Adrian Brettle | Arizona State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Adrian Brettle

Slavery & Abolition, Oct 1, 2023

Journal of Policy History, Sep 19, 2023

During the Civil War, many Americans were prepared for censorship if free speech undermined prese... more During the Civil War, many Americans were prepared for censorship if free speech undermined preserving the Union. Journalists were unable to obtain timely accurate information on the military campaigns either for fear of helping the enemy or depressing morale at home. Self-censorship was far more important than official suppression of free speech, as spontaneous popular pressure curtailed freedom of expression at the beginning of the war and later on the army performed a similar function. For Federals, commitment to preserving the Union required treating Confederates as ubiquitous seditious conspirators. Combatting this internal enemy, in turn, especially in the Border States, required extensive suppression of free speech. Later in the conflict and right across the Union, the critical and urgent need to fill the ranks led to official censorship of any words that might discourage volunteering, and this conflicted with freedom of religion as well as speech and the press.

Journal of Policy History, 2023

American Nineteenth Century History, Sep 1, 2012

Reconstruction and Empire

The wartime experience of pursuing ambitious plans for the Confederacy left its imprint on its su... more The wartime experience of pursuing ambitious plans for the Confederacy left its imprint on its surviving politicians in Virginia during Reconstruction. Continuity made sense to these individuals as Confederate planners, diplomats, and negotiators with the Union had often assumed that their schemes of commercial and territorial expansion, construction of internal improvements, and reductions in tariffs toward a future of Free Trade required the acquiescence, even the support, of the United States. Then emancipation and the process of Reconstruction left former Confederates eager to reassume, once more in the Democratic Party, the position of leadership they had earlier held in the state, pushing aside Whiggish and unionist intermediaries. Meanwhile frustration with federal government policy grew with what Virginian Democrats construed to be a weak foreign policy with its apparent inattention both toward southward territorial growth and pursuit of access to markets abroad. They blamed postwar economic hardships in the state on Republican Party policies, specifically protectionist economics and the support of various interstate commercial projects and internal improvements, which they believed by-passed the South. By the 1870s, hard times across the nation and electoral success suggested to Virginian Democrats that the chance to implement their Confederate plans had finally arrived.

Reconstruction and Empire, 2022

Journal of Policy History, 2017

The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660–2000, 2010

The importance of foreign policy in domestic politics in the 1850s is illustrated by the fact tha... more The importance of foreign policy in domestic politics in the 1850s is illustrated by the fact that every government fell in this decade on an issue of foreign policy. In 1852, Lord John Russell’s departed over the militia issue; later that year, the 14th Earl of Derby’s government lost power due to a war-scare wrecked budget; the 4th Earl of Aberdeen’s coalition collapsed in early 1855 over the Crimean war; the 3rd Viscount Palmerston’s first government was censured in 1857, as a result of its Chinese policy, and finally departed the following year as a result of Orsini’s attempted assassination of Napoleon III; the last, Derby’s second government, was forced out in 1859 over Italy. The one government that survived; Palmerston’s second, 1859— 1865, administration came closest to defeat over foreign affairs. It was at its most vulnerable over foreign crises; in 1860, over Italy, and later in 1864, due to Schleswig-Holstein. This primacy of foreign policy was the result of the push of external happenings in the late 1840s and 1850s. These outside events were colonial instability, tumult in the United States, the genesis of an imperial vision following the Indian Mutiny,1 a naval arms race and, pre-eminently caused by the Crimean war, the end of the Concert system established after 1815. These cumulative occurrences have been described as part of a ‘mid-nineteenth century world crisis.’2

The Journal of the Civil War Era, 2015

Speech offers a powerful avenue between user and computer. However, if the user is not speaking, ... more Speech offers a powerful avenue between user and computer. However, if the user is not speaking, or is speaking to someone else, what is the computer to make of it? Project LISTEN's Reading Tutor is speech-aware software that strives to teach children to read. Because it is useful to know what the child is doing when reading, we are investigating some potential uses of computer vision. By recording and analyzing video of the Tutor in use, we measured the frequency of events that cannot be detected by speech alone. These include how often the child is visually distracted, and how often the teacher or another student provides assistance. This information helps us assess how vision might enhance the effectiveness of the Reading Tutor.

The Journal of the Civil War Era, 2021

Southern and then Confederate politicians and business leaders possessed and implemented expansio... more Southern and then Confederate politicians and business leaders possessed and implemented expansionist ambitions during the Civil War Era from State Secession in late 1860 until the final collapse of the Confederacy in the first half of 1865. The Confederacy exhibited both formal ambition in the desire to annex additional territory and informal expansion through either a pursuit of commercial exploitation or fostering the fragmentation of neighboring states. Although the pursuit of expansion was integral to the formation of mid-nineteenth century nation states, for southerners, the experience of both secession and of fighting a war acted as a stimulant for such ambitions.

Civil War History Journal, 2019