New edition of “Readings” launched
Today there was another important addition to the body of Belizean scholarship as this afternoon, the third edition of Readings in Belizean History was released. The collection of essays was expanded and updated after months of painstaking work. According to Froyla Salam of the Institute of Social and Cultural Research, the essays contained in the document will meet a high demand from both students and scholars, while the addition of a companion CD-Rom will make the information much more user friendly.
Froyla Salam, Institute of Social and Cultural Research
?Essays, that means eighteen in the textbook; not included on the CD-Rom. Eighteen essays that covers everything from the Pre-Maya to Independence movement. And something that is missing form the second edition is information about the CASTE War and also about the Colonial Maya. So, those two to my mind are very important topics that are now included in this third edition. So I think slowly, as editions are developing or evolving we are including more and more essays of information that was lacking before. And again, that gives you a better picture of what our history is and not how it?s evolving, but how the people?s perspectives also change with time.?
?The CD-Rom is a collection of topics and each topic has about five to six essays on it. For example, the Battle of St. George?s Caye is one folder on the CD-ROM. In that folder are ten different perspectives of the Battle of St. George?s Caye by Emory King, Dickie Bradley, Lita Krohn, Evan X Hyde and we also have a cartoon by Shevanne. So again, these are all going to give the reader a different perspective on the same subject. And I think that?s what history is about. It is not one person?s interpretation of an event that happened. And the CD-ROM is going to give the student maybe not a well-rounded education but certainly we have the students to start thinking–you know why is this person saying this and why is the other person saying the other thing. That?s what we really want to encourage–people to start critically thinking about history.?
Copies of the third edition of Readings in Belizean History cost thirty dollars and are available at the SJC Bookstore and all NICH outlets, including the Museum of Belize and the Houses of Culture in Belize City and Benque Viejo. The production of the document was sponsored by SJC, BTL, Atlantic Bank and NICH.
