"In 1844, an eighteen-year-old German named Karl Stockhausen disembarked at the sugar port of Falmouth in Jamaica with hopes of success in the New World. A few years earlier and only slightly older, the young journalist James Otway Clerk arrived in Jamaica from Scotland. These men and their descendants would see great changes sweep the island as it struggled with the legacies of the slave economy and moved towards independence Far from the fantasy world of luxurious plantations and colonial mansions, The Last Colonials gives a rare insight into the lives of the Stockhausen and Clerk families and of their white Jamaican descendants. Set against the historical background of post-slavery Jamaica, Peta Gay Jensen's lively narrative recounts her family's history from their arrival as late settlers, their initial success in adapting through rapid commitment to their new country, and the challenges they faced when attempting to integrate fully into Jamaican culture. Jensen tells of the issues confronting the Stockhausens as they started their own plantation, and the early days of the Clerk family's life in Kingston. With the collapse of the plantation economy, the Stockhausen young people moved to Kingston to live with the Clerks - close family friends - making it almost inevitable that the two families would merge. Through four generations we follow their fortunes and their efforts to explore and help preserve Jamaica's then little valued African heritage. With wit and verve, Jensen paints a colourful picture of her pioneering relatives and daily life in her family's country home at the beginning of the last century, and her own memories of trips to the market, Christmas day, hurricanes and earthquakes. A vivid portrait of Jamaica after the abolition of slavery, The Last Colonials gives a unique insight into imperialism in the New World and the complexity of a colonial society struggling towards its independence."--Bloomsbury publishing.

After decades of bloodshed and political terror, many lament the rise of the left in Latin America. Since the triumph of Castro, politicians and historians have accused the left there of rejecting democracy, embracing communist totalitarianism, and prompting both revolutionary violence and a right-wing backlash. Through unprecedented archival research and gripping personal testimonies, Greg Grandin powerfully challenges these views in this classic work. In doing so, he uncovers the hidden history of the Latin American Cold War: of hidebound reactionaries holding on to their power and privilege; of Mayan Marxists blending indigenous notions of justice with universal ideas of equality; and of a United States supporting new styles of state terror throughout the region. With Guatemala as his case study, Grandin argues that the Latin American Cold War was a struggle not between political liberalism and Soviet communism but two visions of democracy—one vibrant and egalitarian, the other tepid and unequal—and that the conflict’s main effect was to eliminate homegrown notions of social democracy. Updated with a new preface by the author and an interview with Naomi Klein, The Last Colonial Massacre is history of the highest order—a work that will dramatically recast our understanding of Latin American politics and the role of the United States in the Cold War and beyond. “This work admirably explains the process in which hopes of democracy were brutally repressed in Guatemala and its people experienced a civil war lasting for half a century.”—International History Review “A richly detailed, humane, and passionately subversive portrait of inspiring reformers tragically redefined by the Cold War as enemies of the state.”—Journal of American History

How the CFA Franc enabled France to continue its colonies in Africa.

Challenges conservationists to rethink protecting the natural world; making political strategies central to increase support and influence.

Over three hundred years ago the first European colonialists set foot in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to found permanent outposts of the great empires. This epic migration continued until after World War II when these tropical outposts became independent black nations, and the white colonials were forced, or chose, to return home. Some of these colonial descendants, however, had become outcasts in the poorest stratas of the society of which they were now a part. Ignored by both the former slaves and the modern privileged white immigrants, and unable to afford the long journey home, they still hold out today, hiding in remote valleys and hills, 'lost white tribes' living in poverty with the proud myth of their colonial ancestors. Forced to marry within the tribe to retain their fair-skinned 'purity' they are torn between the memory of past privileges and the present need to integrate into the surrounding society.The tribes investigated in this book share much besides the colour of their skin: all are decreasing in number, many are on the verge of extinction, fighting to survive in countries that alienate them because of the colour of their skin. Riccardo Orizio investigates: the Blancs Matignon of Guadeloupe; the Burghers of Sri Lanka; the Poles of Haiti; the Basters of Namibia; the Germans of Seaford Town, Jamaica; the Confederados of Brazil.

Reveals the lives of the people who set up the first colonies in the United States, discussing their homes and shelter, food, clothes, schools, communications, and everyday activities.

Known to history as "Dunmore's War," the 1774 campaign against a Shawnee-led Indian confederacy in the Ohio Country marked the final time an American colonial militia took to the field in His Majesty's service and under royal command. Led by John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore and royal governor of Virginia, a force of colonials including George Rogers Clark, Daniel Morgan, Michael Cresap, Adam Stephen, and Andrew Lewis successfully drove the Indians from the territory south of the Ohio River in parts of present-day West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. Although it proved to be the last Indian conflict of America's colonial era, it is often neglected in histories, despite its major influence on the conduct of the Revolutionary War that followed. In Dunmore's War: The Last Conflict of America's Colonial Era, award-winning historian Glenn F. Williams explains the course and importance of this fascinating event. Supported by primary source research, the author describes each military operation and illustrates the transition of the Virginia militia from a loyal instrument of the king to a weapon of revolution. In the process, he corrects much of the folklore concerning the war and frontier fighting in general, demonstrating that the Americans did not adopt Indian tactics for wilderness fighting as is popularly thought, but rather adapted European techniques to the woods.