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In October 1492, an Italian-born, Spanish-funded navigator discovered a new world, thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean. In Empire's Crossroads, Carrie Gibson, unfolds the story of the Caribbean from Columbus's first landing on the island he named San Salvador to today's islands - largely independent, but often still in thrall to Europe and America's insatiable desire for tropical luxuries.
From the early years of settlement to the age of sugar and slavery, during which vast riches were generated for Europeans through the enforced labour of millions of enslaved Africans, to the great slave rebellions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the long, slow progress towards independence in the modern era, Gibson offers a vivid, panoramic view of this complex and contradictory region.
From Cuba to Haiti, from Jamaica to Trinidad, the story of the Caribbean is not simply the story of slaves and masters - but of fortune-seekers, tourists, scientists and pirates. It is not only a story of imperial expansion - European and American - but also of life as it is lived in the islands, both in the past and today.
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Review:
Vivid and thought-provoking (Spectator)
Carrie Gibson manages to weave 500 years of complex history into a brilliant narrative ... [A] strikingly assured debut. (Observer)
Carrie Gibson has written a compelling history of the Caribbean, rightly placing it at the heart of European imperialism. This is a gripping account by a gifted scholar and story-teller (Tristram Hunt)
A fine introduction to the history of a turbulent and fascinating region (The Times)
Carrie Gibson has written a judicious, readable and extremely well-informed account of a part of the world whose history is seldom acknowledged. Too many people know the Caribbean only as a tourist destination; she 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 King Leopold's Ghost)
Sharp, gripping ... packed with the stories of tyrants and insurgents, and images of violence and beauty ... A great read about some fantastically absorbing - and to many people, little-known - history ... An exceptionally impressive debut. (Alex von Tunzelman Literary Review)
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Carrie Gibson manages to weave 500 years of complex history into a brilliant narrative ... [A] strikingly assured debut. (Observer)
Carrie Gibson has written a compelling history of the Caribbean, rightly placing it at the heart of European imperialism. This is a gripping account by a gifted scholar and story-teller (Tristram Hunt)
A fine introduction to the history of a turbulent and fascinating region (The Times)
Carrie Gibson has written a judicious, readable and extremely well-informed account of a part of the world whose history is seldom acknowledged. Too many people know the Caribbean only as a tourist destination; she 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 King Leopold's Ghost)
Sharp, gripping ... packed with the stories of tyrants and insurgents, and images of violence and beauty ... A great read about some fantastically absorbing - and to many people, little-known - history ... An exceptionally impressive debut. (Alex von Tunzelman Literary Review)
A definitive history of the Caribbean by a brilliant young historian
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- PublisherMacmillan
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 1447260333
- ISBN 13 9781447260332
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages480
- Rating
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Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day
Published by
Macmillan
(2014)
ISBN 10: 1447260333
ISBN 13: 9781447260332
Used
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Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Fine. 1st Printing. First paperback printing. An exceptional copy. 2014 Trade Paperback. xxviii, 447 pp. Includes two sections of color and black-and-white reproductions of illustrations and maps. "Ever since Christopher Columbus stepped off the Santa Maria onto what is today San Salvador, in the Bahamas, 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 traces the story of this coveted area from the northern rim of South America up to Cuba, and from discovery through colonialism to today, offering a vivid, panoramic view of this complex region 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. Some failed spectacularly: a poorly executed settlement in Panama led the Scots to lose their own independence to England. The Spaniards were the first to find prosperity, in Mexico but also along the islands. In Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, they built grandiose cathedrals and extracted shipfuls of gold and silver, which English, French, and Dutch pirates were happy to seize. But precious metals weren?t a sustainable export?the colonizers needed something that was, and they would need hordes of slaves to cultivate it. The Caribbean?s first cash crop, one indigenous to the New World, was tobacco, and it, along with sugar, spurred expensive new addictions back in Europe. Gibson argues that immaterial exports were just as important. No other region of the world has experienced such a vibrant mixing of cultures, religions, and peoples ? Africans, Europeans, Asians, and Amerindians created amazingly dynamic Creole societies that complicated traditional ideas about class and race. By the end of the eighteenth century, seventy thousand free blacks and mulattos lived in the British islands alone, and it was in the Caribbean that the world's only successful slave revolt took place?sparking the meteoric rise of Napoleon?s black counterpart, Toussaint L'Ouverture, and the Haitian Revolution. The Caribbean island of St. Eustatius had been the first to recognize the United States as a nation, but the Americans were soon vying for their own imperial stronghold in the West Indies, attempting to control Cuba and backing influential corporations, most notably United Fruit. In the twentieth century, most of the islands broke from the imperial traditions that had lorded over them for four centuries: this would be the explosive age of decolonization and ?banana republics,? of racial riots and négritude, of Cold War politics and tourist crowds. At every step of her expansive story, Gibson wields fascinating detail to combat the myths that have romanticized this region as one of uniform white sand beaches where the palm trees always sway. Evocatively written and featuring a whole cast of cosmopolitan characters, Empire?s Crossroads reinterprets five centuries of history that have been underappreciated for far too long. Seller Inventory # 2338844
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Empire's Crossroads, A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day
Published by
Macmillan & Co Ltd, London
(2014)
ISBN 10: 1447260333
ISBN 13: 9781447260332
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Softcover
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Book Description Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dj. 8vo pp. 447, color illustrations. book. Seller Inventory # 152274
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 447 pages. In October 1492, an Italian-born, Spanish-funded n avigator discovered a new world, thousands of miles across the At lantic Ocean. In this book, the author unfolds the story of the C aribbean from Columbus' first landing on the island he named San Salvador to today's islands. Seller Inventory # 2013d
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