Seeking Imperialism's Embrace: National Identity, Decolonization, and Assimilation in the French Caribbean

by Kristen Stromberg Childers

Overview

In 1946, at a time when other French colonies were just beginning to break free of French imperial control, the people of the French Antilles-the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe-voted to join the French nation as departments (Départments d'outre mer, or DOMs). Eschewing independence in favor of complete integration with the metropole, the people of the French Antilles affirmed their Frenchness in an important decision that would define their citizenship and shape their politics for decades to come.

For Antilleans, this novel path was the natural culmination of a centuries-long quest for recognition of their equality with the French and a means of overcoming the entrenched political and economic power of the islands' white minority. Disappointment with departmentalization quickly set in, Kristen Stromberg Childers shows in this work, as the promised equality was slow in coming and Antillean contributions to World War II went unrecognized. Champions of departmentalization such as Aimé Césaire argued that the "race-blind" Republic was far from universal and egalitarian. The French government struggled to stem unrest through economic development, tourism, and immigration to the metropole, where labor was in short supply. Antilleans fought against racial and gender stereotypes imposed on them by European French and sought to stem the tide of white metropolitan workers arriving in the Antilles. Although departmentalization has been criticized as a weak alternative to national independence, it was overwhelmingly popular among Antilleans at the time of the vote, and subsequent disappointment reflects the broken promises of assimilation more than the misguided nature of the decision.
Contrasting with the wars of decolonization in Algeria and Vietnam, Seeking Imperialism's Embrace examines the Antilleans' more peaceful but perhaps equally vexing process of forging a national identity in the French empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195382839
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/03/2016
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	869,955
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kristen Stromberg Childers is the author of Fathers, Families, and the State in France, 1914-1945. She teaches at the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: The Second World War as a Turning Point in the French Caribbean
Chapter Two: Liberation Choices
Chapter Three: Geography, History, Identity
Chapter Four: The Struggle over History in the Antilles
Chapter Five: Difference and Belonging: The Illusions of Equality
Chapter Six: The Gender and Family Dynamics of Departmentalization
Chapter Seven: Migration Flows and the Politics of Exclusion
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Childers's Seeking Imperialism's Embrace is an important book. It reinforces our understanding of a complex moment of the late French empire and of its legacies."—Jean M. Hébrard, American Historical Review

"An interesting, well-researched, well-written study...Recommended."—D. A. Harvey, CHOICE

"Seeking Imperialism's Embrace is a major contribution to the literature of the modern Caribbean...Seeking Imperialism's Embrace, based on careful research in multiple archives, is very helpful in contextualizing 1946 and reminding readers of the shadow of the United States in this era. Childers offers new insight into Antilleans' choices, and she shows the powerful implications of gendered discourse in postwar Antillean history...her book is a sophisticated and important analysis-an essential read for anyone interested not only in the French Caribbean but also in the postwar world." — Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, California State University, New West Indian Guide

"In 1946, the French West Indian islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe were fully incorporated into the French Republic, becoming as much a part of France as Paris or Provence. Seeking Imperialism's Embrace examines the context of this change—so different from the path of independence pursued by many colonies-and the hopes and disappointments it created. In this perceptive and important study, Kristen Stromberg Childers provides new insights into post-national and post-colonial situations in both the Caribbean and contemporary France."—Robert Aldrich, co-author of France's Overseas Frontiers: Départements et Territoires d'Outre-Mer

"In this rich and vital work, Childers offers a nuanced and layered history of how Martinique and Guadeloupe became French departments and what this meant for their people and institutions. Through careful attention to the politics of memory and the gendered nature of politics, she shows us the many complexities and contradictions of this process. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the Caribbean, France, and the story of empire and decolonization."—Laurent Dubois, author of Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France

"Trinidad's Eric Williams called Martinique and Guadeloupe 'monuments of backwardness' for joining the French metropole just as the world-historical process of decolonization got underway. Childers finds instead a complex and fascinating history. Tracing the impact of war, the underappreciated roles played by Britain and its West Indian possessions as well as by a growing American hegemony, the influence of such figures as Fanon and Césaire, and the vexed aspirations of departmentalization, assimilation, and 'Frenchness,' Childers' excellent study presents the Antilles not as a mere exception amid the retreating European empires but as a harbinger of the tensions that haunt European and post-imperial questions of race/ethnicity, identity, and citizenship well into the post-Columbian era."—Jason Parker, author of Hearts, Minds, Voices: US Cold War Public Diplomacy and the Formation of the Third World

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