A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 / Edition 1

by Walter Rodney, George Lamming

Overview

Completed shortly before Walter Rodney's assassination in June 1980, A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 provides an original, well-informed, and perceptive contribution to the historiography of nineteenth-century Guyanese society. This comprehensive examination encompasses the history of African and Asian immigration into Guyana, the interaction of ethnic groups, the impact of British colonialism, economic and political constraints on the working class, and the social life of the masses.

Rodney argues that the social evolution of the Guyanese working people has been guided by specific material constraints and extremely powerful external focuses from Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. He emphasizes the destructive fragmentation of the working class along ethnic, political, and social lines, encouraged by the legacy of slavery, postslavery immigration, legal distinctions between various classes of labor, and the economic bases of the society. in contrast to the well-defined middle and upper classes, the working people appeared divided, disorganized, and leaderless. Rodney's account ends in 1905, when the hardships and frustrations of the masses exploded into violence.

A History of the Guyanese Working People, 1881-1905 will stand alone as a landmark study of the profound social upheaval that characterized Guyanese society in the years following emancipation. Anyone interested in the problems of underdeveloped nations, labor control, and the after-effects of colonialism and imperialism will appreciate the significance of this work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801824470
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1981
Series:	Johns Hopkins Studies in Atlantic History and Culture
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	591,350
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Walter Rodney is the author of West Africa and the Slave Trade A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800; How Europe Underdeveloped Africa; Groundings with My Brothers; and other works. After teaching at the University of the West Indies and the University of Tanzania, he returned to his native Guyana in 1974. The leader of the Working's People's Alliance of Guyana, Rodney was killed as the government was preparing to bring him to trial for his political activities.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Editors' Note
Ackowledgments
Foreword
1. Internal and External Contraints on the Development of the Working People
2. The Evolution of the Plantation Labor Force in the Nineteenth Century
3. Crisis and Creativity in the Small-Farming Sectors
4. Socioeconomic Differentiation: On the Coast and in the Hinterland
5. The Politics of the Middle Classes and the Masses, 1880-1892
6. Resistance and Accommodation
7. Race as a Contradiction among the Working People
8. The 1905 Riots
Conclusion
Appendix: Tables
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Plates
Maps
Figures

What People are Saying About This

George Lamming

Walter Rodney had achieved, at an early age, the special distinction of being a permanent part of a unique tradition of intellectual leadership among Africans and people of African descent in the Americas. He belongs to the same order of importance as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois, George Padmore and C.L.R. James . . . Throughout this work, the reader is made to feel that his academic authority is always fused and humanized by a sense of personal involvement with the matters in hand.

From the Publisher

Walter Rodney had achieved, at an early age, the special distinction of being a permanent part of a unique tradition of intellectual leadership among Africans and people of African descent in the Americas. He belongs to the same order of importance as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois, George Padmore and C.L.R. James . . . Throughout this work, the reader is made to feel that his academic authority is always fused and humanized by a sense of personal involvement with the matters in hand.
—George Lamming

Editorial Reviews

Walter Rodney had achieved, at an early age, the special distinction of being a permanent part of a unique tradition of intellectual leadership among Africans and people of African descent in the Americas. He belongs to the same order of importance as Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois, George Padmore and C.L.R. James... Throughout this work, the reader is made to feel that his academic authority is always fused and humanized by a sense of personal involvement with the matters in hand.--George Lamming

From the Publisher