Bookcase Favorites: Taking Haiti
In Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940, Mary Renda explores the interplay between culture and policy through the lens of the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Using a rich array of primary sources and interdisciplinary methods, Renda demonstrates how national consciousness was shaped by the occupation and how identity historically has been used as a tool of empire. In placing domestic cultural attitudes and ideas at the center of U.S. foreign relations, Renda prompts important discussion about the complex relationship between the center and peripheries of empire.
Divided into two parts, Taking Haiti examines the 1915-1945 U.S. occupation of Haiti through the experiences of Marines and the American public. Analyzing the occupation from a cultural framework, Renda illuminates how paternalist narratives legitimized the invasion and transformed Americans’ self-image. By depicting Haiti as a child-like nation in need of parental authority, U.S. policymakers and Marines sanctioned violence and portrayed intervention and domination as altruism. Inextricably connected to this narrative, Renda demonstrates, were notions of racial hierarchy.
Drawing from an impressive diversity of primary sources, including diaries, letters, memoirs, media, and literature from the period, Renda illustrates how popular representations of the occupation contributed to a culture of imperialism. From pulp fiction and plays to literature and journalistic pieces, Americans depicted Haitians as primitive, superstitious, and promiscuous, among other racist and sensationalized representations. Such paternalist and civilizational discourse bolstered perceptions of American greatness and informed “the myriad doubts, questions, and possibilities raised by contact with another culture and another nation.”
Prospective readers should note that Renda’s work is not a story about Haitians or the occupation of Haiti itself. Rather, it seeks to contextualize the occupation as part of the cultural history of the United States and illuminate the domestic social dimensions of American imperialism. In highlighting how social constructions contributed to the invasion of Haiti and shaped subsequent understandings of Americanness, this book sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between culture and policy – indeed, paternalism and racism were just as much instruments of empire as military force was.
Taking Haiti illuminates the value of incorporating cultural analysis into the study of U.S. diplomatic history. Renda’s approach brings a sensitivity and cultural awareness to foreign policy discourse that is all too often lacking, to a policy detriment. Like any interpretive lens, Renda’s is not all-encompassing, but it brings forth thoughtful perspectives in an area where cultural insensitivity and ignorance often overshadow important truths. This book thus remains an especially important contribution to the historiography of U.S. foreign relations.
As the United States maintains unprecedented influence globally, Renda prompts reflection on our own contemporary discourse on the U.S. and the world. In an era of American hegemony, the ways in which American policymakers and prominent narratives frame and inform U.S. foreign policy especially warrant consideration. Renda offers readers a mirror from which to critically examine how contemporary cultural institutions imbue our national identity, our relationship to policy decisions, and our international consciousness.