History Matters Reassembling the Fragments of a Contested Past In Honour of Bridget Brereton

Cateau, Heather (Editor)/ Pemberton, Rita (Editor)/ Noel, Ronald (Editor)

ISBN 10: 9766409862 / ISBN 13: 9789766409869

Editore: University of the West Indies Press, 2025

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• Titolo: History Matters Reassembling the Fragments of a Contested Past In Honour of Bridget Brereton
• Editore: University of the West Indies Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2025
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 9766409862
• ISBN 13: 9789766409869
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Condizione: Brand New
• Peso: 0,77 chilogrammi

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Riassunto

The most consequential Caribbean historian of hergeneration, Bridget Brereton has produced a string of innovative andpath-breaking studies that have had a profound influence on the ways we havecome to understand many of the major events in the area's history. This Worktips its hat to her contributions, as well as suggests ways to expand on theresearch agenda she has set.

 

Taking its cue from Brereton, the essays are generallyreader friendly in their exploration of the economic, social, economic,political and cultural history of the area. Brereton's work is always"balanced." So too are the contributions to this anthology. Complexsocieties, Brereton insists, demand complex histories. These essays do exactlythat. Like her work, this collection also breaks through old historiographicalboundaries. To its credit, the geographical and thematic coverage iscomprehensive although, not surprisingly, Trinidad and Tobago attracts aplurality of interest.

 

Its range and mix make this work one of a kind. There areother anthologies that cover aspects of the area's history, but nothing ascomprehensive in its historical and thematic reach. It brings to mind GordonLewis’s, The Growth of the Modern WestIndies (1968) which for years was basic fare of graduate seminars. Lewisidentified what he called Caribbean "characteristics." It was a housedivided against itself in which parochial governing elites butted heads againstoutside liberal influences before and after emancipation, a place where statuswas symbolized by skin colour and an area, which with the collapse of KingSugar and emancipation, became a back water until World War II. This workexpands on many of the same themes reaching beyond Lewis to cover all languageareas. 

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INTRODUCTION

HEATHER CATEAU 

CARL CAMPBELL, A FELLOW CARIBBEAN HISTORIAN WHO HAS known Bridget Brereton for years, reflected that, “In a small West Indian society such as Trinidad and Tobago, it is not uncommon for one person in the Arts or Sciences to become particularly associated in the public’s mind with a certain expertise or skill, and usually this is a well-earned reputation. So it has been with Brereton.”1 His insightful summation of the impact of her scholarship and the public interventions, with which he himself was very familiar, is reflective of the extent to which Bridget Brereton has become so much more than a lecturer and author. As suggested by the title of this volume, she has played a critical role in reassembling the fragments of the region’s history. Indeed, she is regarded as a local and regional academic who can be trusted to provide academic insight into Trinidad and Tobago’s past, as well as the Caribbean’s. In doing this she has also raised the prominence of history, her chosen tool of analysis.