Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History; A Play in Three Acts

(Starred Review) “This script is from a bygone age; its value lies not only in its importance as a document of theater history but also as a crucial addition to the canon of works about the Caribbean. This work would be difficult to stage these days (it boasts an especially large cast), but it should not be ignored by groups that can marshal the resources. Historians of the Caribbean will find it essential.” Larry Schwartz, Library Journal

“Highly recommended.” A.J. Guillaume Jr, Choice

“Why should we pay attention to this long-lost and largely forgotten play? We should do so because it is among the first efforts of one of history’s great anti-colonial voices, wrestling with the distinctive aesthetic quandaries of form and performance, to show that freedom from imperialism is just a phrase if it does not entail direct democracy and universal rights. James was nothing if not ambitious.” Robert Spencer, Journal of Postcolonial Writing

“We all owe much to the expert salvage operation Christian Høgsbjerg has performed here.  As long as the world wilts with oppression, is awash with crisis, and punctuated by resistance this play, its subject matter, and now this book, will have to be read, watched and pondered on over and over again.” Gaverne Bennett, London Socialist Historians Group

"The 2013 publication of C. L. R. James’s play Toussaint Louverture, first performed in March of 1936, is a major event that should reshape understandings of Caribbean literary history, postcolonial studies, and Pan-Africanism. . . . Even without considering its historical importance, Toussaint Louverture is a powerful and fascinating play. . . .Without this edition of Toussaint Louverture, our vision of James—and, therefore, of anticolonialism itself—has been incomplete, and this publication will help us continue to look to that past for ideas and inspiration to forge a decolonized future." Raphael Dalleo, SX Salon

"More than any other contemporary writer on James, Christian Høgsbjerg appreciates how provisional and incomplete our understanding of this intellectual agenda has actually been. . . . The publication of James’s foray into theatrical prose is not only a delightful literary event in its own right but provides a welcome opportunity to revisit the historical and intellectual context in which James produced his landmark work of comparative historical analysis, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint Louverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938). " Kent Worcester, New Politics

“[T]he many people interested in James, and the many admirers in particular of his The Black Jacobins, will welcome this first publication of his 1934 play. It includes Christian Hogsbjerg’s well researched introduction and annotations, and several other pieces related to the play which form the appendix to this volume.” Bridget Brereton, Trinidad Express

“The many people interested in James, the many admirers in particular of his The Black Jacobins, will welcome this first publication of his 1934 play, with H?gsbjerg’s erudite introduction and annotations, and the several other pieces related to the play which form the appendix.” Bridget Brereton, Caribbean Quarterly

"The publication of Toussaint Louverture, edited by Hogsbjerg, provides much more than the play itself. As Hogsbjerg notes both in his introduction to the edited collection and in his book, this play should be viewed not as an earlier draft of The Black Jacobins, but as a companion piece. In the end, Hogsbjerg supplies the archival and contextual tools, but leaves the task of comparing the play to the book to the reader. Toussaint Louverture includes not only the notices, programme and reviews of the production, but also an appendix with short works by James and Robeson that show how this production served as an important outlet for their cultural and political interests. Readers will have a much better sense of why each of these men committed to this project." Leslie James, Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History

"It would be hard to overstate the importance of Christian Høgsbjerg’s new critical edition of C.L.R. James’s Toussaint Louverture.... Publication of Toussaint Louverture is such a resource for all readers. There could be no better work with which to launch the important new C.L.R. James Archives Series, edited by Robert A. Hill for Duke University Press." Rachel Douglas, Anthurium