Disguising Boston, Concealing a Metropole: Victor Cutter, the United Fruit Company, and the Narration of Empire.

The Boston-based United Fruit Company (UFCo) was one of the twentieth century's most notorious corporations. Many have characterized it as imperialist. Accordingly, UFCo enjoys a sizable literature examining its activities abroad. However, much of it does not mention Boston or UFCo's ties with its h...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Historical Geography Vol. 52; no. 1; pp. 27 - 65
Autor principal: Nevins, Joseph
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Historical Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers 2024
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The Boston-based United Fruit Company (UFCo) was one of the twentieth century's most notorious corporations. Many have characterized it as imperialist. Accordingly, UFCo enjoys a sizable literature examining its activities abroad. However, much of it does not mention Boston or UFCo's ties with its home city. Meanwhile, no obvious signs of UFCo exist in contemporary Boston. Such invisibility limits understanding of the making of empire and imperial places of a dominant sort. It also constrains our ability to grapple with historic injustices. This article helps remedy these limitations by illuminating how, in part, invisibility developed. It does so via a critical analysis of the work and words of Victor Cutter, UFCo president from 1924 to 1933, and contemporaneous articles about him. In scrutinizing his career, writings, speeches, and interviews, the article demonstrates how Cutter discursively produced Boston as a place of imperial innocence while furthering its making as a city of global rule.