Caribbean Patterns: A Political and Economic Study of the Contemporary Caribbean

Mitchell, Harold, Sir, Caribbean patterns: a political and economic study of the contemporary Caribbean, Edinburgh & London: W. & R. Chambers, Ltd., 1967.

Reviewed in International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-) © 1968.

Excerpt from the inner sleeve:

The Caribbean of our day represents solutions to colonialism unique in their diversity. In no other small area of the world have more experiments been made. Successful or otherwise, they have linked local experience and knowledge of partial self-government (sometimes stretching back over three centuries) to the ideas of the former colonial powers which included some of the world’s most politically advanced nations. Caribbean Patterns covers Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico together with the Commonwealth, French and Netherlands islands. The three Guianas, British Honduras and the Bahamas have also been included since their links with the Caribbean are so strong. The different attitudes of Europe, Canada, the United States and Latin America to the Caribbean are examined. Agriculture, economic development, population and education are considered, as is nationalism which has manifested itself so strongly in recent years.

The author (from the inner sleeve):

Sir Harold Mitchell, who has had a remarkably versatile career (…) was educated at Eaton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. A background of degrees from Oxford University and from the University of Geneva (where his Europe in the Caribbean gained him a doctorate in Political Science) are among his academic qualifications. For five years he lectured in Stanford University’s Hispanic American Institute, specializing on the Caribbean and editing the West Indies section of the Hispanic American Report. He is at present Research Professor of Latin American Studies at Rollins College, which he combines with farming in the Caribbean, Brazil and Central America.