Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s book, Millennium, is a world history that reevaluates the relative importance of events, people and trends that are traditionally emphasized in the past thousand years. Perhaps the most unique and effective technique that Armesto utilizes is the broad and detached focus that he employs through his galactic museum-keepers. These imaginary beings allow Armesto to transcend the temptations of deterministic or teleological language. They also lay the foundation for a critical re-evaluation of the past thousand years on a neutral basis without regard for traditional grand-narratives or widely believed edifices like the hegemony of Western Civilization. The relative importance of events are easily re-conceptualized and re-evaluated with the galactic museum-keepers, kind of scary and omnipresent in my imagination, in Armesto’s back pocket. Armesto is like a master magician pulling a white bunny out of his hat whenever the audience needs to be reminded of the narrative focus.

The beauty of the book however, is Armesto’s ability to simultaneously persuade readers to take a birds-eye view of the world from high in the sky while seamlessly enticing readers to dive down through the clouds and “[picture] the past in significant details rather than bold strokes.” It is the unity of the two approaches that allows readers to see both the diverse differences between different locales over time but also make significant interconnections throughout the text. Armesto contends that anybody can create different patterns and interconnections in the past but “my criteria are of convenience, not of value.” His statement makes sense alongside his anti-determinist tact and his outlook of the past thousand years as shifts of initiative amongst different civilizations. Armesto broadly tracks the shift of initiative over time by their association with the different seas: from the China Sea and Mediterranean to the Atlantic and finally the Pacific.

Although the shifts of initiative seem similar to the story Arrighi tells in The Long Twentieth Century with hegemonic regions of capitalist initiative, Armesto explains these shifts not as patterns, laws or economic structural change. Each shit of initiative and story is understood in its own context and in its own way. However, there is a common thread that binds the shifts together, “the relative performance of rival cultures depends on the self-perceptions and mutual perceptions of the peoples concerned.” Empires are often undermined by talking themselves into decline. The “course of history is influenced less by events as they happen than by the constructions-often fanciful, often false-which people put on them.

Whereas Chris Harman in his book, A People’s History of the World, mostly talks about groups of people, Armesto shows the importance of individuals in shaping history. That said, Millenium is not a typical “great-man history” because it is not just highlighting various Europeans but shedding light on largely unknown individuals who are largely non-European. This is exemplified in the very beginning of the book in chapter 1 by the focus on Lady Murasaki Shikibu and her novel The Tale of Genji. Armesto uses Shikibu’s to show how the Japanese secular elite society were characterized by sensuality, peace and delicacy of feeling around the beginning of the eleventh century. Armesto contrasts Japanese elite culture with Christendom during the same time (around year 1000) where noble hoodlums and aristocratic thuggery had to be checked by the church. The Japanese culture is then compared with others around the same time, including Islamic Civilization, in order to dispel the notion of Japanese isolationism excluding their use as an example. Thus, Armesto expertly grabs the reader’s attention right from the start and lays the foundation and pattern that the rest of the book follows. Armesto also expertly uses cultural and societal specificities to compare and contrast differences between people of different groups across space and time. Harman on the other hand tended to follow a singular theme of mass exploitation throughout history and often failed to give texture to the varying existing conditions that groups encountered across the globe. The groups he addresses often come off as caricatures.

Another difference between the two authors is how Harman’s polemic almost seeps through the text to leave a stain that blots every page. An explicit polemic argument is not necessarily harmful in a history text but it does change the tone of the book and in many ways makes it harder to convince readers. This is because the general reading public, for which both books were published, desire answers and objective truths. They are accustomed to receiving knowledge on a daily basis that is supposedly, “Fair and Balanced,” or “Balanced News You Can Count On.” Thus, readers who are not true believers in whatever polemic being espoused are likely to be suspicious when confronting a book like Harman’s with a clear theoretical argument emblazoned on the cover. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is able to hide his political beliefs throughout the text until the epilogue when he consciously chooses to espouse his beliefs in predicting the future.

Armesto’s command of the narrative is intoxicating at time but its structure might be disconcerting to non-academic readers. Armesto’s choice of unusual stories instead of traditional ones can be quite jarring and possibly incomprehensible to readers without a basic grasp of traditional world history. Armesto pulls up the anchor for the book and takes readers across the oceans to visit strange and previously unknown locales. While seductively enthralling, readers without a solid background in historical knowledge are apt to be confused by not seeing familiar shores and identifiable stories. Armesto is revising history in a different way than Harman. Harman’s voyage visits all the big and traditional historical locales. Readers find comfort gazing out from the Harman’s boat because they know the scenery. Harman attempts to shock them out of their malaise by giving them socialist colored shades to view the scenery and stories anew. Armesto never needs any shades because he takes readers to far off locales that make his argument by their mere presence and scenery that illustrates the use of impressionistic evidence to prove Armesto’s argument that Western world hegemony was not inevitable or nearly as enduring as many think.

Armesto is able to take readers to foreign cultures not only though his excellent control of the narrative but with visual representations as well. This is not the first book this semester that has utilized visual aides to complement the narrative. Mike Davis’ book, Late Victorian Holocausts, also used pictures to show the exploitation of native people by the British. In fact, Mike Davis’ use of pictures is similar to Armesto’s because both authors use the visuals as more than simple illustrations of the text. The use of pictures in both texts is central to the arguments being made. Mike Davis uses grisly photos of native famine victims as accusations against British colonial rule. Similarly, Armesto uses the pictures as impressionistic evidence. A great example is when Armesto uses photos of John Brown and Thomas Jefferson’s houses to illustrate the conflicting character of American aristocracy. As Armesto says, “The point could best be proved by textual analysis but is best illustrated by a look at Thomas Jefferson’s strange country house.” Furthermore, each picture or photo has an accompanying caption that is incredibly detailed and often offers even more analysis than the text. In fact, in many sections it is possible to “read” the text solely through the illustrations and the accompanying captions. The narrative and visual aids allow readers to abscond and see, taste, smell and hear the events and locales visited in Millennium. Getting lost at sea on Armesto’s boat is truly a once in a lifetime experience and one where a three-hour tour just isn’t long enough.

The Terrible Crime of Jaywalking

Felipe Fernandez- Armesto has the GREATEST accent ever. I watched the video and I don't really remember what he said because I was too enthralled by his accent. If I was at a conference listening to him I would need more than a fork to stop me from laughing I'll tell you that much.



I don't know, the accent loses something in spanish.

Africa is Way Hard!

This might be one of the best clips from the show.

1. The kid is really good. Africa is definitely the hardest continent to tackle and it seems like the names of some countries change every other day.

2. He has the choice of going anywhere and he chooses Arizona! As a native Arizonan he will forever have my admiration. If it was a trip in the summer he has my pity.

Chris Harman Speaks!

Video seems like it is pretty new and from a year ago. Interesting to hear what he has to say about contemporary issues after reading his book!

The People's Choice?

Chris Harman’s book, A People’s History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium, is a world history intended for public consumption. While that seems like an awkward introduction, keeping the intended audience in mind is essential in order to appreciate the merits of the book. Harman uses Marxist theory to craft a history of the world from below. Harman makes sure to avoid the sometimes overly narrow and isolated focus of history from the bottom approaches by making important interconnections between events, trends and people.
The political underpinnings and intent of the book are overtly addressed throughout the text. The title of his book proudly proclaims his socialist allegiance of A People’s History while the narrative often focuses on the continual process of exploitation of the masses by those who control the means and modes of production. Harman uses the past to tell, “about the sequence of events that led to the lives we lead today…understanding it is the key to finding out if and how we can further change the world in which we live.” Harman’s statement in itself is not that revolutionary or contradictory to the texts that many historians produce. Most historians research topics that they think are important. In fact, a basic question that should be addressed before tackling a project is, “why is this important?” In fact, constructing a world history with a contemporary goal in mind is exactly what global historian Bruce Mazlich advocates. Mazlich defines global history as an approach with a clear political agenda and resulting policy implications in mind.
Harman’s narrative is incredibly effective not only throughout the main part of the book detailing historical events but in the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction brings up many historiographical issues that are relayed with amazing ease for a general reading public to read and understand. For instance, Harman subtly defends his polemic argument and call to contemporary action in the introduction when he brings up issues of usable history. This argument echoes Jeremy Black’s assertion that nation states desire a cohesive national myth that presents a useable history easily comprehensible and accessible by its citizens. By brining up ideas of useable history and historical authority Harman is able to convince readers from the start that the met-narratives that they know are perhaps not totally true or the product of the ruling class. This ensures that his arguments are not dismissed out of hand early in the text and in addition the idea of learning new historical facts that contradict allegedly fabricated useable history is an effective hook.
Another interesting point that Harman brings up in the introduction is that, “‘Human nature’ as we know it today is a product of our history, not its cause.” This is an essential argument in Harman’s book and helps intrigue and captivate readers from the very beginning in Part I: The Rise of Class Societies. Harman follows through on his assertion throughout the narrative by illustrating the lack of societies based on “competition, inequality and oppression,” in the past and how these traits were gradually developed through political, social and commercial structures that allowed ruling elites to control the means of production.
Harman’s explicit use of Marxist social theory throughout his text does not exclude the book from belonging with other academic world histories. According to Alun Munslow, Chris Harman seemingly fits quite well into the second historical epistemology as a constructionist. “The constructionist…opts for a self-consciously social-scientific and theory laden style that practitioners believe produces the most likely meaning of the past. ... [finding] the underling structural character of historical change.” As a constructionist, Harman utilizes Marxist theory to reveal to readers, “the general pattern that has led to the present. It was Karl Marx who provided an insight into this general pattern.” The constructionist nature of Harman’s book makes it appealing as a public history in contrast to a deconstructionist interpretation. This is because it offers a definitive past and not a qualified and sometimes complex historical rendering typical of deconstructionist history. The major pitfall in crafting a constructionist history for the public is the use of theoretical arguments. However, Harman does an admirable job not overindulging in Marxist theory and instead hinting at socialist arguments through his historical examples throughout the narrative. In fact, Harman demonstrates that a constructionist approach with an effective narrative is most likely the best approach for writing a popular history. Whereas a reconstructionist approach satisfies readers with definitive answers, it does not necessarily provoke interest because the lack of a prominent argument, implicit in a constructionist approach.
In many ways Chris Harman’s book was a nice complement to the ideas and evidence put forth by Mike Davis and Giovanni Arrighi. For instance, Harman echoes Mike Davis’ argument about the real causes of widespread famines when he criticizes ruling class exploitation and its devastating implications, “At that point it only required a slight change in climate for people to starve and society to shake to its core.” Chris Harman’s assertion rings true after reading about the colonial exploitation of the British in India, China and Brasil in Mike Davis’ book. Davis’ argument that the western imperial powers in the nineteenth century were responsible for the creation of the “third world,” resonates with Harman’s assertion of a pattern of exploitation by the ruling classes over the masses. Davis focuses on the British and their colonial exploitations but Harman takes the idea of exploitation and ambitiously maps its history from the beginning of humankind to the present. Harman thus extends Davis’ argument to other parts of the world and across time to see similar exploitation practiced by other civilizations. For instance, Harman uses Africa to demonstrate British ruling class exploitation with slavery. The slave trade provided immense wealth to involved ruling elites while undermining African societies and helping create militaristic African regimes that still dominate the continent to this day.
Harman also complements Arrighi’s book, The Long Twentieth Century, quite well. An important part of Harman’s book is a Marxist critique of capitalism as the latest structure in which the ruling class exploits the masses. Unlike Arrighi’s broad perspective, Harman looks at the market interactions that illustrate human exploitation due to capitalism. Harman also uses his search for historical patterns to reveal the part revolutions and the masses behind them played in the formation of market-based economies, “Like the Dutch, English and American revolutions before it, the French Revolution had cut away the great obstacles inherited from the past to a fully market based society.” The most interesting connection between Arrighi and Harman is their conclusions about the future of capitalism. Arrighi is uncertain if any individual state might be able to construct a more complex and bigger foundation for a future systemic cycle of accumulation or if a conglomerate of multi-national organizations or some type of world government might be the ultimate successors to the US cycle of accumulation. Harman on the other hand also suggests the collapse of capitalism but more along the lines of a Marxist interpretation with an organized rising of the masses. The conclusions reveal the purpose of each book. While Arrighi’s text is a cautionary tale about the future of US global economic hegemony and capitalism in large, Harman’s is a call to action against the continuing pattern of exploitation that has continually afflicted human history.
Harman’s book falls short as a scholarly world history in several ways but not necessarily because of Harman’s call to action. Many of these are technical and understandable, like the lack of footnotes, due to the intended audience and nature of the text. Others are a little worrying like the use of dated sources and small factual missteps interspersed in the narrative. That said, the narrative flow of the history is exemplary and the un-academic medium allows Harman to express opinions that simultaneously differentiates his book from academic scholarship while also appealing to a general public audience. For instance when Harman characterizes the Crusaders as, “a bunch of robbers gathered under the direction of religious fanatics,” he is making overly simplistic characterizations that might offend historians but which enliven and paint vivid pictures and understandings for readers.
The one world history that we have read this year that seemingly straddles the line between public world history and academic scholarship is Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis. Davis also writes with a powerful polemic in mind but differs in its delivery. While Harman often conveys his views in the text, Davis does so through powerful evidence. Davis’ evidence is conveyed through stories, statistics and perhaps most importantly, pictures. The fact that the pictures are, “intended as accusations not illustrations,” does not diminish their impact.
While perhaps not up to Mike Davis’ standards in terms of satisfying historians’ demands, Harman’s work should be appreciated immensely for delivering to its intended audience. The ten printings is evidence that the widespread reading public enjoys good narrative. More importantly, while historians often produce works that create more questions than they answer, Harman’s book satiates readers with clear-cut answers. Also important, Harman does not overly complicate an early dichotomy that he establishes between the poor masses and the rich controllers of the means of production. By conveying an easily understood hero and villain construct throughout the text, and ultimately history, Harman persuades readers to take up the cause of the historically downtrodden masses and help realize their heroic triumph.

Continuing the Carmen Sandiego & Beatles Marriage

The Rockapellas are awesome

Money, Money, Money!

Giovanni Arrighi’s book, The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times, is an economic world history that focuses on capitalism as a cycle of accumulation. Arrighi looks at the last six hundred years or so and breaks down the establishment of capitalism into different phases of systemic cycles of accumulation. Each cycle is characterized by a hegemonic entity that rises to prominence and becomes the center of the capitalistic world economy for commerce and capital consumption. Arrighi conceptualizes the cycles of accumulation as a realization of “Marx’s general formula of capital (MCM’) [which] can therefore be interpreted as depicting not just the logic of individual capitalist investments, but also a recurrent pattern of historical capitalism as world system.” Arrighi credits “Braudel’s notion of financial expansions as closing phases of major capitalist developments” as an effective way to break up and recognize the rise and ebb of different systemic cycles of accumulation and their hegemonic leaders. The first capitalist hegemon is the Genoese in the fifteenth century followed by the Dutch, British and finally United States.
Each systemic cycle of accumulation takes place on a wider and enlarged scale. The rise of a new economic hegemonic world power necessarily entails a certain degree of restructuring and change in the capitalistic system but also maintains certain elements of the past. Arrighi points out this trend of going forward and backwards throughout the narrative when talking about each new cycle of accumulation. In addition, going backwards does not necessarily mean keeping an aspect of the past cycle but sometimes resurrecting aspects from systems farther in the past.
An important aspect of Arrighi’s book is its teleological nature. Arrighi admits as much at the very beginning of the book in his preface, “this book began almost fifteen years ago as a study of the world economic crisis of the 1970s. The crisis was conceptualized as the third and concluding moment of a single historical process…of the US system of capital accumulation on a world scale.” Arrighi gives further insight into contemporary economics and the United States’ place as world economic hegemon by looking to the past. Arrighi admits that “the only purpose of reconstructing the financial expansions of earlier centuries has been to deepen our understanding of the current financial expansion.”
As you can see, Arrighi’s book, although incredibly fascinating, is quite complex. Thus, how could you hope to teach its concepts and ideas to a class of undergraduate students? Thankfully, Arrighi’s teleological historical approach gives us an opening. In general, students are much more receptive to learning concepts and ideas that have a direct and obvious relevance to their own lives. Therefore, we can use Arrighi to understand our country’s place in the world economy and its role as world hegemon. Further, the country’s current financial crises can be evaluated from a historical standpoint. By analyzing the current crises certain terms and ideas, like signal and terminal crises, can be understood more clearly. The fact that Arrighi ends the book with more questions than answers, regarding the latest, and possibly last, systemic cycle of accumulation is an ideal jumping off point for discussion and rare personalization of historical processes and concepts.
However, other than simply reiterating Arrighi’s point that past cycle of accumulation have led to the United States’ current status as world economic hegemon, how can we further interest and engage students with the rest of Arrighi’s book and past cycles? An activity that seems ideally suited for teaching The Long Twentieth Century is the historical simulation. With complex subjects and ideas simulations can help build student understanding. Although students will need to have read Arrighi or at least excerpts in order to productively participate in a simulation, “the purpose of the activity is to enhance their understanding of a specific historical situation, so it is actually a good thing if they have not yet mastered the ideas or perspectives under discussion.”
The benefits of historical simulations are well documented. Other than providing an appreciated break from the bombardment of texts that typify undergraduate history classes, they encourage enthusiasm, focus attention and “provide a sense of power and competence that too often is lacking in adolescents’ daily lives.” Simulations encourage active participation instead of passive reception of historical concepts while allowing students to understand the past from the perspective of those who lived through the experiences. Interestingly, a historical simulation of the Genoese, Dutch or British cycle of accumulation could actually increase the importance of those past cycles in a teleological text. By simulating these past cycles of accumulation the class can supersede Arrighi’s modest role for them, to explain the current US cycle of accumulation, and show students that the past is not a “pale anticipation of the present, but a full-blooded reality as vivid and bright as the present.”
Each simulation also provides an ample opportunity to contrast Arrighi with different texts that can supplement their understanding. Arrighi’s book has a very broad perspective that allows readers to understand the large systems and structures at play with the rise and fall of different cycles of accumulation. However, due to this distant focus people rarely appear in the book and the human consequences of capitalistic exploitation and surplus accumulation are not addressed. These stories and events are obviously just as vital for a holistic understanding of world history. Thus, books like Mike Davis’ Late Victorian Holocausts, which document the horrors of British surplus exploitation as world economic hegemon, would be a great companion text to a historical simulation of the British led systemic cycle of accumulation. The reading of supplementary texts will only aid the simulations and deepen the “moral complexities of struggles over ideology and power,” while also gaining a deeper understanding for “the ambiguities of real historical decisions.”
Ideally, an upper level undergraduate class of around 30 students could run simulations concerning each systemic cycle of accumulation and have another class period to discuss their findings. However, time constraints obviously factor in and one simulation focusing on either the Genoese, Dutch or British cycles of accumulation should be sufficient. The US cycle of accumulation can be simulated but will be different than the rest because of the uncertain conclusion and termination crises phase. However, that can make the US cycle the most interesting because the teacher can really let student spontaneity flourish with no historical precedent to abide.
Contemporary articles can assist teaching the last section of Arrighi’s book about the current US dominated cycle of accumulation. For instance, Forbes magazine recently released an article detailing the financial losses that billionaires all over the world have suffered. They included a map that showed the percentage of billionaires lost by country but most interestingly, show the number of billionaires by country. Not surprisingly, especially after reading Arrigi, the United States still has 359 billionaires. No other country comes close. Here we get an incredibly powerful visual aid that supplements Arrighi’s text and in many ways validates his conclusions. The maps also bring up interesting questions concerning the possibility of China being the next world economic hegemon or if any nation-state is the most likely successor to the US. By looking at the map, China’s number of billionaires, 28 but another 19 in Hong Kong, suggest that they are still a decent distance away from eclipsing United States individual wealth and perhaps a conglomerate of multi-national organizations or some type of world government might be the ultimate successors to the US cycle of accumulation. No individual state might be able to construct a more complex and bigger foundation for a future cycle of accumulation.
Another example is a recent New York Times article points out connections between job desirability and the economy. With financial industries in trouble many college undergraduates are switching their majors from business and instead are looking forward to careers in public service or teaching. While potential job prospects obviously play a part in this trend an underlying factor is the associated prestige and feeling of worth associated in choices or a future profession. It is through articles like these that students can tighten the broad focus of Arrighi’s book and look how these large systemic cycles of accumulation impact the lives of people on the ground and most importantly, their own.

More Like Where In The Heck Did You Think This Up?

Mr. Potato Head + Carmen Sandiego + Beatles = ?

Famine Movie!

Inspired by Mike Davis' Late Victorian Holocausts.

We don't cheat you on this blog. No sir. Please enjoy a homemade movie for free! No refunds for lost time if you are not a fan. Call my publicist.

Dexter's Transcript

Resident Robot Historian: Dexter (#012322)
Human User: __________ (ID #________)
Document Type: Transcription
Document Number: #0011
Date of Knowledge Transfer: April 1, 2009
Topics Accessed: El Nino, droughts and famines, Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis and Mike Davis’ agenda in relation to early 20th century.

Transcript:
Dexter: Hello inquiring mind. My name is Dexter. I am your local robot historian. What is your name?
Dexter: Thank you. What historical topic may I help you discover today?
Dexter: Thank you. You have selected El Nino. El Nino is a term that generally describes “the warm phase of El Nino Southern Oscillation” with sometimes catastrophic ecological impacts. El Ninos have been linked to several large scale and devastating global droughts around the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The three successive global subsistence crises were exploited by European, Japanese and American imperial empires in order to gain new colonies, acquire indigenous communal land, and gain cheap sources of labor. The large scale droughts had a devastating human toll that was probably no less than thirty million. An important book about the reasons behind the great famines and subsequent loss of life is Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis. Would you like to know more about Mike Davis and his book?
Dexter: You have said yes. Please be aware that many of Mike Davis’ views are controversial and contain emotional, graphic and possibly disturbing content. In Mike Davis’ book, Late Victorian Holocausts, the author calls the previously mentioned famines the secret history of the nineteenth century. Davis contradicts previous economic histories of the period that classified regions like the Indian Deccan, China, and northeast Brazil as “lands of famine.” Instead, Davis argues that these regions were rather prosperous and self-sufficient before being forcibly integrated into the world market economy and the so-called golden age of Liberal Capitalism.
Dexter: Integration into the world economic system caused cultural degeneration and the widespread disruption of indigenous institutions. Land and labor were turned into commodities and millions of people died when communities were unable to support the exploitative policies. Davis argues that absolute scarcity was never the problem. Rather, new commodity markets, price speculation and imperial exploitation led to the famines. Peasants starved because the very grain they needed and helped produce was too expensive for them to purchase and was instead exported for profit. In addition, exploitative agricultural practices often contributed to ecological degradation which exacerbated hardship when drought struck. The exploitative imperial actions and policies of the British combined to create a social vulnerability to possible climatic events and thus, Davis concludes that famines are social crises “that represent the failures of particular economic and political systems.”
Dexter: An important thing to understand about Mike Davis is his strong conviction that the western imperial powers in the nineteenth century were responsible for the creation of the “third world.” Davis singles out this period of forced imperial integration as the point when, “humanity had been irrevocably divided.” He argues that the mass deaths from the famines in the late nineteenth century were policy choices and thus it is “necessary to pin names and faces to the human agents of such catastrophes.” Davis powerfully illustrates his view of the famines deaths as being systematically orchestrated by his use of the word holocaust. Also included in his book are numerous illustrations of famine victims that “are thus intended as accusations not illustrations.”
Dexter: As evidenced by Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis writes history with a very clear and powerful political polemic in mind. This form of history fits nicely with Bruce Mazlish’s definition of global history where a clear political agenda is essential and has policy implications in a world experiencing globalization.
Dexter: What would you like to do now?
Dexter: You have chosen to seek connections between Mike Davis’ work and current events or trends. Is this correct?
Dexter: Indian children are still dying in large numbers because of malnutrition and starvation. The deaths are described as a “national shame” by their Prime Minister in an otherwise “proud democracy.” If we believe Mike Davis, we can trace the cause of India’s continued suffering to the late nineteenth century and its forced integration into the world economy. Prior to English imperialism Indian society prevented widespread famine through various local institutions and cultural obligations. However, British imperialism destroyed these reciprocal institutions and customs and replaced them with extractive policies and economic structures that have left a legacy of exploitation and starvation in their wake.
Dexter: This legacy is still being felt in India even though India is no longer under direct British rule. Amartya Sen, an Indian Nobel prize economist, says “hunger [is] not enough of a political priority here.” Despite being free of British imperialism, India is still prisoner to western capitalism and global market demands. A possible historical connection is the fact Britain exploited India through very few actual British officials in the country. Instead, the British exploited the masses by imposing new economic and social structures that, willingly or unwillingly, caused other Indians to practice exploitative capitalistic actions.
Dexter: The destruction of systems of mutual obligation and a moral economy are still resonating in India and other third world countries. Many in India blame child hunger on a corrupt and uncaring bureaucracy. In China, as prosperity increases by adopting a more market driven economy, so does health care concerns. This trend shares some similarities to the destruction of traditional institutions of reciprocal well-being and moral economy in China was undermined by the British. The British prospered at Chinese expense. In fact, the suffering of the rural poor and the reinstitution of water conservancy were major issues that the Communist Party seized upon when they rose to power. However, any progress in terms of re-instituting systems of mutual obligation is again under fire and in need of renegotiation with China’s increasing presence in the global market economy.
Dexter: Next, we go to Chile. The small Chilean town of Quillagua is an example of communities suffering from the commoditization of resources. Buying and selling water rights are pervasive in Chile and are not considered public resources. Chile’s water rights trading system was hailed by economists as a model of free-market efficiency when it was established in nineteen-eighty-one. However, it was led to speculation and control by large private industrial entities. These entities are profit driven, like the British in Davis’ account, and are not bound by cultural or societal standards to prevent suffering. Like the case studies in Davis’ book, Chilean peasants are victim to the loss of communal resources and monoculture. The water is essential for Chile’s cash crops whose profits will benefit the large companies who own the water rights, not the peasants who are suffering from a lack of water. Like Davis says, “the entitlement to water thus openly became a relation of inequality and a means of exploitation.”
Dexter: The last connection I can provide you right now to Mike Davis and his book comes from Ukraine. In the early 1930’s millions of Ukrainians died from famine. Only recently has this secret history come out. Like the famines in India, Brazil and China, the one in the Ukraine can also be deemed a holocaust. In fact, a Ukrainian historian named Stanislav Kulchytsky, was ordered by his Soviet superiors to depict the famine as an unavoidable natural disaster and absolve the Communist Party of any involvement. The historian refused and his actions have allowed the truth to come forth. Like Davis and his assessment of the late Victorian famines, Kulchytsky found evidence that showed the famines were man-made. “The famine is known in Ukrainian as the Holodomor – literally, death or killing by starvation.” Whereas Davis uses the word holocaust to describe the famines in his book, the Ukrainian term lends an added dimension of empathy because of its culturally specific nature and ownership. In fact, the event is playing a significant role in the country’s ongoing quest to shape a national identity. Like the events depicted in Davis’ book, Kulchytsky says the stories of starvation, cannibalism and suffering from the famine are hard to read. However, he says it is important for the country to be reminded of its past. Ukraine’s president agrees and has even tried to make denying it a crime. Ukraine has erected a memorial for the victims of the famine even as Russia, including many Russian historians, continue to deny any wrongdoing. Even if a memorial seems insignificant in light of the death of millions, it is an essential step to acknowledging the many previously secret histories that Davis calls the “missing pages” of history.
Dexter: Unfortunately, your time has expired. If you would like to buy more knowledge please purchase more credit. It is a global economic recession you know. Even robots have to eat.


Photos:
Nasa El Nino Image:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/images/content/67131main_ninoWebM.jpg
El Nino Map:
http://www.sbg.ac.at/ipk/avstudio/pierofun/atmo/el-scans/el-nino1.jpg
Mike Davis Book Cover:
http://server40136.uk2net.com/~wpower/images/product_images/9781859843826.jpg
Mike Davis Photo:
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/graphics/images/davis.jpg
India Map:
http://www.geocities.com/tour_map/tour_map/india_map.jpg
China Map:
http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/countries_map/map-picture/china_pol96.jpg
Brasil Map:
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/south-america/brazil/images/brazil-map.jpg
Brazil Slum:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/brazil-estrutural-slum.jpg
Indian Starving Kids:
http://www.fathom.com/course/10701057/139_famine.jpg
Indian Famine:
http://www.doublestandards.org/photos/family.jpg
Kipling Illustration of British Self Image:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fathom.com/course/10701057/139_famine.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fathom.com/course/10701057/session3.html&usg=__z4bDh0Xs0xshoBZ-0ruiqs2kpfo=&h=217&w=296&sz=28&hl=en&start=52&sig2=PIpSTGI3pSE4Y6pw6EblrQ&um=1&tbnid=1affJ3-tF6hjhM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmike%2Bdavis%2Bholocausts%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS305%26sa%3DN%26start%3D36%26um%3D1&ei=HkDTSaT8L5PWlQefs_yjBQ
Ukraine Famine:
http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Ukraine_Famine.jpg
Chinese Famine Relief 1:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=e7623fa929c225bb&q=famine%20relief%20china&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfamine%2Brelief%2Bchina%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS305%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1
Chinese Famine Relief 2:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?q=famine+relief+china&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfamine%2Brelief%2Bchina%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1G1GGLQ_ENUS305%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1&imgurl=045b35b73f8cf6f4
Ukraine Stalin Coverup Political Cartoon:
http://media.hoover.org/images/digest-2008-01-ellman.jpg
Holodomor Monument:
http://www.ukemonde.com/holodomor/monuments/holodomorsvichky
Ukraine Famine Memory:
http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photo_StoryLevel/071125/071125_ukraineFamine_vlg4p.widec.jpg
Ukraine Starving Children:
http://blog.kievukraine.info/uploaded_images/5955-790945.jpg
India Malnutrition Photos:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/asia/13malnutrition.html
Chilean Water Photos:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/world/americas/15chile.html
Ukrainian City Memorial Photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/world/europe/16kiev.html

Rappin' geography clues?!

I was going to say Jeopardy ain't got nothing on this but then...



Ah Alex, wasted youth indeed. Classic.

The World & The Wild West!

Philip D. Curtin’s book, The World and the West, looks at the past two hundred years and reveals how various cultures across the globe respond to western threats and influences. Curtin acknowledges western dominance during the Industrial Age but does not put Europeans at the center of his narratives. Instead, he illuminates various cases from across the globe of different people and cultures responding to the western threat. These case studies are compared in order to illuminate the various factors at play in different locals and how history is far from a predictable social science. The desires and intentions of western imperial powers are constantly subverted and undermined by the people being conquered or even their own men “on the spot.”
In part three of, The World and the West, Philip Curtin deals with conversion or “culture change by intent.” Whereas cultural transformation often occurs accidentally simply because of close contact between different people from varied walks of life, culture change by intent “can take place on the initiative of the cultural borrowers as well as that of cultural transmitters.” Thus, Curtin avoids a Eurocentric narrative by viewing culture change from the perspective of both the conqueror and conquered.
In many ways, Curtin’s understanding of conversion as a two-way street melds perfectly with Richard White’s study of Anglo and Indian interaction from 1650 to 1815. In his book, The Middle Ground, Richard White attacks previous understandings and histories of Indian-white relations where stories of white domination and stubborn native resistance dominate the discourse. White calls his approach “new Indian History” because Indians are the primary historical actors in his narrative and it “seeks to understand the reasons for their actions.” Instead of viewing Indian culture as resisting or being absorbed by whites, The Middle Ground brings to life the complexity of cultural negotiation and the new identities, meanings and relations that are forged from intercultural contact. The book’s large temporal expanse covers various periods of white-Indian relations where the two cultures overlap, in different ways, and then break down and polarize.
White’s book focuses on North America and the region the French called the pays d’en haut. This area around the Great Lakes is where boundaries between whites and Indians blur and ultimately merge to create the book’s namesake, the middle ground. Not only ascribing a great deal of agency to Indians, White’s idea of the middle ground implicitly concerns Indian-white relations because they are inextricably linked in the pays d’en haut. As the boundaries merge and melt away, the practices of the middle ground were not entirely French or Indian. Both groups come to rely on the other for survival. The change in culture is the result of both sides trying to impose their own expectations in the new shared context. Most importantly, the middle ground depends on neither side being able to gain dominance through force and coercion. This necessitates other means of gaining consent. This includes each side gaining cultural legitimacy in terms of the other and also using the other’s cultural forms. White’s book is a clear assertion that Indians deserve a central place in colonial and early US history because they helped create the world in which we, as Americans, live.
Curtin also argues that culture change on the initiative of the borrowers is in fact more common than any western cultural imposition. Non-westerners were “not, however, so much interested in imitating Western culture as they were anxious to participate in the benefits of high productivity and high consumption.” American Indian culture seems to provide a complex case when analyzing the merits of Curtis’ thesis. While it is true most Indians did not desire to adopt Western culture wholesale, it is debatable whether they were eager to participate in the benefits of high productivity and consumption. Native American hunting and gathering tribes lived subsistence lifestyles necessitated by their highly mobile nature. These tribes were subject to Liebig’s Law that a biological population is limited by the minimum resources at the scarcest time of year. They were not able to store grain in the summer for the winter and thus were kept to low population densities. However, the low ecological strain on the surrounding environment enabled the tribe to enjoy continued abundance on a yearly basis. Therefore, high productivity and consumption are concepts that seem to be incompatible to mobile Indian cultures. Even sedentary Indian cultures did not have individual property rights. Instead, Indians like the Delaware, recognized usufruct rights over the land and the idea of the village through individual sachems. You owned what you made but only as long as it was useful. The names given to geographic locales emphasize the cultural idea of land use and property because they all illustrate the possible uses of the land and not ownership.
However, Indians did participate enthusiastically in trading with Anglos. The Spanish, French, English and later American trading posts were popular destinations for many groups of Indians and even sources of contestation among various tribes in order to secure private access to traders. However, Indians did not necessarily cherish the western goods for their intended utility. Instead, many trade goods gained from the Anglos were desired for symbolic reasons and prestige. Even early muskets brought by European traders were probably admired more for their symbolic nature than any militaristic admiration. Early muskets were incredibly inaccurate, unreliable and slow to reload. In contrast, a proficient Indian warrior with a bow and arrow could do much more damage in a skirmish. Eventually Indians did become largely dependent on European trade goods but it was most likely because of an underlying and continual degradation of their former way of life rather than an impetus to borrow western techniques and tools to participate in high productivity and consumption. For instance, hunting and gathering groups were eventually forced to adopt sedentary lifestyles because of Anglo encroachment on their territory. This newfound reliance on agriculture to provide sustenance meant the need for surplus accumulation in the summer in order to survive the winter. Farming tools were traded from Anglo trading posts along with other items that became indispensible to Indians. These included Anglo style clothing, blankets and, most insidiously, alcohol. The degree that Indians became dependant on Anglo trade goods is illustrated by the impetus to regain independence in the nativist movements of Pontiac and Tecumseh.
Indian women played an interesting role with the approach and increasing importance of western trade. According to Michael Lansing’s article, “Plains Indian Women and Interracial Marriage in the Upper Missouri Trade, 1804-1868,” many Indian women actively married white traders in order to understand the culturally alien others. Additional benefits of marrying the western traders included allying the women’s family and kin with a possible outside source of power and participating as mediators, informants and cultural transmitters. Their mediation often allowed Indian tribes to demystify and humanize whites. Their role is similar to the one played by missionaries in the Neo-Inca resistance where the Indian resistance used the missionaries as a source of information about western outsiders. Therefore, the Indian women of the Upper Missouri were practicing a variety of defensive modernization by gathering important information about the culture and intentions of western traders and their places of origin. Women became the ultimate source of knowledge about the outsiders because through marriage they were able to live with them and have daily contact. Indian men, on the other hand, only had intermittent access with Anglo traders when goods were exchanged. Some women used their knowledge and newfound roles as political and cultural mediators to further their own status and undercut former traditional kinship bonds. “In fact, the lives of most Native women involved in the Upper Missouri trade were changed by its accompanying dynamics to the point where they themselves acted as agents of change…and inadvertently contributed to the breakdown of Native traditions.” The role of Indian women in the transformation of Plains society is incredibly similar to the role that many young and western-educated men played when they returned to their home countries. These men were often sent overseas to learn western militaristic techniques but in the process were exposed to and came to admire other aspects of their western experience. These men often became sources of cultural transformation once they returned home, like the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire. However, unlike cases of successful defensive modernization through western-educated youths, like Thailand, Michael Lansing suggests that the Indian women on the Upper Missouri instead contributed to the collapse and destruction of Plains culture and society. However, while acknowledging their role in the destruction of traditional structures of Plains Indian life, they were instrumental in creating a multicultural culture and society forged on the middle ground. Perhaps a big difference between the defensive modernization of places like Turkey and Thailand from North American Indian tribes was the lack of spatial distance from an imminent western threat. American Indian tribes were unable to internalize the knowledge and incorporate western borrowing before they were forcibly overwhelmed and displaced.
One trade good that some Indians did embrace and utilize was the horse. In fact, the horse became so important to some tribes that their use allowed the expansion of secondary empires. The Cherokee Indians were able to organize a vast trading network in the west and dominate their sedentary Apache rivals thanks to horses. This is a prime example of what Curtin calls cross-cultural borrowing, “when members of one society take over a desirable feature of an alien society, the innovation is pulled out of its original cultural context and fitted into a new one.” In his article, “The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” Richard White details the vast secondary empire that the Sioux were able to acquire through their mastery of the horse and plains warfare. As White says, “The history of the northern and central American Great Plains in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is far more complicated than the tragic retreat of the Indians in the face of an inexorable white advance.” Instead, other plains tribes often saw a greater threat from the menacing Sioux than the Americans. Therefore, the actions of various plains tribes and their alliances with the Americans against the Sioux must be evaluated from their point of view instead of castigating them as “foolish dupes.” This perspective helps clarify the actions of various Indian tribes when confronted by westerners and why pan-Indian resistance movements did not rise to counter the Anglo presence.
As Curtin says, Europe’s “technological lead was one source of Europe’s ability to conquer and establish its overseas empires.” However, the technological superiority in the subjugation of the Indians in North America is often overstated. Disease played an extremely important role in reducing demographic resistance and allowing European forces to gain footholds throughout the continent. Alfred Crosby points out that the lack of contact with any diseases from the Old World would have made any number of them deadly. These virgin-soil epidemics not only have a high mortality rate, their widespread infection rate limits the number of possible caretakers and they cause widespread cultural and subsistence disturbances. Those who survive the disease epidemic might soon die from starvation.
Curtin’s ideas about conversion and the impetus to borrow from the perspective of the conquered and or threatened have great implications and unexplored possibilities in American Indian history. The fact that English and American expansion west was driven by anxious settlers and traders and not the military illustrates the initial unintended desire for conquering territory. This is not unique to North America as Curtin reveals in several case studies from around the world. Until Andrew Jackson, the United States definitely did not desire any Indian wars in the west. The government was young and poor and the military was weak and inexperienced. Peace with Indians was preferred but the actions of settlers and military men on the spot often dragged the US military into battle. Lastly, Curtin also raises many questions about when or if American Indians truly desired the high productivity and consumption that were the most visible vestiges of western culture. It does not seem like most Indians borrowed from western culture for defensive modernization although Michael Lansing’s study of women on the Upper Missouri does problematize that understanding. There is little evidence to suggest that Indian tribes reorganized their political or social hierarchies to modernize their military, or more basically, their ability to defend themselves. Some did embrace horses and eventually most adopted firearms but the social and political organization of tribes were basically unchanged. As Curtin says, “weapons alone were not always enough…other borrowing from the West, to create an effective government administration, for example, was probably more important.” Through a comparative look at other non-European cultures the failure of American Indians to effectively curtail conquest comes into greater focus. However, just as the picture gets clearer, other parts are still hazy. Where does the middle ground between the Indians and the whites come into play? This largely depends on the reasons for acquiring European goods. Were they merely symbolic and if so, does that lessen their importance as a culturally adopted material? What is certain is the beneficial nature of using comparative case studies to approach and understand similar issues that confronted hundreds of different non-western cultures during the last two centuries.

Greatest Game Show Ever?

Any gumshoes up for a history department Carmen Sandiego game show competition? lol

Stephanie Coontz Has A Great Agent!

Wow, the host of this program almost put me to sleep...wait, its happening...zzzzz

What's Love Got To Do With It?

Stephanie Coontz’s book, Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage, is an extremely impressive historical survey of marriage from the beginnings of human existence to the present. I am sure Stephanie Coontz will be delighted upon hearing of my praise but if not, she will probably sleep easy knowing an amazing who's who of literary critics, including the almighty Oprah, absolutely adore her work.
So why is that big deal? Why should Coontz’s widespread public success boggle the mind and cause deep reseeded pangs of jealousy and disbelief? Well, because she is, or at least trained as, an academic historian! Academic historians aren’t allowed to write historical books that the public likes and enjoys. If they do, it must be filled with fluff and sugar-coated analysis wrapped with a pink ribbon on top, right?
Well, yes and no. While Coontz does include copious amounts of primary source material, including hundreds of diaries, her narrative is more linear, clear, and easily understandable and thus, often much more enjoyable to read than a traditional historical monograph.
Perhaps the most important aspect of her text that makes it appealing to the general public is the strong sense of historical causality and providing answers to how marriage has progressed to its current state. Historiographicaly, this is the most interesting aspect of Coontz’s text. In fact, it is at the crux of the academic vs. public history dilemma that any historian must face if they desire a wider reading audience than several fellow professors and perhaps an imprisoned reading audience of unfortunate undergraduates or blindly obedient graduate students. As Ludmilla Jordanova says, “one pertinent historiographical fashion is the loss of confidence in causal explanations, in our ability to give clear answers to ‘why’ questions, which has taken place in the last 40 years.” Jordanova attributes this trend to an expanding breadth and thus complexity of historical topics, the specter of reductionalism, and the unreliability, or unknown quality, of many sources. All of these critiques of historical causality are very important and well founded but incredibly unappealing to a general reading public. An average Joe or Jane reader does not want to be cautioned continuously that there are constantly multiple economic, cultural, social and political factors at play that help shape trends, events and outcomes of the past.
The general public reader wants clean, clear and easily understandable answers. Not open ended queries. A lot of that has to do with their expectations when approaching a popular history. They are reading a non-fiction history for knowledge. They want to learn something. In this case, the acquisition of interesting facts is paramount to simple idle amusement. If they wanted to be idly entertained they would read a fiction novel and I doubt that many would go into any popular book found at Borders wanting a rigorous intellectual prodding. Thus, in order to deliver easily understandable information Coontz carefully tightropes between providing straight-forward causal explanations while interspersing brief sections, usually at the end of chapters, that problematize the evolution of marriage as a economic and politically driven enterprise to one that was revolutionized by love. She often lays out a very clear casual relationship that relates the evolution of marriage during a particular era but then proceeds to complicate the progression subtly throughout the chapter by introducing various factors that play different roles in the dynamic understanding and application of marriage. She often introduces these contrasting factors coyly through various interesting stories. Through these stories she entertains readers while simultaneously introducing various factors that complicate any simple and singular answer that might appear attainable to the general reader. In essence, she really is not doing anything that different than a typical historical monograph. Perhaps the greatest difference is that she includes more stories that she uses to introduce the various factors that contribute to her subject’s change over time. Thus, the stories are not only appealing but insightful.
The fact that she includes so many stories and uses them to advance her narrative is a great way to approach a public history. Stories entertain and if used effectively, can be highly informative as well. The general reading public, and perhaps secretly many graduate students as well, does not want to read through pages upon pages of detailed analysis and theory. However, critical analysis and even theory are very effective and interesting if interspersed throughout the text and allowed to lurk in the background of the text.
Along with the public demand for answers is a desire for the objective truth. As Jeremy Black says, “the possibility of objectivity is assumed in popular history.” However, that is impossible because of the linguistic constraints of sources, historians and readers alike. Black says historians thus focus on producing empirically grounded scholarship that satisfies the desired objectivity but then presents an account of the past that does not mesh with modern popular concerns, “nor the presentist habit of seeing the past like the present and the related pressure for a new public history that wears its heart clearly on its sleeve.” Coontz answers all of Black’s cautions in her text and thus is able to dazzle a broad reading audience. She is able to present a seemingly objective account of marriage’s evolution through time while subtly interlacing various influences and factors throughout the text along with very short cautions at certain points pointing out the subjectivity of her sources, like diary entries or marriage manuals, or the inability to truly know the feelings of women or men in the far distant past. She makes her topic relevant by citing the popular modern concern with a so-called marriage crisis and is able to dispel presentist readings of her stories and analysis by consistently reminding readers that people in the past had different mindsets. For example, “And for most of human history, successful marriages have not been happy in our way.” Coontz addresses the pressure for a popular history to wear its heart on its sleeve by attacking the popular myth of the marriage institution in crises and also placing herself in the narrative in the introduction and conclusion. This method is highly effective and gives the reader an interesting insight into the public stake background that the author has with the subject. By personalizing the book, Coontz makes the text an overtly personal argument that resonates well with a general reading audience and complements her public persona as a family life expert.
Before last semester when I began my studies as a graduate student in history I naively believed historians were the men and women responsible for shaping public historical consciousness. It didn’t even occur to me to check if the authors of books at Costco on the Civil War and President Lincoln were historians. Of course they were. Historians write histories, baseball players play baseball, and singers try to sing. Well, historians do write histories but unfortunately often for a very small audience that comprises other historians, and even then, probably only those in the same field. One of my fellow graduate students recently remarked about the prospect of writing for such a small audience, “if that the case, what is the point?” Similar sentiments echo quite often amongst my peers but perhaps that is nothing new. That said, academic historians can write about Abe Lincoln in an appealing and discreetly cited manner too. The journalists and non-fiction writers who get their books in Borders and Costco are not literary gods crafting stories and narratives unachievable by historians. In fact, the narratives they craft and the stories they tell are, if based on responsible research and primary sources, also available for historians to use.
It is not as if we are competing against fiction writers writing about intergalactic imperialism or dwarves and fairies. Although, taking Hayden White to heart, the boundary between historical writing and fiction is blurry at best. In fact, being good historians well versed in our historiography and post-modernist literature should give us a critical edge over the public history writers that are stealing our fame and fortunes. Any recreation of the past is a construction of our mind no matter how well cited and grounded in primary source material. Depending on the time covered, nobody alive can completely know exactly what occurred or know with absolute certainty who, what in the where and how. And thus, freedom!
If Stephanie Coontz can pull it off, other historians can too. Her book is crafted a little differently than a traditional historical monograph but mostly in superficial and organizational ways that do not greatly detract from the book’s thesis or relevance. She still relies greatly on primary sources, tells stories, provides quantifiable data and analyzes change over time. She even includes a surprisingly long number of pages at the end for her endnotes which must be for her fellow historians because I doubt Oprah quickly scanned them to seek a deeper analysis of an issue or what source was used (she probably would if she had spare time but Oprah is a busy woman I imagine!). Coontz has achieved what seems logical to probably everyone but historians, she has written for the public. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of her book is how un-revolutionary it is. Her book is not terribly different than a historical monograph. A good start is a conscious effort to streamline historical monographs and provide more answers than open ended questions. It is long overdue that we recapture the historical reading public from other writers because if we do not write it, they will…wait a minute, they already have…well, better late than never!

Buscar Carmen SanDiego!

En Espanol! Es fantastico!



I don't know for sure what language this is...Hebrew?



The best one...a multi-lingual version! Brilliant!

Twentieth-Century Sexuality: A History by Angus McLaren

Angus McLaren’s book, Twentieth-Century Sexuality: A History, confronts the numerous moral panics that confronted sexuality and society in the 20th century and how cautionary tales were used by the powerful against marginal members of society to watch, silence and discipline. Sexuality was constantly made and remade by social and economic pressures that determined what types of sexualities were threatening to the general welfare of the state and what was normal and abnormal. McLaren accomplishes his survey of sexuality in the 20th century by taking different temporal epochs and comparing the stories told about the normal and morally abnormal across various regions in the western world. While not really a world history because he only deals with the western world (US, Canada, Germany, France, and England), his approach is comparative and he draws numerous trans-regional connections while also tracing changes in the sexual discourse promoted through time and its manifestations in public behavior and outlook.
After reading this book I felt more bewildered and ignorant about what sex and sexuality entails and what exactly is ‘normal.’ Moreover, is an idea of ‘normal’ sexuality needed, morally justifiable or even viable? Perhaps due to my nurturing in an accepting and liberal environment that includes a non-religious family and liberal friends, I always subscribed to Alfred C. Kinsey’s idea of “ ‘what is, is right’ ” and the liberal believe that, “Whatever [does] not impact others should be allowed.” However, I admit to being woefully undereducated when it comes to knowledge of the abnormal and the people that the 20th century public and medical professionals called deviants and perverts. Thus, while engrossed in the text and the struggle over sexual identities, I constantly wanted to know how the thought of prior epochs differed from modern views. McLaren does progress chronologically to address modern views and concerns but by that time it was difficult to remember the exact treatments and evolution of each sexual identity from the beginnings of the 20th century. Perhaps this is a unique critique because of my self-professed ignorance of various forms of sexuality. In any case, it would have been much easier and understandable if instead of a chapter by chapter survey of each temporal epoch, McLaren selected a couple different sexual identities or themes as chapters and then traced their chronological progression and change with regards to discourse based on the relationship between ideology and behavior through time. However, this approach also has significant drawbacks. Using this methodological approach would seemingly cut out much of the multiple contingent and outside socio-economic pressures that had a profound impact on the discourse promoted during the various eras.
In McLaren’s conclusion he asks the most simple of questions but one that is still necessary to contemplate, “What of the future?” McLaren is keen to hint at the undeniable presence that the internet has in the present and the foreseeable future. However, since McLaren wrote this book around 10 years ago (1999), the impact of the internet is vastly understated. He points out the obvious exploitation of the World Wide Web by entities ranging from pornographers to infertility clinics and also early dating services. However, beyond exploitation, the internet has also enabled people who embrace alternative ‘non-normal’ lifestyles and sexualities the ability to find virtual homes and communities amongst others who share similar interests and lifestyles. While many people practicing ‘unnatural’ forms of sexuality are still denied acceptance by mainstream society, online they can easily express their sexual identity without fear of reprisal or judgment. Of course there are exceptions and qualifications, but for the most part the internet has allowed private sexual desires a public (albeit virtual) expression. In many ways, the internet has interesting consequences. The ability of people to freely express their true sexual identities online might lessen the impetus for them to assert it in the public physical sphere. Instead, the internet provides a semi-public valve of sexual identity release in which they are free to explore their sexuality with others in similar situations.
In Alfred C. Kinsey’s 1948 study on male sexuality he suggested that a relaxation of the persecution of homosexuals might lead many to not choose the ‘alternative’ lifestyle. This hypothesis was based on findings that claimed 4% of men were homosexual while 45% had experienced some kind of male companionship at one time or another during climax. The large percentage of men that had some kind homosexual experience led Kinsey to conclude that many of America’s most well-adjusted men had some kind of homosexual experience in their past. However, only a small percentage of these men chose exclusively homosexual lifestyles. Therefore, his suggestion that lessening alienation and persecution of sexual ‘deviants’ might lead to an increase in men who choose to eventually embrace a ‘normal’ lifestyle has interesting connections to the 21st century and the breakneck advance of the internet-age. Has the ability to freely express private sexual desires online allowed men a release valve and thus the ability to simultaneously co-exist normally in public society? Or, instead, does the internet foster alternative sexual identifications by bringing together communities of like-minded individuals who can then find strength to extend their expressions of sexualities from the virtual and into the physical worlds? Most likely there is no clear cut answer that can reflect the impact of the internet on sexuality. For instance, whereas homosexuals still publically face incredible amounts of homophobia and discrimination, their public existence is undeniable. Homosexual celebrities have public positions in society and homosexual characters are now commonplace on television, in movies and in print. In contrast, transgender individuals are much less publicly visible, accepted or understood. Their need for online camaraderie is thus more likely to be of greater import.
The transgender community is a group that probably has a significant online presence for support and camaraderie because of continued persecution and societal non-acceptance. However, even their stories are slowly reaching mainstream media outlets. For instance, the local Arizona Daily Star recently published two related stories in the Sunday and Monday editions (front page no less) that deals with transgender military veterans and their battle for treatment, acceptance, and veteran benefits. The author, Carol Ann Alaimo refers to transgender vets as a “hidden population” and one that lives in “stealth mode” in order to avoid persecution. In a great connection to McLaren’s text, Alaimo references research that suggests that there may be a higher prevalence of transgender individuals in the military than in society in general. Many transgender male individuals sought military service as a means to become a man and deny their effeminate feelings. This echoes the continuing discourse of the 20th century for men to embrace a manly virility in the face of socio-economic pressures like the division of labor, the rise of white collar work and women in the professional workplace. These discourses were perhaps most powerfully and publicly articulated by the pre-world war II Weimar German, Facist Italy and Nazi Germany regimes. However, much like World War I, service in the military and the war actually served to blur gender lines and exposed soldiers to abnormal sexualities and sexual practices.
Transgender self-identity in the military is necessarily suppressed because they aren’t allowed to serve if discovered. The military considers them as having a “ ‘learning, psychiatric and behavioral disorder.’” However, in Canada and the United Kingdom the military welcomes transgender individuals and even pays for their sex-change surgeries. Thus, even as McLaren tells us the western world is becoming very similar in regards to many policies and discourses concerning sexuality, many differences still persist. The medical discourse concerning transgender individuals has changed in the recent past and now the American Medical Association (AMA) considers gender identity disorder as a serious medical condition that requires medical treatment. This has conflicted with the National Department of Veteran Affairs who now does not perform or pay for transsexual surgeries. The AMA said that the denying coverage to transgender individuals is a form of gender discrimination. Another issue is the lack of education that even medical professionals have with transgender issues and patients. This issue is not only restricted to the military however with many colleges, law firms and corporations not providing full coverage for transgender issues. Some argue that being transgender is a choice but Dr. Jennifer Vanderleest here at the University of Arizona puts it well when she replies that this is just a way for the perpetuation of discriminatory practices. The causes of transgender feelings or identity is not yet known but it seems like those individuals are embarking on a similar journey by those embracing other persecuted sexual identities against moral stories and a continuing societal belief in a ‘normal’ sexuality.

Carmen Sandiego!

If I had the technical wherewithal you would be serenaded by the Carmen Sandiego theme song as soon as you opened the blog....but that would probably decrease my reader average from 1.5 people to like 1.