Michael Manley (1) (1924–1997)

Cricket in the West Indies has such a long and complex history and it deserves a history that matches the mix of sport and politics that is cricket in the Caribbean. "Beyond a Boundary" by CLR James was extremely good, although sadly now somewhat out of date. Former Prime Minister of Jamaica Michael Manley's "A History of West Indies Cricket" holds an advantage over "Beyond a Boundary" due to it being more recent (although it too is now out of date), although Manley cannot match James's show more almost lyrical prose.

Manley also has the advantage of being personally involved with some aspects of West Indies cricket (although he refers to himself in the third person for some reason), especially the 1980s Rebel tours to South Africa, and we get a good personal look at the events around the tour.

As the depressing deterioration of West Indies cricket continues, "A History of West Indies Cricket" is a good example of the once-great history of West Indies cricket. show less

Manley lays out his political vision in this book. It's a remarkable testament of hope, though, looked at from a third of a century later, also a marker of what would be an eventual failure to achieve the good state that he lays out with so much hope and so much naïveté.

Manley brings an amateur's enthusiasm and scholarly heft to this thick study, strongly influenced by C.L.R. James's *Beyond A Boundary* of the history of the West Indies cricket team from its beginnings to the 1980s. This is a book no Caribbeanist, and no lover of West Indies cricket should be without.

An analysis of the experience of governing Jamaica in the 1970s from a dependency perspective. Manley analyses his period of government and considers his efforts to deepen and broaden Jamaican democracy.