Ashes of Discontent: The Past as Present in Jamaica

Abstract

West Indians of all social groups, at home and abroad, always say: "We have no history." It is that lament which is a main theme of any West Indian self-analysis. Before going to the Caribbean, I had accepted it without much thought. But then I realized, very soon, that I had never before been in any place in which history is so overwhelmingly alive as it is in the Caribbean islands.

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