Atlantic Crossroads by Moya, José;

Short description:

Unlike most books on the Atlantic that associate its history with European colonialism and thus end in 1800, this volume demonstrates that the connections not only outlasted colonialism, they also reached unprecedented levels in postcolonial times, when the Atlantic truly became the world’s major crossroads and dominant economy. 

Long description:

Unlike most books on the Atlantic that associate its history with European colonialism and thus end in 1800, this volume demonstrates that the Atlantic connections not only outlasted colonialism, they also reached unprecedented levels in postcolonial times, when the Atlantic truly became the world’s major crossroads and dominant economy. Twice as many Europeans entered New York, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo in 3 years on the eve of WWI as had arrived in all the New World during 300 years of colonial rule. Transatlantic ties surged again with mass movements from the West Indies, Latin America, and Africa to North America and Western Europe from the 1960s to the present. 

As befits a transnational subject, the 24 contributors in this volume come from 14 different countries. Over half of the chapters are co-authored, an exceptional level of scholarly collaboration, and all but two are explicitly comparative. Comparisons include Congo and Yoruba slaves in Brazil, Irish and Italian mercenaries and adventurers in the New World, German Lutherans in Canada and Argentina, Spanish laborers in Algeria and Cuba, the diasporic nationalism of ethnic groups without nation states, and the transatlantic politics of fascism and anti-fascism in the interwar. Overall, the volume shows the Atlantic World’s distinctiveness rested not on the level or persistence of colonial control but on the density and longevity of human migrations and the resulting high levels of social and cultural contact, circulation, connection, and mixing.  

This title will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of Atantic and global history, migration, diaspora, slavery, ethnicity, nationalism, citizenship, politics, anthropology, and area studies.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: The Longue Durée  1. The Making and Remaking of the Atlantic World, 1400-2020  Part 2: Mass Crossings, 1800-1930  2. The African Presence in Brazil  3. Fighting Someone Else’s Wars? Italian and Irish Soldiers, Adventurers and Mercenaries in the New World, 1776-1876  4. Polish and Ukrainian Transatlantic Nationalisms, 1860-1940  5. Forging Basque and Catalan Nationalism in the New World  6. Transatlantic Religion: German Lutheran Missionaries in Canada and Argentina, 1880-1930  7. Migrants between Two Empires: Spanish day laborers in Cuba and Algeria, 1890-1900  Part 3: Transatlantic Politics, 1920s-1940s  8. Fascism and Anti-Fascism among Italians in Argentina and the US  9. Salazarism and Anti-Salazarism among Portuguese Immigrants in Brazil & the US, 1930-1950    10 The Spanish Falange in Mexico, 1937-1942  11. For a New Cuba and a New Spain: Popular Cuban Antifascism and the Spanish Civil War  Part 4: The Revival of Mass Crossings, 1950-2020  12. Colonial and Postcolonial Transatlantic Migrations in the British, Dutch, and French Caribbean  13. Transatlantic Loyalties towards the Family through Labor, Care and the Nation: A Cape Verdean Perspective  14. Chilean and Sahrawi Exiles: Contesting Colonial Legacies and Constructing Political Projects in Cold War and Post-Colonial Worlds  15. From Receiver to Sender: The Argentine Diaspora in Europe and the Americas