Brooke Blower Interview 20/5/19

Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast

Final seminar and final podcast of the year! We might have some more content for you over the summer, but for now, what a way to close out the academic year! Brooke Blower, Associate Professor of History at Boston University and founding co-editor of the journal Modern American History, talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper 'Gibraltars of the Pacific', which explores the activities of one American export salesman (and former Olympian!), Frank Cuhel, in southeast Asia in the decades prior to the outbreak of World War 2. We discuss trans-colonial mobility, colony-metropole correspondence and how this paper fits into Professor Blower's ongoing work on the experiences of a small group of American overseas and their experiences prior to and during the war. This was a really enjoyable conversation, although the questions I asked her turned out to be miles away from the discussion that took part in the actual seminar, so apologies if the conversation is guided somewhat by my own research interests! We also talk very briefly about the modern relevance of the album format, which is something I have a lot of thoughts on that I did not articulate at all well here. If you want to talk more about it or if you have any other questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist (or @lewisdefrates) on Twitter or [e-mail]. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you soon (?)