Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940University of North Carolina Press, 2001 - 414 pages The U.S. invasion of Haiti in July 1915 marked the start of a military occupation that lasted for nineteen years--and fed an American fascination with Haiti that flourished even longer. Exploring the cultural dimensions of U.S. contact with Haiti during the occupation and its aftermath, Mary Renda shows that what Americans thought and wrote about Haiti during those years contributed in crucial and unexpected ways to an emerging culture of U.S. imperialism. At the heart of this emerging culture, Renda argues, was American paternalism, which saw Haitians as wards of the United States. She explores the ways in which diverse Americans--including activists, intellectuals, artists, missionaries, marines, and politicians--responded to paternalist constructs, shaping new versions of American culture along the way. Her analysis draws on a rich record of U.S. discourses on Haiti, including the writings of policymakers; the diaries, letters, songs, and memoirs of marines stationed in Haiti; and literary works by such writers as Eugene O'Neill, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston. Pathbreaking and provocative, Taking Haiti illuminates the complex interplay between culture and acts of violence in the making of the American empire. |
Contents
Introduction | 10 |
Haiti and the Marines | 39 |
Haitis Appeal | 185 |
Copyright | |
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African American Ameri American culture August Black Majesty Blair Niles Bois Bontemps Burks Cacos Caperton Caribbean challenge Christophe civilization context corvée Craige Dessalines discourse of paternalism drums economic Emperor Jones empire example exoticism father fatherhood Faustin Wirkus foreign Gendarmerie gendarmes gender Gonave Haitian culture Haitian history Haitian Revolution Hurston Ibid Inman James Weldon Johnson killing land Lieutenant Magic Island manhood Marine Corps masculinity Maverick Marine Miller Log narrative national identity native naval Navy Negro Niles O'Neill occupation of Haiti occupied Haiti officers Oral History Transcript Overley paternalist peasants play Plummer political Port-au-Prince president race racial racism readers relations Reser Schmidt Seabrook Senate Hearings served sexuality slaves Smedley Butler story Taft Tell My Horse tian tion Toussaint U.S. American U.S. imperialism U.S. marines U.S. military U.S. occupation University Press violence Vodou Voodoo W. E. B. Du Bois White Zombie William Wilson Papers women writing wrote York Zombie