Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Orca
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Colby, Jason Michael
BIRTHDATE: 1974
WEBSITE:
CITY: Victoria
STATE: BC
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY:
Phone: 250-721-7389
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1974, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
EDUCATION:Whitman College, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1997; Cornell University, M.A., 2002, Ph.D., 2005.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. University of Texas, El Paso, instructor; University of Victoria, BC, Canada, associate professor, 2007—. Previously, worked as a commercial fisherman and on fish farms; taught English in Taiwan; worked at a land-use law firm in Seattle.
MEMBER:American Historical Association, American Society for Environmental History, Organization of American Historian, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Canadian Historical Association.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. Contributor of chapters to books, including Animal Metropolis: Histories of Human-Animal Relations in Urban Canada, Animals and History, and Making the Empire Work: Labor and United States Imperialism.
SIDELIGHTS
Jason M. Colby is a writer and educator based in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. After obtaining his Ph.D., he served as an instructor at the University of Texas, El Paso. In 2007, he joined the University of Victoria, where he has held the position of associate professor. Before he became involved in academia, Colby worked on fish farms, as a commercial fisherman, as an English teacher in Taiwan, and as an employee at a Seattle law firm that specialized in land-use law. He has written articles that have appeared in publications, including the Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, and he has contributed chapters to edited volume, including Animal Metropolis: Histories of Human-Animal Relations in Urban Canada, Animals and History, and Making the Empire Work: Labor and United States Imperialism.
The Business of Empire
Colby’s first book is the 2011 nonfiction volume, The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America. It finds him arguing that the U.S. used a large business entity, the United Fruit Company, to control the work forces and governments of countries in the Caribbean and Central America. Colby closely analyzes the company’s businesses in Guatemala and Costa Rica. He discusses the racial hierarchies in these countries, noting that Spanish colonialism resulted in the marginalization of people of native people and people of African heritage. Racial relations in the U.S. reinforced the subjugation of these groups. The United Fruit Company also operated with the underlying belief in the supremacy of those with white European ancestors and made decisions on labor based on that belief.
Dylan Roberts, reviewer in Canadian Dimension, described The Business of Empire as “a startling book … not least for the gentle rigour and humane voice exhibited by author Jason Colby.” Writing in Choice, T.A. Aiello categorized the book as “recommended.” Carolyne Ryan, critic on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, suggested: “Colby’s sources are truly impressive. First, he has discovered a trove of company records, which are, as he points out, truly priceless in light of United Fruit’s destruction of the vast majority of its corporate archives. Even more important, his analysis of these documents brings to light provocative and thoughtful new ideas about how United Fruit—a company that historians have been studying for many years, and in many ways—affected Latin American societies on the ground, and how company officials thought about their actions in their own cultural and political contexts.” However, Ryan also noted that the book contained a large number of case studies, remarking: “Colby has interesting and provocative things to say about these two countries, which are convincing, but they get lost in the forest.”
Orca
In Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator, Colby suggests that placing orcas in captivity may have kept them from going extinct. The species, Orcinus orca, is able to survive well and procreate in captivity and interacts well with humans, in most cases. Those attributes made it an attractive species to be kept in captivity, keeping it from being killed off by fishermen, environmental factors, or natural predators. Colby explains that there was a major shift in perceptions of orcas after World War II. Before that time, salmon fishermen systematically reduced orca populations in their areas because orcas would eat many of the fish they hoped to catch. Also, stories of orcas killing humans circulated during that time, making them a feared species. However, during the 1960s, the captive orcas, Namu and Moby Doll, were taught to perform and charmed audiences throughout the world. Colby goes on to profile Shamu, the killer whale (orca), and his offspring, and he connects them to the rise of Sea World and other marine-life attractions. He explains that, as more information on captive orcas has come to light, there has been a movement in favor of their release.
In an interview with Lynda V. Mapes, contributor to the Seattle Times Online, Colby explained: “The book is trying … to help us explore how we came to care about these animals in the first pace. It starts at reminding Northwesterners that live captures were not the worst thing that happened to killer whales. Up through the mid-1960s, locals regularly shot and killed killer whales. They were seen as this kind of vermin species, the same approach we took to land predators like wolves. And the only way they studied them in the 1960s was to kill and dissect them.”
“Thoroughly documented and full of interviews, this is the definitive history of orcas in confinement,” asserted Nancy Bent in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly critic suggested: “Detail bogs down the narrative.” However, the same critic added: “Colby has produced an originally argued and accessibly jargon-free consideration of a hot-button animal conservation issue.” A writer in Kirkus Reviews described the book as “a good choice for serious fans of Pacific Northwest and marine history but information overload for mere lovers of all the Shamus and their ilk.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 2018, Nancy Bent, review of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator, p. 8.
Canadian Dimension, March-April, 2014, Dylan Roberts, review of The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America, p. 58.
Choice, August, 2012, T.A. Aiello, review of The business of Empire, p. 2350.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2018, review of Orca.
Publishers Weekly, April 16, 2018, review of Orca, p. 85.
Reference & Research Book News, April, 2012. review of The Business of Empire.
ONLINE
H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, https://networks.h-net.org/ (November 1, 2012), Carolyne Ryan, review of The Business of Empire.
Seattle Times Online, https://www.seattletimes.com/ (May 30, 2018), Lynda V. Mapes, author interview.
University of Victoria website, https://www.uvic.ca/ (June 29, 2018), author faculty profile and curriculum vitae.
Dr. Jason Colby
Dr. Jason Colby
Position
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Adviser
History
Credentials
BA (Whitman), MA, PhD (Cornell)
Contact
Office: Cle B216
jcolby@uvic.ca
250-721-7389
Office Hours
No office hours during the summer.
Area
Modern U.S. History, International Relations, Environmental and Business History, Pacific Northwest
Faces of UVic Research video
Bio
I was born in Victoria and grew up in the Seattle area of Washington State. During my high school and undergraduate years, I worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and on fish farms in Puget Sound. I also studied overseas in Central America. Before entering graduate school, I taught history and English in Taiwan, worked at a land-use law firm in Seattle, and travelled throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. I earned my Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2005 and taught at the University of Texas at El Paso before coming to the University of Victoria in 2007. I teach and write on modern U.S. history, with particular interests in international relations and environmental history. My first book explores race, U.S. imperial expansion, and corporate power in Central America. My second book examines the transformation of human relations with killer whales from the 1960s to the present, and its impact on environmental politics in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Curriculum Vitae
Selected publications
Books:
Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator (Oxford University Press, 2018)
The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America (Cornell University Press, 2011)
Honourable mention, Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Honourable mention, Ralph Gomory Prize, Business History Conference
Recent articles and chapters:
“The Whale in the City: Orca Captivity and Environmental Politics in Vancouver,” in Darcy Ingram, ed., Animal Metropolis: Histories of Human-Animal Relations in Urban Canada (University of Calgary Press, 2016)
“Change in Black and White: Orca Bodies and the New Pacific Northwest,” in Susan Nance, ed., Animals and History (Syracuse University Press, 2015)
“Progressive Empire? Race and Tropicality in United Fruit’s Central America,” in Daniel Bender and Jana Lipman, eds. Making the Empire Work: Labor and United States Imperialism (NYU Press, 2015)
“The Whale and the Region: Killer Whale Capture and the Remaking of the Pacific Northwest,” (Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (2013)
Blogs
“The Real Whale Who Changed the World”
Courses
Course: Title:
HSTR 210A The United States to the Civil War
HSTR 210B The United States from Post-War Reconstruction - present
HSTR 303A The Emergence of Modern America, 1890-1945
HSTR 303B United States since 1945
HSTR 307A The United States in the World, 1750 - 1914
HSTR 307B The United States in the World, 1914 - present
HSTR 410
Seminar in American History
Beastly Nation: Animals and People in US History
A World On Fire: The United States, the Cold War, and the Environment
HSTR 471
Seminar in World History
From Oil to Icons: The History of Whales and People
Grad students
In progress
Gordon Lyall, “Heterodox Hunters, Fugitive Fishers, and Woodland Warriors: Salish Sea Identity in ‘Post’-Colonial Borderlands, 1962-2007” (Ph.D.)
Winner of SSHRC Doctoral Award
Isobel Griffin, “Managing the Entertainment: Marine Mammal Technologies at Marineland of the Pacific” (MA)
Jake Sherman, "'A Ship on the Waves of the Zeitgeist:' An Oral History of the Georgia Straight, 1967 – 1973” (MA)
Completed
Blake Butler, “Fishing on Porpoise: The Origins and Early Years of the Tuna-Dolphin Controversy” (MA)
Winner of SSHRC Master’s Award
Sheila Hamilton, “Panamanian Politics and Panama’s Relations with the United States Leading Up to the Hull-Alfaro Treaty” (MA, 2014)
Matt Logan, “‘We Say All the Real Things. And We Believe Them’: The Establishment of the United States Information Agency 1953” (MA, 2012)
Carlee Johnson, “Remembering ‘the American Island of Oahu’: Hawai'i Under Military Rule 1941-1945” (MA, 2011)
Jackson Todd, “Politics, Ideals, and Religion: Abraham Lincoln and the Growth to Emancipation 1860-1863” (MA, 2009)
Rob Douglas, “‘Being Successfully Nasty’: The United States, Cuba and State-Sponsored Terrorism” (MA, 2008)
1
JASON M. COLBYAssociateProfessor of HistoryUniversity of VictoriaP.O. Box 3045Department of HistoryVictoria, BCV8W 3P4250-721-7389; jcolby@uvic.caFIELDS OF EXPERTISEEnvironmental HistoryPacific Northwest HistoryU.S. International RelationsHistoryBusiness HistoryEDUCATIONPh.D. –Cornell University (2005)M.A. –Cornell University (2002)B.A. –Whitman College (1997), magna cum laudeSCHOLARSHIPBooksOrca: How We Came to Know and Love theOcean’s Greatest Predator(Oxford University Press, 2018)The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America (Cornell University Press, 2011)**Honorable mention, Stuart L. BernathBook Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations**Honorable mention, Ralph Gomory Prize, Business History ConferenceArticles“Conscripting the Leviathan: Science, Cetaceans, and the Cold War,” Diplomatic History(under review)“The Whale and the Region: Killer Whale Capture and the Remaking of the Pacific Northwest,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association(volume 24, issue 2, 2013)“‘A Chasm of Values and Outlook’: The Carter Administration’s Human Rights Policy in Guatemala,”Peace and Change (October 2010)“Race, Empire, and New England Capital in the Caribbean,” Massachusetts Historical Review(September2009)“‘Banana Growing and Negro Management’: Race, Labor, and Jim Crow Colonialism in Guatemala, 1884-1930.” Diplomatic History(September 2006)Book Chapters“Cetaceans in the City: Orca Captivity and Environmental Politics in Vancouver,” Darcy Ingram, ed. Animal Metropolis: Histories of Human-Animal Relations in Urban Canada (University of Calgary Press, 2017)“Change in Black and White: Orca Bodies and the New Pacific Northwest,” in Susan Nance, ed., Animals and History (Syracuse University Press, 2015)“Progressive Empire? Race and Tropicalityin United Fruit’s Central America,” in DanielBenderandJana Lipman, eds. Making the Empire Work: Labor and United States Imperialism(NYU Press, 2015)“Reagan andCentral America,” A Companion to Ronald Reagan, Andrew Johns, ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015)“The Spanish-American War and Imperialism,” The Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy: A Diplomatic History, Thomas Zeiler and Robert McMahon, eds. (DWJ Books, 2012)“James Madison,” American Statesmen, Edward S. Mihalkanin,ed.(Greenwood Press, 2004)Digital Scholarship“The Real Whale Who Changed the World,” Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE)(February 2017)“The United States and the Caribbean, 1877-1920,” History by Era website, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History(2012)
Book ReviewsRussell Crandall, The Salvador Option: The United States in El Salvador, 1977-1992(H-Diplo Roundtable Review, forthcoming)Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, A River Captured, and Sandford et al., The Columbia River Treaty: A Primer(B.C. Studies,autumn2017)Kevin Coleman, A Camera in the Garden of Eden(Agricultural History, winter 2017)Alan McPherson, The Invaded: How Latin Americans and Their Allies Fought and Ended U.S. Occupations (H-Diplo Roundtable Review, July 2015)Ian Tyrrell, Crisis of the Wasteful Nation: Empire and Conservation in Theodore Roosevelt’s America(Diplomatic History, June2015)Heidi Tinsman, Buying into the Regime: Grapes and Consumption in Cold War Chile and the United States (Canadian Journalof History, spring/summer2015)Kurkpatrick Dorsey, Whales and Nations: Environmental Diplomacy on the High Seas (Diplomatic History, June2015)William M.Schmidli, The Fate of Freedom Elsewhere: Human Rights and U.S. Cold War Policy toward Argentina. (H-Diplo Roundtable Review, 27 October 2014)Author’s Response in Roundtable Review of The Business of Empire, H-Diplo Roundtable Review, Vol. XIV, no. 25 (2013)Roger Peace, A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign(Pacific Historical Review, August 2013)Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War (Pacific Historical Review, February 2012)Brian Loveman, No Higher Law: American Foreign Policy and the Western Hemisphere since 1776(The Americas, July 2011)Gilbert M. Joseph and Daniela Spenser, eds., In From the Cold: Latin America’s New Encounter with the Cold War(Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, October 2010)Aims McGuinness, Path of Empire: Panama and the California God Rush(Hispanic American Historical Review, August 2009)Jason C. Parker, Brother’s Keeper: The United States, Race, and Empire in the British Caribbean,1937-1962 (Journal of American History, December 2008)Michel Gobat, Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua under U.S. Imperial Rule(Journal of Military History, October 2006)Reference Entries“Filibustering in Cuba,” and “William Walker” in Encyclopedia of U.S. Military Interventions in Latin America, Alan McPherson, ed. (ABL-CLIO, 2013) “Costa Rica,” “Edwin Atkins,” and “Andrew Preston” in Encyclopedia of U.S.-Latin American Relations, Thomas Leonard, ed.(CQ Press,2012)PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIESInvited Talks and ConferencesFebruary 2018:Invited lecture: “Captive Encounters: How the ‘Killer’ Became the ‘Orca’,” James Connelly Lecture Series, University of PortlandJanuary 2018:Invited Chair on Panel: “Encountering Non-Human Histories,” Qualicum History Conference, Parksville, BCSept 2017: Gave a talk, “Trump and the North Korea Crisis,” for Asia Update forum, sponsored by the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, UniversityAugust 2017:Gave a paper, “Namu’s Voyage: How One Orca’s Capture Changed Views of the Ocean’s Greatest Predator,” AHA-Pacific Coast Branch, Cal State NorthridgeJune 2017: Chaired a panel, “Breaking Bonds, Creating Enemies: U.S. Immigration Policy and Its Impact on U.S. Foreign Relations during the Interwar Period,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, Arlington, VirginiaJune 2017: Invited commentator on panel, “Esquipulas II at Thirty: Historical Perspectives on Central American Peace in the 1980s,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, Arlington, VirginiaJune 2017:Gave a public talk: “People, Killer Whales, and the Story of the Salish Sea,” St. Mary’s Anglican ChurchMarch 2017:Gave a paper, “Harnessing the Leviathan: Science, Cetaceans, and the Cold War,” American Society of Environmental Historians conference, Chicago
March 2017:Gave a talk, “Flipper Goes To War: The U.S. Navy and the Origins of Modern Whale Science,” for History Department Works in Progress series, University of Victoria March 2017:Gave a talk, “Trump in the American Grain,” for public panel on “Angry Populism” for Ideafest, University of VictoriaJanuary 2017:Gave a talk, “Trump and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy,” public panel on Trump presidency, University of VictoriaJanuary 2017: Gave a talk, “Trump and the Roots of Conservative Populism,” Glenlyon Norfolk School, Victoria, BCOctober 2016:Gave a public talk: “Hillary Clinton and Her Times,” The 2016 US Election, continuing education course, University of VictoriaAugust 2016:Gave a paper: “The Sea Wolves of War: Killer Whales, the U.S. Navy, and Cold War Culture in the Pacific,” Waikoloa, HawaiiJune 2016: Invited commentator on panel, “Beyond Consumer History: American Commerce and International Travel between the World Wars,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, San Diego, CaliforniaJune 2016:Gave a public talk: “ThePast and Future of the Salish Sea Orcas,” Community Panel on Recovery of South Resident Killer Whales, Oak Bay United Church. April 2016:Gave a public talk: “Spyhopping Through History: The Salish Sea Orcas in Global Perspective,” Café Historique Series, Hermann’s Jazz Club, VictoriaMarch 2016: Gave a paper, “A ‘Terrible’ and ‘Sickening’ Spectacle: The Penn Cove Roundup and the Environmental Politics of the Salish Sea,” American Society of Environmental Historians conference, Seattle, Washington January 2016:Gave an invited talk, “An Iconic Sea Mammal: Orcas, People, and the New Northwest,” Probus Club, SaanichDecember 2015:Gave a presentation: “The Ocean’s Ambassadors: How Orcas Saved the Great Whales,” History Fair for High School Students, University of VictoriaNovember 2015:Gave an invited talk,“Orcas and History: The Salish Sea Killer Whales in Global Perspective,” University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BCOctober 2015:Gave a paper, “Teaching the World to Love Whales: The Pacific Northwest and the New Environmental Politics,” Western Historical Association conference, Portland, OregonJune 2015: Chaired a plenary, “New Frontiers: Environmental History and Foreign Relations,”Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, Arlington, VirginiaJune 2015:Gave a paper, “Whales of War, Whales of Peace: The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program and Cold War Environmentalism,”Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, Arlington, VirginiaApril 2015: Gave a presentation: “Whales of the Cold War: A BriefJourney into Unexpected History” History Fair for High School Students, University of VictoriaFebruary 2015:Gave an invited talk: “A New Era in U.S.-Cuban Relations?” Centre for Global Studies, University of VictoriaFebruary 2015:Gave a public talk: “October 1962: A Near Miss with Nuclear War—TheCuban Missile Crisis,” Café Historique Series, Hermann’s Jazz Club, VictoriaJanuary 2015:Invited chair on panel, “Music and Politics: Colonial America, the Vietnam War, and Vancouver's Downtown East Side,” Qualicum History Conference, Parksville, BCJune 2014:Invited commentator on panel, “Nixon, Nintendo, and Nicaragua: The Consequences of the Cold War in the Pacific, 1970-1990,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, Lexington, Kentucky June 2014:Invited chair on panel, “The Inter-American Politics of Human Rights: The United States and Latin America, 1972-1989,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations conference, Lexington, KentuckyApril 2014:Invited commentator for panel onKelsey Heinen, “Standing Guard: The Politics of American Empire and the Formation of Nicaragua’s Guardia Nacional,” Dartmouth College.April 2014:Gave a public talk: “September 11, 2001: The Origins and Global Consequences of 9/11,” Café Historique Series, Hermann’s Jazz Club, VictoriaMarch 2014: Gave an invited talk: “The West and U.S. Expansion: The Continental Consequences of the War of 1812,”Maritime Museum, VictoriaFebruary 2014: Gave a talk, “From Hot to Cold War: The United States in the World, 1940-1948,” Pro-D Workshopfor Secondary School Teachers,University of VictoriaJune 2013:Gave a paper: “The Whale and the Region: Killer Whale Capture and the Remaking of the Pacific Northwest,”Canadian Historical Association conference, Victoria
May 2013: Gave a talk, “The Black Freedom Movement, 1945-1968,” Glenlyon Norfolk School, Victoria, BCDecember 2012:Gave a talk: “Race and American Politics in the Age of Obama,” History Fair for High School Students, University of VictoriaNovember 2012:Gave an invited talk: “Inside the U.S. Empire: Race, Work, and U.S. Expansion in Latin America,”University of British Columbia-OkanaganAugust 2012:Gave a paper: “Labor and the Contours of Empire,” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association conference, University of San DiegoAugust 2012:Invited chair and commentator on panel: “Postwar U.S. History in a Global Context,” PacificCoast Branch-American Historical Association conference, San DiegoAugust 2012:Gave presentation for roundtable: “The Vietnam Legacy and the Limits of U.S. Power,” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association conference, San DiegoJune 2012: Gave presentation for roundtable: “U.S. Foreign Relations in the Aftermath of the Reagan Revolution,” Society for Historians of American Foreign Relationsconference, Hartford,ConnecticutMay 2012: Invited chair and commentator on panel: “Visualizing Masculinity: Gendered Images in the Caribbean Basin,” Congress of Latin American Studies Association, San FranciscoMarch 2012: Gave an invited talk: “Race, Work, and the U.S. Empire in Latin America,” University ofNorthern British Columbia, Prince George, British ColumbiaMarch 2012:Gave presentation for public forum: “The Arab Spring One Year Later: Revolution, Resolution, and Resentment,” University of VictoriaMarch 2012: Gave presentation for public forum: “A Lead-Up to War?: the United States, Israel, and Iran’s Nuclear Program.” University of VictoriaOctober 2011: Gave presentation: “Days of the Killer Whale: The Orca Industry in Pacific Northwest History and Memory” for History Department Works in Progress series, University of VictoriaAugust 2011:Gave presentation for roundtable: “Where and When Was the Cold War in Latin America?” at Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Associationconference, SeattleMarch 2011: Gave presentation for public forum: “Afghanistan: Past, Present, and Future,” University of Victoria(on youtube, 3 mins into clip)March 2011:Gave presentation, “The United States and the Arab Spring,” atpublic forum: “Upheaval in theMiddle East: Egypt and Its Neighbors,” University of VictoriaAugust 2010:Invited chair and commentator on panel: “Race, Missionaries, Colonization, andDecolonization in the Atlantic World”at Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association conference, Santa Clara, CaliforniaAugust 2010:Gave presentation for roundtable: “Writing the Historyof Globalization, Revolution, andAnti-Americanism in U.S.-Latin American Relations” at Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association conference, Santa Clara, CaliforniaJune 2010:Invited chair and commentator on panel:“Frontier Localities and American Foreign Relations, 1743-1860” at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relationsconference, Madison, WisconsinJune 2010: Gave presentation for roundtable: “Engaging and Articulating ‘Race’” at Graduate StudentSymposium, Universityof VictoriaApril 2010:Gave a talk: “Covert Ops and Unintended Consequences: The CIA in the Cold War,” for Esquimalt High School Challenge Program Annual ConferenceFebruary 2010:Gave a talk: “Haiti in History,” for South Island Physicians’ Associationfundraiser, University of VictoriaNovember 2009:Gave a talk: “Jim Crow Colonialism: Race and U.S. Empire in the Caribbean Basin,” for “In Pursuit of Knowledge” series at the University of VictoriaJune 2009:Invited commentator on the panel:“Britain in the Backyard: United States-Great Britain Relations in the Western Hemisphere,” at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relationsconference, Falls Church, Virginia June 2009:Organizedand gave presentation for roundtable:“Race, Capital, and Empire,” at Society for Historians of American Foreign Relationsconference, Falls Church, VirginiaMarch 2009:Gave a talk, “Obama’s Foreign Policy Hotspots,” at public panel, University of VictoriaNovember 2008:Gave a talk: “Iraq and U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” at James Bay United Churchcommunity gathering, VictoriaNovember 2008:Gave a talk: “Barack Obama’s Victory in Historical Perspective,” at U.S. Election Roundtable,University of VictoriaAugust 2008:Gave presentation for roundtable: “Out of the Shadows: Race and Gender in the Study of
2015-2020: SSHRC Insight Grant ($109,000, awarded for Days of the Killer Whale project)2014:Internal Research Grant, University of Victoria2013: Humanities Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Victoria2012:Internal Research Grant, University of Victoria2009:Internal Research Grant, University of Victoria2008: Internal Research Grant, University of Victoria2005:University Research Institute Grant, University of Texas at ElPaso2005: Messenger-Chalmers Dissertation Prize, Cornell University2004:Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society 2003-2004:DAR Fellowship, Cornell University2003:W. Stull Holt Memorial Fellowship, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations2003:W. M. Keck Foundation Fellowship, Huntington Library2003:Research Fellowship, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History2002-2003:John and Louise Ihlder Fellowship, Cornell University2002:Paul W. Gates Award for Dissertation Research, Cornell University1999-2000:Sage Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Cornell University1997:Sires-Whitner Award, History Department, Whitman CollegePOSITIONS HELD2012-present: Associate Professor, History Department, University of VictoriaJan –July 2015: Interim Chair of History Department2011-2014: Undergraduate Coordinator, History Department, University of Victoria2007-2012: Assistant Professor, History Department, University of Victoria2005-2007: Assistant Professor, History Department, University of Texas at El PasoUniversity ServiceJuly –Dec 2017: Search Committee for the Chair ofHistoryJuly 2017 –present: Advisory Committee to Associate DeanJuly 2015 –present: Faculty SenateJuly 2015 –present: Faculty Senate Planning CommitteeJuly 2014-Dec 2015: Advisory Committee to Associate DeanJuly –Dec2014: Reviewand ReappointmentCommittee for Dean of HumanitiesOther ActivitiesCo-Chair for Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting (June 2014 –June 2015)Program Committee for Canadian Historical Association, 2013 Annual MeetingCo-Chair for American Historical Association—Pacific Coast Branch 2012 Annual MeetingProgram Committee for Society for Historians for American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting(2009, 2010)Contributing Editor of American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature(ABC-CLIO)AssociationsAmerican Historical AssociationAmerican Society for Environmental HistoryCanadian Historical AssociationOrganization of American HistoriansSociety for Historians of American Foreign Relations
QUOTED: "The book is trying ... to help us explore how we came to care about these animals in the first pace. It starts at reminding Northwesterners that live captures were not the worst thing that happened to killer whales. Up through the mid-1960s, locals regularly shot and killed killer whales. They were seen as this kind of vermin species, the same approach we took to land predators like wolves. And the only way they studied them in the 1960s was to kill and dissect them."
When orcas were crops: Colby offers a history of the capture of orca whales in the Pacific Northwest.
Share story
By Lynda V. Mapes May 30, 2018
Seattle Times environment reporter
Book review
Jason Colby has more than a historian’s perspective on the era when orca whales were trapped and sold for profit and entertainment all over the world: His father used to be a “cropper,” as the fishermen of these great mammals of the Northwest called themselves.
Today an associate professor of environmental and international history at the University of Victoria, Colby, author of “Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator,” was born in Victoria, British Columbia, but raised in the Seattle area, where he worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and Washington. His is a Northwest story, born and bred, and he tells it with the depth and passion the topic deserves.
“My family lived with this story,” Colby said in an interview, explaining his father had been involved in a capture, but quit the business after three of the whales later died in captivity.
“The book is trying to take us further back, to help us explore how we came to care about these animals in the first pace. It starts at reminding Northwesterners that live captures were not the worst thing that happened to killer whales. Up through the mid-1960s, locals regularly shot and killed killer whales. They were seen as this kind of vermin species, the same approach we took to land predators like wolves. And the only way they studied them in the 1960s was to kill and dissect them.”
Featured Video
Mariners closer Edwin Diaz: the art of a 100 mph fastball (2:18)
Most Read Entertainment Stories
Sasquatch! Music Festival is calling it quits
New on Netflix in July 2018: 'Orange is the New Black,' 'The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants'
Look Ahead: The hottest Seattle events for July 2018 VIEW
Celebrate the Fourth of July in Seattle, Bellevue and around the region
New on HBO in July 2018: 'Sharp Objects,' 'Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind'
Sale! Save 90% on select subscriptions.
Captive orcas, netted in Northwest waters and especially Puget Sound were sent all over the world from Seattle in the 1960s and 1970s before state and federal laws finally shut down the practice. But it was captive whales, Colby argued, that provided the understanding of the species that led to the ethical imperative to save the whales.
Colby’s book comes out just as the Lummi Nation is campaigning for the release of the last southern-resident orcas still surviving in captivity.
Lolita, a member of L pod, was taken when just 4 years old in 1970 at Penn Cove and has been in captivity ever since at the Miami Seaquarium.
Colby argues that while he is sympathetic to her plight, it should illuminate not only the tragedy of what happened to her, but the existential threat every member of the J, K and L pods faces today in the wild because of the degradation of their home waters.
The people of the Northwest and beyond have a moral obligation to save a species that single-handedly educated the world about the true character and marvel of the species, Colby said.
“I would argue that we have a debt to the resident killer whales. We have a moral obligation to this population that helped transform our views of cetaceans. We owe it to them to protect them. They helped make us better people.”
ADVERTISING
His detailed history of the era of capturing orcas for theme parks and cutting them up for research is painful, even excruciating, reading. Orcas are tangled and drowned in nets. They die on planes in undersized crates packed with insufficient ice. An orca is lifted by its tail for transport, breaking its back. Whales are branded, shot and separated from their families, screaming as only an orca can scream in terror.
Once corralled, captors easily picked off the whales they wanted, because the families stuck together, trying to help one another, rather than fleeing the melee.
Colby’s nonetheless is a respectful portrait of the captors, who operate in another historic and moral context, that their own deeds helped transform.
Ultimately though, this son of a cropper saves his purest sympathy for the animals themselves, now critically endangered, with a population of just 76 southern-resident killer whales left, dependent on salmon runs also depleted as their home waters are degraded by people.
“In its preindustrial state, this coast was ideal for specialized predators who fed on fat, abundant chinook salmon,” Colby writes. “But … the Salish Sea was becoming an urban, saltwater lake — increasingly loud, empty and polluted.”
Today the biggest threat to the orcas is no longer live captures, Colby writes. It is us.
_____
“Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator” by Jason M. Colby; Oxford University Press; 408 pp.; $29.95
Jason Colby will read from “Orca” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, at University Lutheran Church, 1604 N.E. 50th St., Seattle; $5; https://townhallseattle.org
QUOTED: "Thoroughly documented and full of interviews, this is the definitive history of orcas in confinement."
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 1/9
Print Marked Items
Orca: How We Came to Know and Love
the Ocean's Greatest Predator
Nancy Bent
Booklist.
114.18 (May 15, 2018): p8.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator.
By Jason M. Colby.
June 2018. 392p. illus. Oxford, $29.95 (9780190673093). 599.53.
Environmental historian Colby (The Business of Empire, 2011) points out a fascinating conundrum in this
overview of the relationship between humans and killer whales, the fact that Orcinus orca performs well in
captivity may actually have saved the species from localized extinction. As the ocean's apex predators,
killer whales were almost universally feared and hated, and as human populations exploded after WWII,
orcas were seen as major competitors for salmon and regularly culled. But as marine aquariums were built
on the Pacific shore, the lure of a captive orca was overwhelming. Then the stardom of Moby Doll and
Namu in the early 1960s sealed the deal. Colby spins the tale of the first Shamu (i.e., she-Namu) and how
she helped spur the corporate giant, Sea World, with its business of live-capturing killer whales for profit
and exhibition in cement pools all over the globe until, finally, the shift in public perception from "killer"
whale to friendly orca raised concerns. Millions of people have seen orcas on display and been enthralled,
then inspired to call for their release. Thoroughly documented and full of interviews, this is the definitive
history of orcas in confinement. --Nancy Bent
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Bent, Nancy. "Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator." Booklist, 15 May
2018, p. 8. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541400731/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f8acba4d. Accessed 24 June 2018.
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 2/9
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541400731
QUOTED: "Detail bogs down the narrative."
"Colby has produced an originally argued and accessibly jargon-free consideration of a
hot-button animal conservation issue."
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 3/9
Orca: How We Came to Know and Love
the Ocean's Greatest Predator
Publishers Weekly.
265.16 (Apr. 16, 2018): p85.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator
Jason M. Colby. Oxford Univ., $29.95 (408p)
ISBN 978-0-19-067309-3
Historian Colby (The Business of Empire) takes a revealing look at how the human view of orcas has
changed, from considering them bloodthirsty monsters to realizing they are intelligent creature meriting
protection from whalers, as well as ocean parks and aquariums seeking specimens to display. He explains
that, in the early 20th century, Antarctic explorer Robert Scott's bestselling journal solidified the animal's
image as a vicious killer, a view that supported multiple countries' efforts to slaughter as many orcas as
possible after WWII. The orca's image only began to be rehabilitated in the 1960s, when live animals were
captured and put on display, quickly becoming popular tourist attractions. The acquisition of orcas became a
priority for venues like San Diego's Sea World, which acquired the most famous one, Shamu. Colby
persuasively contends that, despite legitimate concerns popularized by the 2013 documentary Blackfish,
about the effects of captivity on orcas, the animals avoided extinction because their presence in accessible
public venues enabled people to relate to them. At times, the amount of detail included bogs down the
narrative, as in a section covering an aquarium owner's early life, and other than the Blackfish controversy,
the book is curiously light on developments in recent decades. However, for the many readers interested in
the orca's well-being, Colby has produced an originally argued and accessibly jargon-free consideration of a
hot-button animal conservation issue. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator." Publishers Weekly, 16 Apr. 2018,
p. 85. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532761/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e740f5fa. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532761
QUOTED: "a good choice for serious fans of Pacific Northwest and marine history but information overload for mere lovers of all the Shamus and their ilk."
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 4/9
Colby, Jason M.: ORCA
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Colby, Jason M. ORCA Oxford Univ. (Adult Nonfiction) $29.95 6, 1 ISBN: 978-0-19-067309-3
The history of Orcinus orca, from its days as both a cultural icon of the Pacific Northwest and a dangerous
pest to marine fishermen and whalers to stardom as a performer at marine theme parks.
Environmentalist Colby (History/Univ. of Victoria; The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S.
Expansion in Central America, 2011, etc.) reports on one species and concentrates on one brief period of
time, in contrast to Nick Pyenson's Spying on Whales, which looks with a scientist's eye at whales of all
kinds in the distant past, present, and possible future. Colby's story is also focused on the human
relationships with orcas. His history is filled with the names of the men who attempted to capture killer
whales, those who met with increasing success, the entrepreneurs who capitalized on whales, and the names
of the whales that were caught. Readers will meet Namu, Kandu, Skanda, Taku, Haida, Chimo, and, perhaps
the most famous one of all, Shamu (a name given to many after the original). For decades, catching and
selling whales was big business, and as captive display animals at places like Sea World, killer whales
became public favorites for their spectacular performances and their strikingly handsome black-and-white
coloration. Captivity also meant that scientists could study orcas in ways not previously possible. By the
1970s, the environmental movement had become a subject of mainstream politics, and activists took up the
issue of whale conservation. The author delves into the conflicts over regulation as protestors tangled with
businesses, scientists with fisherman, and fishermen with government officials. Anecdotes abound. The cast
of characters is enormous, and readers may find themselves struggling to keep the names straight.
A good choice for serious fans of Pacific Northwest and marine history but information overload for mere
lovers of all the Shamus and their ilk.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Colby, Jason M.: ORCA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534374989/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=efa95e89.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534374989
QUOTED: "a startling book ... not least for the gentle rigour and humane voice exhibited by author Jason Colby."
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 5/9
The Business of Empire: United Fruit,
Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central
America
Dylan Roberts
Canadian Dimension.
48.2 (March-April 2014): p58.
COPYRIGHT 2014 Canadian Dimension Publication, Ltd.
Full Text:
THE BUSINESS OF EMPIRE: UNITED FRUIT, RACE, AND U.S. EXPANSION IN CENTRAL
AMERICA
By Jason M. Colby (Cornell University Press, 2011)
This is a startling book, most of all for its hugely productive treatment of what is, to speak broadly of the
US imperial project in Central America, a tight-packed vein of scholarship-and not least for the gentle
rigour and humane voice exhibited by author Jason Colby.
Observers of the region have sometimes fretted that (critical) historical methodologies examining the period
in question have become so entrenched in their narratives as to stifle interdisciplinarity, imparting a sort of
backwards-looking bleakness on all they touch. Colby's meditation on United Fruit displays none of this.
The company, all fangs and stomping feet in some accounts, is subjected here to a more profound and
ultimately more damning scrutiny.
Surveying the whole of the region, but focusing especially on Guatemala and Costa Rica, Colby pairs a
keen nose for sources--plumbing the depths of United Fruit corporate archives--with a fantastic command of
labour theory and a commitment to testing his findings against what he terms the era's prevailing "narrative
of racial exceptionalism."
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Roberts, Dylan. "The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America."
Canadian Dimension, Mar.-Apr. 2014, p. 58. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A369549785/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=53e4fed7.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 6/9
Gale Document Number: GALE|A369549785
QUOTED: "recommended."
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 7/9
Colby, Jason M.: The business of empire:
United Fruit, race, and U.S. expansion in
Central America
T.A. Aiello
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
49.12 (Aug. 2012): p2350.
COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
49-7060
F1436
2011-20198
CIP
Colby, Jason M. The business of empire: United Fruit, race, and U.S. expansion in Central America.
Cornell, 2011. 274p index afp ISBN 9780801449154, $45.00
Colby (Univ. of Victoria, British Columbia) explores the relationship between US imperialism in Central
America and the role of US corporations in that imperialism. In the process, he details the influence of
corporate labor policies and workers' responses to those policies, showing how that influenced US
expansion. The United Fruit Company provides the core of this story. In contrast to earlier authors who
largely blame racial tensions on US policy makers, Colby sees things differently. He cites US race and labor
relations as shaping the company's polices in dealing with Central American and Caribbean work forces,
which were reinforced by the legacy of Spanish colonial rule and slavery that dehumanized the natives and
resonated into the 20th century. Colby focuses in particular on United Fruit's operations in Costa Rica and
Guatemala. He builds upon earlier extensive scholarship on the subject to integrate, for the first time,
corporate expansion and labor migration into the story of US imperialism in the region. As a result, Colby
shows how domestic racial paradigms shaped transnational US firms, highlights connections between the
US government and corporate colonialism, and illustrates the pervasiveness of labor control strategies in the
region. Summing Up: Recommended. ** All academic levels/libraries.--T. A. Aiello, Gordon College
Aiello, T.A.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Aiello, T.A. "Colby, Jason M.: The business of empire: United Fruit, race, and U.S. expansion in Central
America." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Aug. 2012, p. 2350. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A299989981/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d73c8c0f.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A299989981
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 8/9
The business of empire; United Fruit,
race, and U.S. expansion in Central
America
Reference & Research Book News.
27.2 (Apr. 2012):
COPYRIGHT 2012 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9780801449154
The business of empire; United Fruit, race, and U.S. expansion in Central America.
Colby, Jason M.
Cornell U. Press
2011
274 pages
$45.00
Hardcover
The United States in the world
F1436
Colby (history, U. of Victoria) offers a reinterpretation of the corporate and political expansion of American
imperialism in Central America. In particular, he tracks the role the United Fruit Company played in
goading the United State's expansion and the use of race (West Indians, Hispanics and African Americans)
to control labor. In this vein, he also looks at Hispanic nationalism movements and anti-black sentiment in
those countries. Divided into three sections, the book looks at the foundations for empire in the latter half of
the 19th century; corporate colonialism and labor hierarchy between 1904 and 1920; and the rise of
Hispanic nationalism in the 1920s and the dismantling of American imperial protectorates in the 1930s. He
concludes with an epilogue that sketches postcolonial history of the last 70 years.
([c]2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The business of empire; United Fruit, race, and U.S. expansion in Central America." Reference & Research
Book News, Apr. 2012. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A284979028/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ee104f21. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A284979028
6/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1529869437904 9/9
QUOTED: "Colby’s sources are truly impressive. First, he has discovered a trove of company records, which are, as he points out, truly priceless in light of United Fruit’s destruction of the vast majority of its corporate archives. Even more important, his analysis of these documents brings to light provocative and thoughtful new ideas about how United Fruit--a company that historians have been studying for many years, and in many ways—affected Latin American societies on the ground, and how company officials thought about their actions in their own cultural and political contexts."
"Colby has interesting and provocative things to say about these two countries, which are convincing, but they get lost in the forest."
Ryan on Colby, 'The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America'
Author:
Jason M. Colby
Reviewer:
Carolyne Ryan
Jason M. Colby. The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race, and U.S. Expansion in Central America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011. xi + 274 pp. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8014-4915-4.
Reviewed by Carolyne Ryan (University of Wyoming) Published on H-Empire (November, 2012) Commissioned by Charles V. Reed
Corporate Colonialism: Race, Labor, and Empire in Central America and the Caribbean
In recent years, an impressive amount of literature has appeared addressing the development and impact of foreign produce companies in Latin America, with particular focus on banana companies, chief among these the United Fruit Company. These monographs and anthologies--dealing with banana economies, politics, and cultures--have called scholarly attention to the entanglements between corporations and U.S. imperialism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, underscoring connections between powerful companies, like United Fruit, and the political tenor of U.S. foreign policy in Latin American countries where those companies operated.[1] Jason M. Colby’s monograph takes this connection between U.S. state and corporate actions further. He contends that state and corporate spheres of activity in Latin America not only were connected, but also were mutually constitutive, with what he describes as “corporate colonialism” shaping the realm of possibility for U.S. informal empire in the region. As Colby writes, “it was far more common for the peoples of Central America and the broader Caribbean to encounter U.S. power and labor practices through interactions with private enterprise than with the American state” (p. 4).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Colby focuses on the United Fruit Company as his main corporate case study, and he chooses Costa Rica and Guatemala as his primary national case studies, though he also sets these cases in Central American and Caribbean context. Colby argues, in brief, that the United Fruit Company imported labor control strategies learned in North America--he highlights labor segmentation or division between racial groups of workers--and adapted them to Central American and Caribbean circumstances in order to “play one race against the other” (p. 6). In Costa Rica and Guatemala, United Fruit hired West Indian laborers, whose racial differences from Hispanic workers undermined united labor organizing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but which also contributed by the 1920s to a wave of Hispanic nationalism redolent with anti-black xenophobia and anti-imperialist sentiment. Ironically, Colby argues, United Fruit was forced to come to terms by the mid-twentieth century with the same anti-black racism and Hispanic nationalism that it had helped to create; fears that had once strengthened its empire now undermined its power as Central American nations associated United Fruit with black immigration and resisted the company’s attempts to gain more land and control.
The monograph is divided into three sections. Part 1, “Foundations of Empire,” explores the origins of U.S. informal empire in the Caribbean and Central America, and the rise of the United Fruit Company, which does not actually appear until the end of chapter 2. Part 2, “Race and Labor,” examines the operation of United Fruit’s labor segmentation system and the relationship between labor and race in the banana enclaves, in the minds of U.S. United Fruit officials, and for people in Central America and the Caribbean who encountered U.S. systems of labor control. Notably, part 2 also introduces the reader to Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which figure prominently in Colby’s analysis. In part 3, “Imperial Transitions,” Colby focuses on Hispanic nationalism and challenges to United Fruit’s dominance in the region beginning in the 1920s. Part 3 also discusses the adoption--by the U.S. state and by United Fruit--of Good Neighbor Policy initiatives in Latin America, and attempts by both to rehabilitate their images as imperialist behemoths, instead coding themselves as cooperative agents of progress. Colby’s organizational structure in this book effectively maintains a clear sense of his narrative and argument, which is notable given the broad geography and time span covered here.
Colby’s sources are truly impressive. First, he has discovered a trove of company records, which are, as he points out, truly priceless in light of United Fruit’s destruction of the vast majority of its corporate archives. Even more important, his analysis of these documents brings to light provocative and thoughtful new ideas about how United Fruit--a company that historians have been studying for many years, and in many ways--affected Latin American societies on the ground, and how company officials thought about their actions in their own cultural and political contexts. Second, Colby’s analysis of other sources, from travel narratives to corporate annual statements to newspaper editorials, is often not only convincing but also arresting to the eye. (To give a single example I underlined when reading this book, Colby quotes the president of United Fruit saying in a 1932 speech: “‘I don’t know about spiritual values in countries that are ruled by dictators, but I do know that they are always run efficiently. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing dictators in Massachusetts right now--and in Washington as well. At least things would be run on an efficient basis’” [p. 194].) Instructors of classes on empire, U.S.-Latin American relations, labor, and race will find ample fodder for lectures, document workshops, and other classroom activities in these pages. However, the book might be best suited as a reading for graduate students; it demands a fair amount of background knowledge on a wide range of history (both chronologically and geographically), which undergraduate students are unlikely to have.
My primary critique relates to the development of Colby’s central case studies. Colby’s analytical scope spans the entire Central American isthmus, as well as the Caribbean basin. He considers Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, El Salvador, and other countries, some in considerable detail, in addition to his main case studies of Costa Rica and Guatemala. While all this contextual information sets his two main cases in undeniably deep and thorough context, the balance here tips too far toward context and away from developing truly detailed--and therefore compelling--case studies for Costa Rica and Guatemala to be identified as the main focus of this study. Colby has interesting and provocative things to say about these two countries, which are convincing, but they get lost in the forest. This criticism aside, Colby’s monograph is both thought provoking and well written, and will find appreciative audiences among historians interested in U.S.-Latin American relations, Latin American history, empire, race, and labor.
Note
[1]. For example, see Darío A. Euraque, Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870-1972 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996); Lester D. Langley and Thomas Schoonover, The Banana Men: American Mercenaries and Entrepreneurs in Central America, 1880-1930 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995); John Soluri, Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005); and Steve Striffler and Mark Moberg, eds. Banana Wars: Power, Production and History in the Americas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003).