Description
Book SynopsisThe Purposes of Paradise shows how travel and tourism shaped U.S. imperialism in Cuba and Hawai'i between the 1850s, when expansionists imagined them as twin possessions, and revolution and statehood in 1959. It explores the relationships between imperial fantasies and political practices in Americans' favorite tropical isles.
Trade Review"Skwiot's research is first-rate. . . .
The Purposes of Paradise provides valuable insights into the uses of tourism among people struggling for power and the changing politics of island tourist industries that catered to elite U.S. pleasure-seekers." *
Pacific Historical Review *
"A thoroughly researched book that brings political and cultural analysis to bear on a history of United States relations with Cuba and Hawai'i. . . . Skwiot deftly weaves political history with close, historicized readings of travel narrativesto produce what is ultimately a model of interdisciplinary scholarship." *
Hawaiian Journal of History *
"
The Purposes of Paradise is a thoughtful and well written comparative analysis of the cultural politics of U.S. involvement in Cuba and Hawai'i in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Skwiot does a masterful job of weaving together the distinct colonial histories of Cuba and Hawai'i, revealing the places where their imperial narratives intersect and diverge to shed light on the contradictions of colonization, republican empire, state building, and revolution." * Marguerite Shaffer, Miami University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter One: First Fruits of a Tropical Eden
Chapter Two: Garden Republics or Plantation Regimes?
Chapter Three: Royal Resorts for Tropical Tramps
Chapter Four: Revolutions, Reformations, Restorations
Chapter Five: Travels to Another Revolution and to Statehood
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
