Caribbean Revolutions and Revolutionary Theory: An Assessment of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Grenada

by Brian Meeks

This volume re-examines the meaning of revolution as a useful concept in politics. It traces the history of the concept from its ancient beginnings, but especially in connection with the idea of progress since the French Revolution. More recent statements are examined as a prelude to arriving at a less deterministic, entrenched definition than has often been the case, but which retains the idea of revolution as a potential window and facilitator of change.

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Christian Gurdin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best analysis of the Grenada Revolutions demise. Puts to bed conspiracy theories and analyses the social formations in which personalities, by necessity, intervened. It helps us understand the separation of the NJM vanguard / cadre formation from the masses and its subsequent paternalist (eventually authoritarian) form of rule. But it contextualises at every turn the NJM’s proclivity toward such a hierarchical mode of political rule, showing that the adoption of the vanguard party was the result of a cumulative and available ideological context, but that with every escalation of Leninism, the NJM simultaneously increased its capability of seizing power, whilst increasing its tendency toward hierarchical decision making (detached from the masses)

Meeks has in recent times added to his analyses of the Grenada Revolution in “Grenada Once Again” and “After the Postcolonial Caribbean” where he has clarified some of the minor progressivist flaws in his earlier narrative. The book stands as a 5/5 for its theoretical erudition at a time when the history of the Grenada Revolution was still caught up in sectarian debates.