One Must Imagine Patterson Happy: Finding Hope for Jamaica in The Paradox of Freedom

Donalyn White

doi:10.29333/ejecs/2617

Authors

Donalyn White Claremont Graduate University https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3359-6109

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/2617

Abstract

This review explores David Scott and Orlando Patterson’s The Paradox of Freedom. Published by Polity Press (ISBN-13: 978-1-5059-5117-0), the interviews span approximately 241 pages and are available both as an e-book and in print. This review provides a guiding framework, situating Patterson and the book in a larger field of study. It emphasizes what the book reveals about Patterson’s upbringing and career in academia against the backdrop of Jamaican decolonization, which fundamentally informed Patterson’s development. This review includes a critique of the book’s ease of entry and an appreciation of its value to scholars of Caribbean or freedom studies. It also allows the reader a glimpse into the internal conflicts and commitments of a prominent figure in freedom studies—a scholar characterized by hopeful anticipation of a new Jamaica, who recognizes the challenges but nevertheless displays a Sisyphean commitment to happiness in the task, not the outcome.

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Author Biography

Donalyn White, Claremont Graduate University

Donalyn White is a Doctoral Student of Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University. They are a faculty member in the Rhetoric and Communication Studies Department at the University of La Verne. Their research and writing preserves the history of practices of radical love and liberation through oral history and archival projects.

References

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Patterson, S. (1972). Die The Long Day. William Morrow & Company.

Scott, D. & Patterson, S. (2023). The Paradox of Freedom: A Biographical Dialogue. Polity Press.