Description
Book SynopsisPlanning the Past studies the way a post-colonial society reconstructs its national history and grapples with its colonial past, specifically in Port Royal, a Jamaican village with a dramatic history of pirates, naval admirals, and earthquakes. Anita M. Waters argues that the plans for Port Royal''s heritage tourism development represent a chronological record of historical revisionism, and the fact that none of the plans has been realized reflects post-colonial social processes and national ambivalence about piratical and naval history. This interdisciplinary study will be valuable reading for students of historiography, piracy, Caribbean history, Caribbean politics, and heritage tourism.
Trade ReviewWaters' Planning the Past represents an important case study of the contested and changing representations of history and heritagem, one that sheds light on Jamaica's relationship with its colonial past and the region's continuing struggle with historicity and authenticity. * Museum Anthropology, December 2007 *
This is an interesting and thought-provoking study... -- September 2007 * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
The research, insights, and cultural hermeneutic of Professor Waters' work are stimulating, academically engaging, and culturally restorative in vision and the justification thereof. Whereas past administrations have mapped the contours of the ruins and thereby have given up on Port Royal as a 'royal eye-sore', Professor Waters has rediscovered and reaffirmed the historic-cultural gems of the community—a people and place where the ascription of Royal is more than an honorific nomenclature, but a Port of entry into a promising vision of dignity, prosperity, and hospitality. -- Professor Adrian Anthony McFarlane, Hartwick College
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Remembering Variable Histories Chapter 2 Planning the Past in Port Royal Chapter 3 Tourists Love Pirates Chapter 4 Discovering African Port Royal Chapter 5 A Private Community in the Public Eye
