Showing papers in "Pacific Historical Review in 1982"
103 citations
TL;DR: The history of the ghost dance in the Lakota culture has been extensively studied by anthropologists and historians as mentioned in this paper, including the history of Wounded-knee massacre at Wounded Knee, and the subsequent restoration of peace under U.S. occupation.
Abstract: T HE LAKOTA GHOST dance (wanagi wacipi)1 has been the subject of extensive study, first by newspapermen, who made it a true media event, and later by anthropologists and historians. The chronology of the contextual events in Lakota history-the 1888 and 1889 land cession commissions and their subsequent delegations to Washington, the beef ration cuts at the agencies, the spread of the ghost dance ritual among the Lakotas in 1890, the death of Sitting Bull, the calling in of U.S. troops, the flight of Lakota camps to the badlands, the blundering massacre at Wounded Knee, and the eventual restoration of peace under U.S. army control of the Sioux agencies-is voluminously detailed in the printed literature.2 The historiography of the Lakota ghost dance period begins with two contemporary works drawn primarily from newspaper sources, James P. Boyd's Recent Indian Wars (1891) and W. Fletcher Johnson's Life of Sitting Bull and History of the Indian War of 1890-91 (1891). Despite the sensationalist tone, both volumes compiled a substantial body of important historical material. James Mooney, in his anthropological classic, The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 (1896), included a balanced historical discussion based on unpublished government records, newspaper accounts, and interviews with Indians. Mooney stressed the revivalistic aspects of the ghost dance and the hope it offered for regeneration of Indian culture.
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TL;DR: A few years ago, the gold rush as an historical subject seemed to be pretty well worked out, after a full century of scholarly research and writing as discussed by the authors, and yet today this seemingly old topic is showing a wonderful capacity for inspiring fresh insights and new searches for information, as anyone can see by reading John D. Unruh's remarkable analytic volume, The Plains Across, or John Mack Faragher's denunciation of the role assigned to women in the gold-rush, or Sandra Myres's editing of women's journals that somewhat contradict Faragher.
Abstract: A FEW YEARS ago the gold rush as an historical subject seemed to be pretty well worked out, after a full century of scholarly research and writing. Yet today this seemingly old topic is showing a wonderful capacity for inspiring fresh insights and new searches for information, as anyone can see by reading John D. Unruh's remarkable analytic volume, The Plains Across, or John Mack Faragher's denunciation of the role assigned to women in the gold rush, or Sandra Myres's editing of women's journals that somewhat contradict Faragher, or John Reid's very new research into the status of law in the rush to California.'
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TL;DR: The Pelton Dam was built by the Federal Power Commission (F.P.C.) despite opposition from the state of Oregon as discussed by the authors, who argued that since the dam would be constructed entirely on public land, federal officials did not have to apply to the state for either a construction permit or the right to impound water.
Abstract: IN 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court revived a legal controversy which had been dormant, if not forgotten, for decades. In Federal Power Commission v. Oregon, the court authorized the F.P.C. to build the Pelton Dam on the Deschutes River despite opposition from the state of Oregon.' Since the dam would be constructed entirely on public land, argued the court, federal officials did not have to apply to the state for either a construction permit or the right to impound water. Though federal water rights were not directly at issue, a majority of the justices ruled that Congress had never relinquished control over water flowing through the public domain to the states, as had been widely assumed in the West. Justice William O. Douglas strongly dissented. "In the West," he wrote, "the United States owns a vast amount of land. If by mere Executive action the federal lands may be reserved and all the water rights appurtenant to them returned to the United States, vast dislocations in the economies of the Western States may follow."2 Eight years later Douglas's fears intensified when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Arizona v. California, seemed to promise federal officials virtually all the water they needed to improve the public lands.3 The two decisions shocked westerners and prompted their
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TL;DR: A number of historians have recently turned their attention to an examination of American policy toward Indochina during World War II as discussed by the authors, and the main outlines, if not all details, of that policy are now familiar.
Abstract: D OUBTLESS INSPIRED by the events and debates of the 1960s, a number of historians have recently turned their attention to an examination of American policy toward Indochina during World War II. As a result the main outlines, if not all details, of that policy are now familiar.' Most historians have agreed that President Franklin Roosevelt's hostility to French colonialism and his determination to establish a trusteeship for Indochina following the defeat of Japan was considerably modified, if not abandoned, in the final weeks before Roosevelt's death. By V-J day the United States had virtually acquiesced in the return of Indochina to France.
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TL;DR: For example, the authors pointed out that during the 1940s and 1950s, though publicly deploring the extremism of Joseph McCarthy, accepted the goals and on occasion used the tactics of anti-Communism associated with the Wisconsin senator.
Abstract: EARL WARREN gained his reputation as a civil libertarian largely as a result of his role as Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. During his tenure as Chief Justice, the Supreme Court defended the constitutional rights of political association, freedom of speech, and privacy which had been undermined during the height of the Cold War.' As attorney general and later governor of California, however, Warren sometimes took positions that contradicted the libertarian principles he later advocated as a jurist. Indeed, during the 1940s and 1950s, Warren, though publicly deploring the extremism of Joseph McCarthy, accepted the goals and on occasion used the tactics of anti-Communism associated with the Wisconsin senator.
TL;DR: Fremont's life pattern, torn by controversy and filled with unpredictable acts, commingled inconsistency with what lay persons usually thought of as a man unafraid, "the West's greatest adventurer," "the pathfinder", and "the follower of other men's trails" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: F OR SEVERAL generations John Charles Fremont has perplexed historians. We have called him "a man unafraid," "the West's greatest adventurer," "the pathfinder," and, less generously, the follower of other men's trails. In 1890, the year of Fremont's death, the American philosopher Josiah Royce wrote that "an analysis of the very peculiar qualities that marked the late General Fremont would doubtless be a charming task for the student of psychology." Royce considered "our hero" to be an "enigma," who had been "profoundly mysterious" about his "nebulous past."' In the light of new techniques, it would now seem possible to clear up at least some of the conflict and confusion about Fremont's long, enigmatic career. Fremont's life pattern, torn by controversy and filled with unpredictable acts, commingled inconsistency with what lay persons usually
TL;DR: The authors argued that during World War II and the conversion to peace, the United States denied its particular national interests and promoted multilateral economic policies designed to benefit all nations equally, arguing that multilateralism was a prerequisite "for peace and human betterment" and reasserting the argument advanced by most American economists and commentators in the early Cold War years.
Abstract: THE STRENGTH of American self-perceived exceptionalism is nowhere more evident than in the persistent belief that, during World War II and the conversion to peace, the United States denied its particular national interests and promoted multilateral economic policies designed to benefit all nations equally. According to the most vigorous recent defender of this view, Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., multilateralism was a prerequisite "for peace and human betterment." Eckes reasserts the argument advanced by most American economists and commentators in the early Cold War years, which interpreted multilateralism as "a courageous, farsighted initiative to reverse interwar economic nationalism and to restore an efficient productive international economy benefiting all countries."' In a similar vein, Lisle A. Rose commented that an "open postwar world of free and unfettered international trade" cannot be interpreted as "an ignoble conception of the ideal postwar economic order." Indeed, Rose argues, "Washington's policy objectives can only be termed commonsensical and broad-minded," and a reflection of "enlightened and generous economic nationalism."2 This view also finds veiled support in John Gaddis's important study,
TL;DR: The last half of the nineteenth century saw the first industrial revolution in the United States come to fruition, and the large corporation overwhelmed the independent proprietorship and small partnership as the dominant organizational form of capitalist enterprise.
Abstract: THE LAST HALF of the nineteenth century saw the first industrial revolution in the United States come to fruition. Human tending of machinery replaced hand manufactures as the dominant mode of production. Factories succeeded the artisan's shop as the center of industry. Wage laborers displaced craftsmen and mechanics as the mainstay of the laboring class. The large corporation overwhelmed the independent proprietorship and small partnership as the dominant organizational form of capitalist enterprise. As Herbert Gutman, Daniel Rodgers, Alexander Saxton, and Alan Dawley, among others, have so keenly observed, late nineteenth-century industrialism tore at the social, cultural, and political moorings of an earlier, pre-industrial America. To this experience, the far western frontier was not immune.1
TL;DR: There has been a vast outpouring of scholarly and popular writings on the Ghost Dance of the Sioux as mentioned in this paper, reflecting an awakened interest in the life and history of the American Indian.
Abstract: PARTICULARLY over the past generation there has been a vast outpouring of scholarly and popular writings on the Ghost Dance of the Sioux. In part this activity has reflected an awakened interest in the life and history of the American Indian. The focus on the Ghost Dance in particular, however, has had relevance to the age-old fascination of mankind with the supernatural and the possible intervention of suprahuman forces in the affairs of humanity. This strain in the human psyche has been reflected in what have been loosely called millenarian movements which have been exhaustively chronicled and analyzed since long before the Christian era.1 More immediately, the Ghost Dance had close parallels in other movements not only in North America but in Africa and the Western Pacific.
TL;DR: A steady stream of scholarly works has provided us with a rather sophisticated image of missionary life in the Middle Kingdom as discussed by the authors, however, they emphasize, in one way or another, the impact of the missionary on China, and the missionary is portrayed as an agent of Western Civilization who undermines the values and mores of the Confucian order.
Abstract: T HE STUDY OF foreign missions and missionaries, and especially the study of the American Protestant experience in China, has enjoyed a solid popularity among American historians during the past decade. A steady stream of scholarly works has provided us with a rather sophisticated image of missionary life in the Middle Kingdom. Virtually all of these, however, share a common premise. They emphasize, in one way or another, the impact of the missionary on China. The missionary is portrayed, and rightly so, as an agent of Western Civilization who undermines the values and mores of the Confucian order. He is
TL;DR: Weber's approach to the Oregon question in 1842-1843, and especially the elusive "tripartite plan" that he advanced at that time, has often been criticized and misconstrued by scholars as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: D ANIEL WEBSTER'S approach to the Oregon question in 1842-1843, and especially the elusive "tripartite plan" that he advanced at that time, has often been criticized and misconstrued by scholars. Thomas A. Bailey, for example, expresses surprise that Webster considered yielding the region north of the Columbia River in return for nothing more than British support for the acquisition by the United States of part of California from Mexico.1 In a similar vein, David M. Pletcher finds the tripartite proposal unsettling and even states that it was "probably just as well for long-range American interests" that Webster did not receive an appointment in 1843 as special envoy to Great Britain to negotiate about Oregon.2 Webster's position on the Oregon question, however, has not been adequately understood. Moreover, it seems clear that he never had any intention of sacrificing the national interests of the United States.