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Author Dillman, Jefferson, 1969- author.

Title Colonizing paradise : landscape and empire in the British West Indies / Jefferson Dillman.

Publication Info. Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2015]
©2015

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Description 1 online resource.
Series Atlantic crossings
Atlantic crossings.
Summary "In Colonizing Paradise, historian Jefferson Dillman charts the broad spectrum of sentiments that British citizens and travelers held regarding their colonial possessions in the West Indies. Myriad fine degrees of ambivalence separated extreme views of the region as an idyllic archipelago or a nest of Satanic entrapments. Dillman shows the manner in which these authentic or spontaneous depictions of the environment were shaped to form a narrative that undergirded Britain's economic and political aims in the region. Because British sentiments in the Caribbean located danger and evil not just in indigenous populations but in Spanish Catholics as well, Dillman's work begins with the arrival of Spanish explorers and conquistadors. Colonizing Paradise spans the arrival of English ships and continues through the early nineteenth century and the colonial era. Dillman shows how colonial entrepreneurs, travelers, and settlers engaged in a disquieted dialogue with the landscape itself, a dialogue the examination of which sheds fresh light on the culture of the Anglophone colonial Caribbean. Of particular note are the numerous mythical, metaphorical, and biblical lenses through which Caribbean landscapes were viewed, from early views of the Caribbean landscape as a New World paradise to later depictions of the landscape as a battleground between the forces of Christ and Satan. The ideal of an Edenic landscape persisted, but largely, Dillman argues, as one that needed to be wrested from the forces of darkness, principally through the work of colonization, planting, cataloguing, and a rational ordering of the environment. Ultimately, although planters and their allies continued to promote pastoral and picturesque views of the Caribbean landscape, the goal of such narratives was to rationalize British rule as well as to mask and obscure emerging West Indian problems such as diseases, slavery, and rebellions. Colonizing Paradise offers much to readers interested in Caribbean, British, and colonial history"-- Provided by publisher.
"Dillman elegantly explores the evolution of English and British perceptions of the landscape of the West Indies and how their representations were used to support the development of the islands they colonized"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents 1. The Discovered Landscape : Iberians in the New World -- 2. The Colonial Paradise : English Encounters with the New World -- 3. The Lawless Landscape : Early English Colonial Experiences -- 4. The Recovered Landscape : Cataloging and Ordering the British West Indies -- 5. The Rural Landscape : The Pastoral, Picturesque, and Tropical -- The Tropics : An Epilogue.
Note Print version record.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription History Reference Center Collection
Subject West Indies, British -- Colonization -- Social aspects.
West Indies, British -- Foreign public opinion, British.
Landscapes -- Social aspects -- West Indies, British -- History.
Landscapes -- Political aspects -- West Indies, British -- History.
Landscapes -- West Indies, British -- Psychological aspects -- History.
British -- West Indies, British -- Attitudes -- History.
Imperialism -- Social aspects -- West Indies, British -- History.
West Indies, British -- Relations -- Great Britain.
Great Britain -- Relations -- West Indies, British.
Public opinion -- Great Britain -- History.
HISTORY -- Caribbean & West Indies -- General.
HISTORY -- Europe -- Great Britain.
NATURE -- Natural Resources.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- International.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- International Relations -- General.
British -- Attitudes. (OCoLC)fst00839046
Colonization -- Social aspects. (OCoLC)fst01352477
Imperialism -- Social aspects. (OCoLC)fst00968140
International relations. (OCoLC)fst00977053
Landscapes -- Political aspects. (OCoLC)fst01735927
Landscapes -- Psychological aspects. (OCoLC)fst01735929
Landscapes -- Social aspects. (OCoLC)fst01735942
Public opinion. (OCoLC)fst01082785
Public opinion, British. (OCoLC)fst01354095
Great Britain. (OCoLC)fst01204623
West Indies -- British West Indies. (OCoLC)fst01243266
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Other Form: Print version: Dillman, Jefferson, 1969- Colonizing paradise 9780817318581 (DLC) 2014040797 (OCoLC)896602588
ISBN 9780817388041 (electronic bk.)
0817388044 (electronic bk.)
9780817318581
0817318585
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