American History in a Global Perspective

The Visiting Scholar Lecture given by Thomas Bender, history professor at NYU, presented to the PBK Triennial convention, Austin, TX, October 3, 2009.

Here are my notes as a member of the audience.

In her introduction of the speaker, Pauline Yu reminded the audience: Don't forget to transmit knowledge to non-specialists.

The speech

• Academic disciplines as we know them originated in German universities in the late 19th century, when the idea of the nation-state was dominant.
• Even today, subjects have strict geographical identity. e.g. "European history", "Asian economics", rather than a general approach, such as the study of (any) empires.
• Teaching of American history has had 2 schools of thought since the 1950s: "consensus" and "exceptional". This is another way to draw boundary or wall around a subject. "Area studies" usually exclude America.
• A global approach to American history is common in European schools.
• Themes such as immigration are not unique to America: e.g. when examining immigration of Italians, note that many Italians immigrated to other nations besides the US.
• Historians of the 1890s, such as Turner, Adams and DuBois, were perceptive to observe that nations are connected to others. Look at local events in wider contexts. For example, the worldwide impact of the steamship and telegraph.
• Bush's foreign policy is the result of the theory of American "exceptionalism".
• The ancient Greeks knew that oceans connected all the continents. Later, discovering America was a surprise to people of the Afro-Eurasian world. Europeans embarked on exploration, not because of superiority, but primarily to avoid the Ottoman empire when trading goods from the East. When the Chinese were exploring the world, Europe was not considered an interesting destination.
• New York from the beginning (Dutch New Amsterdam) had a population of various races. For the Dutch, Batavia was a wealthier colony. Holland did not consider NY as significant as its more lucrative tropical colonies.
• Wealth in the New World was based on African labor as well as crops like sugar and coffee. Maize, a native American plant, was brought to Europe and its success may have been responsible for improved nutrition and population increases eventually sparking the Industrial Revolution.
• China in the 15th century had 40% of the world's economy. When they began to use silver for money, this drove up demand and the Chinese were willing to pay more for silver. America had large amounts of silver, and became a commodity in high demand. (i.e. Spanish could arrange for the silver to be extracted and then sell to Chinese)
• Global aspects of the American Revolution.
  • Common theme: big powers fighting each other rather than joining forces to go after smaller fish or fight common enemy.
  • US not treated as an independent state until 1815.
  • Soon after US revolution, Latin Americans rose up as well and Spain lost its colonies.
  • British empire had used taxes in colonies to help finance their military power and success.
  • French Revolution had been caused by the King calling the Estates General in order to raise money for the state.
  • The British Tea Act was a response to a financial crisis. Virginia planters could not pay loans to Scottish banks, etc. Residents of Boston enraged because tea from the East India company was cheaper due to their lower duty.
  • The origin of American political parties is international issues. The Constitution does not mention parties. The first parties arose in response to the Jay treaty. France had lost its colony of Haiti, and had to sell Louisiana to US for cheap price.
• Civil War
  • Precursors: 1848 treaty ending the Mexican War, the Wilmot proviso, the Seneca Falls women's rights convention.
  • The Civil War was about nationalism. Lincoln communicated with Kossuth in Hungary. Lincoln adopted the idea that a nation should be bounded and homogeneous.
  • Before the war, the US was a loose confederation of states, not a nation-state. After the war, the "US" became a singular noun.
  • If you compare Lincoln's inaugural address with the Gettysburg Address, you can see that by 1863 he had adopted the word "nation" to refer to the US.
  • 1848-1870 was a time of slave emancipation around the world.
  • Nation-making is a global phenomenon. The movement toward democracy in European nations became encouraged after the US civil war (the nation did not disintegrate).
• The academic discipline of history roughly coincides with the founding of Johns Hopkins. The discipline originally stressed concepts of national citizenship, shared values, and a distinction from other nations. The shared memory is not necessarily racial. It also included shared forgetting, such as ignoring the excesses of Reconstruction, lynching, etc.
• In conclusion, the speaker expressed hope for a cosmopolitan, global citizen ideal.
  
  

Question & answer period

• Q: Was America's foreign policy in the 20th century imperialistic? Isn't it the case that anti-imperialistic theories are hypernationalistic?
  • A: The isolationist ideas (e.g. 1920s) considered a narrow definition of America, and it was sometimes had racist overtones. Racism represented the idea of the "old time" America and America's imperialism. White Man's burden was another example of American exceptionalism. (i.e. that America has a special role in the world)
• Q: Is language a barrier?
  • A: Yes. Scholars should learn foreign languages.
• Q: When did America change from "making the world safe for democracy [Wilson]" to insisting on democracy everywhere?
  • A: This was already the case with T. Roosevelt and Wilson. Around the time of the Spanish American War, there was an interest in Cuba, and how they would be able to pay their debts and trade with the US.
• Q: In seeking globalism, what are we losing?
  • A: Hopefully nothing. In the study of history, there has been an emphasis on what is happening to ordinary people, and excluded minorities. But we do run the risk of ignoring the winners of society. For example, the lives of leaders - how people succeed and rise to the top (e.g. presidental biographies). We may be neglecting economic history.
• Q: Where did America get the idea that we need to reconstruct the country we just defeated in war, rather than simply taking the spoils?
  • A: Ever since we defeated Japan and Germany, we were concerned with rebuilding their post-war industry and trade. Note that today, many foreign corporations rent significant office space in New York. So, helping our former enemies will help ourselves economically. Nationalism and protectionism inhibit or stop globalism. The term "globalism" only dates from the 80s, but its concepts had been around for decades before.