A Program to Enhance Scholarly and Creative Activities grant would be used to conduct research for my current book project, 1945: A Global History.

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1 Abstract: If awarded a grant, it will used to support research for my current book project, 1945: A Global History. The manuscript is under contract with Oxford University Press. This project explores the transition period between the end of Second World War and the early Cold War by examining the aftermath of the war in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Funds from a PESCA grant would be used to make two research trips during Summer First, I will spend a month in Washington, DC working in the National Archives (II). In July, I will spend three weeks in London at the National Archives in Kew. A grant will make me more competitive for external funding and will significantly expedite the process of research and writing. 1

2 A Program to Enhance Scholarly and Creative Activities grant would be used to conduct research for my current book project, 1945: A Global History. This manuscript is under contract with Oxford University Press. This book will require a considerable amount of research that can only be done away from campus. A grant will allow me the time needed to conduct some of archival research and to make considerable progress on the project. The book examines the period immediately following the end of the war in Czechoslovakia and neighboring western Germany, Korea, South Africa, and India. In each of these places, far removed from each other geographically and culturally, the Global 1945 witnessed prolonged unrest, sometimes quite violent, that transformed domestic politics and set the stage for the future development of those countries, their populations, and their place in the Cold War world to come. The convergence of upheaval and discontent around the world, including places not directly affected by active combat during the war years, suggests that a set of conditions emerging from the end of the war generated similar responses across the global community. While 1945 has often been treated as a turning point in world history, this book will argue that it is equally important to examine that crucial postwar period as a distinct historical moment with profound consequences for the emerging Cold War and postcolonial worlds. At first glance, many of these disturbances seem to have reflected local concerns along with the massive burden of demobilizing after a titanic global struggle. In British India, sailors mutinied and their protests quickly turned violent, leaving the postwar British Labour government increasingly eager to find a way to divest itself of the whole area. On the Korean peninsula, American and Soviet occupiers cooperated with the defeated Japanese Army to divide the region. In South Africa, resurgent Afrikaner nationalists sought to roll back the gains made by Africans during the war. Authorities in Czechoslovakia began a campaign to expel the German minority from the country. A closer examination of these diverse events suggests an important common theme. In each case, policy makers in colonial and post-colonial societies believed that the key to establishing postwar stability was to alter borders or move large groups of people to conform to existing ones. Why did the radical re-alignment of borders and populations appeal to so many decision-makers in so many different contexts after 1945? The answer, I suggest, lies in the lessons learned after the end of the First World War in A generation of political elites in the European and colonial worlds saw the post 1919 settlement as a failure that tried to 2

3 do too much and ended up accomplishing too little, leaving a legacy of states with enduring national minority problems and colonial mandates that did not resolve national questions in Africa and Asia. The assumptions that guided policy making during this period helped to create the postwar international order that developed into the Cold War by the end of the decade. This crucial moment of transition between global conflicts also left dangerous and durable legacies in the postwar refugee crisis in Europe, the unstable settlement on the Korean peninsula, the apartheid and Bantustan systems in South Africa, and the violence of partition in South Asia. My book offers a systematic effort to understand the post-1945 world as a legacy of and successor to the problems of making a durable peace after These two settlements, seen together, shaped the contemporary world. The research for this project will involve travel to Washington, D.C., London, Delhi, Pretoria, and archives in Germany and the Czech Republic. Having written and researched extensively on the refugee crisis in Europe after World War II, I have already collected much of the material that I will need to use for these chapters. I have arranged a leave from the Department of History during Fall 2011 and have recently applied for Faculty Development Leave in Spring A grant will allow me to begin archival research during Summer 2011 that will significantly speed the process of research and writing. If awarded a grant, funds would be used the pay for two significant research trips during this period. First, I will spend the month of June 2011 in Washington, DC, where I will work in the National Archives and Records Administration II. There I will conduct research in the voluminous and largely unexplored files of the American military occupation of the Korean peninsula. In 1945, this was the site of one of the most important postwar tests of the US-Soviet wartime alliance. Largely for lack of a better plan, American and Soviet negotiators secretly agreed to divide administrative responsibility for the territory. When American troops arrived in September, 1945, they found themselves so overwhelmed by the size of the task that they clumsily let the Japanese Army continue to administer southern Korea. As it became clear that the Americans and Soviets planned to formalize the division of the peninsula into zones of occupation, riots broke out in mines, factories, and city streets. I am currently applying for a fellowship at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies that would also support this portion of the research. 3

4 Following that, I will spend three weeks in July in London, England, working at the National Archives in Kew. There, I will concentrate on material related to one of the most important and little-studied events in the history of the imperial retreat from Asia. Millions of Indians; Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh, served the British empire during the war. By the end of the conflict, sectarian tensions in the regions fused with anxiety about the slow pace of demobilization. In February 1946, these grievances burst forth in one of the largest naval mutinies in British history as 10,000 sailors at almost a dozen bases seized ships and buildings across India and left colonial authorities worried about their continued ability to keep peace on the subcontinent. I will be applying for a Bernadotte Schmitt grant from the American Historical Association in support of this research trip. In both cases, the material that I propose to examine is unique and requires examination on site. In some cases, documents in which I am interested are security-sensitive. I have extensive experience working in both of these archives and in navigating the sometimes complex system of identifying and receiving clearance to work with government documents. This experience, along with my familiarity with the systems of document classification used by these archives, will allow me to make efficient use of time and resources. This project will require considerable external financial support to complete. I am applying for funding from the Social Science Research Council, Humboldt Foundation, and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. A Program to Enhance Scholarly and Creative Activities grant will make me far more competitive for these prestigious external grants. I plan to complete a draft of the manuscript by the end of This will be my third book project. The first, The Ordeal of Peace: Demobilization and the Urban Experience in Britain and Germany, , was published in 2009 in the Birmingham Studies in First World War History series through Ashgate. My manuscript Strangers in the Wild Place: Refugees, Americans, and a German Town, is currently under review at Indiana University Press. I have written several articles in refereed international journals and published a number of book chapters on American military base policy in Europe, the rearmament of West Germany, and the refugee crisis in post-1945 Europe. I have won competitive research funding from the Fulbright Program, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Historical Institute Washington, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 4

5 TAMU BUDGET INFORMATION Investigator(s) Salary: $ Investigator(s) - Fringe Bene- $ Investigator 2 Salary: $0.00 Investigator 2 - Fringe Bene- $0.00 Investigator 3 Salary: $0.00 Investigator 3 - Fringe Bene- $0.00 Investigator 4 Salary: $0.00 Investigator 4 - Fringe Bene- $0.00 Graduate Student(s) Salary: $0.00 Graduate Student(s) - Fringe $0.00 Bene Postdoctoral Employee(s) $0.00 Salary: Postdoctoral Employee(s) - $0.00 Fringe Bene Other Employee(s) Salary: $0.00 Other Employee(s) - Fringe $0.00 Bene Other Research Professionals: $0.00 Services: $ Scientific equipment and sup- $0.00 plies: Equipment: $0.00 Travel: $ Accommodations: $ Meals: $ Other: $0.00 Total: $ Please enter your budget justification here: Costs associated with research travel, particularly in the United Kingdom, are fairly high due to the weakness of the dollar and the fact that I will conducting research during the summer tourist season. Estimates of travel are based on current round-trip air ticket prices for Washington, DC and London, England. Accomodation and food expenses are based on reasonable estimates of lodging for a one-month stay in Washington and three weeks in London. These reflect my own recent experience renting short-term accomodations in both cities. Other expenses include digital reproduction costs, which are particularly high at the National Archives in London. Salary is intended to defray some of expenses associated with maintaining a home in College Station during the summer while I am away on a research trip. 5