Table of Contents

1: Introduction: Half the History; 2: Race, Class and Politics in Jamaica; 3: The 1967 Election; 4: The 1972 Election; 5: The 1976 Election; 6: The 1980 Election; 7: The 1983 Election; 8: Conclusion: Symbolic Politics, Conflict and Democracy

About the Author

Anita M. Waters is an associate of the Center for Policy Research and a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate Department of Sociology. She has written articles for both scholarly journals and Caribbean news magazines. She has worked as a publicist for a reggae production company. Dr. Waters lives in New York with her husband, the poet Fragano Ledgister.

Reviews

-[Race, Class, and Political Symbols] examines the role played by Rastafarianism and reggae music as partisan instruments in Jamaican politics through a comparative analysis of five national elections from 1967 to 1983. . . . Waters skillfully integrates the historical context of Jamaican civil unrest, and the social milieu in which popular music is created, with the narrative of successive, increasingly critical elections and the public issues they encapsulated. The result is a judiciously researched, fascinating, empirically dense exploration of Jamaican political culture. . . . Race, Class, and Political Symbols opens up a new domain in the investigation of the diverse and intermingled origins and usages of Jamaican political expression. . . . [It] has provided a sound and meticulous foundation for future forays into this rich Caribbean political culture.- --Brenda Gayle Plummer, Contemporary Sociology

"[Race, Class, and Political Symbols] examines the role played by Rastafarianism and reggae music as partisan instruments in Jamaican politics through a comparative analysis of five national elections from 1967 to 1983. . . . Waters skillfully integrates the historical context of Jamaican civil unrest, and the social milieu in which popular music is created, with the narrative of successive, increasingly critical elections and the public issues they encapsulated. The result is a judiciously researched, fascinating, empirically dense exploration of Jamaican political culture. . . . Race, Class, and Political Symbols opens up a new domain in the investigation of the diverse and intermingled origins and usages of Jamaican political expression. . . . [It] has provided a sound and meticulous foundation for future forays into this rich Caribbean political culture." --Brenda Gayle Plummer, Contemporary Sociology

"[Race, Class, and Political Symbols] examines the role played by Rastafarianism and reggae music as partisan instruments in Jamaican politics through a comparative analysis of five national elections from 1967 to 1983. . . . Waters skillfully integrates the historical context of Jamaican civil unrest, and the social milieu in which popular music is created, with the narrative of successive, increasingly critical elections and the public issues they encapsulated. The result is a judiciously researched, fascinating, empirically dense exploration of Jamaican political culture. . . . Race, Class, and Political Symbols opens up a new domain in the investigation of the diverse and intermingled origins and usages of Jamaican political expression. . . . [It] has provided a sound and meticulous foundation for future forays into this rich Caribbean political culture." --Brenda Gayle Plummer, Contemporary Sociology