Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-249) and index.
Contents:
Preface: Dreaming to Change the World -- Part One. Theoretical Forays -- The Frontline : Valentino, Pablo Moses, and Caribbean Organic Philosophy in the Seventies -- Reasoning with Caliban : A Critical Reading of Paget Henry's Caliban's Reason : Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy -- Arguments within What's Left of the Left : James, Watson, and the Question of Method -- Michael Manley : Crossing the Contours of Charisma -- Part Two. Caribbean Questions -- Saving the Soul of the University -- Black Power Forty Years On -- Lloyd Best, "The People," and the Road Not Taken in 1970 -- Cuba from Due South -- Grenada, Once Again : Revisiting the 1983 Crisis and Collapse of the Grenada Revolution -- Part Three. Jamaican Journeys -- Reinventing the Jamaican Political System -- Imagining the Future : Rethinking the Political in Jamaica -- Caribbean Radical Traditions and the Turn in the Jamaican Moment -- The Dudus Events in Jamaica and the Future of Caribbean Politics -- Jamaica on the Cusp of Fifty : Whither Nationalism and Sovereignty?
Summary:
"These essays by Brian Meeks, a noted public intellectual in the Caribbean, reflect on Caribbean politics, particularly radical politics and ideologies in the postcolonial era. But his essays also explain the peculiarities of the contemporary neo-liberal period while searching for pathways beyond the current plight. In the first chapters, titled 'Theoretical Forays,' Meeks makes a conscious attempt to engage with contemporary Caribbean political thought at a moment of flux and search for a relevant theoretical language and style to both explicate the Caribbean's recent past and confront the difficult conditions of the early twenty-first century. The next part, 'Caribbean Questions,' both retrospective and biographical, retraces the author's own engagement with the University of the West Indies (UWI), the short-lived but influential Caribbean Black Power movement, the work of seminal Trinidadian thinker and activist Lloyd Best, Cuba's relationship with Jamaica, and the crisis and collapse of the Grenadian Revolution. As evident in its title, 'Jamaican Journeys,' the concluding section excerpts and extracts from a longer, more sustained engagement with Jamaican politics and society. Much of Meeks' argument builds around the notion that Jamaica faces a crucial moment, as the author seeks to chart and explain its convoluted political path and dismal economic performance over the past three decades. Meeks remains surprisingly optimistic as he suggests that despite the emptying of sovereignty in the increasingly globalized world, windows to enhanced human development might open through policies of greater democracy and popular inclusion"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.