The 5th Annual Appalachian Lecture in British History will host Dr. Jason White of Appalachian State University. The lecture will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Belk Library, room 114 on Thursday, April 27, 2017. There will be a display of rare books and other items relating to the lecture in the Rhinehart Room (4th floor of the Library) between 5:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Appalachian State faculty and guests are also invited to a pre-lecture dinner in room 421 of the Belk Library, to begin at 5:30 p.m. An RSVP is recommended for pre-lecture dinner participation.
The English Levant Company, first chartered by Elizabeth I in 1581, enjoyed a monopoly on all trade between England and the Ottoman Empire until 1754. In this lecture, Dr. White will discuss how the Company existed between the two worlds of England and the Ottoman Empire and how the directors and merchants of the Company negotiated, responded to, and even shaped numerous changes in political authority, economic conditions, diplomatic climates and social factors at both ends of its trading network.
The lecture will also explore the Company’s interaction with a broad range of people and interests in both England and the Ottoman Empire. The Company played an interesting and important role in the development of the English state, the creation of England’s global trading network, and western relations with the Muslim world.
Dr. White earned his PhD in History from Brown University in 2008. His first book, Militant Protestantism and British Identity, 1603-1642 (2012) argued that the 1603 Union of Crowns and the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618 were significant factors in the causes of the English Civil War.
His current research is on the Levant Company in the seventeenth century and focuses on relationships between state formation, trade, and empire. He has been an assistant professor at Appalachian State University since 2012.
If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact Lynn Patterson (pattersondl@appstate.edu). For all other inquiries, please contact Michael Turner (turnermj@appstate.edu). This event is sponsored by the Department of History, University Libraries and Mr. Bill Rhinehart. For more information about events, please visit the College of Arts and Sciences.
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Annual Lecture in British History
Between Two Worlds: the English Levant Company and the Ottoman Empire, 1581-1688