A Pre-Emancipation History of the West Indies

by Isaac Dookhan

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Jim Gulley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a straightforward history of the Caribbean between its discovery by Europeans in the late 15th century until the emancipation of slaves in the mid 19th century, told from a Western European perspective. It details the ebbs and flows of European rivalry between Spain, England, France, Portugal, and Holland as they each sought to exploit the natural resources of the West Indies to support their imperial designs. Dookhan offers no overriding argument, but he excels in providing bullet points of causes, roles, and effects on a topical basis. In this regard, the book is part textbook, part encyclopedia. The obvious technical criticism of the work is that it is not footnoted, contains an incomplete bibliography, and apparently contains no primary sources other than the author’s experience and recollections.

[Marren · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is probably the most concise discussion that I have read on the West Indies, from European exploration to the end of slavery. I am definitely recommend the book to anyone interested in West Indian early history. Even if you have never read on the topics but suddenly feel like it, you have a good book here. It is a History Nonfiction, but it does not read like the diplomatic dry and sometimes difficult tone of some History text. It is a comfortable read, the definitions and explanations are simple, making it easy to understand.

Although, the author does not go into advanced details for topics such as The Mercantile System to help you write a 10, 000 thesis, he does offer enough information for a shorter essay. Enough to understand the underlying terms, preparing anyone for more technical terms in other research material. Furthermore, I appreciate the holistic treatment of the West Indies and not dwelling mostly/ only on the British colonies. Furthermore, it is not a case study of each island except when examples are necessary but the examples did touch on the Danish, Dutch, Spanish, British and French colonies.

The author’s style of including a conclusion after every section, helps you recall what you read and pulls out the key terms of that segment. There are also questions following each conclusion, fabulous tool to help the reader revise the content recently read. At the end of the book there are Examination Questions based on each section, such as questions on Discovery and Rivalry. In addition, the author included a list of short topics from the book and other suggested subjects not addressed in the book. The topics break the sections into more details to aid in further research and for revision.