Tue, 7 August 2007 In a conference on Studying America in the World: History Without Borders, held at the Massachusetts School of Law, Professor Frank Lambert of Purdue University discusses the true nature of American independence in the Atlantic World. In this world, the Barbary Pirate states seriously threatened American commerce. Free commerce, after all, was one of the battle cries of the American Revolution. The Story begins in 1783 when American independence was in its infancy and the importance of international trade and global economy was realized. Americans set out upon Atlantic Ocean, envisioning fortunes to be earned - no longer under the auspices of British control - from free and unfettered commerce. Instead, they encountered the Barbary pirates. The Barbary pirates controlled the Mediterranean, and its approaches, with a rigid system of piracy, ransom, and tribute. This system was easily navigable for large, wealthy and established European nations, but for the infant United States, the Barbary pirates threatened to strangle the commerce of the nation in the cradle. Thus, Lambert reintroduces a part of American history, often overshadowed by the monumental events of the Revolution and the War of 1812. The Massachusetts School of Law, located in Andover, Massachusetts, makes high quality, affordable legal education available to less privileged persons who are traditionally excluded from the legal profession. As part of its mission of providing high quality education and information for both law students and the general public, the Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public via television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit www.mslaw.edu. MSLAW podcasts are available from http://mslaw.libsyn.com/rss, for subscriptions, or http://mslaw.libsyn.com, for direct downloads. MSLAW videos are available from Google Video. Comments[3] |
