Pineapple Culture: A History of the Tropical and Temperate Zones (California World History Library) [Hardcover]

Gary Y. Okihiro (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520255135 | ISBN-13: 978-0520255135 | Publication Date: June 2, 2009 | Edition: 1

Plucked from tropical America, the pineapple was brought to European tables and hothouses before it was conveyed back to the tropics, where it came to dominate U.S. and world markets. Pineapple Culture is a dazzling history of the world's tropical and temperate zones told through the pineapple's illustrative career. Following Gary Y. Okihiro's enthusiastically received Island World: A History of Hawai`i and the United States, Pineapple Culture continues to upend conventional ideas about history, space, and time with its provocative vision. At the center of the story is the thoroughly modern tale of Dole's "Hawaiian" pineapple, which, from its island periphery, infiltrated the white, middle-class homes of the continental United States. The transit of the pineapple brilliantly illuminates the history and geography of empires--their creations and accumulations; the circuits of knowledge, capital, labor, goods, and the cultures that characterize them; and their assumed power to name, classify, and rule over alien lands, peoples, and resources.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Few other images convey the nature of the tropics as effectively as the pineapple, yet this now-commonplace fruit was once a much-sought-after rarity, one that signified elegance and hospitality while it simultaneously destroyed cultures and launched empires. Continuing the eclectic cultural history of the Hawaiian Islands he began in Island World (2008), Okihiro traces the impact this one commodity has exerted throughout time and around the globe, aided by the vagaries of geography, ambitions of governments, heroics of explorers, and vanities of businessmen. Though he focuses on the predominance of James Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Okihiro also constructs a thorough time line for the pineapple’s rise to influence and acceptance that ranges from the species’ genesis in a remote corner of South America, to its temptation of European botanists and its unwitting role in the overthrow of Hawaii’s royal government. Seamlessly fusing geography with anthropology, horticulture with international politics, Okihiro draws a comprehensive portrait of how a singular fruit can unite a world. --Carol Haggas

Review

"Seamlessly fusing geography with anthropology, horticulture with international politics, Okihiro draws a comprehensive portrait of how a singular fruit can unite a world."--Booklist

"Take a lesson from this wondrous tropical fruit and read on."--Natural History

"Superbly researched and girded by a strong theoretical framework."--Choice

"It is certainly a good read."--Agricultural History

"Okihiro's narrative is filled with juicy tidbits of pineapple lore."--Natural History

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520255135
• ISBN-13: 978-0520255135
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,168,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gary Y. Okihiro is professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, and is the founding director of Columbia's Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. He is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies, and the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Studies Association.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "tropics" was created by some in the temperate zone, August 25, 2009

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ROROTOKO (rorotoko dot com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pineapple Culture: A History of the Tropical and Temperate Zones (California World History Library) (Hardcover)

"Pineapple Culture" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Okihiro's book interview ran here as cover feature on August 12, 2009.