In the primary section, entitled “Occupation,” she looks at the individual experiences of American Marines stationed in Haiti through various diaries, autobiographies and novels produced by military personal during and after their time the country.

Original Image Courtesy of: Amazon.ĭivided in two main parts, Renda sets to understand the impact of a paternalistic discourse on individual Marines and the American public during the first Occupation of Haiti. For Renda, the Occupation of Haiti was thus much more than a mere episode of American interventionism in the early twentieth century it was a crucial instant for the history of both countries and continues to taint their relations to this date. More than simply influencing the lives of Marines who ventured in the Caribbean island, Renda shows that the Occupation created a space for Americans “back home” to negotiate and re-negotiate their understanding of Haiti in terms of gender, sexuality, exoticism and race. While various scholars, most notably Hans Schmidt (1971) have explored the United States Marine Occupation of Haiti as a larger chapter of American imperialism in the Caribbean, in this provocative research, Renda argues that paternalism was a central feature of this particular intervention. Renda gives a prime example of this type of scholarship. In Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Since the 1980s, many historians of international relations have tried to incorporate a “cultural approach” to the study of diplomacy. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001. Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. A Haitian guide is leading the party.” Image Courtesy of: Wikimedia Commons. Caption: “United States Marines on patrol in 1915 during the occupation of Haiti.

Taking Haiti by Mary A. Renda