Securing Paradise

In Securing Paradise, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez shows how tourism and militarism have functioned together in Hawai`i and the Philippines, jointly empowering the United States to assert its geostrategic and economic interests in the Pacific. She does so by interpreting fiction, closely examining colonial and military construction projects, and delving into present-day tourist practices, spaces, and narratives. For instance, in both Hawai`i and the Philippines, U.S. military modes of mobility, control, and surveillance enable scenic tourist byways. Past and present U.S. military posts, such as the Clark and Subic Bases and the Pearl Harbor complex, have been reincarnated as destinations for tourists interested in World War II. The history of the U.S. military is foundational to tourist itineraries and imaginations in such sites. At the same time, U.S. military dominance is reinforced by the logics and practices of mobility and consumption underlying modern tourism. Working in tandem, militarism and tourism produce gendered structures of feeling and formations of knowledge. These become routinized into everyday life in Hawai`i and the Philippines, inculcating U.S. imperialism in the Pacific.

Hard working photographer Joanna McCall is in need of a major life makeover since her unreliable, high society boyfriend publicly dumped her. When an international children's charity asks her to photograph underprivileged Central American kids, she eagerly signs on. While expecting a walk on the wild side, she gets her nose bloodied and her camera stolen within hours of her arrival. The surprising event makes her more determined than ever to see the project through. She can do this - but her rescuer, undercover agent Jack Stratford is not so sure. He secretly knows a revolution's about to explode onto the streets of San Rafael and he wants the gutsy redhead safely out of the country ASAP. He has work to do and she's a distraction he can't afford. Joanna insists she can handle herself, but when an earthquake, a loony Elvis impersonator and a stint in jail become part of her adventures in paradise, Jack manages to help every time. She's falling hard and fast for this hero-to-the-rescue. And when did Joanna stop being a problem and start being the woman of Jack's dreams? As Jack and Joanna grow closer so does the revolution. (This is a stand-alone follow up book to TROUBLE IN PARADISE)

Gendering the Trans-Pacific World introduces an emergent interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field that highlights the inextricable link between gender and the trans-Pacific world. The anthology examines the geographies of empire, the significance of intimacy and affect, the importance of beauty and the body, and the circulation of culture.

In 1904, renowned architect Daniel Burnham, the Progressive Era urban planner who famously “Made No Little Plans,” set off for the Philippines, the new US colonial acquisition. Charged with designing environments for the occupation government, Burnham set out to convey the ambitions and the dominance of the regime, drawing on neo-classical formalism for the Pacific colony. The spaces he created, most notably in the summer capital of Baguio, gave physical form to American rule and its contradictions. In American Imperial Pastoral, Rebecca Tinio McKenna examines the design, construction, and use of Baguio, making visible the physical shape, labor, and sustaining practices of the US’s new empire—especially the dispossessions that underwrote market expansion. In the process, she demonstrates how colonialists conducted market-making through state-building and vice-versa. Where much has been made of the racial dynamics of US colonialism in the region, McKenna emphasizes capitalist practices and design ideals—giving us a fresh and nuanced understanding of the American occupation of the Philippines.