Alejandra Bronfman, "Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean" (UNC Press, 2016)

The Caribbean has figuratively and literally been entangled in processes of global integration earlier than other parts of the Americas. In Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean (UNC Press, 2016), Alejandra Bronfman offers a refreshing perspective to this well-trodden story. In this book, she traces the emergence and growth of telecommunications technologies in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba during the first half of the twentieth century. Bronfman examines the ways these new communication technologies often undermined rather than served as tools of domination for imperial forces—American or British. Most importantly, this book has us reconsider the role of sound and, specifically, radio broadcasting as central to political mobilization in ridding the region from empire. Alejandra Bronfman is Chair and Associate Professor, Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies, University of Albany. Sharika Crawford is an associate professor of history at the United States Naval Academy.