Beyond a Boundary

Infobox Book
name = Beyond a Boundary
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 2005 UK Printing
author = C. L. R. James
illustrator =
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country = Trinidad / United Kingdom
language = English
series =
subject =
genre =
publisher = Stanley Paul & Co. (1963)
pub_date = 1963, 2005 (US 1982, 1993)
english_pub_date =
media_type =
pages =
isbn = 978-0224074278
oclc =
preceded_by =Party Politics in the West Indies (1962)
followed_by =A History of Pan-African Revolt (1969)

Beyond a Boundary (1963) is a memoir on cricket written by the Trinidadian Marxist intellectual C. L. R. James. [ [http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/329055.html A life beyond the boundary] , Stephen Fay, The Wisden Cricketer, January 6, 2008.] It mixes social commentary, particularly on the place of cricket in the West Indies and England, with commentary on the game, arguing that what happened inside the "Boundary Line" in cricket affected life beyond it, as well as the converse. The book is the origin of the famous phrase, "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?"

Content

James recounts the role cricket played in his family's history, and his meetings with such early West Indian players as George John, Wilton St Hill, the great batsman George Headley and the all rounder Learie Constantine, but focuses on the importance of the game and its players to society, specifically to colonial era Trinidad. James argues for the importance of sport in history, and refers to its roots in the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece. He documents the primacy of W.G. Grace in the development of modern cricket, and the values embraced by cricket in the development of the cultures of the British Empire. He approaches cricket as an art form, as well as discussing its political impact - particularly the role of race and class in early West Indian cricket. "Cricket", he writes, "had plunged me into politics long before I was aware of it. When I did turn to politics, I did not have too much to learn." Cricket is approached as a method of examining the formation of national culture, society in the West Indies, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad. Education, family, national culture, class, race, colonialism, and the process of decolonisation are all examined through the prism of contemporary West Indian cricket, the history of cricket, and James life as a player of -- and commentator and writer upon -- the sport of cricket.

James was born and educated in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He recounts the importance of cricket to himself and his community, the role it played in his education, and the disapproval from his family of his attempt to follow a sporting life along with his academic career, whom he describes as "Puritan". This too, he relates to cricket. James returns to the values imbued with cricket, first into the 19th century English Bourgeois culture of the British Public School, and then out into the colonies. He contrasts this with American culture, his own growing radicalism, and the fact that the values of fair play and acceptance of arbitration without complaint rarely applies in the world beyond the cricket pitch.

After University he played first-class cricket for a year in the Trinidad league. Having to choose from clubs divided by class, race, and skin-tone, James writes of his recruitment as a dark skinned University educated player to Maple, a club of the light-skinned lower middle class. He writes, in a chapter entitled "The Light and the Dark", that "faced with the fundamental divisions in the island, I had gone to the right and, by cutting myself off from the popular side, delayed my political development for years." [p.53 (1993 US ed.)]

In 1932, James and Learie Constantine (a much more successful cricketer, with whom he co-wrote "Cricket and I" [1933] and "The Colour Bar" [1954] ) traveled to Britain, Constantine playing as a professional in the Lancashire League, James pursuing his education, and earning a living as cricket correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. James recounts the lessons he learned from cricket about race and class in Britain, and the perspective on society Cricket gave him on the independence struggle in Trinidad, and the short lived West Indies Federation, in which he witnessed after his return in 1958. An advocate of Pan-Africanism, James examines the relationships of the unified West Indies cricket team through independence, nationalism of particular islands, and in interaction with other colonial and post colonial national teams (such as West Indian tours of Australia and England).

Reputation

The book is widely recognised as one of the best, and most important, books on cricket. V. S. Naipaul wrote that it was "one of the finest and most finished books to come out of the West Indies." [ [http://www.powells.com/review/2007_09_11.html Joseph O'Neill. Bowling Alone: Beyond a Boundary by C. L. R. James] . The Atlantic Monthly, September 11th 2007.] In 2005, The Guardian ranked the book as the third best book on sports ever written, [ [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/sportandleisure/story/0,,1476448,00.html Top 50 sports books: The countdown: 2-10 | Sport | Observer Sport Monthly ] ] and in the review of an earlier re-issue said famously that "To say `the best cricket book ever written' is pifflingly inadequate praise."

ee also

*C.L.R. James
*History of the West Indian cricket team
**History of cricket in the West Indies from 1918-19 to 1945
**English cricket team in West Indies in 1934-35
*Lancashire League (cricket)
*History of Trinidad and Tobago
*West Indies Federation

References

*Dave Renton. CLR James: Cricket's Philosopher King. Haus Books (2007)
* [http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/post/poldiscourse/james/james1.html "Beyond a Boundary": Cricket and West Indian Self-Determination] , Benjamin Graves. Political Discourse: Themes in Theories of Colonialism and Postcolonialism. The Postcolonial Web, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,,531960,00.html Quixote at the wicket] . Matthew Engel. Review of C L R James: Cricket, The Caribbean and World Revolution, by Farrukh Dhondy. The Guardian, Saturday August 4, 2001.

Other works

C. L. R. James

"For C. L. R. James non-cricket writing, see C. L. R. James"
*Learie Constantine (with C. L. R. James). Cricket and I. (1933)
*C. L. R. James. A Majestic Innings: Writings on Cricket. Aurum Press (2006) ISBN 1845131797

Others

* Hilary Beckles (Editor). A Spirit of Dominance: Cricket and Nationalism in the West Indies; Essays in Honour of 'Viv'. University Press of the West Indies (1998). ISBN 9768125373
* Hilary Beckles and Brian Stoddart (Editors). Liberation Cricket: West Indies Cricket Culture. Manchester University Press (1995). ISBN 0719043158
* Clem Seecharan. Muscular Learning: Cricket and Education in the Making of the British West Indies at the End of the 19th Century. Ian Randle Publishers (2006). ISBN 9766372306
* Kent Worcester. C. L. R. JAMES: A Political Biography. SUNY series, INTERRUPTIONS: Border Testimony(ies) and Critical Discourse/s (1995). ISBN 079142751X

External links

*" [http://www.dukeupress.edu/books.php3?isbn=978-0-8223-1383-0 Beyond a Boundary: (Duke University Press reprint)] "