Resources: The U.S. and Imperialism, 1898-1914
Videos:
Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War Website from the 1999 PBS documentary with interviews, a timeline and other useful material
Savage acts, American Social History Productions, Inc., 1995.
Memories of a forgotten war - New York, N.Y. : Third World Newsreel, [2001]
Websites and Document Collections:
Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures
American Memory, Library of Congress.
This site features 68 motion pictures of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Revolution produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company between 1898 and 1901. These films include footage of troops, ships, notable figures, and parades shot in the U.S., Cuba, and the Philippines, in addition to reenactments of battles and related events. A Special Presentation puts the motion pictures in chronological order; brief essays provide a historical context for their filming. This site is indexed by subject and searchable by keyword, and includes a link to resources and documents pertaining to the war in the Library’s Hispanic Division.
Web Materials for Philippines Annexation Debate: This is an excellent learnnig unit from the indispensible website History Matters - The US Survey Course on the Web
The Era of William McKinley an excellent collection of websites about the McKinley Presidency
The Spanish American (and Cuban and Philippine) War New York Public Library On-line Exhibition
Anti-imperialism in the United States Jim Zwick's mutifaceted and excellent site, including many documents
Documents Relating to U.S. Foreign Policy, 1898-1918 A huge collection of documents you can choose from for classroom debates, document analysis, etc.
Documents:
William Howard Taft, Dollar Diplomacy, 1912, U.S., Department of State, Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, 1912, pp. vii-xxvii
Key articles and books:
Cyrus Veeser, A World Safe for Capitalism: Dollar Diplomacy and America's Rise to Global Power (Columbia, 2002)
Louis Perez, The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography (UNC, 1998)
Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood : How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (Yale 2000)
Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890-1945 (Hill and Wang, 1982)
Paul Kramer, "Race-Making and Colonial Violence in the U.S. Empire: The Philippine-American War as Race War," Diplomatic History, Apr2006, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p169-210.
Frank Ninkovich, The United States and Imperialism (Blackwell, 2001).
Thomas Schoonover, Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization (Kentucky, 2003).
Schmitz, David, Thank God They're on Our Side: The United States and Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1921-1965, Chapel Hill, 1999.
Using Sources: political cartoons
Foreign relations historians use a variety of sources, from declassified documents to media coverage to popular books to music. Part of our job is to figure out how to effectively utilize a variety of sources to advance particular arguments. Look at the cartoons below. Try and answer the following questions:
1. What is the subject of the cartoon?
2. What is its intent?
3. How does it help us understand debates taking place at the time about America's possible emergence as an imperial power?
Scanned from The Verdict 21 August 1899
THE WAY WE GET THE WAR NEWS
The Manila Correspondent and the McKinley CensorshipThe Verdict July 24, 1899 - A Study - Imperialism
The Verdict July 3, 1899 The Second Issue: The Advance of Imperialism
Scanned from Fifty Great Cartoons (Chicago: The Ram's Horn Press, 1899) unpaginated This cartoon is part of the collections of the Cartoon and Graphic Arts Library of Ohio State University.
Caption from cartoon: The Light of the World
It is claimed by many observers that a two-horse wagon has never gone where the Bible did not go first. It is certainly a significant fact that international commerce has everywhere followed in the wake of the gospel. The intrepid missionary invaded the wilds of China, India, Madagascar and the islands of the southern sea long before the trading ships of the merchants dared to enter their ports. Everywhere the foul and ravenous beasts of tyranny, ignorance and superstition have retired at the introduction of the glorious light of the cross. Christianity has blazed the pathway and civilization has followed. Now the rainbow arch of the gospel spans the continents and seas, from Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strands, and we seem to hear the glad should of ten million ransomed souls who sing with the ancient Psalmist, "The entrance of thy word giveth Eight."
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Isaiah 4:2
