The Economic History of Belize: From the 17th Century to Post-Independence

This book is a collaboration between Barbara Bulmer-Thomas, a Belizean-born plant taxonomist, and Victor Bulmer-Thomas, her husband and historian of Latin American economic history. Their main goal is to address the need for a one-volume economic history of Belize from the mid-1600s to the present. The book includes an opening chapter that aims to disprove several myths about the beginnings of British settlement in Belize and a later chapter on the Belize Botanical Station that aims to illuminate its origins in British imperial policy and its effects on economic diversification by the 1930s. These goals are largely but not completely met. Although some economic measures need more explicit definition, the prose style is accessible. This and the book's length make it appropriate for undergraduates and the general public, yet its comparative regional analysis will add to specialists' knowledge. The authors have drawn on a wide range of published scholarship as...