The American Historical Review April 2006 [antikvár]

In This IssueThis issue contains five articles along with our usual extensive book review section. The articles offer an eclectic sampling of contemporary historical scholarship, from a consideration of commodities exchange in the United States in the late nineteenth century to a look at anticolonial struggles in early-nineteenth-century Latin America; from theatrical transvestism in Russian prisoner-of war-camps in World War I to fifteenth-century witchcraft treatises; and concluding with a piece on superstitious rumors in Mao's China.In "Contemplating Delivery: Futures Trading and the Problem of Commodity Exchange in the United States, 1875-1905," Jonathan Ira Levy explores the ascendance of futures trading, a significant innovation in the global history of capitalism. In these years there emerged a professional class of merchants who never delivered or received physical commodities but rather dealt in things that did not existthat is, futures. In "bucket shops," distinct venues for this sort of organized exchange, futures trading was democratized. Indeed, these institutions revolutionized the spatial and temporal dimensions of the world economy. Yet futures also posed a moral and epistemological dilemma: Should there be a traffic in fictional things? This question was mooted in the political arenain statehouses, in Congress, and, finally, at the Supreme Court. What emerged was the doctrine of "contemplating delivery," which said that traders could deal in thoughts so long as there was true intent in their minds actually to deliver tangible commodities. This ultimately led to the sanctioning of futures trading in state-chartered institutions, such as the Chicago Board of Trade. The popular bucket shops, however, were abolished. The Supreme Court's decision was emblematic of both a new world view regarding uncertainty, probability, and knowledge and a new imperative in political economyrisk management. Because futures trading determined the pricing of primary commodities everywhere, these developments had ramifications for the production and exchange of commodities around the globe.In "Race War and Nation in Caribbean Gran Colombia, Cartagena, 1810-1832," Marixa Lasso argues that modern racial conceptions in the Americas originated during the anticolonial struggles of the Age of Revolution. In particular, she examines the emergence of a nationalist ideology of racial harmony and equalitythe twentieth-century myth of racial democracyduring the Spanish American wars of independence. While most historians trace the origins of modern race relations to