From Miss Lou to Bob Marley and Usain Bolt to Kamala Harris, Jamaica has had an outsized reach in global mainstream culture. Yet many of its most important historical, cultural, and political events and aspects are largely unknown beyond the island. The Jamaica Reader presents a panoramic history of the country, from its precontact indigenous origins to the present. Combining more than one hundred classic and lesser-known texts that include journalism, lyrics, memoir, and poetry, the Reader showcases myriad voices from over the centuries: the earliest published black writer in the English-speaking world; contemporary dancehall artists; Marcus Garvey; and anonymous migrant workers. It illuminates the complexities of Jamaica's past, addressing topics such as resistance to slavery, the modern tourist industry, the realities of urban life, and the struggle to find a national identity following independence in 1962. Throughout, it sketches how its residents and visitors have experienced and shaped its place in the world. Providing an unparalleled look at Jamaica's history, culture, and politics, this volume is an ideal companion for anyone interested in learning about this magnetic and dynamic nation.

This title explores the underground caves, sinkholes and underground rivers of Jamaica.

Personal diary of Lady Nugent, wife of the Governor of Jamaica, the most important of the highly prized British sugar colonies, during a critical period in the Napoleonic War. Entries, mainly concerned with life in the Governor's household, convey fresh impressions of life at the centre of a slave-owning colonial society.

How has Pentecostalism, a decidedly American form of Christian revivalism, managed to achieve such phenomenal religious ascendancy in a former British colony among people of predominately African descent? According to Diane J. Austin-Broos, Pentecostalism has flourished because it successfully mediates between two historically central yet often oppositional themes in Jamaican religious life—the characteristically African striving for personal freedom and happiness, and the Protestant struggle for atonement and salvation through rigorous ethical piety. With its emphasis on the individual experience of grace and on the ritual efficacy of spiritual healing, and with its vibrantly expressive worship, Jamaican Pentecostalism has become a powerful and compelling vehicle for the negotiation of such fundamental issues as gender, sexuality, race, and class. Jamaica Genesis is a work of signal importance to all those concerned not simply with Caribbean studies but with the ongoing transformation of religion andculture.

"The first detailed bibliography of books, unpublished reports, theses and articles written on women in Jamaica up to 1994. "There is no limitation in scope except that newspaper articles are excluded, as is material published after 1994. Most of the works identified were written after 1970 as the bulk of the research on women in Jamaica really had its genesis with the declaration of International Women's Year in 1975. Prior to that, research seems to have been concentrated on the twin subjects of family and fertility . . . Certain areas are yet to be tapped and recorded . . . [but] the bibliography, by identifying what already exists, points to areas where material is lacking." Introduction Women in Jamaica is intended for the practitioner, the researcher, and the tertiary level student and lecturer. It cites over 600 works under topical headings such as Arts and Literature, Biography, Education, Economic Conditions and Employment, Family and Fertility, Health, Legal Issues, Politics, and Social Conditions. This volume includes short listings of bibliographies, periodicals and audiovisual material.