History

triptych of old maps with aerial view of city in the center

2016 RRBHW

2nd Biennial Richard Robinson Business History Workshop

Richard Robinson Business History Workshop


Business and Environment in History:
Dealing in Nature and Ecology, Past and Futures

April 28-30, 2016
 

Thursday, April 28, at 6:00 pm in Smith Student Union Center, Room 238
Friday, April 29, from 10:00 am in Smith Student Union Center, Room 327
Saturday, April 30, from 8:45 am in Smith Student Union Center, Room 327

 

 

 

Sponsored by the Portland State University Department of History and the Friends of History. All sessions are free and open to the public, and will take place on the PSU campus. While the panel sessions on 29-30 April will be of interest primarily to specialists, the panel evening panel discussion on April 28 and the keynote lecture on April 29 are also intended for the larger Portland community.

This year's Richard Robinson Business History Workshop offers a global perspective on the intersections between business history and environmental history. The Workshop aims to illuminate the ways that, varying according to time and place, conceptions of nature and environmental resources interacted with practices in commerce and business, especially in connection to our everyday experiences. This Workshop event opens with a panel discussion by PSU faculty on the evening of April 29. The keynote address will be delivered the following evening, April 29, by Professor Harold James of Princeton University. Six panel discussions on April 29 and 30 will deal with such topics as attempts to master and transform the landscape, problems arising from dependency on monoculture, the danger of overharvesting, pollution and other externalities, the exploitation of non-renewable resources, and the role of the state in managing both the economy and the environment. Regions covered by the workshop papers include the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia

Co-organized by Thomas Luckett and Chia Yin Hsu of Portland State University, and Erika Vause of Saint Xavier University.

For a lists of all panel discussions and papers presented see our Full Program [LINK] 

Those interested in attending the panels are welcome to read the papers beforehand. For access to the papers, please send email to: psu.business.history.workshop @ gmail.com.

 

 

Panel Discussion with PSU Faculty: "Business, Environment & the Northwest: Historical Perspectives"

Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 6:30pm
Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 238
FREE and open to the public 

6:30-8:00  Panel discussion by PSU faculty

 

  • Catherine C. McNeur (PSU): "Environmental History: The State of the Field"
  • Joseph E. Bohling (PSU): "Business History: The State of the Field"
  • Joshua D. Binus (PSU & Bonneville Power Administration): "The History of Sustainable Business in the Pacific Northwest"

 

Keynote Address:"Energy, the Environment, and the Modern World" 

by Harold James, Professor of History, Princeton University
Friday, April 29, 2016 at 6:30pm
Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 238
FREE and open to the public

lightbulb with tree inside, faded wind farm in background

 

In what ways do the rapid development of energy hungry emerging markets 
challenge the present institutions of global governance?

A modern consensus among economic historians sees the use of fossil fuel as the primary mechanism through which in the nineteenth century humans broke out of the Malthusian trap, but there are increasing questions about the sustainability of this model.  

The application of mechanical power, derived from fossil fuel resources allowed substantial increases in productivity. It also changed the course of competition between states, so that nineteenth century conflicts centered around coal, and twentieth century around petroleum. Some historians have noted that in the course of the twentieth century, growth became increasingly dematerialized, ie less dependent on resource inputs. The power constraints, however, remained as energy is difficult to transport easily.

The lecture looks at the way in which energy cooperation is managed, and how different countries reconcile different risk preferences, in regard to debates about global warming, the risks of nuclear energy, the vulnerability of external supplies to political interruption, and the problems of systemic overload.  

Harold James

About Harold James 

Harold James is Professor of History at Princeton University and holds a joint appointment as Professor of International Affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. He studies economic and financial history and is a specialist on German economic history and globalization. 

Mr. James is the author or co-author of more than 10 books, including, International Monetary Cooperation Since Bretton Woods, The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle, and Making the European Monetary Union. 

 

 

Panel Discussions

Friday, April 29
Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 327


10:00am -11:45am
Panel 1: Mastering the Landscape 
Discussant: ChiaYin Hsu

PAPERS:

  • "We Like Flying All Year 'Round: Seasonality and the Winter Imaginary at Trans Canada Air Lines, 1947-1955" by Blair Stein, University of Oklahoma

  • "The Production of Space in Western Canada: Post Offices, Railroads and Settlement, 1850-1900"
    Gustavo Velasco, London School of Economics

  • "Unexpected Turns of Iron: A Railroad across South America for All the Right Reasons by the Wrong People"
    Friedrich E. Schuler, Portland State University

1:00pm - 2:45pm   
Panel 2: Society and Monoculture 
Discussant: Thomas M. Luckett

PAPERS:

  • "Planter’s Paradise: Agricultural Science and Sugarcane Planting in Early-Twentieth-Century Hawai'i"
    Lawrence H. Kessler,Temple University
     
  • "The Black Patch War, Environmental Literature, and the Politics of History" 
    Nicolette I. Bruner, Western Kentucky University
     
  • "Making Eden Prosperous in Nineteenth-Century Mexico"
    Casey M. Lurtz, Harvard University

3:15pm - 5:00pm   
Panel 3: Overharvesting
Discussant: Erika Vause

PAPERS:

  • "States of Control: How Fisheries Became Commons and Commons Became Tragic"
    Gregory H. Ferguson-Cradler, Princeton University
     
  • "Artisanal Fishing in the Persian/Arabian Gulf's Mediocre Environment" 
    Noah Haiduc-Dale, Centenary College
     
  • "From the 'world granary' to its 'burning lungs': multinational companies and the ecological question in the globalization of the Amazon" | Antoine Acker, University of Turin 

 

Panel Discussions

Saturday, April 30
Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 327


8:45am -10:30am
PSU Student Panel
Discussant: Thomas M. Luckett

PAPERS:

  • "Fighting for a Fair and Equitable Share: Tribal Treaty Rights and Northwest Fisheries Management after the Belloni and Boldt Decisions" | Joshua L. Ross, Portland State University
     
  • "Florida's Gold and Florida's Freezes: Climate and the Citrus Industry in Central Florida"
    Michael Leake, Florida Southern College
     
  • "Salt Mining and Subsidence in Cheshire County, England"
    Michael Davidson, Florida Southern College 
     
  • "'A Frame to the Beautiful Picture which He Created': Envisioning and Engineering the Columbia River Highway, 1913–1922"  | Taylor E. Rose, Portland State University

 

10:45am - 12:00pm              
Panel 4: Environmental Externalities
Discussant: Erika Vause
 

PAPERS: 

  • "The Price of Being Green: Business, Nature, and Maine’s 'Industrial Ecosystem'" 
    David B. Cohen, Brandeis University 
     
  • "'Knock the EPA Out!': Coal, Politics and the Battle over the Clean Air Act"
    Allen Dieterich-Ward, Shippensburg University 

 

1:30pm - 3:15 pm   
Panel 5: Extracting Non-Renewable Resources
Discussant: Thomas M. Luckett

PAPERS:  

  • Money and Autonomy in a Settler Colony: The Politics of Monetary Regulation in Colonial Zimbabwe, c.1938 - c.1965 | Admire Mseba, University of Iowa 
     
  • The Pre-Making of Lebanon’s Central Bank: The Long Monetary Mandate, 1920-1964
    Hicham Safieddine, University of Toronto

 

3:45pm - 5:15pm   
Panel 6: Environmental Impact of State Intervention in the Economy 
Discussant: Chia Yin Hsu

PAPERS:

  • "The End of Proálcool and the Rise of the Neoliberal State: The Brazilian Ethanol Industry in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, 1985-1990" | Jennifer N. Eaglin, Michigan State University
     
  • "Nature, Tariffs, and Food: Protectionism and Free Trade in the Global Wheat Trade 1846-1918"
    Thomas D. Finger, University of Northern Arizona
     
  • "Making the Maoist Enterprise: Ideology, Ecology, and the Transformation of Industrial Business in Early People's Republic of China" | Zhaojin Zeng, University of Texas-Austin

2016 Richard Robinson Business History Workshop