Eser

Starting from the early nineteenth century, revolutions appeared almost in every sphere. For many American and French revolutionaries, these are direct influences of the late eighteenth-century revolutions we see. In this work, Robert directly analyzes the reactions of American revolutionaries to the nineteenth-century Hungarian and Italian Revolutions. In certain pages, we see mentions of Greek and Haitian cases; however, most of the work revolves around Lajos Kossuth and Italian revolutionaries.

One of the main claims of the book is that in the nineteenth century, a great portion of American citizens did not openly celebrate foreign revolutions. The author directly connects this to the post-Napoleonic diplomatic mode of thought and Americans' perception of foreign entanglements. Especially, the fear of violent insurrections (as the book emphasizes, Jacobinism) becomes very prevalent in mid-nineteenth-century American society. However, as the nineteenth century progresses, the issue of slavery within the United States is addressed in other revolutionary writings. This is something we see openly in the chapters on Kossuth and how the perception of Kossuth's travels across America changed throughout the nineteenth century. I cannot agree with Roberts' initial claim about the American society's reaction to foreign revolutions. Especially for the Greek and Italian cases, many abolitionists seem to be very eager to aid foreign revolutionaries. However, I would agree that in the nineteenth century, there was a great disparity between public and governmental perceptions over foreign policy and the position of the United States as a political player.

Although I disagree with some of the points Roberts makes in this work, it still manages to analyze intricacies between public vs. governmental perceptions in the nineteenth century. Additionally, it showcases how Southerner and Northerner intellectuals perceive nineteenth-century revolutions.

In this work, Prof. Reynolds aims to tackle the discussion surrounding the mid-19th-century abolitionist movement and the violence it carries in certain cases. One of the primary ideas modern 19th-century scholarship underlines is that there is a big difference between the early and mid-19th-century abolitionist outlook on the end of slavery in the United States. Earlier figures such as Elijah Lovejoy aimed to carry on their abolitionism in non-violent ways. Lovejoy's death agitated radical abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. This event impacts the pace of the abolitionist movement in the 19th century and puts immediatism at the forefront.

Reynolds additionally emphasizes the issues between Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks as the event that further enflamed the abolitionists. Reynolds underlines that the canning of Sumner on the Senate floor by Brooks becomes the moment that turned the tide for many mid-19th-century abolitionists and agitated John Brown. As the title suggests, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and the Pottawatomie massacre are the main events Reynolds analyzes in this work. He underlines that all of these events are direct responses to the Sumner-Preston affair. What I was more interested in was how other abolitionist intellectuals reacted to these events. Reynolds primarily talks about the reaction of Frederick Douglass in detail. I found how Brown's relationship with other abolitionists dwindled after the events to be a very interesting read.

It is so crazy to have a book that has every single character in it. Usually, when you have books like this, you DNF them. However, my distaste for these characters was so strong that I kept going. This is one of the reasons why it took me a very long time to finish this work. However, I prefer great endings. This is one of the reasons why I love a lot of King's works because I think he writes great endings. Tartt's story follows six Classics students and their murder of Edmund «Bunny» Corcoran.

The first half of the story is very slow. Throughout the work, we follow Richard Papen's narrative. As Richard enters the clique of the Classicist, Julian, he meets with his pupils. It is important to note that Richard was able to do this by lying about his economic status, which I found to be a very important part of his relationship with Julian and other members of the clique. However, we quickly realized that there were multiple problems within the clique. In particular, the power dynamic between Henry and other members is striking. He appears as a quasi-leader of this group and is friendly to Richard throughout the novel. This changes as Richard learns that the group murdered a Vermont farmer. Bunny was extremely stressed about this and contemplates to contact police about this. This event appears at the core of the second half of Tartt's work. Henry then manipulates the other group members into murdering Bunny.

The deaths of Bunny and Henry were a complete shock to me. I have read some reviews on how much the end of Henry resembles a Greek tragedy, and I have to say I agree with that. He probably thought that he was saving the group by sacrificing himself. However, as we see, this further distances the group, and their guilt and shame drive them mad. Overall, it is an incredibly interesting story and worth reading.

Jeremy Land in Colonial Ports, Global Trade, and the Roots of the American Revolution (1700-1776) works on three port cities (Boston, New York, and Philadelphia) and analyzes their connection to the late 18th century colonial trade. The highlight of the whole work was how merchants were constantly creating personal relationships with people who they were working with. Land especially gives an example of multi-ethnic Mediterranean merchant groups that were constantly trading with Western merchants. This is, of course, only one side of the story. Similarly, Western merchants, too, were willing to create personal ties.

While underlining these commonalities, Land emphasizes that merchants were more willing to create smaller, long-lasting ties and singles out religion as one of the common ties. One of the greatest examples Land gives on this matter was the Puritans' willingness to create personal connections with other traders.

Historically, port cities and merchants were always considered as natural expanders of any political activity. It is not a surprise that many late 18th century Revolutions (the American Revolution is a great example of this) sprout out of port cities. Because of this, the role of port cities were always on the forefront of Global and Atlantic studies. Land's work not only builds up on these ideas, but at the same time expands it by including the personal interests of merchants. This humanizes them. These kinds of data-driven works are my personal headache. I generally always criticize them for being too soulless. However, Land's mix was a very fresh read. The only grapple I had was that Land just analyzes Western trade.

Starting with the westward expansion, the famous Oregon Trail carried thousands of pioneers and traders across the western United States. As newly arrived investors sought their fortune, settlement over Native American lands and legalization of this settlement via Donation Land Claim Act displaced many Native American tribes and discriminated against people of color. The trend against people of color in Oregon Territory continued in the 1850s with the Oregon Black Exclusion Laws that established in 1849. The story of this work sprouts out of this law.

In the 1850s, Jacob Vanderpool arrives in Oregon from the West Indies. As all newcomers do, he aims to sprout out a new life for himself by establishing businesses. However, in 1851 a settler named Theophilus Magruder identifies Vanderpool as a mulatto individual and demands his removal from the state in accordance with the 1849 exclusion laws. In the trial of Theophilus Magruder v. Jacob Vanderpool, Vanderpool was found guilty and was removed from the Oregon Territory within the same year. As Sanderson underlines, Vanderpool's case known as the only legal case where a defendant was found guilty in accordance with the Oregon Black Exclusion Laws.

Sanderson's work is a mixture of historical narrative and personal drawbacks Sanderson had with the history of Oregon. Sanderson uses newspaper articles and personal correspondences to solidify her argument even further. Especially her tracking the personal correspondences between John McLoughlin, Thomas Nelson, and Ezra Fisher is an essential part of this project. However, compared to personal drawbacks, the historical aspect of this work is very short. This could be very much my personal misreading of the abstract of this work. However, I've hoped for more historical background in this work, which was sparingly placed across multiple chapters.

Sanderson's personal drawbacks regarding the state she grew up in was an interesting read. She tries to solve this personal dilemma by underlining the importance of religion for her. She was constantly underlining obvious discrepancies in some personal dialogues she had with her friends and people close to her. In this perspective, I've found this book very similar to Glad to the Brink of Fear by James Marcus, where Marcus had certain personal drawbacks regarding his life and community around him. Although both authors handle these drawbacks in different ways, their personal connections to their studies becomes the centerpiece of their work. Because of this, I found his work much more of a memoir or a work on social justice in the United States. If you are unfamiliar with the history of the westward expansion, this work wouldn't give you enough detail to understand the importance of it for all groups were affected by it.