Three Consuls

Capitalism, Empire, and the Rise and Fall of America's Mediterranean Community, 1776–1840

Inbunden, Engelska, 2024

Av Lawrence A. Peskin, Lawrence A. (Morgan State University) Peskin

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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.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2024-11-21
Mått161 x 236 x 23 mm
Vikt610 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor342
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009444620

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Introduction; Part I. Rise of the Mediterranean Community: 1. Becoming American (and) consuls; 2. James Simpson: isolation and diplomacy in Gibraltar and Tangier; 3. Robert Montgomery: Multiple identities in Alicante; 4. Thomas Appleton: community and conflict in Livorno's American community; Part II. Community Structures: 5. The American social network and national identity; 6. Business networks and the problem of self-interest; 7. Contact with 'others': race, chauvinism and the notion of empire; Part III. Collapse: 8. The long decline; 9. Selling empire; 10. Death and dismemberment; Epilogue: Latin America and the turn toward Empire; Bibliography.

'Three Consuls brings to life a lost world, the one constructed by the networks of American merchants, ship captains, sailors, and adventurers who ventured into the western Mediterranean in the early nineteenth century. All students of the early American republic stand indebted to Lawrence Peskin for his richly detailed evocation of this fascinating place in time, an era when many believed that the nation's destiny lay in mercantile expansion to the Mediterranean.' Christine Leigh Heyrman, University of Delaware