the less informed into the broader vistas of the West Indies.
Ms. Gibson creates a lively narrative supercharged with facts, but none offered gratuitously. I knew I was in for a treat as the introduction began with an anecdote about a decapitated statute still standing in a park in Fort-de-France, Martinique. We learn that the statute was of Napoleon Buonaparte's first wife, who was born on the island. Many islanders believed that it was she who convinced Napoleon to reinstate slavery on this island eight years after its abolition. The book is replete with such wonderful stories of human interest and intrigue.
Ms. Gibson's history is not one written in a vacuum, but is a comprehensive worldview of nations that meddled in and forged the complex fabric of the West Indies. After covering what little is know about the native inhabitants, who were all but obliterated by Europeans, her narrative takes full swing with the struggles of the European powers. The relative might of these powers ebbed and flowed like the tides, with the flux of fortunes reflected in the changing control of various islands and coastal regions in the West Indies.
A generation of explorers beginning in the late fifteenth century, aided by new sailing technologies, advances in astronomy, and, imperatively, royal and private investment, set forth on a westward quest for gold, exotic spices, and other riches that eventually led them to the Caribbean. The fascinating twists and turns of geography, climate, and history, including the influx of many peoples, all so well documented by Ms. Gibson, set off a chain of events that Henry the Navigator could never have imagined.
The history of the Caribbean is marred by violence and shameful disregard for human dignity. Ms. Gibson spares us no detail. But the details force the reader to acknowledge the horrific reality that marked the struggles of slaves, indentured servants, and others who have been exploited by those in search of fortune. Perhaps the greatest irony of Caribbean history is that the quixotic search for riches eventually gave way to the harvesting of sugar cane. This "useless by-product of a breed of grass," as Ms Gibson calls it, became the virtual gold of the Caribbean.
It is fascinating to discover the roster of notables throughout history who left their fingerprints on the Caribbean. From Queen Elizabeth to Oliver Cromwell; Louis XIV to Napoleon, and the latter's nemesis in the fight for Haitian independence, Toussaint Louverture, their stories are varied and fascinating. Virtually every US president left his mark on the region, starting with George Washington who fought for the British in Barbados. As Ms. Gibson sardonically remarks, British generals probably wished the future first US President would have died of the smallpox he contracted in Barbados instead of developing immunity to the disease that may have spared his life during the fight for American independence.
Perhaps missing from Ms. Gibson's discussion of great historic individuals with connections to the islands is Alexander Hamilton. Born in Nevis and raised in the Caribbean, he would go on to become the primary architect of the American financial system. He was indisputably one of the most influential world figures ever born in the West Indies, and therefore, I believe would have been worthy of mention.
We learn about the intertwined relations of the Caribbean, the American British colonies, and England, and how clandestine commerce with the islands weighed heavily in the outcome of events leading to American independence. The relationship between the Caribbean and the fledgling Republic altered drastically over time as US influence in the region and the world grew exponentially. Armed with the Monroe Doctrine, the pretext of defending American national interests, and supposedly, the islanders right to freedom from foreign interference, was a thin disguise for what the US wanted: geographic positioning, the exploitation of natural and human resources, and trade policies that favored American interests. In other words, the prize of dominance in the region had changed little from the days of European hegemony.
Imperialism in the West Indies takes an interesting twist in the twenty-first century. Trade wars that once centered around mercantilism and piracy primarily involving the age-old commodities of sugar and rum more recently have triggered WTO actions, as private and public entities fight in international courts for lucrative shares of these and other commodity markets, particularly bananas. Of even more recent interest, Ms. Gibson discusses the posturing of the United States and China in the West Indies. On this development she notes, "As the axis of global power begins to tilt to the east, The Caribbean islands still find themselves in a strategic position."
The islands share common themes, such as slavery, disease, corruption and natural disasters, but Ms. Gibson describes meticulously the individual trajectories that the islands and Caribbean coastal regions followed, giving each a distinctive history. Not surprisingly, the circumstances and prosperity of islands vary significantly today. From what Ms. Gibson calls the relative egalitarianism, albeit impoverished circumstances, of Cuba, to the extreme poverty of Haiti with its man-made buffer zone for cruise ships, she covers the uniqueness of history and culture that lead to the present day individuality of the territories and countries of the West Indies.
Ms. Gibson deals extensively with the histories of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. But many other islands, even the small and seemingly insignificant, warrant her mention, rendering her perspective particularly comprehensive. Thus we learn of the heyday of gangsters and nightclubs in Havana, and of the slave uprisings and brutal reprisals in Hispaniola, but we also discover the story of the violent volcanic eruptions that rocked the tiny island of Saint Vincent in the Lesser Antilles.
The scope of this book is breathtaking: Ms. Gibson does not seem to miss a single beat. From the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the modern sounds of reggae, she covers the array of culture, peoples, and events, both natural and man-made, that have molded the texture of this region. She captures admirably how the tides of fortune vacillated as wars, disease, natural calamities, and money continually changed the balance of power in the region and on individual islands.
Most who visit the West Indies may have little interest in knowing anything about the region other than where to find the most exquisite beaches and best hotels. But I believe everyone who enjoys the natural beauty and man-made comforts of this region would be well served to learn more about the complex culture, people, geography, and history of the region. Perhaps Caribbean cruise ships should consider leaving a copy of Ms. Gibson's masterful history in every cabin. Even a mere perusal of this book could be a significant eye-opener for the less informed into the broader vistas of the West Indies.
July 24, 2020
My thoughts on this book are a bit complicated. It’s pros are that it is a great, albeit shallow look, at the 400 year history of the Caribbean region in a well researched and narratively engaging way. There are many interesting little historical tidbits that keep the book from being dry and Gibson does a solid job of pacing the book. When you’re writing about 400 years of history of multiple islands and different nations, there’s only so deep you can go, and I can definitely recommend this to anyone with a limited knowledge of Caribbean history who wants a solid overview. As a student who did three years of my History undergrad in Trinidad, her comments on the ignorance, sometimes willfully so, of tourists of the region is spot on and she shows the ridiculous stereotyping of the people of that region.
The cons, as some other reviewers have pointed out, is this has a very Eurocentric lenses and sometimes deeply plays into the what I call “oh poor them” viewpoint of the Caribbean and it’s people. While it’s undeniable that historically the Caribbean has faced atrocities and certain nations do struggle with poverty, Gibson seems to focus much more on them, then some of the more economically prosperous islands such as Barbados, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. Gibson seems to take the extreme poverty of Jamaica and Haiti and extrapolates it across the whole region. In her sections where she is dealing with the modern Caribbean it would have been nice to see a lot more viewpoints of either modern day Caribbean historians or just everyday people living on the island. Also, while it’s partially understandable because they’re the biggest and most well known islands, Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola get the lions share of the attention of the book.
A solid read for someone trying to become generally knowledgeable of the region but should only be a jumping off point to deeper reading of the area if one wishes to learn more.
The cons, as some other reviewers have pointed out, is this has a very Eurocentric lenses and sometimes deeply plays into the what I call “oh poor them” viewpoint of the Caribbean and it’s people. While it’s undeniable that historically the Caribbean has faced atrocities and certain nations do struggle with poverty, Gibson seems to focus much more on them, then some of the more economically prosperous islands such as Barbados, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. Gibson seems to take the extreme poverty of Jamaica and Haiti and extrapolates it across the whole region. In her sections where she is dealing with the modern Caribbean it would have been nice to see a lot more viewpoints of either modern day Caribbean historians or just everyday people living on the island. Also, while it’s partially understandable because they’re the biggest and most well known islands, Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola get the lions share of the attention of the book.
A solid read for someone trying to become generally knowledgeable of the region but should only be a jumping off point to deeper reading of the area if one wishes to learn more.
October 3, 2022
Gibson took on quite the task in attempting to provide a history of the Caribbean from the European annexation to the current day.
An amazing collection of information and research especially since there are so many islands with their own individual history and cultural essence. From the impact of immigration from the colonial controller to the thousands of Africans transplanted to perform the brutally hard work on cash crop plantations. The carryover of African cultural that merged with the remains of other tribes as well as the vanishing indigenous peoples. The difference in how the European overlords
treated their territories from Spain to Portugal to France and the Netherlands.
The author was determined to not this turn into a history of Cuba or Haiti but every single island looked to the other two for inspiration or caution on the 'wrong' thing to do in order to gain freedom and equality. So both countries were an influence on the area as was the looming United States with it's determination to protect the countries of the Americas from European control and interference. Although the Caribbean nations likely didn't want nor desire the United States intrusions.
Also, unfortunately, by the end it seemed like Gibson would discuss an island, the political and/or social activists that worked to bring about it's freedom or political partnership with it's former colonial control, the battles fought and won (or perhaps lost). The fight for identity and economic health. Even those islands that are tourist destinations of the cruise ships only receive a limited amount of jobs. A destination is likely controlled by the cruise ship companies and the workers live on the other side of the proverbial fence and are only allowed inside to work.
2022-207
An amazing collection of information and research especially since there are so many islands with their own individual history and cultural essence. From the impact of immigration from the colonial controller to the thousands of Africans transplanted to perform the brutally hard work on cash crop plantations. The carryover of African cultural that merged with the remains of other tribes as well as the vanishing indigenous peoples. The difference in how the European overlords
treated their territories from Spain to Portugal to France and the Netherlands.
The author was determined to not this turn into a history of Cuba or Haiti but every single island looked to the other two for inspiration or caution on the 'wrong' thing to do in order to gain freedom and equality. So both countries were an influence on the area as was the looming United States with it's determination to protect the countries of the Americas from European control and interference. Although the Caribbean nations likely didn't want nor desire the United States intrusions.
Also, unfortunately, by the end it seemed like Gibson would discuss an island, the political and/or social activists that worked to bring about it's freedom or political partnership with it's former colonial control, the battles fought and won (or perhaps lost). The fight for identity and economic health. Even those islands that are tourist destinations of the cruise ships only receive a limited amount of jobs. A destination is likely controlled by the cruise ship companies and the workers live on the other side of the proverbial fence and are only allowed inside to work.
2022-207
September 27, 2023
A strong, but very traditional, introduction to Caribbean history. Gibson does an excellent job of exploring early colonization, environment, commodities, and slavery in the Caribbean. While primarily writing a trade and political history, she manages to incorporate some social and cultural history into her work, examining the different ways the islands were viewed by European and American powers, racial inequality, and economic inequality. Like a lot of regional histories, however, the book becomes much less focused once it reaches the 20th century, trying to cover all the major events while struggling to place them in context. While Gibson does a far better job than most at this, she too is unable to deal with the broader socio-economic and political forces shaping both individual nations and the region as a whole. Employing more theory in her work to try and explain the similarities and distinctions among the islands, as she did when recounting their colonial history, would have greatly strengthened her work. Furthermore, exploring more social history of the island would also have benefited her work by giving the islanders themselves more of a voice in her narrative, as well as reinforcing the importance of commodities, race, and changing economies in shaping the history of the region.
That being said, this is still a good introduction to Caribbean history. While readers looking for social history or people-focused history will likely be disappointed, they will still find a history that covers most of the important economic and political factors. You'll likely be left wanting more, but it should at least serve to galvanize your interest in the history of specific regions and time periods.
That being said, this is still a good introduction to Caribbean history. While readers looking for social history or people-focused history will likely be disappointed, they will still find a history that covers most of the important economic and political factors. You'll likely be left wanting more, but it should at least serve to galvanize your interest in the history of specific regions and time periods.
August 8, 2023
Gibson takes on a lot trying to write a history of the West Indies or the Caribbean, but there are common themes with nearly all the islands. Her title, Empire’s Crossroads is aptly titled as this area was a crossroads between the Americas and Europe and became the hub of trade through the years. Often conflicts among European countries (mainly England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands) involved these islands as well. These rivalries helped to shape the future of the islands out of which emerged a unique culture that later influenced the world. While the European powers brought order and structure they also brought destruction, chaos, and disorder as well. There is a mythology about Caribbean history with the following stages; slaves brought from Africa, worked as pirates, forced into slavery in sugar cane fields, fought in wars/rebellions, squatted on land, became unionized laborers, and finally ran a resort. Gilbert sees common characteristics among the islands such as: forts built to protect trade from pirates; smuggling of goods in and out like tobacco, coffee, chocolate; sugar plantations and sugar mills that necessitated more slave labor which led to slave codes, rebellion and violent punishments; class structure based on racism; increased involvement and interference by European countries and the U.S.; rise of Black Power; independence movements; gunboat diplomacy and occupation forces; large companies establishing plantations and taking control or heavily influencing island governments (United Fruit Company); during the Cold War confrontations between US and USSR for influence and control of islands; rise of dictatorships; new levels of smuggling of people and drugs which leads to increased gang violence; and finally a cultural explosion of music, art, religion, dance, language, literature, the Carnival, and baseball. The conclusion of the book is based on the influence of tourism; tourism and stereotypes, racism, modernization, and the fostering of the “paradise myth” of the Caribbean. Now tourists see only the resorts where the myth is promoted for money sake. A very interesting read.
March 16, 2021
I would give this less but the text is at least intelligible. It claims to be a “new” history but is just a retelling of the same historical narrative of imperial conquest that forces the Caribbean to the periphery in favour of a European perspective. The writer’s roots in the South could have provided nuance to this history but instead dwells on existing historiography. This would have definitely benefited from depth of knowledge over breadth as the scope of the book means that the stories of numerous countries in the Caribbean are simply omitted. Overall leaves more to be desired and attests to the need for Caribbean historians to take possession of our history so that the story of the people and our islands are the focus.
December 17, 2024
Need to chew on this longer but incredible intro to a region speed running history
July 23, 2022
Empire's Crossroads took a very long time to read; but I still gave it four stars. The book is not a page turner; more like a textbook on Caribbean Island development, but it is still good. It took me nearly 6 months to finish this book but only because I would read it in bits powering through a few chapters then pausing for a month or more. This is because almost every chapter stands on its own.
The book is very well researched and while some have suggested the later chapters are 'add ons' a careful reading will reveal that these chapters, which detail more historically recent events like the rise of Communism and tourism in the Caribbean are just touching on events that haven't been written about as extensively by others as have the early events relative to Caribbean discovery, settlement, and the slave trade in the islands.
The chapters that detail how slavery ended on the island was particularly insightful. I didn't realize that Haiti gained their independence so early (1804 BTW). And it's sad to see that it is now one of the Caribbean island countries that is the least developed and with the most problems with internal strife and corruption.
Overall this is an excellent book on this subject and one that I think everyone with any interest would do well to read.
The book is very well researched and while some have suggested the later chapters are 'add ons' a careful reading will reveal that these chapters, which detail more historically recent events like the rise of Communism and tourism in the Caribbean are just touching on events that haven't been written about as extensively by others as have the early events relative to Caribbean discovery, settlement, and the slave trade in the islands.
The chapters that detail how slavery ended on the island was particularly insightful. I didn't realize that Haiti gained their independence so early (1804 BTW). And it's sad to see that it is now one of the Caribbean island countries that is the least developed and with the most problems with internal strife and corruption.
Overall this is an excellent book on this subject and one that I think everyone with any interest would do well to read.
September 9, 2020
It is worthwhile to beware of books written by people who have axes to grind. And this book is certainly an example of that genre, a work which has a certain anti-white attitude to it that makes it a problematic example of a history about a region that has more than a bit of tension regarding its identity. The author notes within the Caribbean that economic viability has often required the service of white (and brown) people to whites in various fashion, be it as slaves or workers in a plantation, or as tourism workers to privileged white tourists who are fond of traveling to places but who clearly remain outsiders to the places where they go, and the author seems to resent that. The author also notes that in cases where there is a celebration of the identity of the Tainos or Caribs, there is often a desire on the part of people not to define themselves as blacks, with a corresponding degree of hostility to the politics of black nationalism that have been all too common (and all too destructive to the well-being of post-independence Caribbean states). Sadly, the author cannot connect the dots to tie together the wasted potential of Caribbean states with their refusal to come to terms with their petty politics of identity and grievances, a pettiness that the author all too obviously and lamentably shares.
This book is about 350 pages or so and it is divided into fourteen chapters. The author begins with some maps of the West Indies as well as a list of illustrations and an introduction that presents her worldview. After that the author discusses the discovery of the Indies by Europeans during the time of Columbus (1) and the stepping stones the West made towards the Caribbean that set certain patterns into place about how the area would be exploited (2) for profit. After that comes a discussion of the time of piracy and the entrance of the Protestants into the Caribbean (3) and then the planting of sugar (4) and the resulting rise of slavery (5). After that there are chapters about the world wars of the eighteenth century (6), Haiti (7), Cuba and the contradictions of freedom (8), and the global wars and banana wars (9), that were part of the road to independence during the latter half of the 20th century (10). The author discusses the Cold War in the tropics (11), the tensions of island life (12), the problem in trying to balance imports and exports (13), the invention of paradise for tourists (14), and a conclusion, after which there is a timeline, gazetteer, acknowledgements, bibliography, notes, and index.
Even if the author kneecaps the potential insights of this book through her strident and leftist identity politics, this book does at least forcefully present the author's case to the reader rather than sugarcoating it. Open hostility is better than concealed support, at any rate, and the author leaves the reader--if they are a white of at least a decent income and a proclivity to travel to other areas and enjoy friendly people and sunny places and beautiful islands--in no doubt of her contempt and disapproval. Fortunately, the author's disapproval doesn't account for much, and she is an honest enough historian to note the struggles that have been faced and the fact that egalitarian politics have often brought with them widespread misery to the people, and if the author is more in favor of misery for everyone than luxury for some, I am glad to have her disapproval and to match it with my own. The fact that the author can praise Cuba while viewing the United States and European nations with contempt, even as she notes the disastrous flight of people from failed post-independent states trying out socialism demonstrates that she is a person lacking in sound moral and political sense. Sadly, all too many people lacking sense feel that they are qualified to write histories, and that is the case here.
This book is about 350 pages or so and it is divided into fourteen chapters. The author begins with some maps of the West Indies as well as a list of illustrations and an introduction that presents her worldview. After that the author discusses the discovery of the Indies by Europeans during the time of Columbus (1) and the stepping stones the West made towards the Caribbean that set certain patterns into place about how the area would be exploited (2) for profit. After that comes a discussion of the time of piracy and the entrance of the Protestants into the Caribbean (3) and then the planting of sugar (4) and the resulting rise of slavery (5). After that there are chapters about the world wars of the eighteenth century (6), Haiti (7), Cuba and the contradictions of freedom (8), and the global wars and banana wars (9), that were part of the road to independence during the latter half of the 20th century (10). The author discusses the Cold War in the tropics (11), the tensions of island life (12), the problem in trying to balance imports and exports (13), the invention of paradise for tourists (14), and a conclusion, after which there is a timeline, gazetteer, acknowledgements, bibliography, notes, and index.
Even if the author kneecaps the potential insights of this book through her strident and leftist identity politics, this book does at least forcefully present the author's case to the reader rather than sugarcoating it. Open hostility is better than concealed support, at any rate, and the author leaves the reader--if they are a white of at least a decent income and a proclivity to travel to other areas and enjoy friendly people and sunny places and beautiful islands--in no doubt of her contempt and disapproval. Fortunately, the author's disapproval doesn't account for much, and she is an honest enough historian to note the struggles that have been faced and the fact that egalitarian politics have often brought with them widespread misery to the people, and if the author is more in favor of misery for everyone than luxury for some, I am glad to have her disapproval and to match it with my own. The fact that the author can praise Cuba while viewing the United States and European nations with contempt, even as she notes the disastrous flight of people from failed post-independent states trying out socialism demonstrates that she is a person lacking in sound moral and political sense. Sadly, all too many people lacking sense feel that they are qualified to write histories, and that is the case here.
February 26, 2019
Many of us at some point have visited one of the many idyllic islands in the Caribbean to enjoy a nice getaway; to soak up the sun and dip our feet into the warm white sands. We swam in the warm waters of the turquoise-blue Caribbean Ocean and have downed a glass of cold rum. Maybe sipped on a fancy drink that had a little umbrella resting on the glass rim. We enjoyed our new tans and flew back home feeling rested and already counting down the days for our next vacation.
Then author Carrie Gibson demolished that dreamy, sublime picture of the Caribbean and replaced it with a scene of constant destruction, exploitation, war, slavery and racism that permeated the region for centuries. Once Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of San Salvador, in present-day Bahamas, the world changed forever.
The Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Danish had a continual tug-of-war with the islands. When the rest of Europe saw how prosperous Spain was becoming after the “discovery” of the New World, other countries jumped in on the action and began sending their own ships to collect their share of the riches and splendor. Soon tobacco, sugar, coffee, and rum began to satiate the appetite of the deprived masses of North America and Europe. The hunger and thirst for these vices were first supplied by the blood, sweat and tears of the indigenous and once their population dwindled from disease and brutality African slaves were shipped in.
Gibson details the politics and history of the region like Castro’s Cuba or the tumultuous relationship of Haiti/Dominican Republic. She does a great job at stuffing such a heavy and numerous history into 400 or so pages. The book also offers an extensive bibliography, notes and index section and Gibson does a great job at listing her sources. There are also about 20 or so full color pictures that wonderfully add to the narrative.
I recommend this book to those who are interested in the turbulent and explosive history of the Caribbean. The term “paradise” is a façade and when we can look beyond the fog made by the cruise ships and the all-inclusive resorts then one can view the unfortunate poverty and crime that the tourists don’t see.
Then author Carrie Gibson demolished that dreamy, sublime picture of the Caribbean and replaced it with a scene of constant destruction, exploitation, war, slavery and racism that permeated the region for centuries. Once Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of San Salvador, in present-day Bahamas, the world changed forever.
The Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Danish had a continual tug-of-war with the islands. When the rest of Europe saw how prosperous Spain was becoming after the “discovery” of the New World, other countries jumped in on the action and began sending their own ships to collect their share of the riches and splendor. Soon tobacco, sugar, coffee, and rum began to satiate the appetite of the deprived masses of North America and Europe. The hunger and thirst for these vices were first supplied by the blood, sweat and tears of the indigenous and once their population dwindled from disease and brutality African slaves were shipped in.
Gibson details the politics and history of the region like Castro’s Cuba or the tumultuous relationship of Haiti/Dominican Republic. She does a great job at stuffing such a heavy and numerous history into 400 or so pages. The book also offers an extensive bibliography, notes and index section and Gibson does a great job at listing her sources. There are also about 20 or so full color pictures that wonderfully add to the narrative.
I recommend this book to those who are interested in the turbulent and explosive history of the Caribbean. The term “paradise” is a façade and when we can look beyond the fog made by the cruise ships and the all-inclusive resorts then one can view the unfortunate poverty and crime that the tourists don’t see.
December 4, 2015
If you need to study Caribbean History, this is the book - lots of useful information that is hard to find. The US base for Navy destroyers at Chaguaramas, Trinidad was placed smack dab in a favorite bathing beach, which suddenly became off limits. Then eviction notices came. Sound like Okinawa’s story, anyone? From the comical Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, the two exiles of Aristide in Haiti, to the theft of Guantanamo Bay (the last remnant of the Platt Amendment), Ms. Gibson, much her credit, does not shy away from pointing out the US’s detrimental involvement with the Caribbean.
My favorite line in the book comes from Maurice Bishop, “Most of the tourists who come to our country are white, and this clear association of whiteness and privilege is a major problem for Caribbean people just emerging out of a racist colonial history.” I loved the fact that this book also mentions how most of the visitors to the Caribbean have little to no engagement with the locals beyond those in the tourist industry. Unlike Thailand, there is no backpacker culture in the Caribbean, so there no low-carbon green way to meet locals cheaply on foot and interact with them as equals. Assume that 80% of tourist revenue leaves the island and you see another problem for locals. People go to the Caribbean to escape; and when they leave, the money escapes. Another concern is that Americans walk around in shorts and flip-flops there on a “permanent party” oblivious to the fact that the locals wear shoes, proper shirts and trousers respectably doing their daily routine. I love Jamaica Kincaid’s line at the end, “Every native would like a rest.” Bravo, terrific book…
My favorite line in the book comes from Maurice Bishop, “Most of the tourists who come to our country are white, and this clear association of whiteness and privilege is a major problem for Caribbean people just emerging out of a racist colonial history.” I loved the fact that this book also mentions how most of the visitors to the Caribbean have little to no engagement with the locals beyond those in the tourist industry. Unlike Thailand, there is no backpacker culture in the Caribbean, so there no low-carbon green way to meet locals cheaply on foot and interact with them as equals. Assume that 80% of tourist revenue leaves the island and you see another problem for locals. People go to the Caribbean to escape; and when they leave, the money escapes. Another concern is that Americans walk around in shorts and flip-flops there on a “permanent party” oblivious to the fact that the locals wear shoes, proper shirts and trousers respectably doing their daily routine. I love Jamaica Kincaid’s line at the end, “Every native would like a rest.” Bravo, terrific book…
May 9, 2019
A once over lightly treatment - breaks no new ground that I can see.
December 30, 2023
Review title: Living on island time
From the global scope of The World: A family history of humanity to the British Empire in the last four centuries in Empireland: How imperialism has shaped modern Britain, to the clash of empires (British, Dutch, Spanish, American, and more) on the front lines of the Caribbean. Gibson undertakes a broad swath of global change and cultural clash in a surprisingly small space.
When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 he discovered not a new world, but a whole set of cultures, languages, and ways of living long established but not known to the Mediterranean world. This world of hundreds of small islands and the coastlines of what we would later call Central, South, and North America was not where Columbus thought he was going, was not what his patrons wanted, and was not ready for what this old world brought with it: "Europeans brought destruction, chaos, and disorder. They may have built roads and setup bureaucracies, or maintained a semblance of control through the repression of dissent or uprising, but as becomes clear early on, resistance and rebellion was all around." (p. xix).
The Europeans divided and categorized the people into artificial dialectics using the names the locals provided: the peaceful Tainos and the violent Caribs (p. 31-32), whose name was applied to the whole ocean and region. And they saw the land and the peoples as primarily useful for producing two products--tobacco and sugar cane--that would prove to be both addictive and harmful to physical health and economic and societal health. The intense labor required for both products resulted in the death of the Native peoples and the enslavement and import of millions of black African slaves. "While the European middle classes delighted in its sweetness, sugar produced nothing but bitterness for those who were forced to plant, harvest, and process it." (p. 94). The outsized impact of the Caribbean on the world had begun, as empires clashed, people suffered, and economies and nations grew out of such difficult beginnings.
Gibson does a good job of telling this story, with the generalization and summarization required to bring such a huge scope of time, peoples, and ways of life into a narrative history that can be documented and read by general readers and still hew close to the documented sources. The book follows roughly chronological order, but as the history and documentation expands breaking off to frame the chronology around major topics like slavery, colonialism, and revolutions. The history of the island of Hispaniola is one key intersection of all of those aspects as the island was divided by the Spanish and French empire's with different approaches to the economy, ethnicity, and governance of the island, resulting in vastly different histories that remain very relevant to today's Haiti and Dominican Republic nations and citizens. For example: "While Haitians often embraced their African roots, as was reflected by their religious practices and other cultural manifestations, many Dominicans generally looked to Spain for their heritage, not to Haiti and certainly not to Africa." (p. 254)
The author provides end notes and bibliography, a gazetteer with a brief paragraph summary of the history of the major islands, and at the front of the book because the reader will reference them many times while reading, maps of the area at the time of Columbus's voyages, at the peak of the colonization and slavery-driven production in 1760, and at the time of the book's publication in 2014. The bibliographic references will be important to readers who want to dive deeper than the summary level Gibson can provide here.
As the United States rose in world importance and began establishing its own empire around the globe, it became a major player in the Caribbean, as Gibson writes about the Panama Canal and the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century and the rise of Cuba as first an economic adjunct to the American empire in the first half of the 1900s and then as a communist satellite of the Cold War Soviet Union just off the southern shores of the US in the second half. As she brings the history up to the present day, the level of summarization necessarily increases and will leave readers reaching for other sources for details. The last couple of chapters focus on the modern economic impact and interaction between the Caribbean and the global economy ("Import/Export", p. 324) and the Caribbean's cultural role as an "Invented Paradise" (p. 338): in 2012 35 million people visited the island via land or cruise ship, almost matching the total 40 million population of the Caribbean nations (p. 342).
From the global scope of The World: A family history of humanity to the British Empire in the last four centuries in Empireland: How imperialism has shaped modern Britain, to the clash of empires (British, Dutch, Spanish, American, and more) on the front lines of the Caribbean. Gibson undertakes a broad swath of global change and cultural clash in a surprisingly small space.
When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 he discovered not a new world, but a whole set of cultures, languages, and ways of living long established but not known to the Mediterranean world. This world of hundreds of small islands and the coastlines of what we would later call Central, South, and North America was not where Columbus thought he was going, was not what his patrons wanted, and was not ready for what this old world brought with it: "Europeans brought destruction, chaos, and disorder. They may have built roads and setup bureaucracies, or maintained a semblance of control through the repression of dissent or uprising, but as becomes clear early on, resistance and rebellion was all around." (p. xix).
The Europeans divided and categorized the people into artificial dialectics using the names the locals provided: the peaceful Tainos and the violent Caribs (p. 31-32), whose name was applied to the whole ocean and region. And they saw the land and the peoples as primarily useful for producing two products--tobacco and sugar cane--that would prove to be both addictive and harmful to physical health and economic and societal health. The intense labor required for both products resulted in the death of the Native peoples and the enslavement and import of millions of black African slaves. "While the European middle classes delighted in its sweetness, sugar produced nothing but bitterness for those who were forced to plant, harvest, and process it." (p. 94). The outsized impact of the Caribbean on the world had begun, as empires clashed, people suffered, and economies and nations grew out of such difficult beginnings.
Gibson does a good job of telling this story, with the generalization and summarization required to bring such a huge scope of time, peoples, and ways of life into a narrative history that can be documented and read by general readers and still hew close to the documented sources. The book follows roughly chronological order, but as the history and documentation expands breaking off to frame the chronology around major topics like slavery, colonialism, and revolutions. The history of the island of Hispaniola is one key intersection of all of those aspects as the island was divided by the Spanish and French empire's with different approaches to the economy, ethnicity, and governance of the island, resulting in vastly different histories that remain very relevant to today's Haiti and Dominican Republic nations and citizens. For example: "While Haitians often embraced their African roots, as was reflected by their religious practices and other cultural manifestations, many Dominicans generally looked to Spain for their heritage, not to Haiti and certainly not to Africa." (p. 254)
The author provides end notes and bibliography, a gazetteer with a brief paragraph summary of the history of the major islands, and at the front of the book because the reader will reference them many times while reading, maps of the area at the time of Columbus's voyages, at the peak of the colonization and slavery-driven production in 1760, and at the time of the book's publication in 2014. The bibliographic references will be important to readers who want to dive deeper than the summary level Gibson can provide here.
As the United States rose in world importance and began establishing its own empire around the globe, it became a major player in the Caribbean, as Gibson writes about the Panama Canal and the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century and the rise of Cuba as first an economic adjunct to the American empire in the first half of the 1900s and then as a communist satellite of the Cold War Soviet Union just off the southern shores of the US in the second half. As she brings the history up to the present day, the level of summarization necessarily increases and will leave readers reaching for other sources for details. The last couple of chapters focus on the modern economic impact and interaction between the Caribbean and the global economy ("Import/Export", p. 324) and the Caribbean's cultural role as an "Invented Paradise" (p. 338): in 2012 35 million people visited the island via land or cruise ship, almost matching the total 40 million population of the Caribbean nations (p. 342).
June 24, 2025
This is a massive tour de force of the entire Caribbean, but as primarily a social history it is outside of my usual interests. For that reason I found it slow reading.
Gibson carries us through the Caribbean after its discovery by Columbus, and throughout its various transformations and evolutions.
From my earlier readings on the Spanish Caribbean I knew it was an economic backwater, that the primary economic activity was cattle-raising. I was surprised to learn that in the Dominican Republic this remained the case for a long time.
We learn that the British, Dutch, and French began to settle the Lesser Antilles, largely ignored by Spain because of the fierce Carib inhabitants and because the islands were unsuitable for the then dominant trade in hides.
Desperate to make these islands pay, the interlopers on Spain's empire introduced tobacco, and then far more radically, sugar.
Sugar transformed the Caribbean in dynamic ways that continue to influence our own times. The hunger of sugar for labor kicked off the slave trade in real earnest, and the region's population of largely African origin is the result of this process.
We learn that the Lesser Antilles led the sugar revolution, until the French cultivated it in their half of Hispaniola. We learn about the slave revolts in Jamaica and Haiti, the topsy-turvy politics of the latter especially.
We learn that with the sugar beet the Caribbean declined, but I was surprised to find out that Caribbean sugarcane recovered in the nineteenth century, and did so primarily in the remaining colonies of Spain, especially Cuba. The curious thing is that sugar had not been a major crop in these islands before this time, perhaps because the French in Haiti dominated the market. Or perhaps for other reasons, Gibson does not provide much in the way of explanation for the tardy development of sugar in Cuba and Porto Rico. I suspect that perhaps it also because Spain continued to have slaves after the institution was abolished throughout the French and British empires.
I was hoping to read something on Hemingway in Cuba, on the U-Boats in the Caribbean, and on the exiles from Gibraltar moved to Caribbean Islands during WWII. I had read or acquired some monographs on these subjects but not much light is shed on them here, Hemingway is not even mentioned.
Batista's corrupt Cuba, which was Hemingway's paradise, is mentioned here however. The casinos, the nightclubs, the sex and drugs. Vegas in an island, which is what Castro was determined to reform. One can easily picture scenes from the film Havana with Robert Redford.
This work is somewhat disjointed, because the author goes into depth about places like Grenada and Guiana in the final chapters, which I wonder if it's due to the British perspective of the author and her assumption that perhaps the audience is also British.
But she said hardly anything about these places in earlier chapters, so one is left sort of confused as to how the politics of these places in the twentieth century developed.
One aspect I did appreciate was Gibson's pains to explain that the Caribbean is not a paradise, as many tourist brochures would have us believe. This is in conformity with the realities of places like the Mediterranean and the tropics in general, which are often regarded as paradisiacal, with lush vegetation, endless sunshine, beaches, etc, but are often mired in poverty because the region is less suitable to human development than it seems. These regions face a lot of challenges from the environment, and are often much poorer than temperate regions.
The region has also always been characterized by an economic dependency in more developed regions. From the earliest days the Spanish instituted monopolistic practices whereby the raw materials of the colonies were exchanged for finished goods (increasingly made outside of Spain, unfortunately), but this has continued down to the present day. The Caribbean is the source of tropical products like sugar, tobacco, coconuts, bananas, cocoa, coffee, rum, even drugs like cocaine and marijuana, and a consumer of industrial or finished goods from Europe or the United States.
We learn about reggae and Rastafarianism and countless poets and literary figures. It is just jam-packed with facts. For a general overview of the Caribbean and its culture, its contribution to the global economy, to music and literature, one can hardly do better than this book.
Gibson carries us through the Caribbean after its discovery by Columbus, and throughout its various transformations and evolutions.
From my earlier readings on the Spanish Caribbean I knew it was an economic backwater, that the primary economic activity was cattle-raising. I was surprised to learn that in the Dominican Republic this remained the case for a long time.
We learn that the British, Dutch, and French began to settle the Lesser Antilles, largely ignored by Spain because of the fierce Carib inhabitants and because the islands were unsuitable for the then dominant trade in hides.
Desperate to make these islands pay, the interlopers on Spain's empire introduced tobacco, and then far more radically, sugar.
Sugar transformed the Caribbean in dynamic ways that continue to influence our own times. The hunger of sugar for labor kicked off the slave trade in real earnest, and the region's population of largely African origin is the result of this process.
We learn that the Lesser Antilles led the sugar revolution, until the French cultivated it in their half of Hispaniola. We learn about the slave revolts in Jamaica and Haiti, the topsy-turvy politics of the latter especially.
We learn that with the sugar beet the Caribbean declined, but I was surprised to find out that Caribbean sugarcane recovered in the nineteenth century, and did so primarily in the remaining colonies of Spain, especially Cuba. The curious thing is that sugar had not been a major crop in these islands before this time, perhaps because the French in Haiti dominated the market. Or perhaps for other reasons, Gibson does not provide much in the way of explanation for the tardy development of sugar in Cuba and Porto Rico. I suspect that perhaps it also because Spain continued to have slaves after the institution was abolished throughout the French and British empires.
I was hoping to read something on Hemingway in Cuba, on the U-Boats in the Caribbean, and on the exiles from Gibraltar moved to Caribbean Islands during WWII. I had read or acquired some monographs on these subjects but not much light is shed on them here, Hemingway is not even mentioned.
Batista's corrupt Cuba, which was Hemingway's paradise, is mentioned here however. The casinos, the nightclubs, the sex and drugs. Vegas in an island, which is what Castro was determined to reform. One can easily picture scenes from the film Havana with Robert Redford.
This work is somewhat disjointed, because the author goes into depth about places like Grenada and Guiana in the final chapters, which I wonder if it's due to the British perspective of the author and her assumption that perhaps the audience is also British.
But she said hardly anything about these places in earlier chapters, so one is left sort of confused as to how the politics of these places in the twentieth century developed.
One aspect I did appreciate was Gibson's pains to explain that the Caribbean is not a paradise, as many tourist brochures would have us believe. This is in conformity with the realities of places like the Mediterranean and the tropics in general, which are often regarded as paradisiacal, with lush vegetation, endless sunshine, beaches, etc, but are often mired in poverty because the region is less suitable to human development than it seems. These regions face a lot of challenges from the environment, and are often much poorer than temperate regions.
The region has also always been characterized by an economic dependency in more developed regions. From the earliest days the Spanish instituted monopolistic practices whereby the raw materials of the colonies were exchanged for finished goods (increasingly made outside of Spain, unfortunately), but this has continued down to the present day. The Caribbean is the source of tropical products like sugar, tobacco, coconuts, bananas, cocoa, coffee, rum, even drugs like cocaine and marijuana, and a consumer of industrial or finished goods from Europe or the United States.
We learn about reggae and Rastafarianism and countless poets and literary figures. It is just jam-packed with facts. For a general overview of the Caribbean and its culture, its contribution to the global economy, to music and literature, one can hardly do better than this book.
May 31, 2019
When discussing the history of the developing world, places like Africa, India, and Latin America come easily to mind. Sadly, the Caribbean islands do not come so easily. However, in this dense, but important, work of history, Carrie Gibson tries to fill that hole in the historical record and remind the world of the importance this region has played in world events.
Starting with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Caribbean in 1492, Ms. Gibson deftly weaves through this regions often volatile history. From discovery, to colonization, to independence, the Caribbean’s history shines through. Ms. Gibson also reminds in some places and reveals in others just how important this region was, and still is, to many Westerners and locals alike. The history of the region is not just pirates, sugar cane, and slavery, but also the place where escaped slaves hid in the jungles and fought for their freedom, sometimes even holding great empires at bay. They are also islands that gave us such figures as Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley, whose Black Power and Rastafarian influences can still be felt across the world today. Through it all, she points out how the islands have always been a place of imposed luxury, from Europeans growing sugar crops to tourists visiting on cruise ships. Yet, this luxury was and still is tainted by unseen exploitation of the locals.
As someone who lived in the Caribbean for a time, I am very appreciative of a book like this and I do hope that people will read it and learn more about the region. That said, this is not an easy book to get through. Despite it’s relatively short length, for a history book, of 350 narrative pages, this is an incredibly dense read. Because the region is so spread out and each island has its own particular nuances, some chapters just feel so jammed with facts and figures it can be difficult to keep track or even keep your attention up. I feel as though 50-100 more pages would have given this history a chance to breathe a little.
The Caribbean is a critical place filled with beauty and inequity alike. Ms. Gibson’s history of the region is important to read and even illuminating at parts. Just know that this book is dense and you might want to start with individual island histories first before plunging into this regional history.
Starting with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Caribbean in 1492, Ms. Gibson deftly weaves through this regions often volatile history. From discovery, to colonization, to independence, the Caribbean’s history shines through. Ms. Gibson also reminds in some places and reveals in others just how important this region was, and still is, to many Westerners and locals alike. The history of the region is not just pirates, sugar cane, and slavery, but also the place where escaped slaves hid in the jungles and fought for their freedom, sometimes even holding great empires at bay. They are also islands that gave us such figures as Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley, whose Black Power and Rastafarian influences can still be felt across the world today. Through it all, she points out how the islands have always been a place of imposed luxury, from Europeans growing sugar crops to tourists visiting on cruise ships. Yet, this luxury was and still is tainted by unseen exploitation of the locals.
As someone who lived in the Caribbean for a time, I am very appreciative of a book like this and I do hope that people will read it and learn more about the region. That said, this is not an easy book to get through. Despite it’s relatively short length, for a history book, of 350 narrative pages, this is an incredibly dense read. Because the region is so spread out and each island has its own particular nuances, some chapters just feel so jammed with facts and figures it can be difficult to keep track or even keep your attention up. I feel as though 50-100 more pages would have given this history a chance to breathe a little.
The Caribbean is a critical place filled with beauty and inequity alike. Ms. Gibson’s history of the region is important to read and even illuminating at parts. Just know that this book is dense and you might want to start with individual island histories first before plunging into this regional history.
April 18, 2022
Even having two history degrees, there are few historical non-fictions I can read in a couple of days.
Most suffer the same inadequacies. First the author presumed too much of the reader i.e. some knowledge of the area and key events. The second is the tendency for the writing to become almost textbook. Too many complex footnotes and historiographical debates. Thirdly they tend towards starchy and heavy content - Mary Beard I’m looking at you!
This book for all that it wants to achieve, fell into none of these traps. As such, if you’re not a qualified historian and are just interested in the subject matter well, this is for you!
To sum up the Caribbean in one book was always going to be a huge task. Dozens of European nations were involved, slavery complex, different languages, peoples, races and traditions involved. Each island has its own history as diverse and interesting as the next, so whilst I applaud the author for her courage I think maybe it needed two books or even a series.
Why? Well the first half definitely set a good pace. It was easy to read, well researched and covered good ground, across most of the islands big and small.
Whilst slavery was explored it was not the focus of the book. This worked well actually, as slavery is a subject which requires a separate, in-depth work by all manner of scholars to understand it more comprehensively and from different perspectives. (if the that can ever be done? To quote Conrad, ‘you can never understand the horror’.
What I’m saying is that it covered it enough for a short history.
Where I feel the book fell down (and why I dropped a star) is that the second half from the 19th Century onwards, seemed a little rushed. Like trying to cram the history of the 20th century into 20 pages. Huge events were covered in what seemed like a sentence, from the Bay of Pigs, Spain’s ‘El Disastro ’, to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. It needed a second book!
That said I did really enjoy it. I learned a lot. Plus it wasn’t academically overwhelming. I would recommend to anyone, the historian as well as someone with no knowledge of Caribbean history. A good concise history. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Most suffer the same inadequacies. First the author presumed too much of the reader i.e. some knowledge of the area and key events. The second is the tendency for the writing to become almost textbook. Too many complex footnotes and historiographical debates. Thirdly they tend towards starchy and heavy content - Mary Beard I’m looking at you!
This book for all that it wants to achieve, fell into none of these traps. As such, if you’re not a qualified historian and are just interested in the subject matter well, this is for you!
To sum up the Caribbean in one book was always going to be a huge task. Dozens of European nations were involved, slavery complex, different languages, peoples, races and traditions involved. Each island has its own history as diverse and interesting as the next, so whilst I applaud the author for her courage I think maybe it needed two books or even a series.
Why? Well the first half definitely set a good pace. It was easy to read, well researched and covered good ground, across most of the islands big and small.
Whilst slavery was explored it was not the focus of the book. This worked well actually, as slavery is a subject which requires a separate, in-depth work by all manner of scholars to understand it more comprehensively and from different perspectives. (if the that can ever be done? To quote Conrad, ‘you can never understand the horror’.
What I’m saying is that it covered it enough for a short history.
Where I feel the book fell down (and why I dropped a star) is that the second half from the 19th Century onwards, seemed a little rushed. Like trying to cram the history of the 20th century into 20 pages. Huge events were covered in what seemed like a sentence, from the Bay of Pigs, Spain’s ‘El Disastro ’, to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. It needed a second book!
That said I did really enjoy it. I learned a lot. Plus it wasn’t academically overwhelming. I would recommend to anyone, the historian as well as someone with no knowledge of Caribbean history. A good concise history. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
October 20, 2024
Ms. Gibson seems to be confused as to what a history of the Caribbean should encompass. Empire's Crossroads includes not only a history of the islands of the Caribbean, but also Central and South American countries on the Caribbean. The result is that she tries to cover way too much ground, with a history that can already be confusing at times, keeping the island nations sorted out as she skips around the Caribbean.
I don't think a reader interested in the Caribbean is necessarily interested in the history of Guatemala or Honduras or Guyana. At least she doesn't include Mexico or the the U.S., other than to touch on New Orleans and Florida briefly.
I'm sure readers like me were constantly having to go back to doublecheck which island she's talking about. To make matters worse, and irritating, was that, in the audiobook, the female narrator (did it have to be female just because the author is?) constantly made egregious errors in pronunciation. For example, she pronounces a simple word such as diaspora two different ways, neither of them correct. It seems hard to believe the narrator never heard the word spoken or, for that matter, the name of Haile Selassie, putting the emphasis on the last syllable of his last name. It's distracting to say the least.
Ms. Gibson writes more like a journalist, than a scholar or historian, exposing the death and destruction that white people brought to the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. That's right, you're gonna get lectured that your ancestors were terrible people.
I don't think a reader interested in the Caribbean is necessarily interested in the history of Guatemala or Honduras or Guyana. At least she doesn't include Mexico or the the U.S., other than to touch on New Orleans and Florida briefly.
I'm sure readers like me were constantly having to go back to doublecheck which island she's talking about. To make matters worse, and irritating, was that, in the audiobook, the female narrator (did it have to be female just because the author is?) constantly made egregious errors in pronunciation. For example, she pronounces a simple word such as diaspora two different ways, neither of them correct. It seems hard to believe the narrator never heard the word spoken or, for that matter, the name of Haile Selassie, putting the emphasis on the last syllable of his last name. It's distracting to say the least.
Ms. Gibson writes more like a journalist, than a scholar or historian, exposing the death and destruction that white people brought to the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. That's right, you're gonna get lectured that your ancestors were terrible people.
January 4, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, went out to find a comprehensive history of the Caribbean after getting a taste travelling to the Canaries (jumping of point for Columbus) & Honduras + Belize.
Got exactly what I was looking for, wish I had read it when I was there.
I've learned tons, and it has considerably shifted my view on my country's history (The Netherlands). To me the best feature was getting the insight how the different phases in time featured different developments on different islands all influencing each other. And of course the deep background on slavery and racism. And that these are constructs of the West Indian society and not a given.
Even though I am enthusiastic, it does sometimes feel a bit too much as a counterbalance to current western-centric views of the region. And because it is such a vast region and countries do have histories of their own some parts turn into a bit of a listig of facts.
Note, there is a good description per country in the back of the book that I only found when I finished it.
Comes highly recommended to interested parties, especially as a start of point of further reading.
Got exactly what I was looking for, wish I had read it when I was there.
I've learned tons, and it has considerably shifted my view on my country's history (The Netherlands). To me the best feature was getting the insight how the different phases in time featured different developments on different islands all influencing each other. And of course the deep background on slavery and racism. And that these are constructs of the West Indian society and not a given.
Even though I am enthusiastic, it does sometimes feel a bit too much as a counterbalance to current western-centric views of the region. And because it is such a vast region and countries do have histories of their own some parts turn into a bit of a listig of facts.
Note, there is a good description per country in the back of the book that I only found when I finished it.
Comes highly recommended to interested parties, especially as a start of point of further reading.
August 3, 2018
The strength of this book is that it incorporates the whole sweep of Caribbean history from Columbus's first landing up to the present day. I found much of interest, especially in the complicated and tragic history of the island of Hispaniola. The weaknesses are partly the impossibility of doing full justice between the covers of a single volume to such a large geographical region over such an eventful sweep of time. There are recurring themes, of course - slavery and sugar being the main ones - and a great deal of this is painful to read. One senses the author striving to be balanced: so on Cuba, Batista is admitted to have been corrupt but Castro's persecution of homosexuals is also noted - but there are plenty of occasions when the author's left-liberal bias is on display - for example, her conviction that US intervention in the Caribbean in modern times has been a dark and destabilising example of colonialism. Maybe so, but I'd prefer to draw my own conclusions from neutrally expressed information.
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