Lawrence A. Peskin – författare

Lawrence A. Peskin argues that, in accounting for American industrialization, students of the phenomenon have focused mistakenly on large forces and theoretical constructs and on New England and the rise of factories as such. What, he asks, of the ordinary people who considered making things and building shops or small factories to meet the demand they saw? What of the groups and associations that tried to build public support for economic independence from the mother country? "Manufacturing Revolution" explores discussions originating in the Revolutionary era and the course of manufacturing itself-the many years of trial and error, risk and failure, in many places across the early republic. Peskin thus provides a detailed look at labor relations, entrepreneurship, and methods of promoting and financing manufactures. He finds that various social layers had mutual interests and influences; no particular core of business leaders, rising entrepreneurial artisans, or wage laborers alone account for the emergence of manufacturing. The work builds on solid research in both manuscript sources and printed texts from the period between 1750 and 1820.Audience: Historians of the early republic; economic historians; students of technology, business, and industry

Lawrence A. Peskin argues that, in accounting for American industrialization, students of the phenomenon have focused mistakenly on large forces and theoretical constructs and on New England and the rise of factories as such. What, he asks, of the ordinary people who considered making things and building shops or small factories to meet the demand they saw? What of the groups and associations that tried to build public support for economic independence from the mother country? "Manufacturing Revolution" explores discussions originating in the Revolutionary era and the course of manufacturing itself-the many years of trial and error, risk and failure, in many places across the early republic. Peskin thus provides a detailed look at labor relations, entrepreneurship, and methods of promoting and financing manufactures. He finds that various social layers had mutual interests and influences; no particular core of business leaders, rising entrepreneurial artisans, or wage laborers alone account for the emergence of manufacturing. The work builds on solid research in both manuscript sources and printed texts from the period between 1750 and 1820.Audience: Historians of the early republic; economic historians; students of technology, business, and industry

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the Barbary States captured and held for ransom nearly five hundred American sailors. The attacks on Americans abroad-and the government's apparent inability to control the situation-deeply scarred the public. Captives and Countrymen examines the effect of these acts on early national culture and on the new republic's conception of itself and its position in the world. Lawrence A. Peskin uses newspaper and other contemporaneous accounts-including recently unearthed letters from some of the captive Americans-to show how information about the North African piracy traveled throughout the early republic. His dramatic account reveals early concepts of national identity, party politics, and the use of military power, including the lingering impact of the Barbary Wars on the national consciousness, the effects of white slavery in North Africa on the American abolitionist movement, and the debate over founding a national navy.This first systematic study of how the United States responded to "Barbary Captivity" shows how public reaction to international events shaped America domestically and its evolving place in the world during the early nineteenth century.

For two generations after independence, Americans viewed the Mediterranean as the new commercial frontier. From common sailors to wealthy merchants, hundreds of Americans flocked to live and work there. Documenting the eventful lives of three American consuls and their families at the ports of Tangier, Livorno, and Alicante, Lawrence A. Peskin portrays the rise and fall of America's Mediterranean community from 1776 to 1840. We learn how three ordinary merchants became American consuls; how they created flourishing communities; built social and business networks; and interacted with Jews, Muslims, and Catholics. When the bubble burst during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, American communities across the Mediterranean rapidly declined, resulting in the demise of the consuls' fortunes and health. A unique look into early American diplomacy, Three Consuls provides a much-needed overview of early consular service that highlights the importance of US activities in the Mediterranean region.

While the twenty-first century may well be the age of globalization, this book demonstrates that America has actually been at the cutting edge of globalization since Columbus landed here five centuries ago. Lawrence A. Peskin and Edmund F. Wehrle explore America's evolving connections with Europe, Africa, and Asia in the three areas that historically have been the indicators of global interaction: trade and industry, diplomacy and war, and the "soft" power of ideas and culture. Framed in four chronological eras that mark phases in the long history of globalization, this book considers the impact of international events and trends on the American story as well as the influence America has exerted on world developments. Peskin and Wehrle discuss how the nature of this influence-whether economic, cultural, or military-fluctuated in each period. They demonstrate how technology and disease enabled Europeans to subjugate the New World as well as how colonial-American products transformed Europe and Africa and how post-revolutionary American ideas helped foment revolutions in Europe and elsewhere.Next, the authors explore the American rise to global economic and military superpower-and how the accumulated might of the United States alienated many people around the world and bred dissent at home. During the civil rights movement, America borrowed much from the world as it sought to address the crippling "social questions" of the day at the same time that Americans-especially African Americans-offered a global model for change as the country strove to address social, racial, and gender inequality. Lively and accessible, America and the World draws on the most recent scholarship to provide a historical introduction to one of today's vital and misunderstood issues.