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

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9766409862 ISBN 13: 9789766409869

Publisher: The University of the West Indies Press, 2025

Synopsis

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

 

Taking its cue from Brereton, the essays are generally reader 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. Complex societies, Brereton insists, demand complex histories. These essays do exactly that. Like her work, this collection also breaks through old historiographical boundaries. To its credit, the geographical and thematic coverage is comprehensive although, not surprisingly, Trinidad and Tobago attracts a plurality of interest.

 

Its range and mix make this work one of a kind. There are other anthologies that cover aspects of the area's history, but nothing as comprehensive in its historical and thematic reach. It brings to mind Gordon Lewis’s, The Growth of the Modern West Indies (1968) which for years was basic fare of graduate seminars. Lewis identified what he called Caribbean "characteristics." It was a house divided against itself in which parochial governing elites butted heads against outside liberal influences before and after emancipation, a place where status was symbolized by skin colour and an area, which with the collapse of King Sugar and emancipation, became a back water until World War II. This work expands on many of the same themes reaching beyond Lewis to cover all language areas. 

About this title

About the Authors

Heather Cateau is a senior lecturer in Caribbean History at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus. She has held the positions of Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, Head of the Department of History and University Dean.

Rita Pemberton is a former senior lecturer, Head of the Department of History and Deputy Dean, Student Affairs in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus.

Ronald Noel lectures in the Department of History at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus. He came into academia after a career in industry which spanned three decades.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of the West Indies Press
• Publication date: 2025
• ISBN 10: 9766409862
• ISBN 13: 9789766409869
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 506
• Editor: Cateau Heather, Pemberton Rita, Noel Ronald