DARK LABORATORY

A noted academic challenges traditional interpretations of race, the environment, and economic progress.

“Mountains hold the echoes of history,” writes Goffe in the opening of a fascinating narrative that confronts the historic dynamic of climate and race in the Caribbean and examines the region as an experimental center—a “dark laboratory”—that was exploited by the greed of Western capitalists, beginning when Columbus walked ashore on the island of Guanahani in 1492. The best writing in any form leaves the reader with something to ponder, and Goffe’s criticism of, and skepticism about, nearly every aspect of Western academic assumptions concerning the climate crisis, imperialism, and race does just that. Goffe is an associate professor at Hunter College, City University of New York, and her extensively footnoted research lends academic rigor to her chronicle of this interconnectedness, in addition to the intriguing and creative solutions that she offers. This is also a deeply personal book. At times, Goffe’s forays into her own heritage can get overly speculative, but they add necessary perspective and an insightful vantage point to the importance of ancestral knowledge and its relevance to unwinding traditional narratives of Blackness and the forced labor of Chinese workers. Her ear for nature’s notes is just as sharp as those of naturalists Hans Sloane and Theodore Roosevelt, who are but two figures that come under her withering scrutiny. Goffe engages with complex ideas and history, and the book is not the easiest of reads. But she proves to be an engaging scholar, and her work will go far in reshaping academic approaches to her most interesting subject matter.

A timely and refreshingly provocative study.