On the Move

"The Caribbean stands out in the popular imagination as a "place without history", a place which has somehow eluded modernity. Haiti is envisioned as being trapped in an endless cycle of violence and instability, Cuba as being in a 1950s timewarp; Jamaicans are ganja-smoking Rastafarians, while numerous pristine, anonymous islands are simply peaceful idylls. The notion of "getting away from it all" lures countless visitors, offering the possibility of total escape for the world-weary." "In On the Move Alejandra Bronfman argues that in fact the opposite is true: the Caribbean is, and has always been, deeply engaged with the wider world. From drugs and tourism to international political struggles, these islands form and integral part of world history and of the present, and are themselves in a constant state of flux in the face of global transformations."--Jacket.