Haunted by empire : geographies of intimacy in North American history / edited by Ann Laura Stoler.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Stoler, Ann Laura.

Series:

American encounters/global interactions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intimacy (Psychology).

Social aspects.

History.

Intimacy (Psychology)--Political aspects.

United States--Territories and possessions--History.

United States.

Intimacy (Psychology)--Political aspects--United States--History.

Intimacy (Psychology)--Social aspects--United States--History.

Physical Description:

xvii, 544 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2006.

Summary:

A milestone in U.S. historiography, Haunted by Empire brings postcolonial critiques to bear on North American history and draws on that history to question the analytic conventions of postcolonial studies. The contributors to this innovative collection examine the critical role of "domains of the intimate" in the consolidation of colonial power. They demonstrate how the categories of difference underlying colonialism-the distinctions advanced as the justification for the colonizer's rule of the colonized-were enacted and reinforced in intimate realms from the bedroom to the classroom to the medical examining room. Together the essays focus attention on the politics of comparison-on how colonizers differentiated one group or set of behaviors from another-and on the circulation of knowledge and ideologies within and between imperial projects. Ultimately, this collection forces a rethinking of what historians choose to compare and of the epistemological grounds on which those choices are based.

Haunted by Empire includes Ann Laura Stoler's seminal essay "Tense and Tender Ties" as well as her bold introduction, which carves out the exciting new analytic and methodological ground animated by this comparative venture. The contributors engage in a lively cross-disciplinary conversation, drawing on history, anthropology, literature, philosophy, and public health. They address such topics as the deeply entangled histories of Asian, African, and native peoples in the Americas; the racial categorizations used in the 1890 U.S. census; and the politics of race and space in French colonial New Orleans. Linda Gordon, Catherine Hall, and Nancy F. Cott each provide a concluding essay reflecting on the innovations and implications of the arguments advanced in Haunted by Empire.

Contents:

Intimidations of empire : predicaments of the tactile and unseen / Ann Laura Stoler

Tense and tender ties : the politics of comparison in North American history and (post) colonial studies / Ann Laura Stoler

Samoa's half-castes and some frontiers of comparison / Damon Salesa

States of hygiene : race "improvement" and biomedical citizenship in Australia and the colonial Philippines / Warwick Anderson

Adjudicating intimacies on U.S. frontiers / Nayan Shah

Proper caresses and prudent distance : a how-to manual from colonial Louisiana / Shannon Lee Dawdy

"His kingdom for a kiss" : Indians and intimacy in the narrative of John Marrant / Tiya Miles

The intimacies of four continents / Lisa Lowe

Body work in the antebellum United States / Kathleen Brown

Fractions and fictions in the United States census of 1890 / Martha Hodes

The fair ensemble : Kate Chopin in St. Louis in 1904 / Laura Wexler

"The perfect mistress of Russian economy" : sighting the intimate on a colonial Alaskan terrain, 1784-1821 / Gwenn A. Miller

An empire of tests : psychometrics and the paradoxes of nationalism in the Americas / Alexandra Minna Stern

Making "American" families : transnational adoption and U.S. Latin America policy / Laura Briggs

The darkness that enters the home : the gender politics of prostitution during the Philippine-American war / Paul A. Kramer

Ordering others : U.S. financial advisers in the early twentieth century / Emily S. Rosenberg

Internal colonialism and gender / Linda Gordon

Commentary / Catherine Hall

Afterword / Nancy F. Cott.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [473]-530) and index.

ISBN:

0822337371

082233724X

OCLC:

62281816

Publisher Number:

9780822337249