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Abstract:
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Avery Island , Louisiana and McIlhenny Company provide a lens through which to understand how performances of masculinity and paternalism operated in the New South and were deployed for U . S . empire -building projects . Focusing on the tenure of Edward Avery McIlhenny as President of McIlhenny Company , this paper utilizes primary documents from the McIlhenny Company & Avery Island , Inc . Archives to construct a narrative based on correspondence between E . A . and his Wall Street investment banker , Ernest B . Tracy , revealing how E .A . confronted disaster capitalism and influenced the production of cultural tourism amidst environmental and economic crises in the 1920s and 1930s . |