- George Dehner, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "Comparing national and International Reactions to Global Health Situations: Examining National and International Responses to the Swine Flu 1976" (approved June 1999)
- Abstract
- Christopher Harris, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "The Road Less Traveled By: Rural Vermont in Trans-National Perspective, 1815-1940" (approved December 2002)
- Abstract
- Whitney E. Howarth, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "Communal Modernity: Political Identity and Evangelism in South India, 1813-1913" (approved April 1998)
- Abstract
- Aiqun Hu, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "A World History of Social Security: the West and the Rest" (approved November 2003)
- Abstract
- Jeremy H. Neill, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "Popular concepts of Masculinity and Adventure in Anglo-American Society at the turn of the Century: Gender, Popular Culture and the Frontiers of Imperialism, 1880-1918" (approved March 2001)
- Abstract
- Tiffany Trimmer, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "Unfortunate Travelers Everywhere Wish to Commiserate: Social Capital and the Global Migration System, 1840-1940" (approved July 2003)
- Abstract
- Stacy Tweedy, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "Staging the Nation, Engaging the World: The Making of a Prism Place in the African Diaspora. Sophiatown in Twentieth-Century South African Politics and Popular Thought" (approved January 2003)
- Abstract
- Joshua Weiner, Department of History, Northeastern University
- "1571: A Global, Imperial History of the Spanish Empire" (approved July 2003)
- Abstract
- Bin Yang, Department of History, Northeastern University
- " Land South of Colorful Clouds: Chinese Incorporation and Peripheralization of Yunnan (2ND Century BCE- 20th Century) (approved May 2001)
- Abstract
by Christopher Harris
Historians writing about late 19th century northern New England have typically described it as a period of decline. In a directed study project during the fall of 2000, I set out to examine the reasons for this decline, focusing specifically on nineteenth century Vermont. I expected to find evidence of environmental degradation, poor agricultural practices, and economically backward behavior, all leading to depopulation, economic decline and ultimately, the abandonment that is featured so highly in historic accounts of this area. . On closer look, I found little support either for the story of massive out migration that was central to the standard accounts, or the argument of pervasive farm abandonment. Even the central argument that New England farmers couldnıt compete with the ³more fertile² lands and efficient farmers of the Great Plains did not withstand scrutiny. A revision of our understanding of what took place in rural New England is in order. A stable, viable, relatively prosperous rural society developed in Vermont and much of New Hampshire, that can best be understood by comparing them to the global experiences of other stable, householder, small farm cultures. Vermont represented not an inferior or failing agricultural culture, but from a global perspective, a stable and completely different mode from what became the American standard. At the core of this narrative is what happens to those who swim against the economic and cultural tides of modernism, especially in America. The fate of 19th century rural Vermont is especially relevant in a world of growing population and declining arable land and energy.
"Communal Modernity: Political Identity
and Evangelism in South India, 1813-1913"
by Whitney
Howarth
This dissertation will take a global look at the role of religion in the development of the modern nation-state by examining the relationship between the 19th century Protestant mission and the formation of Indian national consciousness. In my efforts to deconstruct the historical dicourse and historiographical assumptions which have shaped our understanding of such concepts as ìcommunalismî and ìmodernityî, I will argue how these concepts were repeatedly re-invented by both the colonizers and the colonized, accomodated by them, and used to establish new networks of power.
Changes in global and local economic systems demanded that Indians create new corporate identities and ally themselves with new power hierarchies. The colonial mission in India, as a result of particular European and American reform movements (such as the Great Awakening and the Evangelical Revivalism), envisioned a modernity which celebrated a universalism which challenged plurality. The Western definition of modernity, as inspired by certain Judeo-Christian histoical realities, was exclusive. Those Europeans in India who, even unwittingly, advocated or advanced European modernity in their work and leisure, were unable to acknowledge other revalations of what it meant to be ìmodernî. By recognizing and recording some of the indigenous philosophy movements and religious reforms that swept the subcontinent in the 19th century, we can clearly see how indians were re-constructing definitions of community and modernity, at times in concert with and at times in opposition to the discourse imposed by colonialists.
In investigating the role Evangelical missions played in 19th century India as an intersection of exchange, we gain the advantage of the ìcross-roadsî perspective. At this intersection of cultural and political paths, we can examine relationships which were pivotal in defining new communities, identifying ìtraditionsî, and seeking modern modes of power exchange. Through this approach we retire the hackneyed survey of what happens when ìThe Eastî meets Western modernity by complicating the issues and identifying the diverse players. At the Evangelical cross-roads we have the opportunity to hear a debate among Indians, as well as between Indians and others, on how religious identity shapes modern notions of community. Through reaction and re-creation, these debates continually informed early conceptualizations of national consciousness and challenged a singular definition of modernity. The definition of modernity espoused by Protestant missionaries in the 19th century defied notions of religious plurarlity because it advocated a universalism under one Christ, and one Christ only. While the complexities of the Indian caste, class, and socio-religious systems made it unlikely that the people of the subcontinent would accept this singular vision of modernity, the dialogue between Protestant and Hindu visionaries did inspire the imagining of new collective identities (communal and political) much earlier than those invented during the formal nationalist movement led by the Indian National Congres and Mahandas K.Gandhi. Thus, by analyzing religion as a dynamic factor in Indian nationalism, as seen through social and economic contexts, we can more fully grasp the global dimensions of identity formation and political consciousness. This study will further the quest to identify the relationship between modernity and communal identity as a means to better understand the creation of indvidual allegiances and the broader processes of world history.
by George Reklaitis
This dissertation focuses on the armed insurrection that took place in Soviet-occupied Lithania following the Second World War and the counter-insurgency methods employed in response by the Soviet security apparatus. What occurred in Lithuania in the decade after World War II involved more than just the liquidation of hostile elements on the part of the Soviet Union. Instead, Lithanian resistance developed as an ever-changing and remarkably well supported movement, matched only by the increasingly dynamic, intensive, and eventually debilitating policies of the Soviet Union. Moreover, this conflict transcended a simple nationalist struggle for independence. The attempts of Western intelligence agencies to use the Lithuanian partisan movement as a means of undermining Soviet power inevitably led to a Soviet response and transformed post-war Lithuania into an early battleground of the Cold War.
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by Bin Yang
This study explores
the process over two thousand years by which Yunnan was transformed from
an independent kingdom into a periphery of China.
This study challenges
the dominant approach to Yunnan as a backward area of China by revealing
Yunnanís dynamic role in cross-regional interaction with South Asia,
Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Tibet. Furthermore, it provides an
effective way to uncover the complex process of incorporation into the
Chinese Empire. It examines how Chinese institutions
systematically peripheralized Yunnan through political domination,
cultural incorporation, and economic exploitation. Finally,
this study makes efforts to fit frontier research into world-system
analysis. By examining the long process of Yunnan's
transformation from an external area into a periphery, and by analyzing
the core-periphery structure and its interaction, this dissertation,
either as a case study or as a theoretical effort, is expected to
contribute to world-system perspectives.
"Popular concepts of Masculinity
and Adventure in Anglo-American Society at the turn of the Century:
Gender, Popular Culture and the Frontiers of Imperialism,
1880-1918."
By Jeremy H. Neill
The purpose of this
dissertation will be to explore the historical development of ideals of
masculinity through popular culture in Anglo-American society at the
turn of the century. Crucial to this discussion will be the intertwining
of the process of imperialism and frontier expansion with the creation
of a masculine ideal. The vehicle for the popularizing of these ideals
of masculinity and imperialism was the popular culture of the period,
particularly literature and stage plays, and this material will be the
primary research focus of the paper. By examining the precepts of the
culture through the literature and other materials of the time period,
such as artwork, photographs, advertising, and other forms of expression
that reached a wide audience, some ideas about how the historical
process of British and American territorial expansion influenced, and
was influenced by, popular culture can be reached. Also, what these
constructs of culture created in terms of gender ideals, particularly
ideals of masculinity, will be examined through the motifs of the rugged
frontiersman, the heroic soldier, the explorer, and other male
archetypes of the period. How these ideals translated into a broader
historical context, where the imperialist powers are characterized as
masculine, and their subjects feminine, will also be examined. The
conclusion will draw the connections between gender issues, popular
culture and imperialism that profoundly influenced the historical
developments of the time period.
The focus of this
dissertation will be the cultural constructs that arose out of the
historical process of territorial expansion in Anglo-American society.
Particular attention will be paid to the concept of the frontier, both
in its literal American meaning and as an imagined space in which the
civilized Anglo-American encounters primitive others, such as the
rapidly expanding British Empire. A comparative look at how these very
similar cultures justified and encouraged their territorial ambitions at
the expense of other "races" deemed less civilized than themselves
through the lens of popular culture should illustrate the common belief
systems of both societies, focusing on the commonality of their English
roots, as well as some of their differences. This process developed many
of the ideas of race and gender held by both cultures, as popular
literature reinforced and built upon existing ideas of inferior races
and on the proper role of men and women within Anglo-American culture.
Most importantly for ideas of gender, the idea of the frontier and
facing nature or more primitive peoples was a key in defining how
America and Britain, including the white Dominions, defined the ideal of
masculine behavior. In America, the rugged frontiersman was embodied in
the cowboy and other earlier western archetypes. For Britain, with a
wide-ranging empire, more varied types arose as models, such as the
frontier officer in India, the African explorer, mountaineers, and
others, and the American western genre was also quite
popular.
A comparative approach to this topic is required as the
popular culture of both countries was in many respects a shared one. The
common language used made cross-Atlantic exchanges of literature
relatively easy. Beyond the simple matter of merely sharing a common
language, the common cultural roots of the two nations (and their
colonies in the case of Britain) make the exchange that much easier. By
comparing the popular adventure writers of Britain, such as Kipling,
Doyle, Mason, and others with their American counterparts, such as Grey,
Wister, and Cooper to name a few, the common bonds of both nations
culture and motives for territorial expansion and imperialism can be
uncovered.
by George Dehner
Pandemic disease is, by definition, a transnational occurrence. Yet responses to potential global health situations have frequently been nation-centered. The responses, and non-responses of national and international health organizations to the swine fluı influenza strain of 1976 provide an excellent forum for comparing and contrasting these processes. The peculiar nature of the influenza virus, the legacy of historical impact of infectious disease, and an examination of national and international medical organizations provide a framework for evaluating this (non) event. And this (non) event serves to highlight the politics, motivations, and underlying philosophies of national and international institutions. A detailed examination of this event provides a template for future international health events.
Sophiatown in Twentieth Century South African Politics and Popular Thought "
by Stacy Tweedy
Sophiatown was a small, racially mixed suburb of Johannesburg that was demolished by the apartheid government in the 1950s. The community occupies a unique space in the history of apartheid deracination because it was the first urban "black spot" to be removed after the Afrikaner National Party took control of the parliament in 1948. This dissertation traces the development of Sophiatown into a prismatic "mythical" community that is in dialogue with national, continental and diasporic communities over the course of the twentieth century. Sophiatown residents, artists, writers and political leaders resisted the erasure of Sophiatown by memorializing the community and the moment of its destruction in family stories, autobiographies, fictional literature, film, press coverage and political rhetoric. This dissertation argues that through these efforts the community's history became a stage for recasting the conflicts over politics, culture and race that have occupied South Africans for much of the twentieth century. Sophiatown became a form of historical shorthand where place functioned as a mnemonic device ordering social memory of urbanization, the development of militant politics and of twentieth-century black South African intellectual and cultural flowering. The production of this history was shaped by local conditions on the ground, national concerns, and by reading local and national conditions through the lenses of political and cultural movements in the Diaspora such as Pan Africanism and the Harlem Renaissance. By examining literature, film, political rhetoric and press coverage, this project reveals how South Africans used Sophiatown as a prism to consider issues of displacement, non-racialism, resistance and franchise broadly conceptualized.
by Aiqun Hu
The field of social welfare has attracted researchers from different disciplines, particularly sociology, political science, and history in the last few decades. However, the vast literature in this field has focused on determinants of the origins and development of the welfare state in western industrialized democratic countries. Moreover, the approaches to the development of welfare state have stressed national factors, implying that the development of the welfare state in one nation is independent of other countries and thus was not affected by interactions among different welfare states in the west. When dealing with the rest of the world, the marginal studies stress the role of western models and ideas that are regarded as superior and worthy of emulation and thus introduced into other regions of the world during colonial and postcolonial times (Midgley, 1997). From a world history perspective, the result of these studies has been to construct a Eurocentric picture of the history of social welfare around the world: for the West, each nation has developed its programs independently, while in the rest of the world, countries have imitated programs from the West as something superior. It is clear that it is necessary to develop a new theoretical framework and perspective which can help us to overcome the two shortcomings mentioned above.
These are the objectives of this research, which will attempt to use a global perspective to look at social insurance as a single world institution or world system which consists of different parts interacting with each other for over one hundred years. It is the contention of this study that it was the interactions of different social welfare systems in both developing countries and developed countries that served as the driving forces in the expansion of social insurance around the whole world. Further, the interactions of the welfare systems are connected to the broader global economic, political and social environments.
In the introduction, I will discuss the significance and objectives of my research. In addition, I will also describe the global process of the adoption and expansion of social insurance programs around the world. By doing so, I will show the adoption of the institution of social insurance is a world historical process, requiring a world historical analysis which emphasizes the transnational linkages and connections.
In chapter 1, I will discuss the historical origins of social insurance in Germany. First of all, I will introduce the standard account of its origins, which focuses on working class movement and Bismarckıs strong personality in the soci-economic context of the late 19th century Germany (see Ritter 1986; Kohler and Zacher 1982; etc). Then, I will point out the transnational influence on Bismarckıs adoption of social insurance. This chapter will predominantly rely on secondly sources.
Chapter 2 addresses the period 1880-1945, when a single social insurance system gradually took shape at the global level despite a great deal of unevenness. The criterion for the formation of this single system was that at the global level at least the risk of work injury has been covered all over the world. The unevenness can at least be demonstrated by coverage: In the Western countries in Europe, North America, and Latin America almost all the major social risks such as work injury, old-age, unemployment, sickness and maternity had been covered while in the rest of the world except for the risk of work injury, other major risks were barely covered. In this chapter I will discuss the dynamics of the formation of this social insurance system by focusing on the experiences of the following countries: Germany, Britain, the US, the USSR, and Republican China.
Chapter 3 addresses the expansion of social security from 1945 to mid-1970s. The features of the expansion of the social security system were as follows: in the democratic Western countries, all the citizens were brought into their social security system; in the non western countries, the major social risks were covered by social insurance. Except for peasants and workers in informal sectors, workers in formal sectors were covered by social insurance. In this chapter I will focus on China and India. China introduced its comprehensive labor insurance for its state-owned-enterprise in 1951, while India extended its social security to the risks of old-age, sickness and others in 1948 right after her independence.
Chapter 4 addresses the issue of going back to privatization. Since the 1970s, there has been much discussion of the crisis in the welfare state, social security systems in the transitional economies including China, and the third world countries. This chapter will survey the causes of the perceived worldwide crisis and assess the severity of the crisis. Also, I will examine the much discussed solution of privatization of social security at the global level in a historical perspective, revealing the cyclical nature of the social insurance system.
In the conclusion, I will try to discuss the overall patterns and dynamics of social insurance development at the global level. The theme is that it is cyclical rather than evolutionary. Then, I will discuss the dynamics of its development by stressing the mechanism of transnational connections and linkages.
by Josh Weiner
1571 was a particularly busy year for the Spanish Empire. In all corners of its vast territories events were transpiring, processes were beginning and ending, decisions were being made, actions were being carried out, and ideas were being formulated all of which were to have profound implications for the future of the Empire. However, this paper is not about what would happen in the empire in later years but about what was happening in that single year. In doing this I my goal is not to create a narrative of that year but to present a series of snapshots which together will help to answer fundamental questions that are seldom asked: What do empires do? How do they function? And what does it mean to live within one? In doing this I will look at the activities carried out by, and occurring within the empire in 1571, while also examining the larger issues involved. The dissertation will focus on the following: 1) The legislation of difference as it related to conquered Moriscos and Indians in Granada and America; 2) The birth of Fernando, heir to King Philip II, and the role of the monarchy as a symbolic center of the empire; 3) The foundation of Manila and the function of silver in Spain and the world; 4) Responses to the Ottoman threat in the Mediterranean and instability in the Low Countries and imperial threats from within and without; 5) the end of the Inca successor state at Vilcabamba and imperial expansion; 6) The activities of Francisco de Toledo in Peru as a way to gain insight into the administration of empire. Through discussion of these themes I will present a picture of empire as more than just the central state but as the sum of the ideas and actions that were contained within it. Activities that occur within an empire do not have to emanate from an imperial center to have imperial consequences; the Empire was certainly located in the council chambers of Madrid and Seville, but could also be found in a solitary galleon plying the Pacific between Acapulco and Manila, in a Morisco woman of Granada responding to the questions of her inquisitors from the Holy Office, and in the minds of the Monarchıs many subjects.
by Tiffany Trimmer
The origin-destination dichotomy prevalent in current conceptualizations of "migration systems" obscures three key aspects of the mid 19th-20th century transoceanic migration process "seasoning" of migrants in transit, subsequent moves to find employment, and remitting and/or returning to home communities. A closer look at European and Southeast Asian migrant travel narratives, rates of remittance and return migration, and em/immigrant aid society records indicate that many transoceanic migrants combined railroad and steamship travel, passed from ports of entry to inland plantations and factories in search of employment, and by the late 1880s, increasingly exhibited intentions to return home. Developing an alternate model of a migration system that incorporates these historical trends is necessary because migratory behaviors were learned, revised and adjusted across all parts of an individualıs travels, not just at the "end" of their journey. Reconstructing this broader range of relevant sites of analysis requires two main tasks identifying the social institutions that facilitate movement across space (existing within social-capital generating networks), and illustrating the large-scale, long-term historical outcomes of such activities (migration system).
I employ social capital theory to craft three successive snapshots of particularly dense concentrations of migrant social capital creation and exchange, which I label "hubs" of migrant activity. The investigation of these hubs illustrates the ways that individual migrants and migrant collectives (networks and households) used personal, ethnic and class alliances to create and maintain the socio-economic institutions that helped mitigate the uncertainties of the migration process. I begin with a discussion of the interaction between "seasoned" and first time German and Eastern European migrants in the Hamburg American lineıs "Emigrant Village", quarantine and 3rd class steerage facilities (Ch 4) gives insight into the learning curve for new migrants in early phases of their journeys. It also leads to a discussion of the range of individuals participating in migrant networks, their varying levels of experience and most importantly, the social circumstances in which ethnic, class or gender relationships may promote or constrain the exchange of favors and information.
These issues of social capital generation are integral to two subsequent arenas of migrant activity within the transoceanic system. A survey of passenger destinations stated on mid 19th-20th century steamship manifests often suggests that ports of entry were not migrantsı final (and permanent) sites of settlement and incorporation. Analysis of labor recruiting firms, surname associations, grocery stores and immigrant aid institutions in Singapore and the Straits Settlements shows that these organizations not only helped labor migrants adjust to the difficulties of life abroad, but as importantly, also facilitated their additional travel from port of arrival to the place where they would actually be employed (Ch 5).
In the third hub snapshot, I ask whether or not the social capital transactions that shape migration in the forward direction can also work in reverse. Here the volume of migrant remittances and rates of return migration are used as measures of migrant intentions to maintain and fulfill their social capital obligations to family members left behind. To evaluate the plausibility of this hypothesis, the role San Francisco-based letter writing services, surname associations and immigrant savings associations played in developing local migrant community institutions is compared to their abilities to facilitate long-distance transfer of money, goods and returning migrants and their families. (Ch 6)
The social-capital generating migrant networks that facilitated the movement of migrants, capital, and services via Hamburg, Singapore and San Francisco linked three continents into a fully-functioning global system of exchange. But what insights do we gain from this reconstructed mid 19th-20th century transoceanic migration system? Recommendations are offered in two categories: the use of social science concepts in the study of migration, and for refining the narrative of migration as a world historical process.
For interdisciplinary migration theory, the multi-directional capacity to transfer social capital within the networks associated with Hamburg, Singapore and San Francisco prove that similar migrant-decision-making practices were a common systemic characteristic, not the exclusive domain of the places commonly referred to as "origin" or "destination". Indeed the presence of social capital throughout so many parts of this historical migration system suggests that this concept can be used to build more robust models of migration systems. It also suggests that the ability to mobilize social capital in any direction should become a central criterion for evaluating and articulating the efficiency of past and present migration systems.
How does the historical narrative of transoceanic migration ca 1840-1940 change when viewed for the perspective of a series of "hubs" of migrant social capital generation and exchange? By re-casting migration as a combination of moves through a set of interconnected social capital-generating arenas, migrant relationships to communities of origin and destination can be studied simultaneously, rather than successively (separately). Decisions made in one part of a system travel with the migrants themselves producing consequences that can be observed throughout multiple parts of the system. The "seasoning" process of first time migrants in Hamburgıs Emigrant Village went more smoothly because of the presence of repeat migrants acting on decisions to resume their travels made either in the North American cities they were calling home, or by Eastern European relatives who summoned them back to home to chaperone subsequently migrating family members. In Singapore, Indian and Chinese labor recruiting firms and the British Government shaped the volume and character of migration passing through Singapore and the Straits Settlement influencing the development of local immigrant communities; local conditions such as the possibility of owning land and anti-immigrant laws and violence shaped the volume and condition of returning migrants, and by extension their ability to reintegrate into their home communities. In San Francisco, immigrant institutions multi-tasked as (potentially simultaneous) providers of local services and trans-oceanic ones. The demand for remittance and return services was driven by decisions made in conjunction with family members remaining in the home community individuals going abroad as part of prearranged risk diversification strategies repaying their social capital obligations to the family members who had helped arrange their trips abroad. As a result, vital financial and human capital resources that might have otherwise contributed to the development of San Francisco and the Bay Area were instead redirected to migrant sending regions in Southeastern China and Southern Italy.
These examples of the multi-dimensional social capital influences within this reconstructed transoceanic migration system highlight two ways in which our current understanding of mid 19th-20th century human mobility could be improved. First, contrary to the arguments of American Assimilationist-style histories, return migration is not a "system error". Migrants did not return home because they had failed to achieve a certain standard of living, but often because they were participating in pre-arranged strategies of home community development that expected them to migrate, remit and return. Repeat and return migrants figure prominently in the development of all three hubs. Their behavior should be seen as a transformation of the existing system dynamic that has its origins in one part of the system (home community), but was clearly felt in multiple points throughout the system.
Second, by placing the analysis of migration and migrant decision making within this systemic model, linkages between micro-level studies of locally-based strategies can be linked to trans-oceanic outcomes. Again remittance and return migration tendencies serve as the strongest example. Taken individually or compared in pairs, remittance and return rates for Southeastern Chinese, Italian, Irish, Polish, Austro-Hungarian and Eastern U.S. immigrants in San Francisco are used as evidence of ethnically-specific migratory tendencies. But when this data is integrated into a century long analysis of migrant institutions in San Francisco, the collective tendency of these statistics to show a marked increase by the late 1880s suggests that this behavior is in fact an large-scale (aggregate) phenomenon particular to the system itself.
