In the first episode of our 12-part series Reading the Black Jacobins with Geo Maher, we will introduce the book and author, Trinidadian revolutionary CLR James.

Readings for Episode 1 are:

• Appendix: “From Toussaint L’Ouverture to Fidel Castro”
• Preface to the Vintage Edition
• Additional: “Lectures on The Black Jacobins (1971)

Study Questions for Episode 1 are:

• When was Black Jacobins written for? Where was it written for?
• What, according to James, is the essence and importance of the Caribbean?

As always, we’ll be using the post-1963 edition of The Black Jacobins, which is identifiable by the Appendix.

The Abolition School Radio podcast is a collaboration between Haymarket Books and the W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition and Reconstruction.

Based in Philadelphia, the Du Bois Movement School provides revolutionary abolitionist, internationalist, intersectional, and participatory political education to a new generation of aspiring organizers and leaders. We believe everyone is an intellectual, and that there can be no abolition of carceral institutions without a broad process of social reconstruction. We study the world to change it!

Haymarket Books is a radical, independent book publisher and political education institution based in Chicago. Visit haymarketbooks.org to find radical books, virtual events, podcasts, and other political education resources, including the other seasons of Abolition School Radio.