Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean - Softcover

Palmer, Colin A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807829870 ISBN 13: 9780807829875

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006

Synopsis

This book helps in understanding the influential West Indian scholar and politician. Born in Trinidad, Eric Williams (1911-81) founded the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago's first modern political party in 1956, led the country to independence from the British culminating in 1962, and became the nation's first prime minister. Before entering politics, he was a professor at Howard University and wrote several books, including the classic Capitalism and Slavery. In the first scholarly biography of Williams, Colin A. Palmer provides insights into Williams's personality that illuminate his life as a scholar and politician, and his tremendous influence on the historiography and politics of the Caribbean. Palmer focuses primarily on the fourteen-year period of struggles for independence in the Anglophone Caribbean. From 1956, when Williams became the chief minister of Trinidad and Tobago, to 1970, when the Black Power-inspired February Revolution brought his administration face to face with a younger generation intellectually indebted to his revolutionary thought, Williams was at the center of most of the conflicts and challenges that defined the region. He was most aggressive in advocating the creation of a West Indies federation to help the region assert itself in international political and economic arenas. Looking at the ideas of Williams as well as those of his Caribbean and African peers, Palmer demonstrates how the development of the modern Caribbean was inextricably intertwined with the evolution of a regional anticolonial consciousness.

About this title

About the Author

COLIN A. PALMER is Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University and author, editor, or coeditor of numerous books, including The Modern Caribbean.

From the Inside Flap

In this first scholarly assessment of Williams (1911-1981), founder of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago's first modern political party and the nation's first prime minister, Palmer explores his life as a scholar and politician and his tremendous influence on the historiography and politics of the Caribbean. Palmer focuses especially on a 14-year period of independence struggles in the Anglophone Caribbean, when Williams helped resolve regional disputes and promoted the creation of a pan-Caribbean federation.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807829870
• ISBN 13: 9780807829875
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368