This is my first foray into data visualization as a historian, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Of course, as a mathematician, I know that visualizing data can be a powerful way to explore it. However, as a historian, I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. I thought it…
Category: Percolating Ideas
Settler Colonialism in the US and French Algeria: A Comparative Overview
Posted in Percolating Ideas
I am not the first to make the remarkable comparison between the colonization of French Algeria and that of United States’ territories. Rather, mid-nineteenth century French statesmen conscientiously used the United States as a benchmark of progress in their Algerian endeavor. This may account for at least some of the…
Mathematics and the Humanities: Bridging the Divide
Posted in Digital Humanities, and Percolating Ideas
First of all, I love this image. Let me tell you why (and how it relates to this post)… It provides a wonderful pictorial representation of where we now stand – at the edge of a precipice with nothing but a flimsy rope bridge to reach the other side. On…
What would a map of French colonial Algeria or the American Midwest look like if we took a humanistic epistemological approach? How would such a map change if it took into consideration the humanistic notion that space is a construct influenced by perception (of travel times, of fear, of violence,…
“Settlers are not born. They are made in the dispossessing, a ceaseless obligation that has to be maintained across the generations if the Natives are not to come back.” — Patrick Wolfe.[1] In this post, I examine how American colonists became settlers through the process of invoking their perceived sovereignty…
A Case Study of Settler Colonial Power Relations in the American Midwest
Posted in Percolating Ideas
In this post, I briefly explore the ways in which settler colonialism shaped relations between tribes and how relations between American colonizers and Indigenous communities changed during the American Revolution. This short case study also exposes Indigenous dispossession and the establishment of hierarchical relations between imperial agents and those they…
Why Constantine?
Posted in Percolating Ideas
What was the big deal about Constantine? Why was France willing to expend thousands of French lives in two separate campaigns (1836 and 1837) to take the city? Prior to the first French military campaign to conquer the province of Constantine in 1836, parts of Captain Saint-Hippolyte’s notes about Constantine…
Setting up a Comparison: Settler Colonization in the American Midwest and French Algeria
Posted in Percolating Ideas
Why do a comparative study? Why choose these two very different and seemingly unrelated regions? I’ve received these questions often enough that they merit an explanation. Please bear with me as my response is a little lengthy. This is a complex project! I’ve added subheadings to make navigating this post…
What is “civilization”?
Posted in Percolating Ideas
Today one often hears talk about “civilized” conduct or standards of civilization, but what do we mean by these terms and ideas? When and how did come about? and why? More importantly, why does it matter? First, I should clarify that there are two distinct meanings of “civilization”: It is…