The Caribbean Mental Model
A Reading List
Frequently, I’m asked for recommendations for developing a better mental model of the Caribbean. My instinctual response is something like, “You should spend the first 20 years of your life living in a small Caribbean country,” but that is often infeasible.
In lieu of the first-best option, I have some reading material for you here to help construct or calibrate your mental model of the English Caribbean.
Some Important Notes:
Not all of the books on this list are good, but they are essential.
Yes, there is a lot of fiction included. Can you be a regional thinker if you cannot grasp the cultural literature?
This list is not for casually learning about the English Caribbean. This list is for those who are up to the hard work of understanding a region where curry, carnival, and Catholic Saints are unremarkable facets of daily life.
Development and Stabilization in Small Open Economies by Delisle Worrell
Development Planning: The Essentials of Economic Policy by Sir Arthur Lewis
In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming
V.S. Naipaul:
A House for Mr. Biswas
In a Free State
A Writer’s People
The Mimic Men
The Middle Passage: The Caribbean Revisited
Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment by David Scott
Caliban’s Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy by Paget Henry
Orlando Patterson:
Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study
The Confounding Island: Jamaica and the Postcolonial Predicament
Island People by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
Victor Bulmer-Thomas (both excellent!)
The Economic History of the Caribbean Since the Napoleonic Wars
From Slavery to Services: The Struggle for Economic Independence in the Caribbean
The Birth of the British West Indies by Morley Ayearst
Calypso Calaloo: Early Carnival Music in Trinidad by Donald R. Hill
The West Indies: The Federal Negotiations by John Mordecai
Eric Williams:
From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969
Capitalism and Slavery
Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide by Hilary McD. Beckles (my detailed critique of the extended argument)
The Undiscovered Country by Andre Bagoo
Fidel: A Critical Portrait by Tad Szulc
Imprisoned in the Caribbean: The 1942 German U-Boat Blockade by Ligia Domenech
Warning from the West Indies by W.M Macmillan
Lectures on Colonization and Colonies: Delivered Before the University of Oxford in 1839, 1840, and 1841 by Herman Merivale
Babylon East: Performing Dancehall, Roots Reggae, and Rastafari in Japan by Marvin Sterling
C.L.R. James:
The Black Jacobins
Beyond a Boundary (I would also recommend learning how to play Cricket)
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean by Collin Palmer
An Intellectual History of the Caribbean by S. Torres-Saillant
The Growth of the Modern West Indies (1968…) by Gordon Lewis
Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba by Tom Gjelten
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough
La Historia Me Absolverá (History Will Absolve Me) by Fidel Castro (Infamous speech)
Caribbean Interests of the United States (1916) by Chester Lloyd Jones
Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer
Ethnopolitics and Power Sharing in Guyana: History and Discourse by David Hinds
Frantz Fanon:
The Wretched of the Earth
Black Skin, White Masks
Caribbean Discourse by Édouard Glissant
Caribbean Art by Veerle Poupeye
The Caribbean in Sepia: A History in Photographs, 1840-1900 by Michael Ayre
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
Notebook of a Return to the Native Land by Aimé Césaire
Apocalypse (Boston Review) by Junot Diaz (The best essay on fiscal coordination for public infrastructure in the Caribbean)
Collected Poems, 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott (A highly referenced poet…)
The Arrivants by Kamau Brathwaite (Actually a good poet)
Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy
The U.S. Invasion of Grenada Legacy of a Flawed Victory by Philip Kukielski
Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados by Hilbourne Watson
Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King by Lloyd Bradley
The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast, 1580-1680 by Cornelis Goslinga
Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy by Richard Feinberg
Transcultural Pilgrim: Three Decades of Work by José Bedia by Judith Bettelheim and Janet Berlo
Focus: Music of the Caribbean by Sydney Hutchinson
Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae by Michael Veal
History of the Caribbean by Frank Moya Pons
Jamaica: Struggle in the Periphery by Michael Manley
Transatlantic Solidarities: Irish Nationalism and Caribbean Poems by Michael Malouf
The British West Indies by W. L. Burn
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney (highly influence text written by a Guyanese academic and activist who was assassinated)
Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier
Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell
Time for Action: Report of the West Indian Commission (1992) by Shridath Ramphal
The Report of West Indian Royal Commission (1945) by Lord Moyne
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain by Mike Phillips and Trevor Phillips
West Indians and Their Language by Peter Roberts
These texts are a good starting point. You can judge your progress by continually listening to Lee Perry's music. If you can comprehend why his music best represents English Caribbean culture, then you are on your way. This list is not meant to be exhaustive.
Glaring Omissions
There should be at least two cookbooks listed. But alas, I have not yet found a Caribbean cookbook that is worth recommending.