Promotional Information

This is a systemic study of the politics and culture of the Afro-Caribbean migration to the United States, explaining the enigma of political radicalism among Caribbean migrants in America. It reports on black leadership, from Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam to Colin Powell.

About the Author

Winston James is the author of A Fierce Hatred of Injustice: Claude McKay's Jamaica and His Poetry of Rebellion (2000), The Struggles of John Brown Russwurm: The Life and Writings of a Pan-Africanist Pioneer, 1799-1851 (2010) and editor with Clive Harris of Inside Babylon: The Caribbean Diaspora in Britain (1993). James won the Gordon K. Lewis Memorial Award for Caribbean Scholarship from the Caribbean Studies Association for Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia. He is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine.

Reviews

Superbly written, full of well-digested and considered detail, it is a historic chronicle.
*Edward Said*

A brilliant, nuanced and sensitive re-examination of the history of Caribbean radicals and radicalism in the United States. James's book will survive for many years as the standard work on the subject and establishes the author as one of the premier scholars of the African Diaspora.
*Colin Palmer, City University of New York*

A major historical contribution to the 'hidden history' of the African diaspora . richly detailed, powerful and compelling.
*Stuart Hall, The Open University*

Imaginatively written in addition to its solid scholarly base, this book breaks significant new ground in our understanding of modern black American radicalism.
*Arnold Rampersad, Princeton University*

In this thoroughly researched and tightly argued book Winston James has revealed and explained the prominent role of Afro-Caribbean immigrants in socialist, communist and nationalist struggles in the United States, whilst rescuing the topic from the stereotypes that have long surrounded it.
*David Montgomery, Yale University*

James elucidates, as no one has done before him, just how profound were the Caribbean contributions that enriched the soil of American radicalism . A truly prodigious and imaginative reconstruction [which] heralds a genuine renascence of radical scholarship in the best Caribbean tradition.
*Robert A. Hill, University of California, Los Angeles*

Powerfully argued and provocative, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia literally reframes our understanding of the African-American experience.
*Thomas C. Holt, University of Chicago*