Scan barcode
archytas's review against another edition
4.0
This is an engrossing and accessible history that uses the experience of one family's history to tell a broader story of Barbados. Stuart covers large swathes relatively briefly, alternating with a deep dive into society, politics, culture and living arrangements in particular ages (the mid-seventeenth century colonial beginnings, the early-mid nineteenth century plantation lifestyle through to emancipation, post WW1 emigre experiences in Harlem, her parents lives from the 1950s in Barbados and Jamaica). This approach works very well, sustaining interest and giving a sense of changes over time.
The history is brutal, of course. Stuart is not interested in minimising the suffering of slavery, but neither does she discuss it gratuitously. Her tone is cool and analytic, if not at all detached, and it forms a part of the picture. In the powerful final chapter, Stuart makes it clear that she, like many, regards the legacy of intense violence and abuse to be a key contributor to the current instability of countries like Jamaica. She argues, echoing arguments I recently encountered in [b:Black and British: A Forgotten History|32809816|Black and British A Forgotten History|David Olusoga|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478973829s/32809816.jpg|53409437] that the world must understand the cost of our sugar addiction in global terms, the impact of her family's story is global, not just local.
For all this, the book is a pleasure to read. Stuart has that rare gift among historians of capturing a sense of people and place. Excitement and hope permeate the times, as well as despair and arrogance. She eschews both hyperbole and inserting herself into the text (unless, in the last chapters, she was in fact present), instead letting the story she is telling breathe.
It was a little frustrating that the focus, influenced by the historic record, is strongest upon specific white men, and then general information about slave life in the early part. The latter part of the book also maintains a focus on her male ancestors, and I would dearly have loved to learn more about women's lives. This is a relatively minor quibble, however, given how much is packed into a relatively short book.
Highly recommended.
Read for 2019 Reading Challenge #10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title
The history is brutal, of course. Stuart is not interested in minimising the suffering of slavery, but neither does she discuss it gratuitously. Her tone is cool and analytic, if not at all detached, and it forms a part of the picture. In the powerful final chapter, Stuart makes it clear that she, like many, regards the legacy of intense violence and abuse to be a key contributor to the current instability of countries like Jamaica. She argues, echoing arguments I recently encountered in [b:Black and British: A Forgotten History|32809816|Black and British A Forgotten History|David Olusoga|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478973829s/32809816.jpg|53409437] that the world must understand the cost of our sugar addiction in global terms, the impact of her family's story is global, not just local.
For all this, the book is a pleasure to read. Stuart has that rare gift among historians of capturing a sense of people and place. Excitement and hope permeate the times, as well as despair and arrogance. She eschews both hyperbole and inserting herself into the text (unless, in the last chapters, she was in fact present), instead letting the story she is telling breathe.
It was a little frustrating that the focus, influenced by the historic record, is strongest upon specific white men, and then general information about slave life in the early part. The latter part of the book also maintains a focus on her male ancestors, and I would dearly have loved to learn more about women's lives. This is a relatively minor quibble, however, given how much is packed into a relatively short book.
Highly recommended.
Read for 2019 Reading Challenge #10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title
ha1yan's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Physical abuse, and Racism
Minor: Rape
lnatal's review against another edition
3.0
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the week:
Four writers create a personal portrait, exploring their sense of identity and what it feels like to be at home in Britain.
'Sugar In The Blood' by Andrea Stuart. Read by Lorraine Burroughs.
This selection of original non-fiction is taken from a glorious and sometimes feistily cantankerous celebration of Britain.
Andrea Stuart arrived from Barbados in the mid 1970s, aged 14 yrs. Hers was a plantation owning Bajan family descended from an 18th century English emigrant. The essay explores the painful contradictions of race, money and class - all transcended by that arbitrary signifier, skin colour.
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h5xcj
Four writers create a personal portrait, exploring their sense of identity and what it feels like to be at home in Britain.
'Sugar In The Blood' by Andrea Stuart. Read by Lorraine Burroughs.
This selection of original non-fiction is taken from a glorious and sometimes feistily cantankerous celebration of Britain.
Andrea Stuart arrived from Barbados in the mid 1970s, aged 14 yrs. Hers was a plantation owning Bajan family descended from an 18th century English emigrant. The essay explores the painful contradictions of race, money and class - all transcended by that arbitrary signifier, skin colour.
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h5xcj
karingforbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I love how she told the story of Barbados through the lens of her family. And she did it well, without telling familial anecdotes the whole time but including germane ones when relevant. It read well, with narrative elements about her family rather than strictly a historical book. I like how she calls out the brutality of slavery, particularly in the Caribbean, but also acknowledges that it had a brighter side (I won’t say good for obvious reasons and because she didn’t say good) as well. I think she did a great job of researching and writing a book about race over the last four hundred years while balancing notes of today.
In the epilogue there’s a reference to indentured servitude as being against the third amendment of the Us constitution (pg 320 5 lines up) but the third is about soldiers quartering in American homes. So I don’t think that’s the right amendment. I assume it would be the thirteenth which abolished slavery and indentured servitude. Just a side note.
In the epilogue there’s a reference to indentured servitude as being against the third amendment of the Us constitution (pg 320 5 lines up) but the third is about soldiers quartering in American homes. So I don’t think that’s the right amendment. I assume it would be the thirteenth which abolished slavery and indentured servitude. Just a side note.
gardant's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I enjoyed Stuart's approach, using familial history as an ongoing hook. By reconstructing the perspectives of her ancestors she grounds us in the human experience, and then broadens the narrative by situating these anecdotes in the larger political and economic context of Barbadian society.
She takes great care addressing the complexity of race in the colonial Caribbean, refusing simplistic binaries to reveal a much more nuanced dynamic. In particular, I loved the way she showed how people's political imaginations could be constructed and contradicted, reinforced and ruptured, by the particularities of life on the island. I don't know enough about historiography to comment on the quality of scholarship, but I can at least say that this book was an engaging and accessible read that I highly recommend.
She takes great care addressing the complexity of race in the colonial Caribbean, refusing simplistic binaries to reveal a much more nuanced dynamic. In particular, I loved the way she showed how people's political imaginations could be constructed and contradicted, reinforced and ruptured, by the particularities of life on the island. I don't know enough about historiography to comment on the quality of scholarship, but I can at least say that this book was an engaging and accessible read that I highly recommend.
More...