Imagining the Tropics is a history of the development of tourism in the Caribbean from the 1910s through the 1970s that focuses on the ways women’s labors of hospitality, writing, and advocacy built the industry and its ubiquitous imagery of tropical island relaxation, escape, and romance. By examining a range of sources, engaging an array of women protagonists, and looking broadly across multiple Caribbean island-states including Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, it seeks to understand how the region came to be sold as a romantic escape from the “troubles” of the modern world. By putting women at the center of Caribbean tourism history—as both its ambassadors and objects of desire—it seeks to explain some of the complicated contradictions that plague the business of pleasure but also to point toward ways of building alternative models to its present and past extractive realities.
"Manley's work explores the intersections of tropical romance, travel infrastructures, and women's labor in Caribbean tourism, challenging dominant scholarly and popular assumptions. A nuanced read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of gender in the industry."
Preface Introduction – Travel and Tropical Romance: Understanding Caribbean Tourism through Gender Chapter 1 – "Just on the Edge of Adventure:" Women Explorers, Social Science, and the Caribbean’s "Rich, Unexplored Field" (1910s–1920s) Chapter 2 – Timeless Playgrounds in an "Endless June:" Women and the Travel Infrastructures of the 1910s–1930s Chapter 3 – "The Fraternity Who Love the Islands:" Tourism Development and the Scripting of Caribbean Culture (1925–1945) Chapter 4 – Creating "Caribbean Vacationlands:" Concocting the Cultured Tropicalities of Post-War Travel (1945–1960) Chapter 5 – A "Rich and Cosmopolitan Past:" Women and the Solidification of Island Romance (1960–1980) Conclusion – Building Something Different? Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index
Preface vii Introduction Travel and Tropical Romance: Understanding Caribbean Tourism through Gender 1 1 “Just on the Edge of Adventure”: Women Explorers, Social Science, and the Caribbean’s “Rich, Unexplored Field” (1910s–1920s) 16 2 Timeless Playgrounds in an “Endless June”: Women and the Travel Infrastructures of the Interwar Caribbean (1910s–1930s) 37 3 “The Fraternity Who Love the Islands”: Tourism Development and the Scripting of Caribbean Culture (1925–1945) 59 4 Creating “Caribbean Vacationlands”: Concocting the Cultured Tropicalities of Postwar Travel (1945–1960) 82 5 A “Rich and Cosmopolitan Past”: Women and the Solidification of Island Romance (1960–1980) 104 Conclusion Building Something Different? 127 Acknowledgments 139 Notes 143 Bibliography 181 Index 000
ELIZABETH S. MANLEY is the Kellogg Endowed Professor of History at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. She is the author of The Paradox of Paternalism: Women and Authoritarian Politics in the Dominican Republic and coauthor of Cien Años de Feminismos Dominicanos with Ginetta Candelario and April Mayes.
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