“Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State.” The SHAFR Guide Online, n.d., 499–507. https://doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim050140269.

Stuart McCook, a professor of history at the University of Guelph, with a focus on environmental history and tropical plants, wrote an excerpt in “Colonial Crucible,” titled “The World was my Garden.” In this article, McCook discusses the rise of domestic agricultural research, and how it spurred a demand for American experts in the study of tropical plants. He spends a great deal of time unpacking the reasons for this expansion, which he notes is mainly imperialistic, and how this expansion led to a new generation of American experts in tropical botany. This research is useful for analyzing a different perspective of American imperialism in Latin America, specifically because its focus is unique from other accounts of the negative effects of American expansionism.

“Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State.” The SHAFR Guide Online, n.d., 163-174. https://doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim050140269.

Pablo Navarro-Rivera is an Associate Professor at Lesley University. His section in “Colonial Crucible” was titled “The Imperial Enterprise and Educational Policies in Colonial Puerto Rico.” His entry began by introducing the value of education in American society and the role in played in American expansionism. He focuses on how Puerto Rico has been affected. His themes center around the direct governance that the United States adopted, as opposed to the indirect governance of the British and Spanish, and how this deep involvement within the country influenced it. He spends a great deal of time talking about the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, or CIIS, and Puerto Rican attendance to the school in Pennsylvania. Navarro-Rivera’s research is useful in examining an aspect of the CIIS that does not receive as much attention as the more notable aspects of the school, such as its treatment of Native Americans.