Jamaica is
most well-known for its popular culture, crime and violence. Government, the
state, is viewed as a malign force. In Politics in an Island State noted
anthropologist Diane Austin-Broos brings an alternative view of Jamaica, its
culture and governance. This history of Jamaica, and more pointedly, the
history of politics in Jamaica, is brilliantly told through the biography of
Wills O. Isaacs. Never the leader of his party – the People’s National Party –
Wills was active in politics from the 1930s and was nonetheless a prominent and
notorious figure.
Informative
and entertaining, this biography of a “second-tier” political leader departs
from the usual heroic style and addresses the challenges of a fledgling social
democracy in the mid-twentieth century. Decolonization and the decline of
sugar, the Great Depression and two world wars frame the challenges of the
time. Flanked by rural-to-urban migration, unemployment and industrialization, Jamaica’s
struggles into the twenty-first century and the conduct of government – the
successes, failures and foibles – are presented and viewed through a more
nuanced lens.
Leaders shape history, though they seldom dictate its
direction. Viewing history through their eyes affords a dynamic account of the
structures and events that underpin a society’s development. Politics in an Island State will
find a ready audience with readers generally interested in the Caribbean, but
even more so with sages – both academic and unconventional – of anthropology,
history, foreign affairs, sociology, political science, development studies and
political economy.
