Politics in an Island State

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.