Isaac Dookhan arrived at the University of the Virgin Islands in 1970 from his native Guyana. Dookhan held the position of professor of history and historian-writer in residence until his passing in 1990.

The definitive modern biography of the great slave leader, military genius and revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture

The Haitian Revolution began in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in August 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black state. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture, himself a former slave, became the leader of the colony's black population, the commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. During the course of his extraordinary life he confronted some of the dominant forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy. Treacherously seized by Napoleon's invading army in 1802, this charismatic figure ended his days, in Wordsworth's phrase, 'the most unhappy man of men', imprisoned in a fortress in France.

Black Spartacus draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step of Louverture's singular journey, from his triumphs against French, Spanish and British troops to his skilful regional diplomacy, his Machiavellian dealings with successive French colonial administrators and his bold promulgation of an autonomous Constitution. Sudhir Hazareesingh shows that Louverture developed his unique vision and leadership not solely in response to imported Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary events in Europe and the Americas, but through a hybrid heritage of fraternal slave organisations, Caribbean mysticism and African political traditions. Above all, Hazareesingh retrieves Louverture's rousing voice and force of personality, making this the most engaging, as well as the most complete, biography to date.

After his death in the French fortress, Louverture became a figure of legend, a beacon for slaves across the Atlantic and for generations of European republicans and progressive figures in the Americas. He inspired the anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass, the most eminent nineteenth-century African-American; his emancipatory struggle was hailed by those who defied imperial and colonial rule well into the twentieth. In the modern era, his life informed the French poet Aimé Césaire's seminal idea of négritude and has been celebrated in a remarkable range of plays, songs, novels and statues. Here, in all its drama, is the epic story of the world's first black superhero.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021

**From the bestselling author of Homegoing**
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As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.

Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.

Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.
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'Absolutely transcendent. A gorgeously woven narrative . . . not a word or idea out of place' Roxane Gay

'A piercing story of faith, science and the opioid crisis . . . There's bravery as well as beauty here' Observer

A lively account of the transformations that have taken place in politics, economics and social ideas during the past two hundred years. 

Bestselling guide to all 1,007 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Fully updated to include the latest sites added to the World Heritage List in June 2014. The List is managed by the World Heritage Committee and each site is judged under strict criteria - only the world's most spectacular and extraordinary sites make it on to the List.

UNESCO World Heritage sites include some of the most famous places in the world, such as the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in Jordan, the legendary Acropolis in Athens, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and Machu Picchu, the 'Lost City of the Incas', in Peru.

26 sites were added to the List by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in June 2014. These included the 1000th site, Okavango Delta in Botswana, and Myanmar's first property, Pyu Ancient Cities. Other sites included Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah (Saudi Arabia), Grand Canal (China) and the Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont (Italy).

• Descriptions of all 1007 UNESCO World Heritage sites
• Location map for every site
• Over 700 colour photographs

Background
The World Heritage List includes properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. In 1972 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Convention concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage. Since then, 1007 sites in 161 countries have been inscribed onto the list, 779 of which are cultural, 197 natural and 31 mixed properties.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.