Yankees in the Indian Ocean: American Commerce and Whaling, 1786–1860 by Jane Hooper (review)

Abstract

southern slaveholders and northern cap i tal ists. And this is perhaps the most insightful of Verney’s reading of the development of the antebellum U.S. Empire: Overseas imperialism mirrored and reinforced the class, race, gender, and ethnic strug gles at home. Naval exploration was considered as a means to suppress and mediate such conflicts for the benefit of white men. Popu lar culture and the federal government were the institutions that glued this co ali tion between southern slaveholders and northern cap i talists. Accounts of exploration inspired people like Jeremiah Reynolds to acquire and disseminate scientific knowledge that was considered central to imperialism. Naval expeditions gained popularity among the public through the publication and exhibition of their materials, and were presented as national accomplishments. “The productions of the Ex Ex affirmed racial and class hierarchies and contributed to the raising of an imperial society,” writes Verney (78). While public support for overseas exploration amassed on the floors of libraries and museums, federal support was mobilized by politicians and businessmen. Naval expeditions turned into diplomatic tools to address prob lems of immigration and colonization and also became negotiation sites to amend sectional divisions over slavery by promoting U.S. capitalism abroad. Scholars of U.S. empire and expansion will find Verney’s book informative and compelling as it takes us to all corners of the world. Historians more focused on national affairs will find this book equally illuminating as it demonstrates how Americans’ visions of the world and their place in it developed alongside the nation’s po liti cal, social, economic, and cultural changes.