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Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential sports books of all time, C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary is-among other things-a pioneering study of popular culture, an analysis of resistance to empire and racism, and a personal reflection on the history of colonialism and its effects in the Caribbean. More than fifty years after the publication of James's classic text, the contributors to Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket investigate Beyond a Boundary's production and reception and its implication for debates about sports, gender, aesthetics, race, popular culture, politics, imperialism, and English and Caribbean identity. Including a previously unseen first draft of Beyond a Boundary's conclusion alongside contributions from James's key collaborator Selma James and from Michael Brearley, former captain of the English Test cricket team, Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket provides a thorough and nuanced examination of James's groundbreaking work and its lasting impact.
Contributors. Anima Adjepong, David Austin, Hilary McD. Beckles, Michael Brearley, Selwyn R. Cudjoe, David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Paget Henry, Christian Høgsbjerg, C. L. R. James, Selma James, Roy McCree, Minkah Makalani, Clem Seecharan, Andrew Smith, Neil Washbourne, Claire Westall
List of contents
Foreword. Opening Up / David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Christian Høgsbjerg, and Andrew Smith vii
Introduction. Beyond a Boundary at Fifty / David Featherstone, Christopher Gair, Christian Høgsbjerg, and Andrew Smith 1
Part I: Cricket, Empire, and the Caribbean
1. C. L. R. James: Plumbing His Caribbean Roots / Selwyn R. Cudjoe 35
2. C. L. R. James's "British Civilization"? Exploring the "Dark Unfathomed Caves" of Beyond a Boundary / Christian Høgsbjerg 51
3. The Boundaries of Publication: The Making of Beyond a Boundary / Roy McCree 72
4. "West Indian Through and Through, and Very British": C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary, Coloniality, and Theorizing Caribbean Independence / Minkah Makalani 88
5. Looking Beyond the Boundary, or Bondmen without the Bat: Modernism and Culture in the Worldview of C. L. R. James / David Austin 103
Part II. The Politics of Representation in Beyond a Boundary
6. "Periodically I Pondered over It": Reading he Absence/Presence of Women in Beyond a Boundary / Anima Adjepong 123
7. C. L. R. James, W. G. Grace, and the Representative Claim / Neil Washbourne 137
8. Shannonism: Learie Constantine and the Origins of C. L. R. James's Worrell Captaincy Campaign of 1959–60: A Preliminary Assessment / Clem Seecharan 153
Part III: Art, History, and Culture in C. L. R. James
9. C. L. R. James and the Arts of Beyond a Boundary: Literary Lessons, Cricketing Aesthetics, and World-Historical Heroes / Claire Westall 173
10. The Very Stuff of Human Life: C. L. R. James on Cricket, History, and Human Nature / Andrew Smith 191
11. C. L. R. James: Beyond the Boundaries of Culture / Paget Henry 204
Part IV: Reflections
12. Socrates and C. L. R. James / Michael Brearley 223
13. My Journey to James: Cricket, Caribbean Identity, and Cricket Writing / Hilary McD. Beckles 240
14. Confronting Imperial Boundaries / Selma James 254
Appendix. What Do They Know of England? / C. L. R. James 263
References 276
Contributors 283
Index 287
About the author
David Featherstone is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Glasgow.
Christopher Gair is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow.
Christian Høgsbjerg is Lecturer in Critical History and Politics at the University of Brighton.
Andrew Smith is Reader in Sociology at the University of Glasgow.
Summary
More than fifty years after the publication of C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary, the contributors to Marxism, Colonialism, and Cricket investigate its production and reception and its implication for debates about sports, gender, aesthetics, race, popular culture, politics, imperialism, and Caribbean and English identity.
