Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Intended as a reminder of Europe for soldiers and clerks of the empire, the city of Dalat, located in the hills of Southern Vietnam, was built by the French in an alpine locale that reminded them of home. This book uncovers the strange 100-year history of a colonial city that was conceived as a center of power and has now become a kitsch tourist destination famed for its colonial villas, flower beds, pristine lakes, and pastoral landscapes. Eric T. Jennings finds that from its very beginning, Dalat embodied the paradoxes of colonialism—it was a city of leisure built on the backs of thousands of coolies, a supposed paragon of hygiene that offered only questionable protection from disease, and a new venture into ethnic relations that ultimately backfired. Jennings’ fascinating history opens a new window onto virtually all aspects of French Indochina, from architecture and urban planning to violence, labor, métissage, health and medicine, gender and ethic relations, schooling, religion, comportments, anxieties, and more.
Price: $34.95
Pages: 376
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Series: From Indochina to Vietnam: Revolution and War in a Global Perspective
Publication Date:
April 8, 2011
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520272699
Format: Paperback
“In the masterly hands of Eric Jennings, the history of Dalat becomes, not just a case study of a colonial holiday site, but a window into the dreams, fears and tension of colonialism.”
“An outstanding book. . . . In a riveting sequence of chapters, the author develops a multilayered analysis of life in Dalat.”
“An excellent work. . . . Jennings’ book testifies to his prominent position in the field of French colonial history.”
— Michael Vann
“[A] remarkable book, which is impeccably researched. . . . An eye-opening, eminently readable, highly impressive work.”
“Professor Jennings of the University of Toronto is a specialist in French colonial history and this work reflects his expertise in the subject.”
— Michael Kyle
Eric T. Jennings, Professor of History at the University of Toronto, is the author of Curing the Colonizers, and Vichy in the Tropics.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Escaping Death in the Tropics
2. Murder on the Race for Altitude
3. Health, Altitude, and Climate
4. Early Dalat, 1898–1918
5. Colonial Expectations, Pastimes, Comestibles, Comforts, and Discomforts
6. Situating the “Montagnards”
7. A Functional City? Architecture, Planning, Zoning, and Their Critics
8. The Dalat Palace Hotel
9. Vietnamese Dalat
10. Some Colonial Categories: Children, European Women, and Métis
11. Divine Dalat
12. The Maelstrom, 1940–1945
13. Autonomous Province or Federal Capital?
14. Dalat at War and Peace, 1946–1975
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Escaping Death in the Tropics
2. Murder on the Race for Altitude
3. Health, Altitude, and Climate
4. Early Dalat, 1898–1918
5. Colonial Expectations, Pastimes, Comestibles, Comforts, and Discomforts
6. Situating the “Montagnards”
7. A Functional City? Architecture, Planning, Zoning, and Their Critics
8. The Dalat Palace Hotel
9. Vietnamese Dalat
10. Some Colonial Categories: Children, European Women, and Métis
11. Divine Dalat
12. The Maelstrom, 1940–1945
13. Autonomous Province or Federal Capital?
14. Dalat at War and Peace, 1946–1975
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index