The Best Guyana History Books of All Time

Georgetown, capital of Guyana, on the northeast coast of South America, has been described as 'the Venice of the West Indies', and its elegant canals and bridges, lush tropical vegetation and handsome buildings make it a place of great beauty. The city's architecture is essentially colonial, having been molded by the French, Dutch, British and Spanish during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Built in a classical style reinterpreted by local craftsmen and realized largely in the region's plentiful wood rather than more durable brick and stone, these buildings are now suffering from neglect and the ravages of the hot, humid climate. Some are being carefully preserved and maintained, but many more are disintegrating or being demolished to make way for development, much of it in glass and concrete. This book documents those colonial buildings, some of which have disappeared even since they were photographed. Compton Davis begins by giving a brief history of Georgetown itself, describing the influences that resulted in its charming and characteristic architecture, and explaining the various house types that are to be found in the city. The main part of the book is organized geographically, dividing the city into its various districts and describing the notable houses to be found in each. Photographs of the buildings and their particular features are accompanied by short descriptive and historical texts. During the thirty years since the project began, a number of the buildings have disappeared - some destroyed by fire and others by decay, and some more recently demolished and replaced by concrete structures. The photographs have become a historical document and visual archive that charts the transformation of the building culture of Georgetown during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from its original colonial wooden structures to an international style based on glass and concrete. The photographs also commemorate the elegant colonial garden city that Georgetown once was, as well as celebrating the Guyanese craftsmen and builders who helped to shape it. This beautiful book, lovingly photographed and researched over several decades, will appeal to architecture lovers everywhere, as well as to those interested in colonial history, the visual history of South America and the history of building in wood. It will also appeal to conservationists and preservationists and anyone interested in the protection of vulnerable buildings.

The Guyana Story—From Earliest Times to Independence traces the country’s history from thousands of years ago when the first Amerindian groups began to settle on the Guyana territory. It examines the period of early European exploration leading to Dutch colonization, the forcible introduction of African slaves to work on cotton and sugar plantations, the effects of European wars, and the final ceding of the territory to the British who ruled it as their colony until they finally granted it independence in 1966.

The book also tells of Indian, Chinese, and Portuguese indentured immigration and shows how the cultural interrelationships among the various ethnic groups introduced newer forms of conflict, but also brought about cooperation in the struggles of the workers for better working and living conditions. The final part describes the roles of the political leaders who arose from among these ethnic groups from the late 1940s and began the political struggle against colonialism and the demand for independence. This struggle led to political turbulence in the 1950s and early 1960s when the country was caught in the crosshairs of the cold war resulting in joint British-American devious actions that undermined a democratically elected pro-socialist government and deliberately delayed independence for the country until a government friendly to their international interests came to power.

1966. First Edition. 471 pages. Illustrated dust jacket over brown cloth covered boards with gilt. Contains black and white photographic plates. Pages are moderately tanned and occasionally foxed throughout. End papers are more notably foxed. Plates are bright and clear. Minor pencil marking to front free end-paper. Cracking to hinges, no damage to end papers. Binding remains firm. Boards have mild edge wear with slight rubbing to surfaces. Mild crushing to spine ends. Gilt lettering has become dull. Book has a moderate forward lean. Board corners are bumped. Unclipped jacket has moderate edge wear with chips, tears and creasing.

Damp staining to reverse side.