''The Dominica Story: A History of the Island'' is a history book from 1975, written by Dominican historian

Lennox Honychurch Lennox Honychurch ( ; born 27 December 1952) is Dominica's most noted historian and a politician. He is well known for writing 1975's '' The Dominica Story: A History of the Island'', the 1980s textbook series '' The Caribbean People'', and the 1 ...

. It was the first published history of the island. Originally presented as a miniseries for Radio Dominica (now

DBS Radio Dominica Broadcasting Corporation (also known on-air as DBS or DBS Radio) is the national radio station of the Commonwealth of Dominica. The service, owned by the local government, is headquartered on Victoria Street in the island's capital, Rosea ...

) in 1974, the inaugural edition covered every aspect of local history from

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

up to the then-present (the island's 1967 Associated Statehood). ''The Dominica Story'' has been rated one of the "Top 10 Must-Read Books from the Caribbean Region" (alongside ''

The Black Jacobins ''The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution'' is a 1938 book by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, a history of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804. He went to Paris to research this work, where he met Haitian ...

'' by

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...

, '' Beyond Belief'' by

V. S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...

, ''

Wide Sargasso Sea ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys. The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from ...

'' by

Jean Rhys Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for he ...

, ''

Omeros ' is an epic poem by Saint Lucian writer Derek Walcott, first published in 1990. The work is divided into seven "books" containing a total of sixty-four chapters. Many critics view ''Omeros'' as Walcott's finest work. In 2022, it was included ...

'' by Derek Walcott, '' A Small Place'' by

Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid (; born May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermo ...

, ''The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy'' by Kamau Brathwaite, ''

Beyond a Boundary ''Beyond a Boundary'' (1963) is a memoir on cricket written by the Trinidadian Marxist intellectual C. L. R. James, which he described as "neither cricket reminiscences nor autobiography". It mixes social commentary, particularly on the place of ...

'' by C. L. R. James, '' A Bend in the River'' by V. S. Naipaul, and ''

Annie John ''Annie John'', a novel written by Jamaica Kincaid in 1985, details the growth of a girl in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean. It covers issues as diverse as mother-daughter relationships, lesbianism, racism, clinical depression, poverty, ...

'' by Jamaica Kincaid), with the citation: "To educate the reader about Dominica's and Caribbean history in general, the author combines Dominica's history with geography, environment, folklore, and social customs. The book is regarded as the best book on Dominica's history." A 1996 review in ''

Caribbean Beat ''Caribbean Beat'', founded in 1992, is a bimonthly magazine, published in Port of Spain, Trinidad, covering the arts, culture and society of the Caribbean, with a focus on the region's English-speaking territories. It is distributed in-flight by C ...

'' stated: "Dominica is one of the most beautiful and fascinating of Caribbean islands, rugged and mountainous, thickly forested, often mysterious and hard of access. It is lucky to have a chronicler as committed and as able as Lennox Honychurch. ... 'The Dominica Story''has become the standard history of the island; now it has been revised and updated in a third edition, with the story brought up the early 1990s. It is readable, well researched, an essential reference not just for thoughtful visitors but for Dominicans." The book's first edition of 18 chapters was an immediate bestseller upon its release. A revised version with 21 chapters was printed in 1984. A commercial edition, this time with 24 chapters and focusing on local events in the 1980s and 1990s, was published in 1995 by the Caribbean imprint of Macmillan.

Chapters in the 1995 edition

# An Island of Fire # The First Settlers # The

Kalinago The Kalinago, also known as the Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated langua ...

- The "Island Carib" #

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

and Spain # Land of Two Nations # France Moves In # The British in Dominica # The

Plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

# The French Return # The Fighting

Maroons Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos. ...

# Revolution and Ransom # The Last Maroon War # Peace and Freedom # The Years of Change # An Unsettled Society # New Men, New Energy # Between Two Wars # The Church # Development and Welfare # After God, The Land # Statehood # Towards Independence # A Stormy Path # Inventing a Nation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dominica Story 1975 non-fiction books Dominica literature Macmillan Publishers books History books about Dominica History books about the French colonial empire History books about the British Empire