When you hear the word “pan-Americanism,” what comes to mind, if anything does, is probably a defunct airline. But back in its day, “much bitter controversy” was waged about the slippery idea of pan-americanism. Why? What was the controversy about? We discuss these and other questions with Dr. Mark Petersen, Associate Professor of History at the University of Dallas and the author of the recent book, The Southern Cone and the Origins of Pan America, 1888-1933. Dr. Petersen explains how pan-Americanism developed from its origins as a US-led form of regional cooperation, what “the Americas” look like when you begin from Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, instead of Washington; and why one photograph that he found in an archive made him sit back, stunned, in his chair.

 

Link to photograph: https://drive.google.com/file/d/130Lo-N6d120vILgAdF0rZMDelceiGchB/view?usp=sharing

More about Dr. Mark Petersen: https://udallas.edu/constantin/academics/programs/history/faculty/petersen-mark.php
More about his book, The Southern Cone and the Origins of Pan America, 1888-1933: https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268202019/the-southern-cone-and-the-origins-of-pan-america-1888-1933/


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