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.