According to the Peoples Republic of China, fifty-six ethnic groups combine to form the Chinese nation although the Han, at over ninety percent of the population, constitute Chinas overwhelming majority. Their numbers now exceed one billion, the largest ethnic group on earth and twenty percent of the worlds population. My dissertation project, entitled Making the Majority: Defining Han Identity in Chinese Ethnology and Archaeology, challenges the putative authenticity of this official category by critically examining its creation and evolution in the modern period. In the early twentieth century anthropology became instrumental in defining the Chinese as a people and composing Chinas national narrative, or what Benedict Anderson calls the biography of the nation. While archaeologists searched for Chinese racial and cultural origins in the Yellow River valley of the Central Plain, ethnologists studied non-Han minorities in the rugged and remote frontiers. These scholars linked contemporary minorities to ethnonyms from classical texts, thus imposing on them a legacy of barbarism while Han assumed the role of ethnic Chinese, heirs of historic Chinese civilization, and the heart of the modern Chinese nation. Over the course of the past century social changes and political expediency necessitated revisions of the Han narrative, and popular conceptions evolved accordingly. Today the various Chinese political communities of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and the PRC all perceive the Han differently, reflecting their divergent visions of the Chinese nation. On the whole, examining interpretations and representations of Han identity across heuristic and spatial boundaries shows that the concept of Han is in fact fluid, evolving, and ultimately political. This study concludes that Han, like white or Caucasian in the US, represents an imagined majoritya social construct that continues to inform the negotiation of Chinese identities.

Ridgway and St. Marys, two communities dependent upon the natural resources and located in Pennsylvanias High Plateau, developed in extraordinary ways, and while both remained culturally quite different, economics and circumstances drew them together. The way in which they developed made them very different from the typical extractive towns of the era, which were often controlled by outside interests. Ridgway, organized in 1833 by Yankee Protestant lumbermen, and St. Marys, organized in 1842 by German Catholic immigrant farmers, were significantly different, but shared a common attributes. Almost immediately, both towns formed as strong, locally controlled, civilized, and independent communities, complete with extended families, religions organizations, and social institutions uncommon in the typical extractive company towns. Looking back upon their origins, it seemed as if the early settlers were intent not only upon creating permanent communities for themselves, but also establishing lasting habitats for their children and grandchildren. This unique process of development did not end with the decline of the extractive era; rather, at the end of the nineteenth century, a more remarkable development occurred. Local entrepreneurs, building upon the stable economic platform created during the mining, logging, and railroad era, led a new and remarkable transformation when they shifted from an economy based on harvesting soft coal, white pine, hemlock, and hardwood, to an economy based on manufacturing carbon and graphite productsa completely different and highly technical industry not connected to the local natural resources. This transformation, from extraction to manufacturing, came at a time when many extractive company towns, having exhausted the natural resources, vanished from the landscape. The two communities succeeded for five reasons. The natural resources made extractive development possible. Local leaders helped influence the route of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad through both communities. Ten miles of wilderness isolated the two communities and protected their ethnic and religious lifestyles. Political compatibility and strong local leadership prevented extreme political and religious differences from disrupting development. Ultimately, the unique blend of natural resources, individuals, culture, and politics created an unduplicated form of development that continued well into the late twentieth century.

This dissertation examines the role of Protestant missionaries in Americanizing Puerto Rico from 1898 into the 1930s. It contends that Americanization was a dynamic, contingent, multi-directional, and contradictory process that had unintended consequences. These included the development of insular nationalism and Puerto Ricans employment of Americanizations liberal ideology to make claims against the missionary establishment and the colonial state. Demonstrating that Protestants functioned as an advance guard for the colonial state in the areas of education and health care, it nevertheless argues that many missionaries began to question and then sharply criticized the entire civilizing project because of its harmful effects on most Puerto Ricans living and working conditions and on the islands natural environment. It also argues that, in addition to its disciplinary aspects, the missionary project had emancipatory effects, including an expansion of the public sphere in terms of content and participation and the introduction of new social and occupational roles for women. By focusing on relations between non-elite actors, this dissertation contributes to understanding how imperial relations were constructed on the ground. Though sharing fundamental goals with the colonial state, missionaries, unlike colonial officials, spoke Spanish and interacted with Puerto Ricans of all classes. Additionally, women missionaries played an active, highly visible role in this civilizing venture. This study examines missionary reform efforts and Puerto Rican responses to them, paying particular attention to the ways that missionary and local understandings of race, class, and gender shaped the outcomes of those efforts. It argues that local social and material conditions, ideologies, and practices significantly shaped missionaries methods and accomplishments or failures. Additionally, it argues the need for carefully historicizing Americanization, for those local actors and conditions were undergoing radical, precipitous changes. Using a case study, for example, it shows how local and metropolitan ideologies of white racial superiority combined to first include and later exclude Afro Puerto Rican women from nursing education. It also argues that some Puerto Ricans embraced the civilizing mission because they, too, were modernizers and advocates of pre-existing reform agendas constructed by Puerto Ricans such as Eugenia María de Hostos.

This dissertation is an intellectual biography of Jeremy Collier the younger, a controversial clergyman who was committed to an ecumenical form of religion. As a consequence of his opposition to the Glorious Revolution of 1688/9 he was imprisoned twice, for sedition and high treason, and was outlawed from 1696 until the end of his life. He wrote in a remarkable variety of genres, including political pamphlets, theological treatises, sermons, history, and critical and moral essays. A consistent theme in Colliers writings is his concern with the office of a minister, and his commitment to the practical duties of pastoral care, regardless of changes in Church and State policy. Colliers belief that ministers are responsible to God and to individuals, not governments, is a constant theme across all of his writings. His thought resonates with religious and philosophical ideas of the mid-seventeenth century, a period during which Colliers father, himself a divine, schoolmaster and linguist, invested his energies in social improvement through humanist education. This is the first study to treat Jeremy Colliers life and thought comprehensively. In the process of recovering biographical data and contextualizing Colliers publications and manuscripts, the dissertation covers a century of history.

Throughout the course of human history, the interaction and conflict between civilization and barbarism, whether real or perceived, has existed in historical memory. The conflict, which spans continents and centuries, can be found in the historical writings of many sedentary civilizations, who felt a need to differentiate between Us and Them. In fact, many early civilizations defined themselves in the presence of groups which they considered barbarous. The project looks at two civilizations which had such interactions. Late Republican Rome and Han China are well known for their conflicts with peripheral groups. This thesis compares how these two empires conquered and assimilated these barbarian groups, namely the Roman conquest of Gaul and the Chinese conquest of the Xiongnu, a nomadic people that inhabited modern day Mongolia. Despite these two empires separation by time and geography, their methods of conquest were very similar. Where they differed was in their assimilation of conquered peoples, a difference which stems from the way the two civilizations defined themselves. By comparing these events in history, we can gain an insight into the topic which can not be achieved by studying each civilization individually. The interface of disparate cultures is at the heart of many modern issues, from immigration to the war on terror. By studying these past events, it can be seen that this aspect of the human experience not only transcends East and West but also the centuries that separate us from the ancient world.

This paper explores the connection between protective tariffs and market concentration in the late nineteenth century United States. In particular, the paper investigates the effects of the McKinley Tariff of 1890 on American sugar refining and white lead production. My investigation includes a review of contemporary economic thought and political platforms, short histories of both industries, and event studies on the American Sugar Refining Company and the National Lead Company for the passage of the McKinley Tariff.

This document is an analysis of how the relationship between environmentalists, specifically within the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, worked with chicken growers in the Delmarva Peninsula to develop a new strategy for environmental protection and environmental justice within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In the summer of 1997, the microorganism Pfiesteria killed thousands of fish and made over two dozen people sick. Scientists linked the outbreak of Pfiesteria to chicken farms in Maryland, and the debate over what to do about Pfiesteria set the stage for a new political alliance between environmentalists and chicken growers. Two individuals, Michael Heller and Jim Lewis, were especially important in bringing the formerly adversarial groups together to tackle the problem nutrient pollution from chicken farms caused for the Chesapeake Bay. The key to success for the environmentalists and chicken growers was an open dialogue facilitated by Heller, on behalf of the environmentalists, and Lewis, representing the chicken growers. Environmentalists learned that the chicken growers were not financially capable of meeting the demands nutrient control legislation made on them to clean up chicken manure from their farms, and as a result, they were able to help legislators design new programs to help growers comply with the law. This thesis reaches the conclusion that no single strategy or approach is enough to completely solve the problems modern society poses for the environment; however, the communication and cooperation displayed by environmentalists and chicken growers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is an encouraging sign that different groups can work together and synthesize a solution that combines many different approaches to reach mutual goals.

This dissertation will show that although comparatively few slaves lived and worked in colonial New England, slavery was essential to the economic growth of all four colonies in the region. Until the American Revolution, New Englanders depended on the slave labor plantation regimes of the West Indies to purchase their exports. Despite scholarly consensus on the importance of the West Indian trade for New Englands economic growth, both the details and the consequences of this relationship for New Englands history remain unexplored until now. Drawing heavily on customs records, colonial newspapers, merchant accounts, diaries, colony records, and logbooks, this dissertation reveals the essential links forged between free and enslaved laborers from Boston to Barbados.

This dissertation examines the history of the Chilean Young Catholic Workers movement (JOC) from its founding in 1946 until the 1973 coup that almost completely destroyed it. The study explores how the JOC, a specialized branch of Catholic Action, formed a significant link in the widespread mobilization of the working classes in postwar Chile, where the movement achieved a depth and influence unmatched anywhere else in Latin America. The JOC reached its peak in the 1950s in the countrys booming industrial centers, with the movements many large-scale events, activities, and campaigns attracting thousands from across the country, but it continued to have a considerable presence in working-class neighborhoods through the politically turbulent 1960s and early 70s. Fomenting a social and political consciousness intertwined with Catholic religiosity, the JOC served as a launching pad for local community activism as well as involvement in political parties and unions. Furthermore, JOC activists commitment to social justice forged a path for the popular or liberationist Church that became a cornerstone of resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship.<br><br>While connecting the JOC to Chiles broader social and political history, this dissertation focuses attention on how the ideologies and policies of a reformist Church worked themselves out on the ground. Drawing on both oral and written sources, it emphasizes the movements significance for the young women and men living in Santiagos densely populated slums and working in the citys factories, workshops, and commercial centers. In particular, JOC activists personal stories reveal how religion, class, and gender intersected in the movement to empower female workers. Despite being embedded in a patriarchal Church structure, the JOCs social Catholic discourse led working-class women to carve out a unique space for social activism and leadership that deeply influenced female activists expectations regarding domestic relations and motherhood. At the same time, the JOCs focus on workers and workplace issues also made it attractive to young men, who traditionally shied away from Church participation at the parish level. In a movement in which women had equal authority, this participation provoked a subtle shift in mens perceptions of male power and dominance.

Under the Colombian Flag examines the Colombian states efforts to incorporate the Afro-Caribbean English-speaking Protestant islanders of San Andrés and Providence into the Spanish-speaking Catholic nation. The project analyzes how those cultural struggles and political negotiations shaped the Colombian nation-building process. I illustrate how Colombian political elites largely spoke of islanders ethnic differences in terms of cultural attributes such as language, religion, and customs. In their minds, these characteristics were malleable. The Colombian nation-builders project thus ignored North American and European pseudo-scientific understandings of race in order to incorporate ethnically and racially diverse populations into their homogenizing agenda, which promoted the Spanish language, Hispanic culture, Roman Catholicism, gendered notions of morality, and racial views of health and modernity. San Andrés and Providence islanders had a different understanding of racial and national identities. They tended to formulate their Colombian identity in terms of loyalty, reciprocity, and rights. My work contributes to the growing body of historical scholarship on race and nation-building in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as scholarship investigating the experiences of black communities in the Atlantic world.