The Trent Affair: Avoiding a Possible Crisis during the Civil War

In November 1861, Union Naval Captain Charles Wilkes seized the Trent, a British mailing ship, because it was transporting two Confederate diplomats, John Slidell and James Mason. Wilkes captured the two Confederate representatives due to what he considered were treasonous actions against the Union, but he did so without any orders from the Union government. Under a proclamation issued by the Queen of Britain at the start of the Civil War, Britain recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent and was not supposed to transport the dispatches of Slidell and Mason because international law considered them contraband. Yet, by acknowledging the Confederacy as belligerent, Britain stated that the Union and the Confederacy would be given equal treatment in British ports. Confederate ships could obtain necessary supplies from British ports to aid them in fighting Union ships. Northerners expected British support and were dismayed by the British acknowledgement of the Confederacy. The Trent Affair escalated the already unpopular opinion towards Britain held by the Union public due to the Queen’s Proclamation. The Union publicly celebrated the actions of Wilkes as the first naval success against the Confederacy. Newspapers depicted the British as trying to take away the victory and, as a result, helping facilitate negotiations with the Confederates. Union citizens did not want to concede to British demands to give up the rebels. Northerners felt that if Britain wanted to go to war over the Trent Affair, then they would mobilize for such a conflict. The Lincoln administration did not want to give any indication to the Confederacy that the British could have their way with the Union, for that would just inspire the Confederacy to strive for British support. President Lincoln dealt with the public pressure, while also receiving correspondence from government officials. However, the advice Lincoln received urged him to concede to Britain’s demands, which went against the public’s wish to fight Britain. By adhering to British demands concerning the Trent Affair, Lincoln sacrificed public opinion for his decision to maintain peaceful relations with Britain. Lincoln had the greater goal of reunifying the United States and he did not want to hinder reunification by expanding the war internationally

Face to Face in Ireland

While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, Brenna Patterson describes her observations during her study abroad program at the National University of Ireland in Galway

Connecting Ethics to Action: An Introduction to Ethical Decision Making

A patron calls the Circulation Desk late in the evening and gets a student worker.The patron wants to know what their roommate checked out so they can be sure to return all of the materials. The student gives the information, trying to be helpful to the patron.The patron comes in the next morning very upset because his privacy has been violated and threatening a lawsuit. The student worker defends his actions, saying he was trying to give excellent customer service, just as he learned in the orientation manual. How does one calm the patron, educate the student worker, and otherwise deal with this, and other, ethical dilemmas? This article proposes the use of, and training in, Ethical Decision Making to assist in alleviating ethical dilemmas. This article will describe Ethical Decision Making, or EDM, and will offer a brief background on the field of EDM. The article will also be of practical use by providing ways libraries and librarians can use EDM, presenting a model of EDM, and suggesting ways to implement and train in EDM

Godsey\u27s The god particle: God-talk in a “big bang” world (Book Review)

Godsey, R. K. (2016). The god particle: God-talk in a “big bang” world. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. 102 pp. $20.00. ISBN 978088146585

Gushee, D. P., & Stassen, G. H.\u27s Kingdom ethics: Following Jesus in contemporary context (2nd ed.) (Book Review)

Gushee, D. P., & Stassen, G. H. (2016). Kingdom ethics: Following Jesus in contemporary context (2nd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 550 pp. $40.00. ISBN 978080287421

The improvement of oral reading in the upper grades

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

T. S. Eliot and Transpacific modernism

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in American Literary History following peer review. The version of record: "Patterson, Anita. "T. S. Eliot and Transpacific Modernism." American Literary History, vol. 27 no. 4, 2015, pp. 665-682." is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajv042.Japonisme is a term often used to describe the shaping effects of Japanese culture and aesthetics on European art, but by the 1880s a similar trend emerged in the US, influencing popular culture as well as fine arts and poetry. This essay examines how Japonisme figured T. S. Eliot's development as a poet, focusing on Boston as a world city that was rapidly becoming global. It shows how Kakuzo Okakura, an art historian and curator of Asian art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts during the time when Eliot was a Harvard undergraduate, and Masaharu Anesaki, a pioneer in the study of comparative religion who lectured on Mahayana Buddhism there when Eliot was a graduate student, inspired transpacific intercultural dialogue that would last the poet a lifetime. Eliot's formative encounter with Okakura and Anesaki raised his awareness of his family history in a region with longstanding ties to Asia; it nurtured his ambivalent engagement with such Boston-area writers as Emerson, whose prior interest in Confucianism laid a foundation for Eliot's modernism; and the encounter taught Eliot valuable lessons about moral action and impersonality, culminating in poems such as Four Quartets