Deborah Hernandez

5/24/2017
History 401
U.S Paper
Prof. Hamilton

The United States in the World

United States historical perspectives of the past regarding immigration and the economy

have subsequently varied over the decades to account for the U.S position in the world for a

much more broader history. According to Allan Taylor, historian during the sixties and seventies

focused on social history, interpreting history through questions of justification, moral and

ethical perspectives for the analysis of slavery, womens wages, and the building of american

infrastructure. Taylor argues, the important role of american capitalism in relation to the building

of the nation. In the eighties, historians and economist engaged their disciplines and found

patterns of analysis in racism and the way the evolution of a the labor market. The Historians

found racial and ethnic tensions helped to foster a selective labor market in the United states for

racial and ethnic minorities, and women. The institution of slavery in the south offers an example

of a national political debate based on economic growth resulting in one of the most defining

events in our nation's history, the Civil War. Indeed, Taylor argues, United States history is not

complete without embedding a capitalistic perspective. According to Ian Tyrrell, the U.S

economy in the south, grew based upon a European market for cotton between 1789 and 1860,

during which time the world economy was fuelled by the Atlantic slave trade and cheap labor.

During the nineteenth century the U.S economy, thrived in the world market driving

foreign and domestic investors interests in United States infrastructure. Improvements in

communication and transportation as a result of investors developed cross-cultural relations and

United States prestige. The development of the Erie Canal is an example of foreign investment
linking the United State to the global market. As Tyrrel explains, these internal forces

contributing to the United States economy during the nineteenth century established a place for

the U.S in the world while also developing the economy within the United states itself. The

development of the canal also offered farmers in the isolated Great Lakes region, who had no

way to selling their products in the open market, a connection.

The structure of a capitalistic society is clearly embedded in our United States history

much like immigration. Due to the influx of people who arrived in the United States during the

eighteenth and nineteenth century by voluntary or involuntary means, the United States was able

to fill the need for cheap labor. Immigrants quickly filled these positions through the building

Americas infrastructure like railroads and the Erie Canal. Adam Rothman, raises questions

between structure vs. agency as contributing factors of the United States economy during the

civil war and reconstruction era. Rothman distinguishes between historical forces and human

agency, arguing a web of both and the importance of analyzing beyond categorization and

borders. Erez Manela, describes the transnational turn historians took in their analysis of U.S

foreign policy around ninteenninty during which time, historians began to reach beyond the

nation's borders to gain new historical perspectives. Rothman, like Jerry Bentley believes using

frameworks like cross cultural connections, imperialism, colonialism, disease, conquest, and

human interaction with the natural environment provide historical analysis outside the scope,

connecting the world together.

Developing frameworks of analysis provides a broader scope of historical analysis based

on cultural contacts, exchanges, and migration. According Jerry Bentley, Tyrrell and historians

alike, using frameworks help to move away from Eurocentrism as well as, beyond the nation

states. Incorporating temporal, spatial and thematic frameworks in the classroom to analyze the
Antebellum Era, The Civil War, and reconstruction, in the United States, for example, will place

the U.S in a global context for students. Students will be able to identify the role the United

States played in the world and the internal and external forces that shaped U.S history thus far.

The world economy developed over time as a result of cross cultural connections,

migration (voluntary and involuntary), and factors that include human agency and interactions

with the environment. Historians like Tyrrell and Adam Rothman take analyse the major themes

linking the United States and the globe. Capitalism and immigration have shaped not only United

States internally but have linked the United States with the world. However, critically as

important to Americas history is the analysis of the much larger context in which the agents of

history serve as as a form frameworks of analysis.