Military Historian Allen Skinner

  Week 5 Harold Allen Skinner’s Applied History Blog: The Great Depression and the Smoot-Hawley Act. Abstract: This week’s blog will consider how economic uncertainty created by the Smoot-Hawley Act was a causal factor in the Great Depression. Following a historical summary, and analysis using selected scholarly works, the blog will conclude with suggestions for follow-on research. Article As historian Michael Bernstein notes of the Great Depression, “...there exists no general agreement about its causes, although there tends to be some consensus regarding its consequences.” [1] This blog cannot definitively answer the question of the causes of the Great Depression. Instead, it will discuss contextual history, analysis and tentative conclusions of the causes of the Great Depression through the lens of the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. [2]   Before starting analysis, we first need to review the background and history of the Smoot-Hawley Act. In the early days of the Ame...

  Week 4 Harold Allen Skinner’s Applied History Blog: Kraft Cheese Abstract: This blog discusses research into the early entrepreneurship of James Lewis Kraft, the founder of what was to become Kraft Foods. The blog will discuss Kraft’s humble beginnings, and the early entrepreneurial decisions that set his company on the path to controlling a large segment of the American processed food market.   Research and analysis was conducted using information gleaned from available primary and secondary sources. The blog will conclude with a summary of findings and potential future threads for research. Article             According to the popular History Channel series, “The Food that Build America,” the video segment entitled American Cheese credited Canadian entrepreneur James Lewis Kraft in transforming a $65 investment in a cheese reselling business into a “$45 billion food empire.” [1] The truth is a bit more involve...

  HIUS 714  –  Harold Allen Skinner Jr.,  WEEK 2  Blog,  Growth in the Postbellum Economy-Puerto Rico ABSTRACT   Several authors have argued the  1898  American declaration of war on Spain was influenced by  a desire to stimulate the American economy in the aftermath of the depression of 1893-4.   Securing former Spanish territories under  the United  States sovereignty would not only  secur e  sources of raw materials and  markets but  would give American manufacturers  better access to adjacent markets. The primary research question will  measure the economic impact of the acquisition of Puerto Rico using  selected   data  obtained through the Federal Reserve economic database, FRASER.  Scholarly articles  obtained vi a JSTOR  and other  database s  were consulted to  provide   historical  context and depth to the  topic.  A su...