MO3351 Doing and Practicing Transnational and Global History

Maps demonstrate the connection between countries. They are also highly subjective and allow for distortion. To simply scale down the 3D globe to a 2D projection involves alterations as the map-maker must choose what scale, orientation, key etc. These choices are often linked to the purpose of the map and the intended users. Behind the map-maker, and these decisions, often lies a set of power relations, as deliberate distortions are commonly for advancing agendas.

Brian Harley, who introduced the idea of maps as a language, argues; whether a map is produced for cartographic science or propaganda, it will always be involved in power relations. But how much influence do maps hold, and to what extent do they reflect the societal attitudes of the time? In regards to colonial mapping, how much influence did the map have on the socio-cultural-political perspectives of the reader?

There is a link between maps made during periods of Colonial dominance and the agenda of a country. Specifically, these maps were used to emphasise the power of the Europeans and the differences between them and the various peoples they subordinated. World maps, from 1569, which used the mathematically defined Mercator projection, set the European metropolis in relation to it’s overseas Empire. This was because the scale used increases from the equator to the poles so that the size and shape of continents are skewed. This therefore emphasises the size of those countries further away from the equator. Initially developed for nautical purposes, it emphasised the power of a country by increasing its size. Greenland, for example, is therefore shown to be of a similar size to Africa, and to be larger than Australia, when Africa is fourteen times and Australia three times greater than Greenland.

While using the map to showcase British trade routes, the Imperial Federation Map, 1886, also projected glory within Britain and emphasised to others the global power held by the country. With the British territories in a pink-red colour, this map implied British power over places and the peoples within. Through this map, Edward Said’s idea of Orientalism and the ‘Imperial Self’ evolved, forging national identities which were constructed in opposition to outside groups, or the Other. But how much did the map reflect the British opinion of superiority or did it instil this idea within society?

The style of the map is particularly telling with Britain at the centre and the rest of the world surrounding, connected by trade routes. This is almost as symbolic as the image of Britannia draped over the globe, cradled by Atlas at the bottom of the map. Both the map itself and the images around it makes a great piece of cartographic art as well as emphasising how a map, through visual imagery and implied messages, can play a major role in political propaganda. From this map, the British ideology of bringing knowledge to the rest of the world is reflected.

During this age, colonial power and trade went hand in hand. To trade successfully across the world, it was necessary to develop ways of knowing these places, navigating between them, and controlling the populations. This was only successful through cartography, as emphasised by the Dutch East India Company, who gained a monopoly advantage in the trade of spices in the seventeenth century. For them, maps played a key role in the combination of capitalism and imperial might that the company projected, with maps showcasing the navigational dominance they held and their ability to exploit areas for commerce.

 Both the British Empire and the Dutch East India Company used maps to enhance their agendas but for different political purposes. Maps can be manipulated to illustrate the agenda of those in power. It is important to understand whether these maps influenced societal thinking about the ideals promoted by a country through the maps they commissioned.

The map is a powerful yet problematic tool as subjectivity is central to their production and understanding. Through a comparative approach, my proposal will explore the extent colonial maps were reflecting the socio-cultural and political climate or whether they influenced the reader? Colonial maps of the British empire promoted a way of life as opposed to the Dutch who viewed themselves as a trading company but do these maps send a political message or simply mirror the views of the time? Colonial maps will always promote the agenda of the country in which they were created so by comparing different colonial maps, I want to understand what influence they had on the attitudes of society. My proposal aims to explore how the colonial map acted as political propaganda to manipulate the attitudes of society to promote the philosophies of the particular country.

As one of one of America’s most iconic and national products, Budweiser beer might not initially seem like the most obvious object of focus for a transnational study. However this beer (or these beers) has a fascinating transnational journey that brings to life issues of conflicting German and Czech nationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries and how these issues connect to the large scale immigration to America of Germans and Czechs in the aftermath of the failed revolutions of 1848. This study will consider how far the issues of Czech-German rivalry survived the journey to America, and look at how in an increasingly globalised world multinational companies try to dominate a global market. By looking at the transnational history of Budweiser, and the rivalry between the original Czech Budweiser, and the American replica which has developed into one of the worlds largest beer brands today we can learn a great deal that would potentially remain inaccessible from a more national approach.

The many court cases between Anheuser-Busch (the owner of the American Budweiser) and the Budvar Budweiser originating in České Budėjovice have been bitter, continuous and increasingly global since the end of the 19th century. The reasons for this are undoubtedly partially rooted in the great successes that both companies have enjoyed in their respective home markets. However this project will try to establish whether there is a further contributor to this dispute in that the founder of the American Budweiser, Adolphus Busch was in fact German. Poor Czech-German relations were of significance in the brewing of beer in Budėjovice from long before the development of the beer in a form we would recognise today, and it seems conceivable that there is a lasting residue of resentment for a product being marketed as being of Czech quality (with Budweiser literally meaning ‘of Budweis’ in German) despite having been created by a German in St Louis, a city with a high proportion of German immigrants.

In terms of sources, this project will use a wide variety. Although some secondary material exists on the Czech brewery, I will be making use of how the beer has been advertised, the court records of the numerous disputes between the two companies and primary evidence from a trip to the brewery in České Budėjovice itself. This project has the potential to illuminate transnational connections across the world, and to highlight globalisation trends. The connections and clashes between Budvar and Budweiser have been made possible by immigration networks, developments in rail travel and the invention of pasteurisation, but have also themselves contributed to the development of new technologies. By following this transnational approach, we can approach issues of Czech and German identity from a new angle, less restricted by an area by area, national analysis of the borderlands between modern day Germany and the Czech Republic, and can achieve a greater understanding of the people who have lived in these areas.

My project will focus on three different aspects of the history of this beer. Firstly it will focus on a fairly microhistoric level upon issues specifically relating to the nationally divided city of České Budėjovice in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the setting up of a Czech brewery in opposition to the German Civic Brewery that already existed in the town, highlighting the complex nature of identities in Bohemia. It will then move on to focus on the beginnings of the American Budweiser, and in particular upon the agency of Adolphus Busch as a transnational actor who emigrated from Germany to America, after having visited České Budėjovice and its brewery. Finally I will look at the global struggle for the Budweiser name, and the many court cases between the two companies, and how these two brands maintain their identity in countries where they are not allowed to describe their beer as Budweiser. I believe that approaching the project on these scales will encourage a loyalty to transnational through moving from local to international to finally a global analysis. I have been inspired by Jan Rüger’s article to the OXO Cube and believe that although this is a project focussing on a fairly long period of time, a keen focus on the product at hand will allow for a close analysis of the transnational space in between several nations, thus illuminating the parallel histories of the nations involved.

Efficiency in the kitchen became increasingly topical in the first half of the twentieth century. The story of the AGA oven (named after the Swedish company Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator) illustrates several concerns people had for the kitchen that are still relevant today, such as time and fuel effectiveness, spatial arrangement, heating, a safe kitchen environment for children and the ideal of the ‘heart of the home’. This project takes the premise that assessing the invention and marketing of the AGA will allow for wider examination and contrasting of ideals for efficiency in the kitchen and, to an extent, how traditional values prevail and synthesise with progress. Since women traditionally spent more time in the kitchen they were also the main group affected by these changes, thus marketing was primarily directed at their needs which will also be considered.

Originally the AGA was developed to solve part of the problem of kitchen time-management. It was produced in 1922 by a Swedish inventor called Gustav Dalen for his wife Elma. He noticed that she had trouble with their old iron stove which needed constant attention to keep it at a set temperature. He therefore developed an all-in-one cooker, water heater and laundry dryer based on the principles of radiation heat that would be more efficient and save her time and effort but maintained a rather traditional design. In 1929 the right to produce and sell AGAs was also made possible in Britain, and from there AGAs were soon exported to the rest of the world.

The AGA was marketed in Sweden, Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries. Although adverts emphasised slightly different things about the AGA, many of them tried to sell the oven based on saving money and energy. However, above all its time efficiency and what this meant for women, the main target audience, was emphasised. This is also reflected in the British sales manual for AGAs written by David Ogilvy in 1935 which encourages the salesman to inform cooks of households that purchasing an AGA will give the cook an extra hour in bed and keep the kitchen “as clean as the drawing room.” Even children could be allowed to run freely in the kitchen, which would be an environment safe from burning and gas explosions with an AGA. In adverts, women were depicted as liberated from the drudgery of constantly tending to an old fashioned oven. Instead they could spend time with the children, or take walks or luxurious baths in hot water from their AGA. Moreover, when they are cooking at an AGA, it is portrayed as an easy and joyful activity.

At around the same time as the AGA was developed; there were also radically different ideas in circulation of how efficiency in the kitchen could be achieved. In Germany the Bauhaus school constructed several progressive housing estates based on modern design and functionality. An estate in Frankfurt opened in 1927 included kitchens designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, who made this room into an efficient ‘laboratory’ where shelves, drawers and worktops were conveniently placed, based on influence from literature by American housewife and author Christine Fredrick. This contrasts with the AGA, which also appealed to the emotions of the customers in the way it was marketed. This demonstrates that although efficiency was at the heart of what people wanted, it was approached in different ways. Contrasting these two cases I hope will illustrate how varying approaches to efficiency have led to very different living experiences which are both still popular today.

Efficiency is at the heart of modernity, and also at the heart of the modern kitchen. The kitchen and the way that food is prepared for the household demonstrates different ideals for approaching modern living as it emerged in the early twentieth century. The AGA is symbolic of a more emotional approach to the kitchen, instead of being classified as an efficient laboratory as propagated by the Shütte-Lihotzky kitchen. Thus this project will consider different approaches to efficiency in the kitchen and how these led to different living experiences.

European Identity and its potential and power have become extremely relevant for the contemporary issues facing the modern world. As the international community is becoming increasingly connected, is a realistic European identity prevalent if present at all in Europe? This essay looks to examine the formation and affect of a supranational identity by exploring the cultural identities of the European local sphere.

Individual European identities have been the strongest form of culture for the continent. Each level of local, regional, and national culture has a diverse and historical narrative that has shaped the nation into the entities we know today. These histories of nations have dominated historiography for the last century, as the nation-state became the center of European politics, culture and history. Europe as a whole is an impressive force, rich with a vibrant cultural past that is shared beyond these national boundaries. This commonality prompted the creation of the European Union, which has sought to strengthen its members’ efforts and abilities under a multinational banner. As the continent has become more connected in the political sphere, has its transnational connections similarly caused a larger shared cultural identity to emerge as well?

To determine this, I would like to look at the EU’s program, European Capitals of Culture. The program was initiated in 1985 and each year since a European city has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture. During a city’s celebrated year, it hosts various events emphasizing how their unique identity is a part of a larger European culture. As more than 60 cities have been involved over the past 30 years, I would like to explore how this program has encouraged and provided an environment for a European identity to form and compliment the resilient local, regional and national identities tied to these cites. I would like to narrow my analysis by taking a comparative approach. My project will focus on three cities, each belonging to a phase of the program; 1985-1995, 1995-2005, and 2005-2015. I hope to explore the shift between phases and determine whether a European identity has become increasingly present and improved through the studies of these individual cities. Thomas Risse believes the EU’s slogan of ‘Unity in Diversity’ shows that modern Europe is made of its individual narratives.[1] While the unique cultures of these cities are distinctive to them, it is possible their presence in the European sphere as capitals of European culture has contributed to a shared sense of identity that transcends national borders.

Fortunately, because this project deals with public initiatives on local and supranational levels, there are various primary sources available. While the extent of local documentation will affect the cities I chose to focus on, the EU has a large online database to provide me with my initial research. As I begin to map the different points of European cultural hubs, I would also like to utilize the GIS technology. The visual spread and connection of these culture capitals across Europe is crucial to demonstrating the findings of project.

This study seeks to go beyond the political identity the European Union has created. While European cities have strong multi-layered identities, a new identity has emerged and is connecting them transnationally. As Europe has historically been a continent with a shared past and varied commonalities, its people and future are intrinsically connected under a shared supranational European identity.

[1] Risse, Thomas, A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres (New York, 2010), pg. 7.

For my Transnational History project, I would like to focus on a specific aspect of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ activities during World War II – specifically, their interactions with prisoners of war and non-combatants in concentration camps across Europe and Asia. This will allow me to explore transnational elements in several ways. Firstly, this will give me an opportunity to examine international law in action – how well are belligerent nations allowing for ICRC inspections and visits and what this might reveal about adherence to international law – as well as a lens through which the actions of the ICRC in the war might be explored.

The ICRC had several responsibilities throughout World War II, as set out in the Geneva conventions – it was responsible for tracing refugees, assembling aid parcels to those in camps, and, crucially for this project, ensuring that belligerent parties were treating both captured soldiers and civilians in accordance with international law. Now, given what we know about the treatment of those held in internment camps during the war – the Japanese and Germans performed gruesome biological experiments on prisoners and civilians in territories it conquered, Soviet camps were had such poor conditions that fewer than 6000 German POWs were repatriated at the end of the war, and the devastating consequences of the German camp system are well known. How could such a sudden breakdown of the international system occur just twenty years after World War I, where international mechanisms were put in place to avoid a conflict on a global scale from erupting and to ensure the good treatment of captured soldiers and noncombatants. After decades of new international treaties, specifically the Geneva Conventions of 1929, which guaranteed both the authority of the ICRC as an agency able to inspect the conditions of prisoners of war and that POWs should be treated with respect? By examining the ICRC’s ability to inspect prisoner of war and concentration camps, I can examine both a difficult period in the history of a storied international organization, as well as examine adherence to international law and sovereignty. The history of international organizations such as the ICRC has the potential to include the interactions not just between state and non-state actors, such as the relationship between the ICRC and the Swiss government, as well as the relationship of national Red Cross societies with both their governments and the ICRC in how they chose to adhere to or ignore international law, but also to illuminate important transnational networks of individuals in charge of and making decisions on whether or not to intervene in these moments of international crisis.

I will look at the obstacles that the ICRC faced in accessing POW and concentration camps in Europe as well as Asia, and compare the approaches and challenges faced in both areas. While I would like to look at the larger battle theatre, I may be limited by the sources available, as my initial research has revealed more about ICRC actions in Europe. I may need to focus on either the European or of the Pacific theatre to maintain an appropriately narrow scope for a five thousand-word essay, though a comparative approach would be quite interesting. The bulk of my secondary reading will come from a report written by the ICRC in 1948 about its wartime actions. Many of the ICRC sources are written in French or English, which makes them accessible, and I will hopefully be able to access archival sources from the British Red Cross about the role it played during the war. Some secondary accounts, both in the form of scholarly articles and books about the ICRC have been published, and I may also need to extend the scope of my research to more general histories of World War II to obtain the breadth of secondary literature required for the project.

After approximately 500,000 widely varied, hardly developed ideas, none of which particularly excited, I think I have finally come up with two potential focusses for my project, which is fortunate given the impending presentation and proposal deadline. Having originally been researching the Prague Spring and immigration patterns resulting from this, I had been doing some background research on Czechoslovakia, in particular the political situation in the aftermath of the creation of the state. Here the presence of the ‘German Social Democrat Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic’ interested me: the activity of a political party specifically catering for one nationality’s interests within the borders of a separate nation state highlights how the framework of the nation state is insufficient when considering areas where national boundaries are regularly changed. Czechoslovakia was a hugely heterogenous area, and a cohesive sense of a ‘Czechoslovak national identity’ didn’t exist, with Germans outnumbering Slovaks. There were huge economic disparities between regions but this was the only one of the successor states in which democracy flourished in the interwar period. The presence of several parties in Czechoslovakia representing national interests outside of the nation itself enjoying popular support and yet the democratic system flourishing within is I believe worth further study. However from here I came across another potential avenue for my project. Looking for potential institutions and sources to start my research from, I moved from looking at the German Social Democrat Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic to the international organisation ‘Labour and Socialist International.’ This got me looking at the relations between various working class parties around Europe, in particular at comparative studies between the German Social Democrats and the British Labour Party. Much of (at least on the anglophone side) the analysis of the relation between these two has been of how much the British Labour Party has been shaped by the Social Democrats. I think there is room here to look at a potentially reciprocal relationship, or to look at the impact of international collectives of political parties and their influence on various Labour parties in the early post First World War period. Obviously there is quite a divergence here between my first and second ideas, although there may end up being some way to reconcile them. Overall my feelings are that sources will be far easier to find on my second idea due to the larger historiography that exists of  British and German political parties, and due to the language difficulty of finding sources in Czech, although I feel my first idea might be more rewarding due to its more original angle.

As I work on my project proposal for tomorrow, I am still facing fundamental issues with finding the appropriate or ideal topic. The past six weeks has given me a seemingly strong basis of Transnational History, its reach, abilities, short comings etc… and I’ve really enjoyed how refreshing and innovative the class has been especially as my time at St Andrews comes to a close.  While I am probably falsely confident in understanding the transnational approach, I am much less confident in putting it into practice.

I originally took this class because of a book I read last semester in my 20th century German Identity course, Between Yesterday and Today by Christian Bailey. The book covers the initial process and interest of European Integration from the German perspective from 1920-1950. I have studied this period of German history heavily, but never this unique element. This book prompted my new interest in European Integration and the forming/creation of the European identity. For my project this semester, I would ideally like to focus on one or multiple European cities, and how their unique mix of identities, cultures and histories have constituted them as European capitals complimenting or even superseding their regional or national identities.

As I have started to pin down more specifics of my topic, a few issues have surfaced. The topic of European Integration is and was a quite complex and multi-faceted process and finding the appropriate narrowed focus is important. I want to avoid writing a teleologically history of Europe’s transformation into what we see now. I also want to challenge myself to look beyond just western cities and find the connections that tie them to the far reaching eastern parts of the continent.

In addition, Konrad’s post on sources has raised a lot of important issues for me and my area of study. Since my time at university I have become extremely passionate about German history and culture. I look to further this interest in Grad School and/or my profession. The language barrier has already presented numerous issues for multiple modules I have taken at St Andrews, most notably in choosing my dissertation topic. Until I am fluent in the language, I am unsure of which path to take. It is extremely frustrated to be inhibited my language. Am I realistically unable to cover or even touch on the histories of places and spaces that have no textual english evidence. I know it will be a problem I will continue to face, but I am determined to find ways of overcoming my hindrance.

A challenge I have found when doing my own research is where to find sources. I began with a few books from the library and then scoured the footnotes, writing down any titles that seemed to be of relevance or made interesting points. One of which was the article ‘Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America’ by Benjamin Schmidt, that I am going to discuss within this article.

For many thinking about the history of maps, it is the British Imperial map of 1886 that is referred to, mainly because of the grandeur and power symbolised within this map. It has increasingly become the icon when addressing the subject of maps especially when studying Imperial maps and the advance of scientific cartography. This is most likely because, when at it’s peak, Britain possessed almost a third of the world’s land surface and a quarter of the world’s population. I also will not dispute the fact that I have only ever attended British educational institutes, so there is an immediate bias to my learning. However, what the article brought to my attention, was that in the early modern period and especially the 17^th Century, it was Dutch cartography that flourished. Many of the maps, globes and atlases produced in the Dutch Republic were of such high quality that they were produced in multiple languages (including Latin) and then distributed throughout Europe (554) and that British equivalents were merely imitations.

I have often found that when studying the history of maps, something that as a geographer is done less often than you might think, we skip from the 1500’s, with the introduction of longitude and latitude, briefly through the 1600’s with the evolution of the world map drawn with two hemispheres to the 1900’s and the introduction of the colonial map drawn using scientific understanding and the focus remains upon Britain mapping her colonies. Yet within the 17^th century, England had relatively little experience in engraving, printing and disseminating maps, meaning that they could not compete with the cartographic trade coming from Amsterdam. (563) This is especially important when the Dutch Republic and England were fighting over control for a section of America that ultimately became New York. Moreover, it is important to understand the importance of Dutch maps in influencing map-making within a European context and what became of the British Imperial Map.

Initially, a map of ‘New Netherland’, in America, possessed recognisable Dutch names and therefore, geography supported the idea that this territory must be within Dutch possession. Because, of the cartographic power of the Dutch Republic and the fact that the English version of the maps of ‘New England’ were inferior, many then supported the Dutch claim that this territory belonged to them. (551-63) Even the English equivalent, produced during the early years of English control (1664-1674) was based upon Dutch model’s and borrowed decorative models from the Dutch series by Jansson-Visscher.

Yet the English equivalent pales significantly in comparison to Restitutio-Allard, which appeared after the Dutch recapture of the colony in 1673. The map’s ornate cartouche coupled with the famous “Restitutio” view of New Amsterdam lavishly declares the restoration of Dutch power. With the depictions of Athena, Hermes and the Maiden of Holland, this is one of the finest examples of 17^th century cartographic art and emphasises how easily the Dutch could out-map the English. (568-70)

There are many similarities between the “Restitutio” map of 1673 and the Imperial map of 1886 that highlight the influence that Dutch cartography had within the world of map-making and global politics.

References:

Schmidt, B. (1997). Mapping an Empire: Cartographic and Colonial Rivalry in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English North America. The William and Mary Quarterly, 54(3), pp.549-578.

For this week’s blog post, I would like to give an update on my ideas for the Project with reference to Werner & Zimmermann’s article on histoire croisée (Title: ‘Beyond Comparison: Histoire Croisée and the Challenge of Reflexivity,’ available on shared Google drive). As I have come to think that transnational history is as much a ‘way of seeing’ as a methodology, it is useful to outline certain characteristics that make TH distinctive. A word of warning before we begin, however, as I am mindful of how at least some members of our class are strongly against jargon-loaded writing, because you’ll find Werner and Zimmermann’s article full of them.

W & S’ article takes us back to our focus in the first few weeks to come up with a competent definition of TH, or at least its defining features. We know that it seeks to do away with the ‘nation-state’ as the basic unit of analysis (unlike the study of international relations), we also know that it is about crossing national boundaries. Yet, how can it differentiated from ‘comparative history’ or ‘transfer studies’? What are the similarities and differences? To begin with, the three genres already mentioned belong to the family of ‘relational’ approaches. What makes histoire croisée special though, so W & S think, is its ‘focus on empirical intercrossings consubstantial with the object of study, as well as on the operations by which researchers themselves cross scales, categories and viewpoints.’ To re-state it in a less mind-boggling or convoluted way, TH is about being aware of the object of study, the position of the observer, and the relationship between the two. At least that’s how I understand it. A diagram may do a better job of conceptualising this:

A few interesting points:

1. A possible way to differentiate between comparative history and transnational history is the idea of a ‘synchronic’ and ‘diachronic’ binary (I know, right?). Simply put, a synchronic approach necessitates ‘a pause in the flow of time,’ a ‘cross-section’ perspective that makes comparing easier. Alternatively, transfer studies and TH, adopting a ‘diachronic’ approach, ‘presuppose a process that unfolds over time.’ Hence the imagery of the ‘honeycomb’ – suggesting a porous, revisable, interactive nature.

2. What is the ‘reflexivity deficit’, a fancy term W & S use (this is more interesting than directly relevant)? The initial goal of transfers study was to show that borders are permeable and undermine the homogeneity of national units. Yet all transfer studies do is to ‘underline foreign contributions’ to the development of a national culture, not call it into question. So in a sense it ‘reinforces the prejudices that they seek to undermine.’

3. In a point that made me think of Konrad’s earlier post about from idea to sources or the other way round, W & S discuss the pendulum swing between the historian and his/her sources and object of study. What is emphasised here is the idea of a ‘dynamic’ and constantly modifying relation. After all, the croisée or ‘trans’ element in TH does not only refer to the object of study. It also refers to the crossing, and changing of the ways with which historians interact with their sources, a metaphor being switching gears. Now how can this be actually put into practise is perhaps a more daunting question to answer, but the main idea is that TH demonstrates the possibility of ‘multiple possible viewpoints’, history as multi-layered, multi-perspectival rather than existing on a single plane.

With all this in mind, when I have an initial idea of a topic, I will try to build in these transnational elements. I will keep my eyes open for when a change in scale/category/viewpoint is in order, and modify my methodology as I trace some sort of a ‘process’.

For example, I was reminded of that week in MO3337 – China’s Revolutions when we discussed the spread of Maoism across the developed and developing world. I was excited to find, for instance, that two leaders of the Black Panther Party – Elaine Brown and Huey Newton – visited China during the Cultural Revolution and wrote down how they were impressed by how the revolution improved livelihoods and the ‘sensation of freedom’. I became interested to find out more about why foreign revolutionaries visited Mao’s China, what they thought about their experience there, what inspirations did they take from it…etc. Another topic that I am also exploring has to do with the year 1989 in world history, if I can find certain transnational agents, preferably non-governmental, who travelled between East Germany before and after November, Eastern Europe, Iran and China. What is interesting about 1989 is that on one hand you have people such as Francis Fukuyama who heralded the ‘end of history’ and the definitive, final triumph of western liberalism, but on the other hand you have a watershed moment in modern Chinese history, where calls for political reforms were brutally stifled by a regime that still holds power to this day.

As we near our project proposals and presentations I have begun to narrow down and also to begin to dive into some readings on the top I’ve chosen and as I have done this I have begun to cultivate a number of questions and concerns about where I am headed. But before I can share those questions and concerns with you let me explain my topic. It is no surprise to myself that what I found most interesting when deciding on a topic was the movement of people.

Throughout history people have always been on the move. Traveling from one place to another for work, social, political, and religious means was and still is common for humans to do. When, however, an individual decides to continuously move claiming no nation for their own and appointing their home to be whatever they carry with them they become more than the immigrants, emigrants or weary travelers. A nomad, a person without a set piece of land or country to call home, a person from nowhere but equally a person from everywhere does not and I believe should not be grouped as a migrant. But then how do we and how do they define themselves? And then the question becomes how do a people who don’t associate themselves with any set nation state or nationality identify themselves? And along those lines how can I have an entire project centered around a people whose entire identity defies the term being focused on, transnationalism.

The focus of my project will be to study nomadic peoples in Europe and The Middle East within the twentieth century in an effort to confront and possibly answer some of these questions. I have found significant sources on these nomadic people from historians, sociologists, anthropologists and archeologists as well as a number of texts in both English and French. This means that hopefully I will be confronted with many perspectives and ideas about these nomadic people themselves. Although while I may have a number of secondary sources I am finding it as of now difficult to obtain primary sources having realized that many of the articles already written gained their information from speaking directly to the nomadic people. I have also found thus far that the majority of articles on the nomads, specifically the Romani and  the Domani, are not written about their identity and how they fit or don’t fit into the nation state but rather about their culture and lifestyle. These are I think some of the major challenges I face when approaching this project but ones I am keen to dive into. I think this will be a rigorous but ultimately fascinating and hopefully rewarding project to take on.

The clothing worn by sailors throughout Western Europe in the late eighteenth century reflected the transnational links and divisions of the maritime world they inhabited. As boats crossed between nations, the men aboard both military and commercial vessels dressed in a particular way, reflecting the fashion of their subculture, and the practicalities of their day-to-day lives. My presentation at our MO3351 Conference will attempt to summarize my research on late eighteenth century sailors’ clothing; I look forward to hearing your opinions on this passion of mine.

-universal work garments shared by most mariners; but also regionally and nationally specific ones (eg. seamen of all nations increasingly wearing trousers; but only French sailors wearing sashes, besides specific regional costumes within both nations [eg. Provencal v. Breton v. lowland Scottish)

-general decennial trends in fashion; but also regional particularities (eg. shortening cuts of jackets and waistcoats over century, the changing shape of hats (cocked to round))

-and as always, the variances of individual means and personal taste (more or less clothing, and in better or worse states of repair, as reflected in visual sources and estate inventories)

Why is this relevant?

-clothing is what we wear everyday; it matters deeply to how we engage with people and the world (it is a reflection of “the personal, the professional, and the local”, no matter the era)

-exploring historical fashion is a meaningful way to understand larger themes in the study of history (if we understand how and why garments change, we often can draw larger points too)

-mariners’ dress reflects the work and connections of their milieu, making it both an ideal (and unexplored) case-study that no-one has yet seriously attempted to research on its own!

-sailors clothing can be reproduced and used in an education setting, or in actual Tall Ships sailing on historic replicas (why study something if you don’t attempt to get hands-on with it?)

Challenges

-knowing how to charismatically communicate an in-depth specialist topic to an audience from diverse backgrounds

-knitting together a wealth of widely dispersed documentation; sorting out folklore and anachronism

-defining what transnational perspective can bring in a period without ‘nationalism’ as we understand it (eg. Ancien Regime ‘France’ c. 1770 is not n a 19th century ‘nation’or today’s 5th Republic)

-carefully interpreting limited evidence (not confusing causation with correlation); balancing practical with social considerations (eg. why cocked hats are worn backwards by seamen)

-using ‘problematic’ sources; (eg. stock images or caricatures of mariners in commercial engravings); balancing the ‘ideal to real’ of government ordinances with actual conditions

-balancing the charisma of theatrical presentation with the rigour of academic research (in 15 minutes or less, often to an audience standing in the sun)