:The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines
About: This article is published in Pacific Historical Review.The article was published on 2008-08-01. It has received 175 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Empire & Government.
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01 Jan 2008
163 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: Hahn et al. as mentioned in this paper traced the triumph of free labor in the two largest slave societies of the nineteenth-century western world: the United States and Brazil, and concluded that free labor had strengthened capitalism in Brazil and United States, making American industrialists and Brazilian planters more powerful than ever before.
Abstract: This dissertation traces the triumph of free labor in the two largest slave societies of the nineteenth-century western world: the United States and Brazil. Drawing on a range of primary sources from American and Brazilian archives, it reconstructs the intense circulation of transnational agents between these two countries from the 1840s to the 1880s. It shows how these exchanges transformed the political economies of both nations: whereas Brazil attracted American capital and expertise to modernize its economic structure and accomplish a smooth transition from slave to free labor; the United States seized the opportunity to invest, develop, and encourage free labor in Brazil, which had long been under the influence of the British Empire. As vital as chattel slavery had become to the nineteenth-century world economy, a coalition of American and Brazilian reformers proposed that an even more efficient and profitable labor system could replace it. This transnational group of free labor promoters included activists, diplomats, engineers, entrepreneurs, journalists, merchants, missionaries, planters, politicians, scientists, students, among others. Working together, they promoted labor-saving machinery, new transportation technology, scientific management, and technical education. These improvements, they reckoned, would help Brazilian and American capitalists harness the potential of native-born as well as immigrant free workers to expand production and trade. This work concludes that, by the late nineteenth century, free labor had strengthened capitalism in Brazil and the United States, making American industrialists and Brazilian planters more powerful than ever before. Consequently, in neither the United States nor Brazil did the triumph of free labor result in the advancement of social justice. In fact, from the very beginning of their campaign, free labor promoters favored major capitalists: their goal was to concentrate capital, shatter traditional ways of life, and control highly mobile workers. Free labor meant eliminating slavery while, at the same time, reinforcing proletarianization. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Steven Hahn
116 citations
Book•
04 Sep 2018
TL;DR: The American West and the World as mentioned in this paper provides a synthetic introduction to the transnational history of the American West, discussing exploration, expansion, migration, violence, intimacies, and ideas.
Abstract: The American West and the World provides a synthetic introduction to the transnational history of the American West. Drawing from the insights of recent scholarship, Janne Lahti recenters the history of the U.S. West in the global contexts of empires and settler colonialism, discussing exploration, expansion, migration, violence, intimacies, and ideas. Lahti examines established subfields of Western scholarship, such as borderlands studies and transnational histories of empire, as well as relatively unexplored connections between the West and geographically nonadjacent spaces. Lucid and incisive, The American West and the World firmly situates the historical West in its proper global context.
112 citations
18 Dec 2015
TL;DR: Little and Kerstetter as discussed by the authors uncovered the rather unlikely progressive credentials of a highly influential lawyer, diplomat, and statesman, Elihu Root, who represented a minority of internationally progressive lawyer-diplomats who sought to bring order to the interactions of states, reduce global conflicts and introduce worldwide institutions comprised of more nations than ever before.
Abstract: UNFADING HALO: THE UNTOLD PROGRESSIVISM OF ELIHU ROOT by Rob Little, Ph.D., 2015 Department of History Texas Christian University Dissertation Advisor: Todd M. Kerstetter, Associate Professor of History In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, reformers across the nation looked to study, understand, and resolve the major political, social, economic, and moral issues gripping the nation. This study uncovers the rather unlikely progressive credentials of a highly influential lawyer, diplomat, and statesman, Elihu Root. Contemporary critics and political opponents unfairly categorized him as a conservative, and callous corporate lawyer who opposed the Progressive movement at every turn. This inaccurate characterization unduly influenced historical conceptions of the Root and his legacy. On the contrary, Root modernized, reformed, and advanced progressive institutions at home and abroad. Root recognized the growing need for reform, accountability, and efficiency of public institutions, while also promoting an individual responsibility need for education, morality, and self-restraint. Elite lawyers such as Root formed a significant majority of progressive reformers who sought restore public trust in civil government, depoliticize civil service appointments, destroy political machines, ensure the sanctity of the ballot, increase legal access for the poor, promote campaign finance reform, enact corporate and inheritance taxes, and bust trusts. Root devoted his public career to carrying out the public good and uplifting society. Though Root’s domestic reform agenda mirrored the efforts of his progressive counterparts, what set him apart was the fact he transplanted these progressive ideals into reforms into America foreign policy. Since progressives empowered the government to resolve domestic concerns, it only makes sense they used the full force of Washington to solve problems that confronted the globe. He represented a minority of internationally progressive lawyer-diplomats who sought to bring order to the interactions of states, reduce global conflicts, and introduce worldwide institutions comprised of more nations than ever before. He promoted American involvement in international institutions well before the creation of the League of Nations and developed many of the concepts that later comprised part of the United Nations created nearly a decade after his death. Presidents of both parties and numerous secretaries of state worked with Root to secure progressive international policies, ranging from the creation of the World Court to international policies of disarmament.
74 citations
References
More filters
01 Jan 2008
163 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: Hahn et al. as mentioned in this paper traced the triumph of free labor in the two largest slave societies of the nineteenth-century western world: the United States and Brazil, and concluded that free labor had strengthened capitalism in Brazil and United States, making American industrialists and Brazilian planters more powerful than ever before.
Abstract: This dissertation traces the triumph of free labor in the two largest slave societies of the nineteenth-century western world: the United States and Brazil. Drawing on a range of primary sources from American and Brazilian archives, it reconstructs the intense circulation of transnational agents between these two countries from the 1840s to the 1880s. It shows how these exchanges transformed the political economies of both nations: whereas Brazil attracted American capital and expertise to modernize its economic structure and accomplish a smooth transition from slave to free labor; the United States seized the opportunity to invest, develop, and encourage free labor in Brazil, which had long been under the influence of the British Empire. As vital as chattel slavery had become to the nineteenth-century world economy, a coalition of American and Brazilian reformers proposed that an even more efficient and profitable labor system could replace it. This transnational group of free labor promoters included activists, diplomats, engineers, entrepreneurs, journalists, merchants, missionaries, planters, politicians, scientists, students, among others. Working together, they promoted labor-saving machinery, new transportation technology, scientific management, and technical education. These improvements, they reckoned, would help Brazilian and American capitalists harness the potential of native-born as well as immigrant free workers to expand production and trade. This work concludes that, by the late nineteenth century, free labor had strengthened capitalism in Brazil and the United States, making American industrialists and Brazilian planters more powerful than ever before. Consequently, in neither the United States nor Brazil did the triumph of free labor result in the advancement of social justice. In fact, from the very beginning of their campaign, free labor promoters favored major capitalists: their goal was to concentrate capital, shatter traditional ways of life, and control highly mobile workers. Free labor meant eliminating slavery while, at the same time, reinforcing proletarianization. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Steven Hahn
116 citations
Book•
04 Sep 2018
TL;DR: The American West and the World as mentioned in this paper provides a synthetic introduction to the transnational history of the American West, discussing exploration, expansion, migration, violence, intimacies, and ideas.
Abstract: The American West and the World provides a synthetic introduction to the transnational history of the American West. Drawing from the insights of recent scholarship, Janne Lahti recenters the history of the U.S. West in the global contexts of empires and settler colonialism, discussing exploration, expansion, migration, violence, intimacies, and ideas. Lahti examines established subfields of Western scholarship, such as borderlands studies and transnational histories of empire, as well as relatively unexplored connections between the West and geographically nonadjacent spaces. Lucid and incisive, The American West and the World firmly situates the historical West in its proper global context.
112 citations
18 Dec 2015
TL;DR: Little and Kerstetter as discussed by the authors uncovered the rather unlikely progressive credentials of a highly influential lawyer, diplomat, and statesman, Elihu Root, who represented a minority of internationally progressive lawyer-diplomats who sought to bring order to the interactions of states, reduce global conflicts and introduce worldwide institutions comprised of more nations than ever before.
Abstract: UNFADING HALO: THE UNTOLD PROGRESSIVISM OF ELIHU ROOT by Rob Little, Ph.D., 2015 Department of History Texas Christian University Dissertation Advisor: Todd M. Kerstetter, Associate Professor of History In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, reformers across the nation looked to study, understand, and resolve the major political, social, economic, and moral issues gripping the nation. This study uncovers the rather unlikely progressive credentials of a highly influential lawyer, diplomat, and statesman, Elihu Root. Contemporary critics and political opponents unfairly categorized him as a conservative, and callous corporate lawyer who opposed the Progressive movement at every turn. This inaccurate characterization unduly influenced historical conceptions of the Root and his legacy. On the contrary, Root modernized, reformed, and advanced progressive institutions at home and abroad. Root recognized the growing need for reform, accountability, and efficiency of public institutions, while also promoting an individual responsibility need for education, morality, and self-restraint. Elite lawyers such as Root formed a significant majority of progressive reformers who sought restore public trust in civil government, depoliticize civil service appointments, destroy political machines, ensure the sanctity of the ballot, increase legal access for the poor, promote campaign finance reform, enact corporate and inheritance taxes, and bust trusts. Root devoted his public career to carrying out the public good and uplifting society. Though Root’s domestic reform agenda mirrored the efforts of his progressive counterparts, what set him apart was the fact he transplanted these progressive ideals into reforms into America foreign policy. Since progressives empowered the government to resolve domestic concerns, it only makes sense they used the full force of Washington to solve problems that confronted the globe. He represented a minority of internationally progressive lawyer-diplomats who sought to bring order to the interactions of states, reduce global conflicts, and introduce worldwide institutions comprised of more nations than ever before. He promoted American involvement in international institutions well before the creation of the League of Nations and developed many of the concepts that later comprised part of the United Nations created nearly a decade after his death. Presidents of both parties and numerous secretaries of state worked with Root to secure progressive international policies, ranging from the creation of the World Court to international policies of disarmament.
74 citations