Best Haiti Caribbean & West Indies History

A classic and impassioned account of the first revolution in the Third World. James tells the story of the revolt and the events leading up to it in his masterpiece, The Black Jacobins . James's personal beliefs infuse his narrative: in his preface to a 1962 edition of the book, he asserts that , when written in 1938, it was "intended to stimulate the coming emancipation of Africa." With its appendix, "From Toussaint L'Ouverture to Fidel Castro," The Black Jacobins provides an excellent window into the Haitian Revolution and the worldwide repercussions it caused.

The first and only successful slave revolution in the Americas began in 1791 when thousands of brutally exploited slaves rose up against their masters on Saint-Domingue, the most profitable colony in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Within a few years, the slave insurgents forced the French administrators of the colony to emancipate them, a decision ratified by revolutionary Paris in 1794. What Laurent Dubois has achieved is a synthesis of the most current research in a strikingly accessible and appealing presentation, be it to experts or to general readers unfamiliar with the subject. Dubois demonstrates the revolutionary determination of enslaved Caribbean- and African-born people and captures the voices of key actors including Toussaint Louverture, individual slaves, free people of color, rival black generals, and white women. Avengers of the New World is a luminous model for the history of revolution, for a 'people's' history of freedom, and, not least, for a history that is truly Atlantic in scope. In this exhaustively researched and valuable account, Laurent Dubois, a history professor at Michigan State, looks back to the founding of Haiti… Dubois, writing in an accessible style and with a wide-ranging focus, has done an impressive job depicting the tumultuous founding of Haiti. And it is this whirling and chaotic world that Dubois so vividly brings to life in Avengers of the New World and so accurately deconstructs… Dubois starts this book about war with chapters about love, death, books and graveyards. Indeed, Dubois' literary sensibility informs the book from start to finish, so that at its beginning as well as its end, the reader feels as if the story must be fiction, yet it is not… Dubois calls Haiti a nation 'founded on ashes,' and he has written splendidly about the fires, both political and cultural, that lit up the land during the days of revolution and that are still, in a sense, burning today. Dubois establishes the Haitian Revolution, which is often misunderstood or forgotten, as a foundational moment in the history of democracy and of human rights… Avengers of the New World can help us put the current situation in Haiti in context, explain the reasons behind the violence, and give us an idea of what the future might hold.

Jonathan M. Katz was the only full-time American news correspondent in Haiti on January 12, 2010, when the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck the island nation. In this visceral first-hand account, Katz takes readers inside the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and through the monumental--yet misbegotten--rescue effort that followed. In what a Miami Herald Op-Ed called "the most important written work to emerge from the rubble," Katz follows the money to uncover startling truths about how good intentions go wrong, and what can be done to make aid "smarter." Reporting alongside Bill Clinton, Wyclef Jean, Sean Penn, and Haiti's leaders and people, Katz creates a complex, darkly funny, and unexpected portrait of one of the world's most fascinating countries. The book's deeper structure offers a concise and accurate history of Haiti from its revolutionary origins to the present day, and a clear and cogent analysis of how and why the massive, expensive effort to rebuild the country after the quake has, for the most part, failed… required reading for anyone who wants to understand Haiti.” ― The Nation. “Compelling ...damning ...wry...This is a book without heroes -- not Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti; not Sean Penn, the Hollywood star who runs a huge camp there; not René Préval, the reclusive president; and certainly not the international community and its competing, self-aggrandising NGOs, which got so much so wrong.” ― Times of London. For anyone who wants to know why the "international community" can't fix anything anymore, but who still hope to find solutions to global problems, this book is a must-read.” ― Jon Lee Anderson, bestselling author of Che Guevera: a Revolutionary Life. “Katz is a great storyteller who enmeshes the reader in a lively web of history, incident, and examples of humanity pushing through disaster, hard luck, iniquity, and triumph to muck it up all over again.” ― The judges of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. “The horror of the catastrophic Haitian earthquake of 2010, the adrenaline rush of being a reporter in the middle of dramatic events, the frustration of watching local politicians and poorly informed outsiders combine to paralyze the recovery effort, and the joy of finding love in the midst of the ruins: it's all here. Katz, the only American journalist on the scene when the earthquake struck, gives us unique insights into the plight of a close neighbor whose fate is vitally connected to our own.” ― Jeremy Popkin, author of You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery. Readers experience the country through his personal roadmap, one that is both sympathetic and yet sharply critical of all that could have gone right, but didn't.” ― Kathie Klarreich, author of Madame Dread: A tale of Love, Vodou and Civil Strife in Haiti. “From the exploits of international stars like Sean Penn and native son Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, to the muddled planning that can result in unmitigated disasters like the cholera outbreak caused by insufficiently vaccinated Nepalese peacekeepers, Katz paints a thoroughly researched picture of (mostly) good intentions gone astray, leaving readers suspended somewhere between fragile hope and outright fury.” ― The Montreal Gazette. “Katz brings an on-the-ground flavor to his depiction of events that is more vivid than those in the more ponderous tomes published in the wake of the calamity… His minute dissection of the failure of most of the promised aid and the misdirection of much of what did arrive is a valuable contribution to understanding how the international community should respond to such crises in the future.” ― The Miami Herald. “Katz was the only American reporter on the ground when the devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010…Debunks the assumption that a disaster leads to social disintegration or rioting and observes how media sensationalism prompted unwise giving.” ― Publishers Weekly. “Julian Fantino, Canada's minister in charge of the Canadian International Development Agency, recently wondered why Haiti, with so many unemployed, is covered in garbage--despite all the aid money that has poured into the country since its devastating 2010 earthquake.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE • A thrilling adventure of danger and deep-sea diving, historic mystery and suspense, by the author of Shadow Divers Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. At large during the Golden Age of Piracy in the seventeenth century, Bannister should have been immortalized in the lore of the sea—his exploits more notorious than Blackbeard’s, more daring than Kidd’s. If Chatterton and Mattera succeed, they will make history—it will be just the second time ever that a pirate ship has been discovered and positively identified. They must travel the globe in search of historic documents and accounts of the great pirate’s exploits, face down dangerous rivals, battle the tides of nations and governments and experts. Fast-paced and filled with suspense, fascinating characters, history, and adventure, Pirate Hunters is an unputdownable story that goes deep to discover truths and souls long believed lost. Highly recommended to readers who delight in adventure, suspense, and the thrill of discovering history at their fingertips.” — Library Journal (starred review). The book gallops along at a blistering pace, shifting us deftly between the seventeenth century and the present day.” — Diver. Kurson’s own enthusiasm, combined with his copious research and an eye for detail, makes for one of the most mind-blowing pirate stories of recent memory, one that even the staunchest landlubber will have a hard time putting down.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review). An Amazon Best Book of June 2015: Reading about treasure hunters may be more interesting than reading about pirates themselves—there’s always that feeling in the back of the mind that any one of us could get up off the couch right now and begin our search for pirate booty if we wanted to. Of course we probably won’t, and if you read Robert Kurson’s Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship , it will be clear why. Kurson’s book tells the story of John Chatterton and John Mattera, two longtime treasure hunters who get a tip from another veteran about a pirate ship that went down off the Dominican Republic in the 1600s. a fascinating [story] about the world of pirates, piracy, and priceless treasures.” — The Boston Globe “[Kurson’s] narration is just as engrossing as the subject.” — The Christian Science Monitor “A wild ride [and an] extraordinary adventure . Kurson’s own enthusiasm, combined with his copious research and an eye for detail, makes for one of the most mind-blowing pirate stories of recent memory, one that even the staunchest landlubber will have a hard time putting down.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The two contemporary pirate-ship seekers of [Robert] Kurson’s narrative are as daring, intrepid, tough and talented as Blood and Sparrow—and Bannister. But Robert Kurson raises the ante in Pirate Hunters with an array of mystery and a fleet of colorful characters spanning four centuries. This is a great summer read!” —Michael Connelly “ Pirate Hunters is a fantastic book, an utterly engrossing and satisfying read. It tells the story of the hunt for the rare wreck of a pirate ship, which had been captained by one of the most remarkable pirates in history. Kurson brings us face to face with some of the most swashbuckling pirates ever to sail the Caribbean, even as he takes us underwater on a high-tech quest to discover the relics they left behind.” —Daniel James Brown “There’s nothing in the world like buried treasure—and people hungry and obsessed enough to risk their lives for it. Searching for the souls of its explorers, it takes you to the far tip of the plank and plunges you deep to the bottom of the ocean.” —Brad Meltzer “ Pirate Hunters is a gripping account of two courageous divers’ quest to uncover the shipwrecked vessel of Joseph Bannister, one of history’s most infamous pirates.

You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him--why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. So begins Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay, which shows us what we have not yet seen of the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up. [with] a poet's understanding of how politics and history, private and public events, overlap and blur.” ― The New York Times. “A jeremiad of great clarity and force that one might have called torrential were the language not so finely controlled.” ― Salman Rushdie. Her small books are worth a pile of thicker--and hollower--ones.” ― San Francisco Chronicle. In truly lyrical language that makes you read aloud, [Kincaid] takes you from the dizzying blue of the Caribbean to the sewage of hotels and clubs where black Antiguans are only allowed to work .

You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him--why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. So begins Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay, which shows us what we have not yet seen of the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up. [with] a poet's understanding of how politics and history, private and public events, overlap and blur.” ― The New York Times. “A jeremiad of great clarity and force that one might have called torrential were the language not so finely controlled.” ― Salman Rushdie. Her small books are worth a pile of thicker--and hollower--ones.” ― San Francisco Chronicle. In truly lyrical language that makes you read aloud, [Kincaid] takes you from the dizzying blue of the Caribbean to the sewage of hotels and clubs where black Antiguans are only allowed to work .

The story of how a criminal Shangri-La almost happened. In 1981, a small but heavily armed force of misfits from the United States and Canada set off on an unlikely mission: to invade the impoverished Caribbean island of Dominica, overthrow its government in a coup d'etat, and install a new bought-off prime minister. In 1981, a small but heavily armed force of misfits from the United States and Canada set off on a preposterous mission: invade an impoverished Caribbean country, overthrow its government in a coup d'? Set in the Caribbean, Canada and the American South at the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and based on hundreds of pages of declassified US government documents, as well as exclusive interviews with those involved, Bayou of Pigs tells a remarkable tale of foreign military intervention, revolutionary politics, greed, treachery, stupidity, deceit and one of the most outlandish criminal stunts ever conceived: the theft of a nation.

His Key West years turned out to be his most productive: he finished A Farewell to Arms , started For Whom the Bell Tolls , and wrote several other books, including Green Hills of Africa , Death in the Afternoon , and To Have and Have Not . Hemingway spent the last years of his life in Cuba, and it was here he overcame several demons—accidents, failing health, depression—to write The Old Man and the Sea , for which he won both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize in Literature. Stuart McIver was the author of eleven books on Florida.

The often turbulent struggle for survival from the earliest Arawak settlement to the 1981 execution of revolutionary Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, to today. Since 1973 she has been the resident tutor and Head of the University of the West Indies Outreach Center in Grenada.

it is a great book.

Dr. Eric Williams was Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1961 until his death in 1981.

Beginning with the island's geological formation. and subsequent Amerindian occupation, this book takes one through colonization by. France and England to the rise and fall of the. sugar industry, the tribulations of slavery, the. feverish hopes and fears of the Brigand Wars. and, eventually, Emancipation.

He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In this family history, rich in detail, Stuart tells the story of immigration, the harsh realities of Caribbean slavery and sugar production, and the ambitions of black West Indians that have driven their own immigrant journeys to the U.S. and Europe.

History of the first British colony in the West Indies. Swords, Ships and Sugar (his history of Nevis) was first published in 1991 and is now in its seventh edition.

The first definitive account of this legendary fighting force and its extraordinary leader, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Lee Gardner’s Rough Riders is narrative nonfiction at its most invigorating and compulsively readable. Now, Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts as well as period newspaper articles, letters, and diaries from public and private archives in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Boston, and Washington, DC, to produce this authoritative chronicle. Congress authorized President McKinley to recruit a volunteer force to help drive the Spaniards out of Cuba, and from these men emerged the legendary Rough Riders, a mounted regiment drawn from America’s western territories and led by the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt. Now Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts—private letters, diaries, and period newspaper reports from public and private archives in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C.—to breathe fresh life into the Rough Riders and pays tribute to their daring feats and indomitable leader. In his deft reappraisal, we can see anew how these almost mythic events continue to flow, like deep wellsprings, through our national life.”—Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice and Blood and Thunder.