Between 1898 and 1939, hundreds of U.S. graduate students studied how to reinforce U.S. empire. With topics like expanding coconut industrialization in the Philippines or killing sugar-cane pests in Puerto Rico, graduates helped extend U.S. power. This would make a fire study.
Makes me think of the work of @darkfinance, because I remember seeing a MA thesis (1902?) on financing infrastructure in Puerto Rico or Cuba in one of Michael Adas's books. Many business school students studied U.S. territories & Latin America for careers and gains in finance.
Makes me think of Megan Raby's work, because I bet dozens of biologists, entomologists, botanists, etc. got degrees with data acquired in "jungle laboratories" in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Panama. Medical doctors also studied tropical diseases in these military laboratories.
Makes me think of @stschrader1's work bc much military knowledge came from creating policing systems in Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba, & the DR. Some were theses. Many methods learned were then reintroduced in the United States and other parts of the Americas in the 1930s and 1940s.
Thinking of psychologist Walter S. Dill. After helping the Army study men for military positions in WWI, Dill became the presidents of APA (1919) & @NorthwesternU (1920), where he set up the first industrial psychology department to study personnel selection for war & workforce.
Some examples:
Anna Lois Rohrig: MA thesis in history, "The economic interests of the United States in Cuba as a cause of the Spanish-American War" (USC, 1923).
Lester Martin Frink: MS in education, "Educational trends in Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies" (USC, 1939).
More examples:
Camilo S. Serrano: MA in economics, "Economic significance of the Tydings-McDuffie Act to the Philippines" (USC, 1937)
Allen Thomas Price: PhD in history: "The establishment of American Control in the Island of Haiti" (UChicago, 1922)
Education and imperialism at home:
Jesús Espolon Perpinan: PhD in Child Welfare, "The Philippine Islands in American School Textbooks: An Analysis of Social Science Studies" (Iowa, 1933).
Sadye Gredis: MS in education, "The socialization of the Spanish course" (USC, 1938).
On Imperialism:
Virginia Dunn, PhD political science, "A Study in American Imperialism" (Fordam, 1926)
E. A. Mendosa, MA history, "The imperialism of the United States in the Caribbean as illustrated by Santo Domingo, 1901-1932" (USC, 1933).
Virigina's opening to Ch 1:
I see you, Iowa History Dept:
Everett Thornton, PhD history, "The Emergence of a New American Colonial Policy, 1898-1902, (Iowa, 1933).
Brynjolf Hovde, PhD history, "Studies in the Attitude of the French Socialists Toward Imperialism, 1893-1914," (Iowa, 1924).
You can follow @RogueChieftan.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: