Cold War in a Hot Zone

Beginning just before the start of World War II and ending during the Cold War, Gerald Horne's masterful examination of British Guiana and the British West Indies details the collapse of British colonial structures and the corresponding rise of U.S. regional influence. Horne reveals the realities of race and colour in the Caribbean under colonial rule while the colonizers-Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States-battled each other for hegemony on the world stage. Horne seamlessly weaves a variety of untapped archival sources-including personal correspondence and newspaper stories from three continents-with a wide range of scholarly publications, journals and memoirs to illustrate an important, yet under-examined, regional history in a global context. Highlighting the centrality of the "labour question" in relation to colonial rule,Cold War in a Hot Zoneis a compelling exposé of the racial dimensions of U.S. foreign policy and anti-Communist initiatives during World War II and the Cold War that followed.

Gerald C. Horne is Moores Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston.