Title: Colonizing paradise : landscape and empire in the British West Indies /
Authors: Dillman, Jefferson, 1969-
Year: 2015
Subjects: 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.; Public opinion Great Britain History.; HISTORY / Caribbean & West Indies / General.; HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain.; NATURE / Natural Resources.; British Attitudes.; Colonization Social aspects; Imperialism Social aspects; International relations; Landscapes Political aspects; Landscapes Psychological aspects; Landscapes Social aspects; Public opinion; Public opinion, British.; West Indies, British Colonization Social aspects.; West Indies, British Foreign public opinion, British.; West Indies, British Relations Great Britain.; Great Britain Relations West Indies, British.; Great Britain; West Indies British West Indies
Abstract: "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.^
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.