Bridget Brereton

"We must remember... and we must remember everything." - Gerard Besson The Book of Trinidad, a perennial favourite with Trinidadians all over the world, is an eclectic mix of travelogues, recipes, newspaper reports, official records, the seminal work of historians and, perhaps more importantly, the oral traditions of the very old whose memories link back to the turn of the century. Fully illustrated with rare pictures from a wide range of sources, The Book of Trinidad has sold thousands of copies since its first publication in 1986. The history of beautiful Trinidad is a relatively short but multi-faceted one in comparison to its neighbouring islands in the Caribbean. The Book of Trinidad travels through centuries of Trinidad's life, exposing an experience in which the changing of seasons was the only constant in an otherwise timeless world. The remarkable thing in the development of Trinidad has been the make-up of its population. Literally, people from all over the world found a home in the island by virtue of their Catholicism or other considerations. Truly antique strains, such as the Rada from West Africa and Maronite Christians from the Ottoman Empire, Brahmins from India, French aristocrats, Corsican revolutionaries, Portuguese converted to Protestanism from Madeira, Chinese peasants, liberated Africans, and Shiite Muslims who have continued to the present to celebrate Muharrum (Hosay) were all poured into the mould of British colonialism and stamped by the prejudices of the time. Writers Bridget Brereton and Gerard Besson bring together the people of Trinidad by commemorating the memory of shared experiences among this plethora of cultures in the development of our beloved country. Brereton and Besson's collaboration in The Book of Trinidad draws together the collective experience of the nation's people to put together the colourful mosaic that is, in truth, our national patrimony. Bridget Brereton was a Professor of History and the Head of the History department at the University of the West Indies' St. Augustine campus. She has served on several occasions as the Principal of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. Gerard A. Besson is a publisher, writer and historian. He is the founder of Paria Publishing, a company that has produced around 100 titles in the field of history and folklore. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Hummingbird Medal (Gold) for Heritage Preservation and Promotion.

This book was originally researched and written as an Oxford thesis submitted in 1958, yet it remains a valuable and pertinent study, by no means outdated by the passage of time. The fact is that the economic history of Trinidad and Tobago has been seriously under-researched, as compared with its political, social and cultural history. We still lack a scholarly account of the evolution of the country's economy, both overall and for specific periods. What Alleyne has written is a detailed, empirically rich study of the economic (and social) history of the colony in the crucial twenty years between the two World Wars (1919-1939), the period when the foundations for the modern, post-war economy were laid. The study is based on the meticulous research into a wide range of primary sources, especially official reports and papers, and statistical materials such as the colonial censuses and fiscal records. No other work provides us with this kind of basis for understanding the modern economy of Trinidad and Tobago. Co-published with the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.

In this study of the development of a colonial Caribbean territory in the late nineteenth century the diverse peoples of Trinidad - Europeans, white Creoles of French, Spanish and English descent, Africans, Creole blacks, Venezuelans, Chinese and Indian immigrants - occupy the centre stage. They formed a society deeply divided along lines of race, skin colour, economic position and educational level. Dr Brereton looks at how the white elite, both European and Creole, was able to control the society, largely unchecked by the Imperial power and its agents in Trinidad, and then investigates the emergence of a group which would challenge that control: the coloured and black middle class. This book makes an important contribution to the history of the West Indies, and especially to the history of Trinidad, still largely unresearched. It will interest historians and sociologists concerned with the development of post-emancipation Caribbean societies and with race relations in the Americas after slavery.

The first history of Trinidad and Tobago written at this level. Give students a foundation in the history of Trinidad and Tobago and prepare them for their study of the wider Caribbean and other parts of the world.