RPTM Podcast Episode Fifty One: The Aftermath of War, Pinkertons, Camel Corps, and the King of Beaver Island

Essentialism is the view that things have a set of characteristics crucial to their identity. Historically, ideas that declare that
identities such as race, ethnicity, or gender are important factors have been shown to have harmful or toxic effects in many cases. Essentialist thinking lies at the core of many prejudiced or extremist doctrines.

Almost every component of modern Western history can offer troubling instances of doctors and scientific specialists classifying humans into basic types. It is not surprising that history students view science and medicine as essentialist areas. In 2015, associate professor Lisa Forman Cody wrote an article for the American Historical Association about race essentialism. Say says essentialism in history as a field of study entails discerning and documenting essential cultural aspects of a particular nation or civilization in the assumption that they can comprehend a people or culture in this way. 

Sometimes such essentialism leads to declarations of a respected national or cultural identity, or its contrary, the denunciation of a culture based on assumed fundamental characteristics. Herodotus, for instance, asserts that Egyptian civilization is feminized and maintains a "softness," which has made Egypt easy to overthrow. To what capacity Herodotus was an essentialist being a matter of discussion; he is also credited with not essentializing the image of the Athenian identity or contrasts between the Greeks and the Persians that are the matter of his history.

These and other instances of racial essentialism render lively classroom conversations. Students acknowledge how specialists have shown themselves as authoritative, adept at constructing ubiquitous assertions about human essence, often on the grounds of, even anecdotal proof. It's easy for researchers to comprehend that historical essentialist opinions have mirrored modern views about race, gender, sex, and other categories, fortifying hierarchical power dynamics. Consequently, essentialism in history delivers some particularly explicit stories to illustrate the working of principles.

Yet it is so easy to gather racial essentialism in such general terms that it acts as a straw man with little historical nuance. By clumping together all unsavory claims about race, gender, sex, and other human classifications as essentialists, we are in jeopardy of treating all "-isms" as operating the same way. Professor Cody tells us that not all essentialism was and is the same. She says, "we should not essentialize essentialism, especially if we hope to challenge it in contemporary conversations and policies."

As we delve deep into the mines of historical thought, we need not stray too far from my original history rules. Much of what I write about and speak about is the celebration of multiple lenses when investigating history. Race indeed is a tenet of anyone's story, but only one. Class, gender, and even ethnicity create a more profound and fuller picture of a person or a historical event. The American experience for a Chinese day laborer varied incredibly between a man and women in the 19th century American west.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The war resulted in at least 1,030,000 casualties (3 percent of the population), including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease—and 50,000 civilians. The North and West grew rich while the once-rich South became poor for a century. 
• Around 1850, Allan Pinkerton opened the private investigation firm that became the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
• The United States Camel Corps was a mid-19th-century experiment by the United States Army using camels as pack animals in the Southwestern United States. Although the camels proved hardy and well suited to travel through the region, the Army declined to adopt them for military use. The Civil War interfered with the experiment, which was eventually abandoned; they sold the animals at auction.
• In 1850, James Jesse Strang was crowned king of Beaver Island. As it turns out, declaring yourself king can draw unwanted attention from the US government.
• The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated between Missouri and California from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861. 

CHAPTERS
0:37 Introduction
4:28 The Aftermath of War
11:39 Pinkertons
19:15 The Camel Corps
25:21 The King of Beaver Island
30:08 The Pony Express
38:46 Outro

RESOURCES
What was the American Civil War?
American Civil War Explained
10 Things You May Not Know About the Pinkertons
United States Camel Corps
How a Mormon king shaped a sleepy island in Lake Michigan
Beaver Island (Lake Michigan)
Pony Express
10 Things You May Not Know About the Pony Express