Showing papers in "Pacific Historical Review in 2011"
TL;DR: This paper examined the postwar construction of veteran identity by Mexican American veterans and the GI Bill9s ultimate impact on that process, placing particular emphasis on economic mobility, political activism, and the psychiatric and medical services provided by the Veterans Administration to illustrate how public policy influenced that emerging identity.
Abstract: The Serviceman9s Readjustment Act of 1944 has become the focus of increased scrutiny. Many of the bill9s limitations in terms of race, gender, and sexuality have recently been explored. This article examines the postwar construction of veteran identity by Mexican American veterans and the GI Bill9s ultimate impact on that process. I place particular emphasis on economic mobility, political activism, and the psychiatric and medical services provided by the Veterans Administration to illustrate how public policy influenced that emerging identity. Moreover, I challenge conclusions that adopt an either/or binary by illustrating how the matrix of military service, the GI Bill, and citizenship influenced postwar civic engagement and varying degrees of socioeconomic advancement for Mexican American veterans.
14 citations
TL;DR: In the spring of 1852, twenty-three slaveholders from South Carolina and Florida requested permission to establish a permanent slave colony in the state of California as discussed by the authors, arguing that they had been unfairly excluded from sharing in California's bounty.
Abstract: Hundreds of white Southerners traveled to Gold Rush California with slaves. Long after California became a free state in 1850, these masters transplanted economic and social practices that sustained slavery in the American South to the goldfields. At the same time, enslaved people realized that Gold Rush conditions disrupted customary master-slave relationships and pressed for more personal autonomy, better working conditions, and greater economic reward. The result was a new regional version of slavery that was remarkably flexible and subject to negotiation. This fluidity dimin ished, however, as proslavery legislators passed laws that protected slaveholding rights and vitiated the state’s antislavery constitution. California’s struggle over bondage highlights the persistence of the slavery question in the Far West after the Compromise of 1850 and illuminates slavery’s transformation as it moved onto free soil. In the spring of 1852 the California State Assembly heard an unusual petition. In a lengthy memorial, twenty-three slaveholders from South Carolina and Florida requested permission to establish a permanent slave colony in the state. Led by James Gadsden, later famous for engineering the Gadsden Purchase, the petitioners complained that they had been unfairly excluded from sharing in California’s bounty. Slaveholding Southerners had sacrificed “their blood and their treasure” to acquire the new terri tory for the United States, but, when California entered the Union in 1850, its constitution shut them out by prohibiting slavery. The petitioners urged state legislators to redress this injustice by granting several dozen slaveholding families the “privilege of emigrating with their household, and domestics reared under their roofs and bound to them by many endearing associations, and sympathies.” They insisted that California was particularly well-suited to slave
14 citations
12 citations
11 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that during the final years of debate over Arizona and New Mexico statehood, nativos (U.S.-born people of Mexican descent), Mexicans (immigrants from Mexico), and Anglos developed and promoted strategies of pluralism and marginalization for incorporating people of Mexico into the nation.
Abstract: This article focuses on how people of Mexican descent fit within the definition of "American" during the early twentieth century. It argues that during the final years of debate over Arizona and New Mexico statehood, nativos (U.S.-born people of Mexican descent), Mexicans (immigrants from Mexico), and Anglos developed and promoted strategies of pluralism and marginalization for incorporating people of Mexican descent into the nation. Pluralists worked to ensure that nativos in New Mexico would become full members of the United States as Spanish Americans, while Anglos promoting marginalization strove to limit people of Mexican descent in Arizona to second-class citizenship. Although both territories became states in 1912, the two strategies resulted in very different consequences for people of Mexican descent and provided two very different models for how they could be considered American.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on herbalists and missionaries who were often able to cross boundaries of race, geography, and gender through their professions, and compare the experiences of these elites in Los Angeles with their counterparts in San Francisco.
Abstract: Chinese elites who were exempted from the Exclusion Act of 1882 became important figures in interethnic dialogue in the West. This article focuses on herbalists and missionaries, who were often able to cross boundaries of race, geography, and gender through their professions. In comparing the experiences of these elites in Los Angeles with their counterparts in San Francisco—the two cities in California with the highest Chinese populations by 1890—the authors demonstrate how a limited degree of inclusion was possible during a period of extreme discrimination and race hatred. The examination of photographs, newspaper articles and advertisements, memoirs, and other materials provides a way to understand the class dimensions of the Exclusion Act in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century California.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of mobility in shaping the institutional experiences of individuals committed or arrested for insanity in the major Pacific mining boom regions of the nineteenth century is examined based on archival research conducted in California, British Columbia and eastern Australia.
Abstract: Based on archival research conducted in California, British Columbia, and eastern Australia, this essay examines the role of mobility in shaping the institutional experiences of individuals committed or arrested for insanity in the major Pacific mining boom regions of the nineteenth century. Through the transnational story of James "Scotty" Brown, a sailor who escaped from the California State Insane Asylum in time to join the 1858 American migration to the Fraser River goldfields in British Columbia, I demonstrate that instability and flux characterized not only the backgrounds of "mad" migrants, but also their frequent encounters with gold country asylums and jails. Specifically, I argue that these institutions often facilitated the mobility of the individuals that, in principle, they were constructed to "contain."
7 citations
TL;DR: Ichikawa Fusae, a founder of the Women9s Suffrage League who shared the gender-neutral beliefs of a transnational group of feminists, initially rejected the notion that women deserved the vote because of their status as mothers but eventually adopted this rationale as a strategy to gain inclusion in the Japanese nation-state.
Abstract: Ichikawa Fusae, like other Japanese feminists from the 1920s through the 1940s, faced a dilemma as Japan pursued an increasingly aggressive foreign policy, first in Asia and later toward Western nations. A founder of the Women9s Suffrage League who shared the gender-neutral beliefs of a transnational group of feminists, Ichikawa initially rejected the notion that women deserved the vote because of their status as mothers but eventually adopted this rationale as a strategy to gain inclusion in the Japanese nation-state. By the 1940s she also came to accept that service to the state in wartime——even service to a militaristic state whose policies she deplored——might offer the only means by which women could achieve individual citizenship in Japan. Feminists in Japan and elsewhere continue to debate the legacy of her choices.
7 citations
TL;DR: The International Encyclopedia of Unified Science as mentioned in this paper is an encyclopedia of the Vienna Circle of the early 20th century, which was founded by John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Morris Cohen, and Sinclair Lewis.
Abstract: During the 1930s the emigre philosophers of the Vienna Circle launched an ambitious program to create a more scientific culture, but they proved to be largely blind to indigenous American efforts along similar lines. Those scholars who study the Vienna Circle have too often ignored the intellectual power and broad appeal of these American efforts as led by John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Morris Cohen, and Sinclair Lewis. The emigres developed as their chief enterprise The International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, which was dwarfed in size, appeal, and longterm historical significance by The International Encyclopedia of Unified Science brought out at the same historical moment by followers of Dewey. Both encyclopedias and the circles of intellectuals who sustained them illustrate the special appeal of scientific culture for The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences intellectuals of Jewish origin throughout the North Atlantic West between the two World Wars.
6 citations
TL;DR: In the early 20th century, Chinese merchants sought to cross legally into the United States, they relied heavily on Mexican neighbors and Mexican and U.S. officials to attest to long-term residential histories, their Mexican citizenship, and their merchant status.
Abstract: At the turn of the twentieth century, everyday relationships between Chinese and Mexican fronterizos mobility at the Arizona-Sonora borderlands. In the near absence of generational ties on which to draw, Chinese newcomers created vibrant communities from social, economic, and familial-based networks; similar situations occurred in northern Sonora. As Chinese merchants sought to cross legally into the United States, they relied heavily on Mexican neighbors and Mexican and U.S. officials to attest to long-term residential histories, their Mexican citizenship, and their merchant status. On both sides of the border, discreet arrangements and daily interactions, among families and friends and within networks of commerce and community, militated against Sinophobia and harsh exclusion laws. Out of this contested social landscape grew interethnic, transnational communities even as attendant apprehensions weighed heavily on Chinese borderlanders.
6 citations
TL;DR: The California Gold Rush reshaped both Anglo American attitudes toward risk and notions of white manliness as mentioned in this paper, and the risks involved in such labor differed from those in games of chance, for the former could still be portrayed as at once daring and respectable; the latter could not.
Abstract: The California Gold Rush reshaped both Anglo American attitudes toward risk and notions of white manliness. The Gold Rush upset many of the social structures that regulated individual behaviors in the East while challenging received wisdom about the relationship between work, reward, and an individual9s worth. Mining itself was a "gamble" that seemed to reward men of dubious character as much as, if not more than, men of obvious moral character. Yet the risks involved in such labor dif?fered from those in games of chance, for the former could still be portrayed as at once daring and respectable; the latter could not. Anglo American men used the physical risk of mining to differentiate themselves from non-white men, but they understood the social risk of gambling as having the potential to collapse the boundaries between white men and "others."
TL;DR: New Zealanders were concerned about the economic effect of the American Civil War and the threat of American privateers attacking shipping and cities in the British colony of New Zealand as discussed by the authors, and they supported the South's right to secede.
Abstract: By 1861 residents of New Zealand had been dealing with Americans for years, and they recognized that the United States was already an important power on the Pacific Rim. Thus, when the American Civil War broke out, people in New Zealand paid careful attention. Newspapers, private papers, and official records reveal the war9s effect in New Zealand. Although New Zealanders opposed slavery, they supported the South9s right to secede. Indeed, several provinces were advocating "separation" in 1861 and saw the Civil War as a cautionary tale demonstrating the danger of waiting to address irreconcilable differences. As the war unfolded, editors and government officials throughout New Zealand also worried about the wider economic effect of the war and the threat of American privateers attacking shipping and cities in the British colony.
TL;DR: The New Western Woman was both an image that sought to attract more women into movie audiences and a reality that dramatized the unconventional and important roles played by women workers in the early motion picture industry.
Abstract: This article explores early publicity about Hollywood that promoted Los Angeles as a New West supporting a New Western Woman who became a key, if often slighted, element in the “grounding of modern feminism.” The New Western Woman was both an image that sought to attract more women into movie audiences and a reality that dramatized the unconventional and important roles played by women workers in the early motion picture industry. By describing these women as expertly navigating the city, the West, and professional ambitions simultaneously, this publicity created a booster literature that depicted Los Angeles as an urban El Dorado for single white women on the make. In response, tens of thousands of women moved west to work in the picture business, helping to make Los Angeles the first western boomtown where women outnumbered men.
TL;DR: Through the lens of the Community Service Organization (CSO), the authors explores the emergence of Los Angeles ethno-racial communities9 political activism and what enabled their success in a difficult Cold War climate.
Abstract: Through the lens of the Community Service Organization (CSO), this article explores the emergence of Los Angeles ethno-racial communities9 political activism and what enabled their success in a difficult Cold War climate. The CSO9s creation in 1947, when it became the first enduring civil rights organization for the largest urban Mexican-origin population in the United States, is striking since historical narratives generally assume the Cold War crushed meaningful civil rights change. The CSO complicates this declensionist narrative. Its success stemmed in part from its reliance upon interracial networks that sustained it in its early years. The CSO reveals links between different racial and ethnic communities, in three different eras—the World War II, Cold War, and civil rights eras—that made the emergence and persistence of such activism possible.
TL;DR: In 1887, the Office of Indian Affairs requested that the Army evict the handful of white trespassers who claimed over 90 percent of the Round Valley Reservation in Northern California, and a county judge dispatched the Mendocino County sheriff to arrest the federal officer who persisted with his orders as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In 1887 the Office of Indian Affairs requested that the Army evict the handful of white trespassers who claimed over 90 percent of the Round Valley Reservation in Northern California. The trespassers turned to local courts to block their evictions, and a county judge dispatched the Mendocino County sheriff to arrest the federal officer who persisted with his orders. The ensuing "Round Valley War" shows that, although elites associated with Indian affairs took federal supremacy on Indian Reservations for granted, and while historians have also tended to treat the West, and "Indian Country" in particular, as a domain where federal prerogatives reigned supreme, in the aftermath of the Civil War anti-statism and Democratic localism presented effective counterclaims to the coercive power of the federal state.
TL;DR: The authors traces California's constitutional development from 1849 through 1911, examining how and why California9s constitution developed into a quasi-legislative document that constitutionalized policies involving corporations, banks, railroads, taxes, and other economic relationships, thereby limiting the power of the legislature.
Abstract: This article traces California9s constitutional development from 1849 through 1911, examining how and why California9s constitution developed into a quasi-legislative document that constitutionalized policies involving corporations, banks, railroads, taxes, and other economic relationships, thereby limiting the power of the legislature. I argue that drafters of California9s constitutions deliberately curtailed legislative power and transformed class issues into constitutional ones. California9s experience was consistent with state constitutional developments throughout the United States, especially in the West. Advocates of constitutional reform saw state legislatures as corrupt captives of "capitalists" and other "special interests" that could not to be trusted to serve the people9s interests. These issues permeated debates over constitutional reform in California and other states from the 1840s through the initial decades of the twentieth century, leading to the adoption of the initiative and referendum.
TL;DR: Puget Sound provides a case study of significant changes in the West9s Cold War experience and illustrates that this era can be understood in terms of two distinct phases, with a turning point in the late 1960s/early 1970s as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Puget Sound provides a case study of significant changes in the West9s Cold War experience and illustrates that this era can be understood in terms of two distinct phases, with a turning point in the late 1960s/early 1970s. This transition saw shifts in relationships between Puget Sound residents and the military, from a traditional, almost unanimous support for the military9s presence in the region, to the development of a much more hostile attitude among some segments of the public. This change reflected growing concerns about the environment and skepticism about military-related economic growth. It was also shaped by concerns about nuclear weapons and the role of the armed services in U.S. foreign relations, the result of the rebirth of the anti-nuclear movement across the United States in the 1970s.