| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 304 words from this article are provided below; about 597 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Demetrius L. Eudell. The Political Languages of Emancipation in the British Caribbean and the U.S. South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Pp. x, 238. Cloth $45.00, paper $18.95.

Demetrius L. Eudell has chosen a significant subject for comparative study. Scholarship on colonial experiences around the Anglo-Atlantic world has recently proliferated, yet most of it focuses either on the processes of colonization, the development of racial slavery with its ensuing economic growth, or revolution. Historians interested in abolition, emancipation, and postslavery societies have had fewer opportunities to engage in cross-cultural comparison. This book fills a historiographical gap and pushes forward the field of comparative emancipation. Its promise, however, is greater than what it delivers. Many readers interested in one or the other of the colonies being studied will not find the depth that they seek, while those interested in comparative emancipation will find less context than is required for a work of this scope. 1

The book focuses on "the political languages of emancipation" in two places: Jamaica and South Carolina. Eudell chose them because "the transition after slavery in the British Caribbean and the United States began in these locations" and each maintains a "significant place . . . in the development of slavery and postslavery politics" (p. 14). Perhaps this is sufficient as a basis for comparison, but skeptical readers need more detail about which characteristics these societies shared and why other places were excluded. If Jamaica "was synonymous with the West Indies," as the author suggests, the book ought to show us several examples of parliamentarians making this point (p. 14). Alternately, it might have been possible to demonstrate the absence of references in parliamentary debates to other Caribbean islands. In either case, a clearer explication of regional representativeness or the lack thereof is required. . . .

There are about 597 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.