Small dealers and worthy men: the politics of scale from Bryan to Nader

小商人和有价值的人：从布莱恩到纳德的规模政治

基本信息

批准号：
AH/J004103/1
负责人：
Daniel Scroop
金额：
$ 5.76万
依托单位：
University of Sheffield
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2012
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2012 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FJ004103%2F1
关键词：
Small dealers worthy men politics

项目摘要

The proposed research investigates the relationship between democratic culture and economic scale in the United States since 1900. How did a people steeped in the fiercely individualistic mythology of the frontier, and embedded in a culture powerfully infused by democratic principles, adjust to the large scale and great complexity of the modern industrial economy? This question is fundamental to any understanding of twentieth-century American history, but from the present vantage point-in the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis-the need to answer it is, perhaps, more urgent than ever. In our age of 'too big to fail' banks there is a pressing need for a greater historical understanding of what I term 'the politics of scale'.This project addresses the problem of scale in modern US history through a series of biographically-anchored and chronologically-ordered case studies. Each of these studies is based on a key individual whose political modus operandi was premised upon antipathy to concentrated economic power. It begins with the turn-of-the-century global travels of agrarian populist William Jennings Bryan, and ends with consumer advocate Ralph Nader's crusades against General Motors and other auto manufacturers in the 1960s. Two things connect Bryan to Nader, and to all the other figures and wider movements on which this study is based. The first is that they shared a conviction that large-scale economic power is incompatible with American democracy, especially when that power is concentrated in the hands of a few big corporations. The second is that they showed themselves capable of politically engaging, and on occasion mobilising, large swathes of the American people in their various crusades against the size and influence of big business. The purpose of the research is not to establish whether individual politicians succeeded or failed, but through case studies to illuminate more widely how twentieth-century Americans navigated and came to terms with the politics of scale.The principal outcome of the project will be a book manuscript setting out a new way of mapping and understanding the politics of scale in American history. This will be of direct use to academics, students, and others eager to understand the contours of modern US history; more indirectly, through its influence on its readers and as a result of the dissemination activities built-in to the design of the project, it will contribute to an awareness of the complexity of modern American political culture. In a larger sense still, perhaps, the research proposed here can be seen as part of a broader effort, in which generations of US historians have been involved, to understand and explain the awkward relationship between America's fiercely populist political culture on the one hand, with its marked suspicion of concentrated power, and, on the other hand, its status as the world's most prototypically capitalistic nation, its most aggressive champion and exporter of corporate culture. These are important matters for historians to probe, but of course they also resonate in our contemporary politics, and not only in Britain and the United States.The research will take place from Feb.-Oct. 2012 and will pay for a one-week visit to the Library of Congress, where archival work for the manuscript will be completed, and for relief from teaching so that the researcher can devote the bulk of his efforts to writing. In addition it incorporates dissemination, to make historians and other academics aware of the research findings, and impact activities-including a blog, a workshop on the politics of scale for political activists in the South Yorkshire region, and a public event with the involvement of one or more think-tanks-to communicate, and create opportunities to interact with, individuals and groups outside academia.

拟议的研究调查了自1900年以来美国民主文化与经济规模之间的关系。一个人如何沉浸在边境的强烈个人主义神话中，并嵌入了一种由民主原则充满有力注入的文化中，适应了现代工业经济的大规模和巨大的复杂性？这个问题是对20世纪美国历史的任何理解的基础，但是从目前的有利位置开始，在2008 - 9年的金融危机之后，回答它的需求也许比以往任何时候都更加紧迫。在我们“太大而不是失败”的时代，迫切需要对我所说的“规模政治”的历史理解。该项目通过一系列以传记锚定和按时间顺序排序的案例研究来解决现代历史上的规模问题。这些研究中的每一个都是基于一个关键人物，其政治作案手法以反感以集中经济力量为前提。它始于世纪之交的全球农业民粹主义者威廉·詹宁斯·布莱恩（William Jennings Bryan），最后以消费者倡导者拉尔夫·纳德（Ralph Nader）在1960年代对通用汽车和其他汽车制造商的十字军东征结束。两件事将Bryan与Nader联系起来，以及本研究所基于的所有其他数字和更广泛的动作。首先是他们坚信，大规模的经济力量与美国民主不相容，尤其是当这种权力集中在一些大公司手中时。第二是，他们表明自己有能力在政治上吸引人，有时动员大批美国人民在各种十字军东征中反对大企业的规模和影响力。该研究的目的不是确定个别政客是成功还是失败，而是通过案例研究来更广泛地阐明二十世纪的美国人如何导航并与规模的政治达成协议。该项目的主要结果将是一种书本手稿，是一种新的绘制和理解美国历史上规模的绘制和理解规模的方式。这将直接用于学者，学生和其他渴望了解现代历史轮廓的人。通过对读者的影响以及由于该项目设计内置的传播活动的结果，它将有助于意识到现代美国政治文化的复杂性。也许从更大的意义上讲，这里提出的研究可以被视为更广泛的努力的一部分，在这种努力中，我们几代历史学家都参与其中，理解和解释美国一方面强烈的民粹主义政治文化之间的尴尬关系，并以其显着的集中力量引起了人们的怀疑，另一方面，它是世界上最具原始的资本主义的人的地位，并具有竞争者的竞选者和竞争者的竞选者，并具有竞争力。这些是历史学家进行调查的重要事项，但当然，他们在我们当代的政治中也引起了共鸣，不仅在英国和美国。这项研究将于2月至10月进行。 2012年，将对国会图书馆进行为期一周的访问，该图书馆将完成手稿的档案工作，并减轻教学，以便研究人员可以将大部分努力投入写作。此外，它还结合了传播，使历史学家和其他学者都意识到研究结果，并影响了包括博客的活动，一个关于南约克郡地区政治活动家规模政治的研讨会，以及与一个或多个思想tankss的公共活动，以及一个或多个思想tankss的涉及，并与一个或与学术界以外的个人互动，并创造机会。