Transatlantic History

Incorporating Corporations: Anglo-US Oil Diplomacy and Conflict over Venezuela, 1941–1943

by Mark Seddon

Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Volume 10, Issue 2, May 2012. Special Issue: Anglo-American Relations in War, Cold War and the Post-Cold War Era.

Between 1941 and 1943 British and US policy-makers intervened in the Venezuelan Government's attempts to increase... more Between 1941 and 1943 British and US policy-makers intervened in the Venezuelan Government's attempts to increase taxation of Venezuela's oil industry. British and US officials utilised their links with multinational oil companies in an attempt to steer negotiations and safeguard their, wartime and post-war, access to Venezuelan oil. Events in Venezuela saw the inception of a US foreign oil policy that reflected New Deal ideals and took inspiration from British oil diplomacy. However, the issue created conflict within the Anglo-US wartime alliance as events became imbued with wider tensions concerning Latin America and the international oil industry.

Conquests of the Imagination: The Manipulation of Myth in Iberian Conquest Literatures

by Michael Arnold

This article I co-authored with Daniel Arbino was published by the University of Kentucky's Journal Nomenclatura: aproximaciones a los estudios hispánicos in April 2012.

This essay’s objectives are to explore the possibilities of the legends of Prester John, Quetzalcóatl and Viracocha... more This essay’s objectives are to explore the possibilities of the legends of Prester John, Quetzalcóatl and Viracocha being ideologically connected, ostensibly serving the same imperial purpose in the conquest of non-European countries, and the failed experiment by the Spanish and Portuguese to extend this legend into Asia.  Furthermore, this essay will examine the consequences of these possibilities in terms of language and writing post-conquest history.  In that sense, the purpose of Prester John, much like the legends of Quetzalcóatl and Viracocha was to justify the occupation of these lands by Spanish and Portuguese for the benefit of the Christian world. 

Our theoretical sources are primarily drawn from the works of Walter Mignolo, Cornel West, and Guy Rozat Dupeyron.  Our historical sources include: Robert Silverberg, Bernardino Sahagún, Christopher Columbus, and Hernán Cortés.
Our methodology is to question the historical validity of indigenous myths written ex-post facto by the colonizer, in the language of the colonizer, and in the explicit interests of the colonizer.

Our main results have shown that whereas the Asian/African quest to aid Prester John could be seen as a way to rationalize entry into, and (sometimes) conquest of foreign lands (a pre-conquest justification), the New World challenge would require a new strategy, manifesting itself as a post-conquest justification of European domination and indigenous subjugation, through a manipulation of their histories, religions, and (possible) prophecies.  The experience common for both Aztec and Incas societies was an invasion of their world by the unknown, causing each society to actively seek out an explanation for this seemingly implausible experience.  This, we posit, was all too readily offered (or at least manipulated) by conquistadors, colonizers, and missionaries.

Making an American Feminist Icon: Mary Wollstonecraft’s Reception in US Newspapers, 1800-1869

by Eileen Hunt Botting

History of Political Thought, forthcoming

This article examines Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in American newspapers from 1800 to 1869. Wollstonecraft... more This article examines Mary Wollstonecraft's public reception in American newspapers from 1800 to 1869. Wollstonecraft was portrayed to the American public as a philosopher of women’s rights, a new model of femininity, and a pioneer of women’s political activism. Although these iconic uses of Wollstonecraft were regularly negative, they grew more positive as the women’s rights movement gained steam alongside the abolition movement. This study thus shows the significance of Wollstonecraft in early representations of women’s rights issues and debates in the US, and underscores the role of journalistic media in the spread and growth of feminism.

The League of Nations: A Retreat from International Law?

by Stephen Wertheim

forthcoming in Journal of Global History Vol. 7 No. 2 (2012)

During the First World War, civil society groups across the North Atlantic put forward an array of plans for recasting... more During the First World War, civil society groups across the North Atlantic put forward an array of plans for recasting international society. The most prominent ones sought to build on the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 by developing international legal codes and, in a drastic innovation, obligating and militarily enforcing the judicial settlement of disputes. Their ideal was a world governed by law, which they opposed to politics. This idea was championed by the largest groups in the United States and France in favor of international organization, and they had likeminded counterparts in Britain. The Anglo-American architects of the League of Nations, however, defined their vision against legalism. Their declaratory design sought to ensure that artificial machinery never stifled the growth of common consciousness. Paradoxically, the bold new experiment in international organization was forged from an anti-formalistic ethos — one that slowed the momentum of international law and portended the rise of global governance.

The Yankee-Mad Stage: Stage Yankees and Slavery in the 1820s

by Kate Roark

American James Henry Hackett transformed the Yankee character in 1828 from an abusive slave trader into a celebration... more American James Henry Hackett transformed the Yankee character in 1828 from an abusive slave trader into a celebration of capitalism and shrewd bargaining. Reading Hackett’s 1828 Jonathan in England play as a response to English comedian Charles Mathews’s depiction demonstrates how Hackett’s proto-capitalist Yankee was forged through negotiating the contradiction between American proclaimed principle of liberty simultaneous with the practice of slavery. The timing of Hackett’s play in 1828 after slavery was abolished in New York enabled Hackett to emphasize that some American states shared abolitionist values with England.

História de um arrabalde durante os sécs. XV e XVI: o “Poço dos Negros” em Lagos (Algarve, Portugal)

by Maria João Neves

AHistória Moderna de Portugal encontra-se fortemente marcada pelos Descobrimentos, movimento pautado por um pulsar... more AHistória Moderna de Portugal encontra-se fortemente marcada pelos Descobrimentos, movimento pautado por um pulsar eminentemente económico, traduzido na implementação de redes comerciais motivadas pela procura de especiarias, açúcar, ouro e escravos.
Em Portugal continental, um dos centros económicos que mais se destacou neste comércio foi a cidade de Lagos. Daqui parte em 1444 a primeira expedição de captura de escravos rumo às costas da Mauritânia, empresa saldada no aprisionamento de 235 peças, segundo os relatos de Gomes Eanes de Zurara.
Ora, sendo a presença escrava bastante significativa tanto nesta cidade, como noutras do Reino, não deixa de parecer estranha a quase completa ausência em contextos arqueo-lógicos de vestígios materiais deste grupo social, situação que a nível mundial encontra também correlato.
Em 2009, a construção de um parque de estacionamento subterrâneo no Valle da Gafaria, junto a uma das portas da cidade, proporcionou uma oportunidade inestimável de documentação objectiva dos escravos em Portugal, através dos seus testemunhos mais directos: o seu esqueleto.
Com efeito, a intervenção de Arqueologia preventiva viria a permitir a identificação de uma vasta lixeira urbana, acumulada em Época moderna no interior e em torno de um “boqueirão”. Facto inesperado, a prossecução da escavação revelaria aqui a presença de um número muito significativo de esqueletos humanos (N=155).

ICOHTEC Travel Grants to Barcelona Symposium

by Timo Myllyntaus

.
Guidelines

The ICOHTEC Board will make available a limited number of grants for graduates,... more .
Guidelines

The ICOHTEC Board will make available a limited number of grants for graduates, post-graduates and young researchers who are giving papers or present posters at the 2012 ICOHTEC Symposium Technology, the Arts and Industrial Culture in Catalonia, Spain 10-14 July 2012. Special preference will be given to students and young researchers from developing countries as well as Eastern and Central European countries in transition who are not able to receive sufficient financial support from their home countries or sponsors in other countries.

These travel grants are not intended to provide the full costs associated with attending the symposium; they are meant as an encouragement, not a full subsidy.

Eligibility: ICOHTEC Travel Grants will be awarded to students or young researchers, travel costs and accommodation costs of whom have not been covered by some sponsors.

The Travel Grant of 350 euro is to be used to cover bus/train/flight tickets, lodging and/or regis-tration fee. Reimbursement will be made after presenting paper or poster and proving the student’s or young researcher status by an appropriate document (Student’s ID or supervisor’s/professor’s letter).

Application forms should be sent to the President as email attachments or by ordinary mail. Applications for support must include personal contact information, an estimate on travel, registration and accommodation costs, title of the paper/poster to be presented and a short CV. An application form may be downloaded from the ICOHTEC web site at:
http://www.icohtec.org/resources-prizes.html.

Deadline: Applications with appendices should be submitted by 26 March, 2012. Submissions via email are requested and preferred.

James Williams
President
101 Lake Winnemissett Drive
Deland FL 32724 USA
techjunc@gmail.com

"We, the Volk: Modern and Radical Constitutionalism from the American Revolution to the German Direct-Democracy Debate."

by Thomas Clark

Europe’s American Revolution. Ed. Simon Newman. London: Palgrave, 2006: 123-146.

"Celsius 9/11: Michael Moore's German Reception and the (Contemporary) Image of America."

by Thomas Clark

Safeguarding German-American Relations in the New Century: Understanding and Accepting Mutual Differences. Ed. Hermann Kurthen, Stefan Immerfall, and Antonio Menendez. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006: 213-229.

“ ‘I am allways in our dear beloved America.’ Überlegungen zu Christoph Daniel Ebelings erschriebener Republik [Reflections on Christoph Daniel Ebeling’s Scripted Republic].”

by Thomas Clark

Aufklärung, Konstitutionalismus, atlantische Welt. Eine Festschrift für Horst Dippel. Ed. Thomas Clark and Ulrich Schnakenberg. Kassel: Kassel University Press, 2009: 115-132.

La strategia del contrattacco alleato nel Mediterraneo

by Davide Borsani

Durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale il controllo del teatro operativo mediterraneo si rivelò essenziale ai fini delle... more Durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale il controllo del teatro operativo mediterraneo si rivelò essenziale ai fini delle sorti del conflitto. Sin dal gennaio 1941, e moltiplicatesi con l’entrata in guerra degli Stati Uniti, le conferenze Alleate delinearono la strategia militare che condusse le truppe anglo-americane a stringere la morsa intorno al cuore nazi-fascista dell’Europa. Dalla liberazione delle coste nord-africane sino alla liberazione di Roma, l’esperienza britannica guidò la straordinaria macchina bellica statunitense verso la vittoria della “grande alleanza”.

“Uncle Sam is to be Sacrificed”: Anglophobia in Late Nineteenth-Century Politics and Culture

by Stephen Tuffnell

American Nineteenth Century History, Volume 12, Issue 1, (March 2011): 77-99.

The language of Anglophobia has been widely accepted as the coin of American politics throughout the nineteenth... more The language of Anglophobia has been widely accepted as the coin of American politics throughout the nineteenth century. However, the grand narrative of Anglo-American rapprochement in the final quarter of the century has diverted attention away from the many forms and purposes bestowed upon Anglophobia. The discourse of Anglophobia fits hand in glove within debates regarding American nationality and citizenship. For this reason a variety of ethnic, social, and political groups deployed anti-English sentiments for the purposes of mobilizing the electorate and as a surrogate for attacking other social and economic elites. What follows is an examination of the panoply of Anglophobias that existed in Gilded Age America. Utilizing its protean and malleable nature, Anglophobia was a lens through which Americans refracted, reformulated, and refined the concepts of national identity, domestic policy, and American interests abroad.

Embodied Eloquence, the Sumner Assault, and the Transatlantic Cable

by Christopher Hanlon

The Strike Imagined: The Atlantic and Interpretive Voyages of Robert Koehler’s Painting The Strike

by Christopher Phelps

Journal of American History, 98:3, 670-98.

Labor historians have long explored aspects of working-class culture ranging from religion to ethnicity, and cultural... more Labor historians have long explored aspects of working-class culture ranging from religion to ethnicity, and cultural and intellectual historians have begun to trace themes of labor and class in American literature and thought. Christopher Phelps asserts that a more intensive and fruitful rapprochement of intellectual and labor history is revealed by the story of Robert Koehler’s 1886 painting The Strike. The work of a Milwaukee-educated German American inspired by the Pittsburgh strike of 1877, The Strike was completed in Munich based on sketches made in England, unveiled in New York and honored in Paris, and crisscrossed the Atlantic in both its conceptualization and audiences. The reception of the painting reflected, Phelps argues, the nexus of modern liberal beliefs about labor in the epoch of rapidly industrializing capitalism and, after a long lapse into obscurity, the radicalism of the 1960s in the moment of its rediscovery.

'Jonathan’s Jokes: American Humour in the late-Victorian Press’, Media History, 18:1, (2012), pp. 33-49.

by Bob Nicholson

During the final quarter of the nineteenth century, columns of American jokes became a regular feature of numerous... more During the final quarter of the nineteenth century, columns of American jokes became a regular feature of numerous British newspapers. The Newcastle Weekly Currant, for example, had a weekly column of ‘Yankee Snacks’; The North Wales Chronicle had ‘American Humour’; the Hampshire Telegraph its ‘Jonathan's Jokes’; and the Northern Weekly Gazette sported a ‘Stars and Stripes’ column. Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper introduced a regular column of ‘American Jokes’ in 1896, the same year it achieved an unprecedented circulation of one million readers. Almost half a century before Hollywood, here was a distinctively American form of popular culture which took Britain by storm. It has, however, received little academic attention. This article explores the development of the American humour column, considers the way in which it was consumed by British readers, and argues that these seemingly ephemeral jokes played a key role in shaping Victorian encounters with America.

U.S. - EU Relations : Drifting Apart? Disssociative and Associative Approaches

by René SCHWOK

Published in Pascaline Winand & Eric Philippart (eds.) Ever Closer Parnership. Policy-Making in US-EU Relations, Brussels, European Interuniversity Press/Peter Lang, 2001; pp. 363-385.

This chapter exposes exaggerations and sometimes even the objectives errors which have appeared in the 'dissociative... more This chapter exposes exaggerations and sometimes even the objectives errors which have appeared in the 'dissociative approach' : those researchers who have wrongly predicted a dislocation of the transatlantic link after the end of the Cold War.
This study mainly analyses the reasoning which led to affirm that NATO was condemned to disappeart, that the Uruguay Round agreement would never be concluded,and that the US were commited to torpedo both European Singlem Market and the Single Currency.

The Perils of Seagoing Comfort: Joseph Conrad, Evelyn Waugh, and the Metaliner Sublime.

by Shawna Ross

Draft version of part of an article I'm working on about the visual culture of the _Queen Mary_

"Steeped in Tradition, Seized By Change”: Swinging London and the American Reception of Tom Jones (1963)

by Jonathan Stubbs

Journal of Popular Culture (2012)

This article examines the development of the ‘swinging London’ discourse in American culture during the early 1960s.... more This article examines the development of the ‘swinging London’ discourse in American culture during the early 1960s. The critical reception of the film Tom Jones (1963) demonstrates that while this discourse ostensibly celebrated youth and modernity, challenging dominant perceptions about Britain, it also characterized contemporary Britain in terms of a dynamic co-existence of old and new.

Responses to Agricultural Income Crisis in a Southeastern European Economy: Transatlantic Emigration from Greece (1894-1924)

by Socrates Petmezas

in I.Zilli (ed.) Fra Spazio e Tempo. Studi in Onore di Luigi de Rosa, Naples, 1995, t.3 pp.427-487

Στο άρθρο αυτό, αφού εξετάζονται οι μέχρι σήμερα διαμορφωμένες απόψεις σχετικά με τα αίτια της υπερατλαντικής... more Στο άρθρο αυτό, αφού εξετάζονται οι μέχρι σήμερα διαμορφωμένες απόψεις σχετικά με τα αίτια της υπερατλαντικής μετανάστευσης των ετών 1898-1923 (η οποία κυριολεκτικά αφαίμαξε την ελληνική αγροτική οικονομία από τις ζωτικότερες δυνάμεις της), επιχειρείται η ανασκευή μερικών από αυτές και υπογραμμίζεται ιδιαίτερα ο πολυαιτιακός χαρακτήρας του φαινομένου. Προσδιορίζονται οι ποικίλες μορφές με τις οποίες οι Έλληνες γεωργοί αντέδρασαν στην οξεία κρίση εισοδημάτων (αποτέλεσμα, μεταξύ άλλων, της χρόνιας κρίσης υπερπαραγωγής της κορινθιακής σταφίδας) του τέλους του 19ου αιώνα. Η κρίση αυτή έπληξε τις πηγές των απαραίτητων συμπληρωματικών εισοδημάτων σε περιοχές με διαφορετικά αγροτικά συστήματα, από τις οποίες η κάθε μία διαμόρφωσε και ιδιαίτερη στρατηγική αντιμετώπισής της. Η υπερωκεάνια μετανάστευση αποτέλεσε μία από αυτές τις πολλαπλές μορφές αντιμετώπισης της κρίσης εισοδημάτων, η οποία όμως γρήγορα έλαβε επιπρόσθετα τον χαρακτήρα ενεργητικής επιλογής από τα στρώματα εκείνα του αγροτικού πληθυσμού που, μιμούμενα τους πρώτους επιτυχημένους μετανάστες, επιχείρησαν να συσσωρεύσουν γρήγορα το κεφάλαιο εκείνο που θεωρούσαν για δίφορους λόγους αναγκαίο. Η μικρή αγροτική ιδιοκτησία συνδέθηκε έτσι στενότερα με την παγκόσμιο αγορά αλλά ταυτόχρονα ανοίχτηκε ο στενός τοπικός ορίζοντας των αγροτών μεταναστών. Κατά την τελευταία περίοδο, εξωοικονομικά πιθανόν αίτια συντέλεσαν στη μονιμοποίηση της εγκατάστασης (παρά την αρχική τους θέληση) μεγάλου μέρους των μεταναστών στις ΗΠΑ.

Portuguese Migrations in Comparison: Historical Patterns and Transnational Communities

by Marcelo Borges

Editor, Special Issue of Portuguese Studies Review, 4: 2 (2006: released 2009)