Product Description
A Centennial history of Jamaica,Iowa which was founded in 1882.510 pages of pictures,stories and family histories of the residents of the town. ... Read more

Book Description
This comparative study uncovers the differences and similarities in the experiences of Black women enslaved in colonial Canada and Jamaica, and demonstrates how differences in the exploitation of women's productive and reproductive labor caused slavery to falter in Canada and excel in the Caribbean. The research suggests that while the majority of Black women enslaved in early Canada were domestics, the majority of Jamaican women were field laborers, often performing some of the most labor-intensive work on the sugar plantations. While the efforts of the planter class to increase the number of children born to Jamaican women were not completely successful, reproduction seems to have been less of a concern in Canada where many Black women were often sold or freed because there was "no use for them." The Canadian slave context seems to have allowed a broader range of material comfort as well. Despite obvious labor differences, Black women in Canada and Jamaica rejected their chattel status and condition, and resisted slavery similarly. This study is unique in its desire and ability to place Black Canadian slave women at the center of research, and then contextualize it with a Caribbean model. ... Read more

Book Description
Jamaican dancehall has long been one of the most vital and influential cultural and artistic forces within contemporary global music. Wake the Town and Tell the People presents, for the first time, a lively, nuanced, and comprehensive view of this musical and cultural phenomenon: its growth and historical role within Jamaican society, its economy of star making, its technology of production, its performative practices, and its capacity to channel political beliefs through popular culture in ways that are urgent, tangible, and lasting.
Norman C. Stolzoff brings a fan’s enthusiasm to his broad perspective on dancehall, providing extensive interviews, original photographs, and anthropological analysis from eighteen months of fieldwork in Kingston. Stolzoff argues that this enormously popular musical genre expresses deep conflicts within Jamaican society, not only along lines of class, race, gender, sexuality, and religion but also between different factions struggling to gain control of the island nation’s political culture. Dancehall culture thus remains a key arena where the future of this volatile nation is shaped. As his argument unfolds, Stolzoff traces the history of Jamaican music from its roots in the late eighteenth century to 1945, from the addition of sound systems and technology during the mid-forties to early sixties, and finally through the post-independence years from the early sixties to the present.
Wake the Town and Tell the People offers a general introduction for those interested in dancehall music and culture. For the fan or musicologist, it will serve as a comprehensive reference book.

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Customer Reviews (5)

Comprehensive Dancehall Reference!
This is an excellant book, written by a genuinely knowledgeable scholar of dancehall music and Jamaican popular culture. Dr. Stolzoff has done an incredible amount of research for this book and puts it altogether with Wake The Town. A must for all reggae and dancehall afficionados. This book will be a classic for a long time.

Exceptional Research Study
I would like to commend Mr. Stolzoff for an in depth and enjoyable study of dancehall reggae.Being a dancehall fan for some time now, it's wonderful to see the music and culture being taken seriously.Ready first hand accounts of artists like the great Tenor Saw was an unexpected and exciting part of the book.Mr. Stolzoff goes indept as he discusses the origins of dancehall back to Africa right up to today with the top artists like Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Sizzla, etc etc.As Ricky Trooper says in the begining of the book, if you haven't been to the dancehall before, you wouldn't understand it, dancehall it something that you have to experience.Great reading!

A Whole New Insight to Jamaican Music!
As a lover of the creative, colorful and very controversial culture known as Jamaican dancehall, I received this book ecstatically, but I wasn't quite sure of what to expect. I mean, this is a world that changes so rapidly that any attempts to document it have felt outdated even before their ink dried. I thought Stolzoff would play it safe and keep his approach as superficial as possible-a nice coffee table book perhaps, filled with eye-pleasing full-color pix of scantily-dressed dancehall queens, posturing dapper dons, maybe even the occasional text paragraph with amusing tidbits like, "Whatever happened to Wayne 'Sleng Teng' Smith?" Instead, I found a meticulously researched study packed with so much detail that several times I had to "wheel back and come again" (re-read pages) in order to digest it all.

Of course, this isn't the first piece of writing to cast a critical eye on dancehall; but past discussions (helmed mostly by staunch roots reggae apologists who make no bones about expressing their view of the subject as an anti-musical ebola responsible for devouring the innards of upright, "real" reggae as exemplified by the likes of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear), irrespective of whether they have been pro- or anti-dancehall, have all revolved to varying degrees around the old dancehall "reggae" vs. "traditional" reggae issue.

Stolzoff distinguishes himself from the pack by sidestepping that stumbling block altogether: In (what I think is) a revolutionary move, he posits ALL Jamaican music, in essence, as dancehall-from the creolized drum and fiddle music of 18th century slave frolics to the thundering amplified bass blaring from contemporary Kingston sound systems. In short, he sees dancehall not as a distinct genre of music, but as an interactive method of experiencing music that might be specifically Jamaican.

Stolzoff's an anthropologist, not a rock critic, so rather than examining the music in isolation, he reconstructs the world that is dancehall's context, starting from the beginning with the sound systems, the cornerstone of the Jamaican music world.( Stolzoff scores a major coup by including extensive interviews with sound system pioneers like Hedley Jones, who provide a lot of insight into the Jamaican music experience prior to the birth of the local music industry-all other books on reggae up until this time have summed the whole era up in a sentence or two). Upon that foundation, Stolzoff layers the various social and ideological trends that have shaped the dancehall: rude boys, Rastafar-I, fashion, technology... You come to see that as chaotic as the dancehall universe appears to be, it is a well-ordered cosmology where everything has its place: sexuality, piety, violence, flamboyance, humility... They can all co-exist.

What I really, really love is the "career trajectory" Stolzoff maps out from his observation of the dancehall field. Using many of the aspiring and established dancehall stars he befriended, Stolzoff illustrates the stages of a career as a performer in the dancehall economy-which is an actual economy that employs millions of Jamaicans in various capacities.

I think this is definitely an important book and a complete must-read not only for fans of Jamaican music, but for anybody interested in the way that music and culture intersect with the daily lives of its participants.

The Definitive Book on Dancehall Music
This book is too incredible to believe. For those of us who are into dancehall, when we are in the midst of it, study and academia seem so far away. I never thought it was something that someone could record on paper and carry the true vibes of the whole thing. Stolzoff has not only captured the vibes of the dancehall itself, but also the vibes of life for the dancehall community, the economy, and the realities of Jamaica today. For anyone who ever wanted to get away from the tourist fakeries of what you think Jamaica and reggae music are all about, this book is for you. Of course there is nothing like the true experience of the dancehall itself, but outside of that, this book is the next best thing. Buy this book, you won't regret it. Even most of us Jamaicans, can learn a thing or two from it. And for my anthropologists out there, this book is the most gripping, meaningful ethnography since Bourgois' "In Search of Respect : Selling Crack in El Barrio".

Wonderful book for scholars, students and fans
As funky, ferocious, and fun as any big beat coming out a sound system in downtown Kingston on a summer night, this book brings Jamaican dancehall to life with some scintillating prose 'riddims'. A sensitive and vivid writerand a longtime student of all things Jamaican, Stolzoff goes everywhere,knows everyone, and brings it all together in the best book on popularculture that I have read in years. A must-read for anyone interested incontemporary music, African-American studies, or the Caribbean. Kudos alsoto the publisher for creating a beautifully designed book, with many superbphotos from Stolzoff's camera. This book will be a classic for many yearsto come.

Randy Lewis Assistant Professor of American Studies Universityof Science and Arts of Oklahoma ... Read more

Book Description
Jamaica has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

Book Description
With the publication of her novel Annie John in 1985, Jamaica Kincaid entered the ranks of the best novelists of her generation. Her three autobiographical novels, Annie John, Lucy, and Autobiography of My Mother, and collection of short stories, At the Bottom of the River, touch on the universal theme of coming-of-age and the female adolescent's need to sever her ties to her mother. This angst is couched in the social landscape of post-colonial Antigua, a small Caribbean island whose legacy of racism affects Kincaid's protagonists. Her fiction rewrites the history of the Caribbean from a West Indies perspective and this milieu colors the experiences of her characters. Following a biographical chapter, Paravisini-Gebert traces the development of Kincaid's craft as a writer. Each of the novels and the collection of short stories is discussed in a separate chapter that includes sections on plot, character, theme, and an alternate critical approach from which to read the novel, such as feminist. A complete primary and secondary bibliography and lists of selected reviews of Kincaid's work complete the study. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on May 1, 1997. The length of the article is 729 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Jamaica's transition from a British colony to an independent state is an event meant to be remembered. Each citizen was encouraged to participate and the leaders' awareness was raised. This resulted to real possibilities of social change that was hindered when they were still a colony.

Citation Details
Title: How I became a futurist: a sociologist tells how Jamaica's struggle for nationhood helped turn him toward the future.
Author: Wendell Bell
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 1997
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v31Issue: n3Page: p64(1)

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Book Description
Spanish Town is an old town.As Jamaica's capital for nearly 350 years and subsequently as a major urban centre, its streets and squares witnessed key political and social transitions.But although the once proud city has lost all its ancient glory, Spanish Town has a rich and textured legacy.

Robertson guides the reader through the landmarks, identifying sites and scenes long lost and showing what is still there to be appreciated.His account of Spanish Town's long history is firmly rooted in the streets and lanes of the town, its nooks and niches, sounds and smells.The urban landscape he presents is a peopled landscape, inhabited by rich and poor, enslaved and free, notables and eccentrics, Africans and Europeans.He shows convincingly that the colonial capital provided both a cultural and political counterpoise to the colony's merchants and plantations and that its diverse inhabitants had created a 'creole town' as early as 1750 when they were still preparing to build Spanish Town's splendid Georgian square in the midst of its multiplying yards.

The work is based on extensive research in scattered archives and is illustrated by a variety of rare and wonderful images. ... Read more

Product Description
24th edition - fully revised ... Read more

Book Description
Since its publication in 1985, Annie John has become one of the most widely taught novels in American high schools. Part of its appeal lies in its unique setting, the island of Antigua. This interdisciplinary collection of 30 primary documents and commentary will enrich the reader's understanding of the historical, social, and cultural contexts of the novel. Among the topics examined are slavery in the Caribbean, the various religions in the Caribbean islands, the controversy over Christopher Columbus, family life in Antigua, and emigrations from the West Indies to the United States. Sources include newspaper and magazine articles, editorials, first-person narratives and memoirs of life in the Caribbean, letters, and position papers. Most of the documents are not readily available in any other printed form. A literary analysis of Annie John examines the novel in light of its historical, social, and cultural contexts and as a coming-of-age novel. Each chapter concludes with study questions and topics for research papers and class discussion based on the documents in the chapter, and lists of further reading for examining the themes and issues raised by the novel. This casebook is valuable to students and teachers to help them understand the setting of the novel, its themes, and its young heroine. ... Read more

Book Description
Historian David Buisseret teams up with aerial photographer Jack Tyndale-Biscoe to produce a beautiful visual portrait of Jamaica from pre-Columbian times to the present.

The author uses a variety of images to illustrate the text ranging from the dominant aerial photographs to contemporary maps and prints and satellite images. It brings to life Jamaicaxs rich history as well as its modern development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A WEALTH OF MAPS AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
For anyone interested in the history of Jamaica, this is a real treasure trove of a book.It is chock full of photographs, historic and modern maps, and historic prints on most every page.After describing the land and people before Columbus arrived, Buisseret covers the 16th c. Spanish period, the 17th c. invasion of the English, the 18th c. plantation system, 19th c. emancipation, and 20th c. independence, often giving fascinating tidbits of information that are hard to find elsewhere.
The modern aerial photos, by J. Tyndale-Biscoe, along with complimenting maps, of nearly every historic site mentioned are entrancing. You get a thorough tour of the island without having set foot there, along with a good overall history lesson spiced with intriguing details.
For any student of Caribbean piracy, this is a must.Much coverage is given to Port Royal, Spanish Town, and many other sites from the Buccaneer Era and Golden Age of Piracy.
The crown jewel of this book is the frontispiece - a reconstructed sketch map of Port Royal "as it may have appeared in about the year 1690", with streets, houses, major buildings, forts, wharfs, and landings, drawn by Oliver Cox in 1991. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Essential roots raggae coverage
This book has it all if you like 70's roots: awesome writing style, quotes, interviews with reggae masters, copious photos, irie vibe. Don't hesitate, buy with confidence. Electronic reggae can be good I say, but organic reggae is better. Tosh and Big Youth rule. Don't miss the movie "The Harder They Come" !

Real Reggae Bible
I red this book when I was a child. still my most favorite book!This is the reggae guide which was written by photographer in the real time of 'Roots Rock Reggae'. You will feel like you're traveling Jamaica and talking with Bob Marly. You will learn a lot of things about Reggae history.

Good Book Overall.
Anyone with an interest in the Reggae scene in the 70's will enjoy this book. I liked the photos an interviews.

NOT BAD BUT OUT OF DATE
This isn't a bad book, but it's 20 years out of date. It was first published in 1976 and the reprint in 1992 doesn't add anything except a postcript saying all the the developments in reggae since it was firstwritten are all rubbish. Reggae Bloodlines gives a good snapshot of reggaein the seventies, but it has been superseded by more up to date andcomprehensive books like Reggae, Rasta, Revolution, The Reggae Rough Guide,and Reggae Routes : The Story of Jamaican Music.

An early attempt to explain the then-exotic reggae beat.
For many non-Jamaicans,(myself included)this was the first in-depth look at the music that explodedout of that small Carribean island in the mid-seventies and took the world by storm.The main strength of the book is it's lyrical black and white photography(much clearer in the original edition, by the way.)The narrative is occaisionally over-awed,and,in hindsight,sometimes inaccurate.This is a small failing, especially when trying to make sense of a vibrant people and the music which reflects their lives.Facts,as the book points out,are notoriously hard to pin down in Jamaica.Davis and Simon deserve a vote of thanks for the first attempt to go beyond exotica and explain the people,nation and religious experience which shaped the music of Jamaica. ... Read more

Book Description
A Jurisprudence of Power concerns the brutal suppression under martial law of the Jamaica uprising of 1865, and the explosive debate and litigation these events spawned in England. The book explores the centrality oflegal ideas and institutions in English politics, and of political ideas that give rise to great questions of English law. It documents how the world's most powerful and articulate political elite struggled with fundamental questions about law, morality, and power. Can a constitutional state rule a sprawling empire without breaking faith with the rule of law?Can it contend with the violent resistance of subjugated peoples without corrupting the integrity of its legal and political ideals? The book addresses these questions as it reconstructs the most prolonged and important conflict over martial law and the rule of law in the history of Englandin the nineteenth century. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 975 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Gone is the Ancient Glory: Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1534-2000.(Book review)
Author: Christian J. Koot
Publication: Canadian Journal of History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41Issue: 2Page: 408(3)

Article Type: Book review

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Book Description
Obi; or, The History of Three-Fingered JackBy William Earle Edited by Srinivas Aravamudan

"Three-Fingered Jack," the protagonist of this 1800 novel, is based on the escaped slave and Jamaican folk hero Jack Mansong, who was believed to have gained his strength from the Afro-Caribbean religion of obeah, or "obi." His story, told in an inventive mix of styles, is a rousing and sympathetic account of an individual's attempt to combat slavery while defending family honour. Historically significant for its portrayal of a slave rebellion and of the practice of obeah, Obi is also a fast-paced and lively novel, blending religion, politics, and romance.

This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a selection of contemporary documents, including historical and literary treatments of obeah and accounts of an eighteenth-century slave rebellion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A classic that passes the test of time with flying colors
Obi or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack is a new edition of a novel originally published in the 1800's. Based on the escaped slave and Jamaican folk hero jack Mansong, who was believed to have found strength in the Afro- Caribbean religion of obeah, or "obi", Obi or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack is a dramatic saga of his struggle to survive, resist slavery, and defend his family's honor. A mix of religion, politics, romance, and social critique, Obi or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack is as compelling a read today as it was over a century ago. The Broadview edition features a critical introduction and a selection of modern documents including historical and literary writings concerning obeah and accounts of an eighteenth-century slave rebellion. A classic that passes the test of time with flying colors.
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