This survey addresses three important aspects of Caribbean life in the twentieth century -- politics, economics, and race -- and attempts to show their relationship and interaction. Following a geographic, ethnographic, and historical introduction, the author describes the political heritage of the region, characterized by a lack of indigenous political and democratic tradition and by the existence of political fragmentation and political violence. He then investigates economic conditions, including resource dimensions of the region and distorted economic development, and finally, the role of race, racial interaction and dynamism.