Box 25 - by Julie Greene (Paperback)

About the Book

"When acclaimed labor historian Julie Greene researched her book The Canal Builders, which went on to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2009, she explored a cache of first-person essays written in 1963 by the Afro-Caribbean people, mainly Jamaican and Barbadian, who migrated to the Isthmus of Panama to work as diggers, track shifters, or domestic servants in the Canal Zone. Held at the Library of Congress and stored in Box 25 of the Isthmian Historical Society Collection, they constitute the best primary source in existence on Caribbean workers' experiences during the construction project. Now Greene returns to this fascinating archive, and in this book, shares what it was like to be a migrant laborer on the construction of the Panama Canal. Caribbean workers faced life-threatening illnesses, accidents, racial discrimination, and culture clashes as well as the opportunity to materially improve their lives. Greene offers new details on the strategies of the people who built the canal and examines how colonialism, xenophobia, and racism shaped the process of writing and archiving the testimonies into Box 25"--

Book Synopsis

When acclaimed labor historian Julie Greene researched her book The Canal Builders, which went on to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2009, she explored a cache of first-person essays written in 1963 by the Afro-Caribbean people, mainly Jamaican and Barbadian, who migrated to the Isthmus of Panama to work as diggers, track shifters, or domestic servants in the Canal Zone. Held at the Library of Congress and stored in Box 25 of the Isthmian Historical Society Collection, the essays constitute the best primary source in existence on Caribbean workers' experiences during the construction project.

Now Greene returns to this fascinating archive, and in this book, shares what it was like to be a migrant laborer on the construction of the Panama Canal. Caribbean workers faced life-threatening illnesses, accidents, racial discrimination, and culture clashes as well as opportunities to materially improve their lives. Greene offers new details on the strategies of the people who built the canal and examines how colonialism, xenophobia, and racism shaped the process of writing and archiving the testimonies into Box 25.

Review Quotes

"Box 25 offers useful insight for anyone wanting to better understand how archivists are actors in the creation of history through their collecting choices and how they impact the way history is told."--American Archivist

"Greene's concise monograph provides an authoritative introduction to the role of Afro-Caribbeans in the Panama Canal's construction, synthesizing recent scholarship in a beautifully written text."--The Americas

"The reader comes away from the book with a deep appreciation of the significance of the Panama Canal in the twentieth century. It becomes impossible to ignore the world historical importance of the canal and the nameless immigrant laborers who built it."--Labor

"A remarkable work of archival and narrative excavation that brings to the surface the layered lives of Caribbean laborers who built the Panama Canal. This book is not only an intervention in the history of labor and empire, but also a sharp reflection on how archives are formed, silenced, and reanimated."--H-Sci-Med-Tech

"The essays of Box 25 offer the interiority of male laborers with their own memories and experiences. . . . Essays provide insight into the lives of those British West Indians who continued to live in Panama after 1914, working in the canal zone, especially their relationships with their loved ones and with white American officials; this is Greene's contribution to the historiography."--Pacific Historical Review

"Working with, against, and in the recesses of the data, Greene draws upon her expertise in social and labor history to create a deft, careful, and compassionate delineation of this unique subset of profiles. . . . Box 25 is fine-grained, illuminating, and eminently readable. I could see this book assigned to a range of students, from first-year undergraduates to advanced doctoral candidates, and it would also appeal to a general audience."--Journal of Transnational American Studies

About the Author

Julie Greene is professor of history at the University of Maryland, College Park.