Book Review

Methods/Theory

This collection of essays on U.S.-Latin American cultural encounters represents a major advance in the scholarly study of cultural relations. Although it has long been known that cultural transmission and reception are very different things, thus far most scholars in the field have concentrated on official cultural policy or analyzed perceptions on the sending end. This volume, by contrast, takes cultural studies to the periphery by studying on-the-spot interactions. As Gilbert M. Joseph notes in the lead essay, it seeks to make good "the absence of cultural analysis from the overseas history of U.S. expansionism and hegemony" (p. 6).	1
In addition to that laudable ambition, the book has theoretical aspirations. The ten "empirical studies" that form its core are sandwiched between three opening essays that deal with "theoretical concerns" and three "final reflections." Given the book's title and the rationale for the series (in which it is the initial volume), the sensibility is intended to be critical. As Joseph is quick to point out, "our use of the word encounter . . . should not be construed as a euphemizing device, to defang historical analysis of imperialism" (p. 5).	2
Be that as it may, the empirical studies are by far the best thing about this book, which provides a refreshing change of pace from the world of international relations as seen from Washington's corridors of power. One expects uneven contributions in an anthology, but the level of quality of the contributions in this collection is uniformly high. The essays are stimulating not only for their variety and freshness but also for their open-minded willingness to deal with the complexity of intercultural encounters in ways that do not necessarily harmonize well with the critical, anti-imperialist tune announced at the outset.	3
To be sure, a few of the essays do echo the imperial theme. Ricardo D. Salvatore takes a look at the ways in which Americans represented Latin America through "natural history exhibits, world fairs, travel books, plays, congressional handbooks, statistical handbooks, lectures, etc." (p. 96). The practices he describes were akin to cultural lepidoptery: "Knowledge was the virtual territory of empire, the instrument for placing the southern continent under the gaze of the United States . . . the project of knowledge managed to put South America on permanent display" (p. 94). Eric Paul Roorda looks at "the cult of the airplane" in Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republic and details the symbolic power of a "shop window" air force that "demonstrated to Haitians and Dominicans the technological superiority and power of surveillance possessed by the ruler of their countries, the United States" (p. 269).	. . .