George Price: A Life Revealed [ハードカバー]

This book is well written. Covered the life of a true national hero. A must read for any political or history buff of Belize. The book is well put out and covered the complete period up to Belize's Independence. A well done job by the author to encompass such a wide period of time and still hold your interest.

With George Price, A Life Revealed, Godfrey Smith has made a tremendous contribution to the study of the history of Belize.

This is the first full-length and detailed biography of the Rt. Hon. George Cadle Price, architect of Belizean independence and the dominant force in Belize politics for more than 50 years of the 20th century. While the biography - it's listed as the "authorized biography," but it appears to pull few punches - has shortcomings and weaknesses, it's so much better than anything on Price that existed before that it will certainly go down as a milestone in the short list of political histories of British Honduras and Belize.

Born in 1919 of a fairly well-to-do Belize City Creole family - his father was of Scots heritage and on his mother's side was from a Maya and Mestizo background -- Price lived through, and played an important role in, the transformation of the tiny, impoverished colonial colony of British Honduras into the modern but troubled state of Belize. He died September 19, 2011, just two days shy of the 30th anniversary of Belize independence and shortly before his biography was published.

Price, it must be admitted, was an odd bird by any standard. Before falling into politics, he took preparatory training - in a racially segregated seminary in Mississippi and in Guatemala - to become a Catholic priest. He himself said he was celibate all his life, not smoking and only in his last years taking an occasional drink of cognac. Though formally educated only through high school, he became a great reader, impressing novelist Graham Greene with his knowledge of Thomas Mann, and he was fluent in both Spanish and English, with enough knowledge of Latin to take his courses in that language at the Guatemalan seminary. Unlike today's Belizean politicians, who seem to revel in their expensive SUVs and large seaside homes, Price died virtually without any money in the bank. He never owned a television or a stove in his life. He drove himself around Belize in an old Land Rover, flew coach, not first class, and spent at least a day a week listening to the complaints and problems of ordinary Belizeans.

Smith, a People's United Party politician and former Belize Attorney General and Foreign Minister and a practicing attorney in Belize City, came to this biography late in Price's life, beginning interviews with the "Father of Belize" when Price was 90. While Smith is a talented writer and benefitted from access to Price's private papers and from interviews with a number of other Belizean leaders, the biography suffers from the lack of a lengthier and more in-depth research.

I wish Smith had painted with a broader interpretive brush. In a major biography such as this, I would have like to have seen more presentation of the broad sweep of the key issues in modern Belize history, in which Price played such an important role. Much of the biography dwells on the details of Price's day-to-day political battles, hard going for those who aren't familiar with the names and details of the lives of Belize politicians.

Smith does cover Price's longstanding issues with Guatemala's claim over Belize territory. He doesn't whitewash Price, but in the end Price appears innocent of anything except an admiration for Guatemala and Latin America and occasional political expediency.

I also believe the biography would have benefitted from more details on Price's personal and family life, but perhaps that is a limitation of an authorized biography. And, yes, I admit Price was at bottom an ascetic, rigid and perhaps boring man, quite unlike more Belize's more colorful politicians.

Still, this is a valuable contribution to the all too short list of important books on the history of Belize.

A minor quibble: The Jamaican publisher, Ian Randle, needs to hire a better proofreader.

--Lan Sluder

George Price was elected and re-elected as leader of Belize for almost 40 years from colonial times when the Britsh governor could and did override the unanimous vote of an elected legislature, through a long period of internal self government and finally through independence in 1981.

There are a couple of other biographies of Mr.Price in print but this is better for several reasons. First, it is "authorized", written with the co-operation of the notoriously secretive Mr. Price who opened up a little to Mr. Smith in the year before his death in 2011. Second, about 25 years have passed since Mr. Price left power and it is a little easier to see what he might have done right or wrong. Third, the author is a now retired politician of the same party who both saw Mr. Price in action in cabinet and shows a politician's understanding of issues Mr. Price faced.

As someone who arrived in Belize after Mr. Price left power, this book helped me understand how his life experience molded his views and the environment he faced while in power.

Mr. Price was a contemporary of dozens of leaders who took their countries from colonies to independence in the second half of the 20th century. Like most of them, he made many what now look like poor decisions - especially in economic management. But unlike most of them he didn't die in office and wasn't toppled in a coup - he left office and peacefully transferred power when he lost a fair election. That alone makes Belize a better place to live today than many former colonies.

Mr. Price also has to take credit for things that are not so good. As the book makes clear, he tolerated corruption by other people in his governments and used government entities and funds for political purposes. The "other" party is in power in Belize today but this hasn't changed. Mr. Price didn't encourage tourism, not wanting Belize to be a nation of "servants" or "tray carriers." This attitude continues in Belize but in most other countries in the Caribbean and Central America tourism jobs are seen as the best available for those outside the elite 1%.