Colin Palmer, one of the foremost chroniclers of twentieth-century
British and U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean, here tells the story of
British Guiana's struggle for independence. At the center of the story
is Cheddi Jagan, who was the colony's first premier following the
institution of universal adult suffrage in 1953.
Informed by the first use of many British, U.S., and Guyanese archival
sources, Palmer's work details Jagan's rise and fall, from his initial
electoral victory in the spring of 1953 to the aftermath of the
British-orchestrated coup d'etat that led to the suspension of the
constitution and the removal of Jagan's independence-minded
administration. Jagan's political odyssey continued--he was reelected to
the premiership in 1957--but in 1964 he fell out of power again under
pressure from Guianese, British, and U.S. officials suspicious of
Marxist influences on the People's Progressive Party, founded in 1950 by
Jagan and his activist wife, Janet Rosenberg. But Jagan's political life
was not over--after decades in the opposition, he became Guyana's
president in 1992.
Subtly analyzing the actual role of Marxism in Caribbean anticolonial
struggles and bringing the larger story of Caribbean colonialism into
view, Palmer examines the often malevolent roles played by leaders at
home and abroad and shows how violence, police corruption, political
chicanery, racial politics, and poor leadership delayed Guyana's
independence until 1966, scarring the body politic in the process.
