Empire's Crossroads: A History Of The Caribbean From Columbus To The Present

Author: Carrie Gibson

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $37.99 NZD
  • : 9781447260332
  • : Pan Macmillan
  • : Macmillan
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  • : May 2014
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  • : United Kingdom
  • : 37.99
  • : July 2014
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Carrie Gibson
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  • : Paperback
  • : Open market ed
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  • : 972.9
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  • : 464
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Barcode 9781447260332
9781447260332

Description

This is a definitive history of the Caribbean by a brilliant young historian. 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' 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.

Reviews

"'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)"

Author description

Carrie Gibson completed her doctorate, on the Spanish Caribbean, at the University of Cambridge. She has worked as a journalist for the Guardian and spent many months living in the Caribbean researching in the archives of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republican. She lives in London and Washington D.C. This is her first book.