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Bitter Rehearsal British and American Planning for a Post-War West Indies
Charlie Whitham
ISBN: 0-275-97487-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97487-9
264 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 12/30/2002
List Price: $105.00 (UK Sterling Price: £72.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Series Title: International History
Awards:
  • Academia Academic Essentials - 20th Century History
Description: Promoted as a means for rectifying the problems of a region in extreme need, the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission (AACC) only exposed and exacerbated the underlying antagonisms between Britain and the United States over the economic and political structure of the post-war world. This study places the AACC, formed in 1942, within the context of the Anglo-American wartime special relationship, and examines the political, economic, and security motives at the heart of this unique and little-known collaboration. It exposes the determination of the United States to use exigencies of war to impose its post-war plans upon Britain, and the tenacity of the British to defend even the smallest and least regarded of its possessions regardless of local and international opposition.

The AACC was a battleground of conflicting British and American visions of a new West Indies, and it would thus serve as a rehearsal for key debates that would emerge at the end of the war. For the United States, the AACC was a vehicle for promoting America's broad postwar ambitions in the West Indies; for Britain, it was simply part of the price that had to be paid for American assistance in the war effort. Debates within the AACC over the future of West Indian sugar, the regulation of tariffs and trade, constitutional reform and the expansion of civil aviation mirrored wider British and American differences.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Abbreviations
    Introduction
    Broken Show Window: The West Indian Risings and their Aftermath, 1938-1940
    Securing the Caribbean: The Establishment of United States Bases in the British West Indies, September 1940-March 1941
    Beyond Security: The Forming of the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, April 1941-March 1942
    With Bread or Bullets: The Caribbean Food Crisis, the Maintenance of Order and the Sugar Question, March-December 1942
    The Search for Principles: The London Conversations, December 1942
    Unfinished Business: Divergent Paths and Broken Promises, January 1943-March 1944
    The Birth of Programme: the First West Indian Conference, March-October 1944
    Under the Microscope: The Barbados Recommendations and American Economic Foreign Policy, July 1944-January 1945
    Stand-Off: Imperial Policy and the Joint Statement, January-July 1945
    A Bitter Rehearsal? Epilogue and Conclusions
    Bibliography
    Index
About the Author: CHARLIE WHITHAM teaches at Loughborough University.
LCC Class: 940
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