Empire's Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day

Independent historian Gibson's nonfiction debut is a marvelously rich and inclusive panorama of five centuries of Caribbean history. The author characterizes the Caribbean region as a global crossroads (hence the title) where Africans, Asians, Europeans, and indigenous peoples collided and intermingled to form syncretic creole societies. The Spanish, French, British, and Dutch battled rebels and rival empires as they built exploitative colonial economies powered by slavery and sugar plantations, followed by 20th-century interventions and eventual profiteering by American interests. Also spotlighted is the disconnect between the poverty and joblessness gripping the largely Afro-Caribbean islanders and the walled-off enclaves and luxury cruises that sustain the complacent fantasy of the Caribbean as a playground for mostly white tourists. Gibson is judicious in her sympathies, decrying the region's persistent homophobia and corruption while highlighting the cultural vitality of the calypso musicians and the nuances of Cuba's decades-long communist experiment. Omission of the islands' indigenous past proves only a minor shortcoming in a work that brings fresh energy, assurance, and insight to an area that is not often the focus of historians.