This volume looks at the ways historians have written the history of the region, depending upon their methods of interpretation and differing styles of communicating their findings. The chapters discussing methodology are followed by studies of particular themes of historiography. The second half of the volume describes the writing of history in the individual territories, taking into account changes in society, economy and political structure. The final section is a full and detailed bibliography serving not only as a guide to the volume but also as an invaluable reference for the General History of the Caribbcan as a whole.

This is the first in a six-volume publication which examines the history of the Caribbean, its people and landscape on a thematic basis. This volume covers the history of the origins of the earliest Caribbean peoples and analyses their various political, social, cultural and economic organisations over time, in and around the region. Topics covered include: ethnohistorical research; biogeographic teleconnections; the Palaeoindians in Cuba and surrounding regions; agricultural societies; indigenous societies at the time of the Spanish Conquest; the hierarchy of chiefdoms; and the development of slavery.

This volume studies the initial linkage with America, the establishment of primary centres and plantations, the beginnings of colonial settlement and the forced African population component. Attention is also given to the historical course of autochtonous societies, houses, cities, fortresses and civil works, and to the intellectual, artistic and ideological culture. The volume includes maps and an extensive list of sources.

The major objective of this publication is to provide an account and interpretation of the historical development of the region from around 1930 to the end of the century. Within its compass are the "turbulent thirties", including the Cuban Revolution of 1933 and the labour protests in the British Caribbean of 1934; the strategic position occupied by the region during the Second World War; the development of proletarian movements and trade unions and their links with political parties; decolonization; political evolution in the French and Dutch Caribbean, and the "turn to the left" made in the 1970s by a number of Anglophone Caribbean countries, notably Grenada. Also examined are the Castro Revolution and its aftermath to the 1990s; ethnicity and race consciousness and their effects in uniting or dividing communities and nations; international relations and regional co-operation; changes in social and demographic structures (including the role and status of women); education, migration and urbanization; and the beliefs and cultural experiences which underpin Caribbean identity. The final chapter provides an overall survey of changes in the quality of life in the Caribbean during the twentieth century.

This volume (the first one published) begins with an overview of the slave trade. African slavers and the demography of the Caribbean up to 1750. Scholars go on to study the demographic and social structure of the Caribbean slave societies in the 18 and 19 centuries, their evolution and significance, the social and political control in the slave society and forms of resistance and religious beliefs, as well as Maroon communities in the circum-Caribbean. The phenomenon of pluralism and creolization is analysed. The volume closes with a study of the distintegration of the Caribbean slave systems.

The title of Volume IV of the General History of the Caribbean, the Long Nineteenth Century, indicates its range, from the last years of the eighteenth to the first two decades of the twentieth. The volume begins during the hegemony of the European nations and the social and economic dominance of the slave masters. It ends with the hegemony of the United States of America and the economic dominance of American and European agricultural and mercantile corporations. The chapters provide thematic accounts of societies emerging from slavery at different times during the century and also of the circumstances that affected the extent to which these societies were autochthonous within their various territories. The book's survey of this span of 150 years begins with the Haitian Revolution and its repercussions both within the region and outside. It then examines in turn the variety of ways in which the emancipated, their ex-masters and the colonial powers related to each other in the economy, polity and society of various territories; the economy of sugar in decline; the hostility of local landed elites to the welfare of the emancipated, to the ways landless labourers adapted to survive, and to interregional migrations; the social and cultural transformations of new populations from Africa, India and China; the technical innovations in the sugar industry towards the end of the century that differentiate the interests of field owner from factory owner; the decline of white pre-eminence, yet their resistance to claims for autonomy and an end to colonial tutelage

Volume 1 of the General History of the Caribbean relates to the history of the origins of the earliest Caribbean people, and analyses their various political, social, cultural and economic organizations over time. This volume investigates the movement of Paleoindians into the islands, and looks at the agricultural societies which developed. It then explores the indigenous societies at the time of the Spanish Conquest, the hierarchy of the chiefdoms, and the development of slavery.

Volume6 looks at the ways historians have written the history of the region depending upon their methods of interpretation and differing styles of communicating their findings. The authors examine how the lingual diversity of the region has affected the historian's ability to coalesce an historical account. The second half of the volume describes the writing of history in the individual territories, taking into account changes in society, economy and political structure. This volume concludes with a detailed bibliography that is comprehensive of the entire series.

Volume 5 provides an account and interpretation of the historical development of the region from around 1930 to the end of the twentieth century. Its wide ranging study of the economic, political, religious, social and cultural history of this period brings the series to the authorial present. Highlights include the 'turbulent thirties;' decolonization; the 'turn to the left' made in the 1970s by anglophone Caribbean countries; the Castro Revolution; and changes in social and demographic structures, including ethnicity and race consciousness and the role and status of women.

Volume 2 of the General History of the Caribbeancovers the evolution of Caribbean societies between 1492 and 1650 through the intrusion of Europeans and Africans. This volume examines the early mining and planting in Espaniola, privateers and contraband traders, plantation societies, extinction of indigenous populations, and the beginning of the slave trade.