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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Oxford Centre for Global History Author Christopher McKenna

11. Shipping Migrants in the Age of Steam: The Rise and Rise of the Messageries Maritimes c. 1870-1914

Author:
Riccardo Liberatore and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Around the middle of the nineteenth century the full effects of steam technology were starting to be felt in western industry and transport. The steam engine had been patented by a Scottish engineer named James Watt in 1781 but the first experiments in steam powered trains and ships occurred towards the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Atlantic Ocean became a laboratory for maritime engineers. Its first crossing entirely by steam was achieved in 1838 by the SS Great Western, a wooden-hulled paddlewheel steamer designed by the celebrated English engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It wasn’t until the final decades of the nineteenth century, however, that steam engines came to replace sails entirely. The obstacles remained many and the new technology was adopted with some apprehension due to the spectacular explosions, collisions and shipwrecks that littered its early history (the sinking of the SS Titanic in 1912, property of the White Star Line from Liverpool, is the most well known). Nonetheless, its effects rippled across international commerce and global politics. Spearheading the change were mostly European shipping companies that, with the support of their imperial backers, exploited the decline in American shipping and the technological inferiority of Asian competitors, and rushed forwards. One of these companies was the French Messageries Maritimes. In its heyday it was known as France’s postman in the Mediterranean. In 1851 it had been awarded a substantial government subsidy to deliver post and carry government personnel across the Mediterranean, subsequently renewed at regular intervals for almost a century. At the time Algeria was France’s only colonial possession in the region (it added Tunisia in 1881 and Morocco in 1912), but its commercial interests in the area were many (for instance the Suez Canal, completed in 1869, was constructed by a French company under the stewardship of Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French engineer) and the communities of French men and women living on its shores were numerous. Despite the continued reliance on government contracts, the Messageries Maritimes still had to navigate its way skilfully in a global industry characterized by large costs, high order logistical challenges and intense international competition. How it managed to do so and why it chose to enter the migrant shipping market is the subject of this case-study.
Topic:
Migration, Science and Technology, History, Capitalism, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe, France, Spain, England, and Scotland

12. The Chicago Merchandise Mart: How the World’s Largest Commercial Building Fueled an American Political Dynasty

Author:
Kevin M. Higgins, Oenone Kubie, Courtney Bruno, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Spanning 4.2 million square feet, two city blocks, and rising twenty-five stories high, the Merchandise Mart – the largest commercial building in the world – stands on the northern bank of the Chicago River. From the merchandising Hall of Fame in front of the Mart, one can watch passing architectural tours admiring the impressive Art Deco exterior of the building. These days, the Mart is home to high-end designers, advertising firms, and, increasingly, tech companies and start-up incubators. Within its vast interior, the industries of the Third Industrial Revolution have taken hold. Yet, when the Mart opened on 5 May 1930, no economic revolution was already established. By the early 1900s, the Second Industrial Revolution had brought assembly lines to factories, and the disassembly line to Chicago’s slaughterhouses, and it had seen electrification, telegraphs, and the railroads span the North American continent. But the revolution was already slowing by the third decade of the twentieth century. What had revolutionised industry in the nineteenth century now served as commonplace and not until well after the Second World War would Americans feel the first stirrings of another revolution as computation, telecommunications, and genetics again transformed the economy.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Capitalism, Commodities, Manufacturing, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
United States and Chicago

13. Organ Transplants at Cedar Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and the Third Industrial Revolution

Author:
Oenone Kubie, Christopher McKenna, and Steven Yamshon
Publication Date:
08-2017
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Cedars Sinai Hospital does not serve an everyday clientele. Situated in the West Hollywood neighbourhood in Los Angeles, the non-profit hospital caters to the rich and glamourous – a ‘hospital to the stars’. It was there that Madonna received hernia surgery and Frank Sinatra suffered a fatal heart attack. More recently, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West chose the hospital for the birth of their daughter. However, the hospital is famous for more than its celebrity patients. Cedars Sinai has a history of innovation and has often sought to be a world leader of medical research. In 2010, Tom Priselac, the long-time Chief Executive Officer of the Cedars Sinai Health System was presented with the opportunity to add to this history of innovation and establish a prestigious center for heart transplants at Cedars Sinai. To do so would position Cedars Sinai at the forefront of cardiac research. On the other hand, to establish the specialisation would require a huge investment which Priselac might better use elsewhere in the medical center. The decision required Priselac to consider the competitiveness of the hospital within the Los Angeles healthcare landscape, the logic of creating a specialisation, and the future of healthcare within a global economy.
Topic:
Health Care Policy, Capitalism, and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
United States, California, and Los Angeles