Revolt of the Provinces: Central Bankers and Military Strategists during the Interwar Agrarian Crisis

Seokju Oh, Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program

This seminar reconsiders U.S. ascendancy during the era of the world wars (1914–1945), challenging the familiar story of an economic powerhouse projecting strength abroad. Instead, it frames the United States as a continental polity shaped by uneven development, where food- and raw-material-producing peripheries coexisted uneasily with an industrial and financial core. This internal asymmetry, the speaker argues, is essential to understanding the making of U.S. global power and its internal dynamics.

Focusing on the interwar agrarian crisis, the seminar traces how U.S. central bankers and military strategists navigated collapsing farm incomes, regional unrest, and institutional paralysis. It shows how these actors reconfigured the national state to realize their vision of world order. The global dollar and military system—often taken as a natural outgrowth of U.S. industrial prowess—emerged instead from the tense dialectic in which internationalists were enmeshed and are thereby inscribed with the imprimatur of dominance and compromise.

Admittance is on a first come–first served basis.  Tea and Coffee Provided.