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Showing papers in "Pacific Historical Review in 1985"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the last hundred years some of the classic works in American history have dealt with the relationship between the natural environment and American society, but environmental history as a distinct field is a far more recent development.
Abstract: OVER THE LAST hundred years some of the classic works in American history have dealt with the relationship between the natural environment and American society, but environmental history as a distinct field is a far more recent development. Early works on the environment clustered in western history. Frederick Jackson Turner in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Walter Prescott Webb in The Great Plains made the physical environment central to their analyses. Later, James Malin rejected the often crude environmental determinism of Webb and Turner, and attempted instead to engage in an ecological analysis which stressed the complexity and interdependency of the relationship between human social institutions and nature. Malin is a likely founder of modern environmental history, but he himself disclaimed the description of his work as ecological history. After Malin, direct examination of the historical relationship between society and the natural environment languished. Western history itself declined in influence during the 1960s, and although younger scholars within the field continued to do significant work on environmental topics, western histo-

127 citations






Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the early hours of November 18, 1945, a majority of the ministers of the Korean cabinet grudgingly consented to a treaty that made their country a protectorate of the Japanese empire as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: FIXED in the collective consciousness of perhaps every national and ethnic group on earth are assorted dates that symbolize tragedy and defeat, bitterness and frustration. Such a date for the people of Korea is November 17, 1905. Late in the evening of that day (and in the early hours of November 18), a majority of the ministers of the Korean cabinet grudgingly consented to a treaty that made their country a protectorate of the Japanese empire. Though its formal annexation by Japan would not take place until 1910, Korea thereby ceased to exist as an independent nationstate.

11 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The United States and the Soviet Union, as leaders of their respective power blocs, sought to win Third World support because much was at stake as discussed by the authors, and they looked to the new states of the Third World for support in the fledgling United Nations.
Abstract: MANY THIRD World nations, predominantly nonwhite and nonaligned, became the focus of Soviet-American rivalry after 1945. Their emergence as new national entities, whether in Asia or Africa, was not exclusively a struggle of nationalism against colonialism, but was also an intimate, integral factor in the worldwide competition between East and West. The two behemoths, the United States and the Soviet Union, as leaders of their respective power blocs, sought to win Third World support because much was at stake. Third World countries possessed large quantities of strategic raw materials vital to the industralized nations of the East and West; these countries provided markets for the products and technology of the nations of the East and West; and equally as important, the two giant powers looked to the new states of the Third World for support in the fledgling United Nations. Both powers, aggressively and unblushingly, courted these new arrivals to the international community in several ways, including foreign aid, technical assistance, and good-will visits by some of their most outstanding and respected leaders at the various socio-economic, humanitarian, and political levels. The three-week visit of Eleanor Roosevelt to India in 1952 illustrates

8 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the year 1900, Eggleston's presidential address to the American Historical Association was titled "The New History." By that phrase he meant historical study of the common people and how they had lived, with much less emphasis, accordingly, on the politics, statecraft, diplomacy, and warfare that had long been the staples of schoolbook history and historical scholarship as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: IN THE YEAR 1900, Edward Eggleston's presidential address to the American Historical Association was titled "The New History." By that phrase he meant historical study of the common people and how they had lived, with much less emphasis, accordingly, on the politics, statecraft, diplomacy, and warfare that had long been the staples of schoolbook history and historical scholarship.' Eggleston did not invent the phrase, and the need for a

7 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the origins of nature appreciation and found that the United States at the turn of the century was an anxious nation caught between social and intellectual issues that went far beyond the need to set aside national lands.
Abstract: IN TRACING the origins of nature appreciation, historians of the American environment have generally focused on the establishment of wilderness, national parks, and similar institutions associated with the protection of landscapes, devoting little attention to the literature about nature. Such writings, however, aided the cause of preservation and also addressed larger social and intellectual issues that went far beyond the need to set aside national lands.' An examination of the genre reveals that the United States at the turn of the century was an anxious nation caught between

7 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined patterns of migration, with special emphasis on the "chains" which linked specific villages of origin with districts of first settlement, and the mobility of individuals within or beyond the immigrant district.
Abstract: OVER THE PAST fifteen years, historical study of ethnic groups in American cities has proliferated. Most scholars have examined patterns of migration, with special emphasis on the "chains" which linked specific villages of origin with districts of first settlement, and the mobility of individuals within or beyond the immigrant district.' Intensive migration connections presumably demonstrated substantial European influence on the immigrants, while high rates of geographic and social mobility presumably attested to the lure of American opportunity.2 Aside from Virginia Yans-McLoughlin's analysis of Italian family continuity in Buffalo,3 however, most studies have used the occupational mobility of men as a measure of the relative adjustment of different groups to different locales. Furthermore, the impact of



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It has become evident that the precolonial Indian population was far greater than has been indicated by [James] Mooney, [John R.] Swanton and others and the same old story.
Abstract: ONE OF MY friends who often visits Puritan cemeteries remembers this epitaph on an early New England tombstone: "He killed 25 Indians before he fell asleep in Jesus."' Although Sherburne Cook in his later years investigating the mortality of New England Indians seems to have missed this bit of intriguing data, he found much more evidence of a similar kind. Not too long before he died Cook wrote to me commenting on fresh data on New England Indian population he had found while probing into the historical complexities of disease and interracial warfare.2 "For a year now I have been looking into the population status of New England Indians," he wrote, "mostly because I was born and raised in Massachusetts and I know the country pretty well. So far it has become evident that the precolonial Indian population was far greater than has been indicated by [James] Mooney, [John R.] Swanton and others. The same old story."3 Cook wrote this letter in 1973, but he had been involved in revisionism and controversy from almost the first days of his career as a physiologist in the University of California medical school. His studies on New




Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The subsequent lawsuit to restore their citizenship was twenty-three years in the courts and ultimately involved over five thousand Japanese Americans as discussed by the authors, and no paper has focused on the U.S. District Court legal battle between the government and Wayne Collins, attorney for the plaintiffs.
Abstract: IN LATE 1944, thousands of Japanese Americans renounced their United States citizenship in the Tule Lake Segregation Center in California. The subsequent lawsuit to restore their citizenship was twenty-three years in the courts and ultimately involved over five thousand plaintiffs. Yet with the exception of a dissertation, no paper has focused on the U.S. District Court legal battle between the government and Wayne Collins, attorney for the plaintiffs. In his recent book, Justice At War, Peter Irons delineates the earlier, often ineffective, efforts of Wayne Collins on behalf of Fred Korematsu, one of four Japanese Americans who challenged the government's evacuation program. But in 1945 Collins had become even more convinced of the injustices of relocation when he discovered that purely administrative procedures were being used to determine the loyalty of Japanese Americans and to continue their internment. He then hunkered down for a good legal fight. The result


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The history of the Alaska National Guard is described in this article, where the United States Army realized that it was ill-prepared to defend the extensive shorelines of Alaska during World War II and created a militia organization that could draw upon the dispersed Eskimo population to help defend that northern territory.
Abstract: The author is a historian with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. AT THE START of World War II the United States Army realized that it was ill-prepared to defend the extensive shorelines of Alaska. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, army officers and territorial officials worked together to create a militia organization that could draw upon the dispersed Eskimo population to help defend that northern territory. Once the war had ended, enlightened Alaskan officials and army officers, overcoming opposition from doubting regular officers both in Alaska and the Pentagon, transformed that militia into a modern National Guard organization. Carefully adapted to the needs of the Eskimo population, it has survived and prospered to this day. Beyond its substantial contributions to the defense of Alaska, that military organization has drawn the Eskimo community into closer association with the political institutions of the United States and has assisted the development of a modern native leadership. The history of that militia provides a significant example of how American officials, under the stress of modern international conflict, came to develop an increasingly



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: P Prucha as mentioned in this paper argued that it was an article of faith with the reformers that civilization was impossible without the incentive to work that came only from individual ownership of a piece of property.
Abstract: INo PANACEA for the Indian problem was more persistently proposed than the allotment of land to the Indians in severalty," writes Francis Paul Prucha of the late nineteenth-century crusade to reform United States Indian policy. "It was an article of faith with the reformers that civilization was impossible without the incentive to work that came only from individual ownership of a piece of property." Allotment was "part of the drive to individualize the Indian," which "became the obsession" of those educators, civil servants, politicians, clergymen, and others who dedicated themselves to Indian "uplift."' During the nineteenth century many treaties included provisions for alloting lands to individual Indians who met certain requirements. Much evidence was, therefore, available, writes Prucha, to show that the practice


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the curricula and buildings of Scripps College in Claremont, California, and the campus of the then all-male California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and found that the two schools share critical actors, region, era, and architect, revealing those elements of difference arising from the mission of each school and the student body that it served.
Abstract: WOMEN'S COLLEGES PROVIDE fascinating settings through which to probe attitudes about culture and gender in American society. Scripps College, in Claremont, California, founded in 1926, is a particularly intriguing example. The college originated from regional forces, but the group of actors who shaped the initial college also drew on a wider heritage that informed them about both higher education and women's needs. What makes Scripps especially revealing is that several key figures in its early planning were working at the same time to reshape the curriculum and the campus of the then all-male California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Both institutions hired Gordon Kaufmann to give architectural expression to their conceptions. Because the two schools share critical actors, region, era, and architect, an examination of their curricula and buildings reveals those elements of difference arising from the mission of each school and the student body that it served. Several recent works have examined the buildings and landscapes of American colleges and universities. Paul Venable Turn-

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A detailed and sophisticated account of the process of union formation during the turbulent decade of the 1930s can be found in this article, where mass production workers, particularly those laboring for major midwestern and eastern industries, are distinguished.
Abstract: LABOR HISTORIANS are providing increasingly detailed and sophisticated accounts of the process of union formation during the turbulent decade of the 1930s.1 Receiving special attention have been mass production workers, particularly those laboring for major midwestern and eastern industries. Overlooked have been the food-industry workers in California, the nation's preeminent agricultural state. Such workers are distinguished here