CLR James was born in Trinidad on 4 January 1901 to parents who were part of a distinctive generation of blacks – the generation which followed slave emancipation and whose contribution profoundly shaped the future of those small island societies. His vision of humanity was animated by the simple but profound belief in the creative capacities of ordinary men and women and he felt that they were the force for civilization. CLR James was a revolutionary to the core and an absolute no-brainer for the Island Archives