Before I had been there many days, I realized that it was impossible for me to understand its way of life until I had some knowledge of its history. In 1947 the publishing house of Evans Brothers invited me to contribute to the Windows of the World series of travel books, a book on the Caribbean. It was a short book, addressed to ‘the tourist, the intending tourist, and those who are forced for this and the other reason to travel in their memory and imagination. It is written for those who are interested in the West Indies, but possess no detailed or specialized knowledge of them. It is hoped that it will “put them in the picture” It opens with the following historical synopsis. Written in 1947 THANKS to the generosity of the Carnegie Trust, most of the islands are supplied with excellent reference libraries, and it is easy for the inquisitive tourist to provide himself with a working knowledge of the history and present conditions of the group. It is a long and tangled story: a story of courage and cruelty, of treachery and broken faith and high renown; so tangled and so long a story that no composite history of the Caribbean has been attempted.
