Description
Beyond a Boundary is arguably the best book on cricket ever written. Originally published in England in 1963 and in the United States twenty years later, this is the first Caribbean edition of CLR James’s classic memoir cum social and political commentary. In a new introduction, Hilary Beckles reflects on the enduring legacy of James’s classic work in which the game of cricket is used as metaphor and allegory for West Indian life. Both a site of colonial oppression as well as a space for rebellion, the cricket pitch was the arena where the struggle for democracy was played out.
About the Author
C L R James, historian, novelist, cultural critic and political activist, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1901. In 1932 he joined his friend Learie Constantine in Britain, where he became cricket correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. A central figure in the Pan-African movement and the struggle for colonial emancipation, he returned to Trinidad in 1958 in its run-up to independence. He later went back to London, where he died in 1989.
Hilary McD. Beckles is Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies. A professor of history, Beckles is an internationally acclaimed author having published several books and numerous articles. A keen cricketer and researcher of cricket history and culture, Beckles is the founder and Director of the CLR James Centre for Cricket Research at the UWI, Cave Hill Campus.
Contents
Introduction by Hilary Beckles
PART ONE: A WINDOW TO THE WORLD
- The Window
- Against the Current
- Old School-tie
PART TWO: ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
- The Light and the Dark
- Patient Merit
- Three Generations
- The Most Unkindest Cut
PART THREE: ONE MAN IN HIS TIME
- Prince and Pauper
- Magnanimity in Politics
- Wherefore Are These Things Hid?
PART FOUR: TO INTERPOSE A LITTLE EASE
- George Headley: Nascitur Non Fit
PART FIVE: W.G. : PRE-EMINENT VICTORIAN
- What Do Men Live By?
- Prolegomena to W.G.
- W.G.
- Decline of the West
PART SIX: THE ART AND PRACTIC PART
- ‘What is Art?’
- The Welfare State of Mind
PART SEVEN: VOX POPULI
- The Proof of the Pudding
- Alma Mater: Lares and Penates
Epilogue and Apotheosis
Index
