Human Capital and Technological Transition: Insights from the U.S. Navy

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 704-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell J. Glaser ◽  
Ahmed S. Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Specialized Training ◽  
Naval Academy ◽  
Technological Transition ◽  
Wage Premia ◽  
Naval Officers ◽  
The U.S

We explore the effects of human capital on workers during the latter nineteenth century by examining the U.S. Navy. Naval officers belonged either to a regular or an engineer corps and had tasks assigned for their specialized training. We compile education and career data for officers from Naval Academy and navy registers for the years 1858 to 1907. Wage premia for “engineer-skilled” officers deteriorated over their careers; more traditionally skilled officers enjoyed higher gains in earnings and more frequent promotions. This compelled those with engineering skills to leave the service early, hindering the navy's capacity to further technologically develop.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jason W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Science Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Naval Officers ◽  
The U.S

The introduction established the main argument of the book, which is that the U.S. Navy’s charts and its chart-making throughout the nineteenth century were integral to the expansion of American oceanic empire even as such effort exposed the limits of science practice, seafaring, and war-making in a dynamic, dangerous marine environment. The Navy and the broader American maritime world’s encounter with the ocean, mediated through science, was integral to the way mariners, navigators, and naval officers thought of an emerging maritime empire first in commercial terms and, by the late nineteenth century, in new geo-strategic terms. The introduction also places the larger work within the historiographies of military, maritime, and naval history as well as environmental history and the history of science and cartography, seeking to establish historiographical and methodological bridges among these sub-fields.

To Master the Boundless Sea

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ocean Environment ◽  
Naval Officers ◽  
The U.S

As the United States grew into an empire in the late nineteenth century, notions like “sea power” derived not only from fleets, bases, and decisive battles but also from a scientific effort to understand and master the ocean environment. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and concluding in the first years of the twentieth, Jason W. Smith tells the story of the rise of the U.S. Navy and the emergence of American ocean empire through its struggle to control nature. In vividly told sketches of exploration, naval officers, war, and, most significantly, the ocean environment, Smith draws together insights from environmental, maritime, military, and naval history, and the history of science and cartography, placing the U.S. Navy’s scientific efforts within a broader cultural context. By recasting and deepening our understanding of the U.S. Navy and the United States at sea, Smith brings to the fore the overlooked work of naval hydrographers, surveyors, and cartographers. In the nautical chart’s soundings, names, symbols, and embedded narratives, Smith recounts the largely untold story of a young nation looking to extend its power over the boundless sea.

Prospective Study of Respiratory Infections at the U.S. Naval Academy

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory C. Gray ◽  
Robert G. Schultz ◽  
Gary D. Gackstetter ◽  
Jamie A. McKeehan ◽  
Kathleen V. Aldridge
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Study ◽  
Respiratory Infections ◽  
Naval Academy ◽  
The U.S

History of Respiratory Illness at the U.S. Naval Academy

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy L. Blankenship ◽  
Gary Gackstetter ◽  
Gregory C. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory Illness ◽  
Naval Academy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The U.S

American Dream Deferred

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-260
Author(s):  
P. James Paligutan
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Civil Rights Era ◽  
Migratory Movement ◽  
Naval Officers ◽  
The U.S

This article examines a unique migratory movement of Filipinos to America: Filipino nationals recruited by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard between 1952 and 1970. Such recruits were seen as a solution to a mounting labor problem stemming from the Navy’s traditional use of minorities to fulfill duties as servants for naval officers. With African Americans' demands for equal opportunity reaching a crescendo during the Civil Rights era, the U.S. Navy looked to its former colony to replenish its supply of dark-skinned servants. Despite expectations of docility, however, such Filipino sailors were able to forge a culture of resistance manifested through non-confrontational acts of defiance, protest through official channels, and labor stoppage. Such actions ultimately resulted in the reversal of naval policy that relegated Filipinos to servile labor.

Mid-Victorian Attitudes to Seamen and Maritime Reform: The Society for Improving the Condition of Merchant Seamen, 1867

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars U. Scholl
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
General Public ◽  
Parliamentary Committee ◽  
Naval Officers ◽  
Protection Of Life ◽  
Business Freedom

This chapter analyses the mid-nineteenth century attempts to improve the working conditions of merchant seamen in Britain, by focussing on the actions of the Society for Improving the Condition of Merchant Seamen - an extra-parliamentary committee founded to push for governmental reform. Williams notes that the committee was comprised of MPs, naval officers, medical men, and shipmasters, but no common seamen whatsoever. He suggests the society grew out of primarily middle-class humanitarian interests. The society published reports into health, accommodation, wages, and protection of life. Williams declares that their audience was the general public, those who value business freedom but are troubled by humanitarian concerns. He concludes by stating the Society was both instrumental and symptomatic in the shift in consciousness from improving maritime discipline, to improving maritime welfare.

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