| In this compelling history Carrie Gibson unfolds the complex story of the Caribbean from Columbus' first landing on the island he named San Salvador to today's islands - largely independent, but often still in thrall to Europe and America's insatiable desire for tropical luxuries. For Gibson, the heart of that story is 'the genius of adaptation' - to diaspora, disease, slavery, racism, earthquake, poverty and tourism - that enabled the West Indies to survive a clash of worlds. |