Search

Begin New Search Topic Capitalism Author Christopher McKenna

1. To Infinity and Beyond: Pixar’s Journey to Reinvent Animation

Author:
Helen Scantlebury and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
In 1923, a budding entrepreneur named Walt Disney left Kansas for Hollywood to create animated movies. Walt had worked as an advertising cartoonist but had little knowledge of the world of filmmaking. With the help of his brother Roy, he produced his first short animations via commissions from New York, but it was not a particularly lucrative business.1 The Disney brothers eventually made a deal with Universal Studios to produce an animated series with a new cartoon character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The deal was a relatively small sideline for Universal, but it was a big break for the aspiring duo and their little team of animators. Walt was particularly excited to work on the Oswald cartoons—of the two brothers, he generally focused on creative elements while Roy focused on financial matters. When Walt and his chief animator presented their first short film to Universal, however, the studio sent them back to the drawing board. Undeterred, Walt reworked the character and in September 1927, Universal released the first Oswald short film. After that, Walt produced a fresh Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short every other week for distribution by Universal.2 Despite the consistent work, the Disney brothers repeatedly clashed with Universal, who eventually forced them out. However, Oswald had to stay behind. The brothers had sold Oswald’s copyrights to Universal, so they could not feature him in their future work. Walt never forgot losing control of Oswald, so when he started his next animation project, he secured all copyrights for his new main character: a charismatic mouse with large, distinctive ears who looked strikingly similar to Oswald. That mouse, of course, was Mickey Mouse, who made his first on screen appearance in November 1928.3 4 With Mickey and other popular characters, the Disney brothers found quick success on their own. Beginning in 1932, Walt won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short film for eight years in a row.5
Topic:
Media, Capitalism, Business, Pixar, and Animation
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

2. The Apple of My Eye: A History of René Magritte’s, the Beatles’, and Steve Jobs’ Entwined Trademarks

Author:
Emma Day and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Paul McCartney first saw the apple on his dining room table in the summer of 1967. Large, vivid green, with “Au Revoir” written across it, McCartney immediately considered the image of the fruit, painted by the Belgian graphic designer, René Magritte, a year earlier, to be iconic. As McCartney recalled, “This big green apple, which I still have now, became the inspiration for the logo” of the Beatles’ multimedia company, Apple Corps, that the band founded in 1968. McCartney and his three bandmates—John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—used Magritte’s apple image, a recurring theme in the artist’s work, as the starting point for their new company’s logo. Imitating Magritte’s style which presented familiar objects in strange and unexpected ways, they printed their small, green Granny Smith apple on records, CDs, and other merchandise.1 Remarkably, the marketing potential of Magritte’s apple image did not end there. Steve Jobs grew up listening to the Beatles. When the tech entrepreneur wanted to start his own company with the engineer, Steve Wozniak, he called it “Apple” in tribute to the band. The pair launched Apple Computer, with the logo of a small, rainbow coloured apple with a bite taken out of it, in 1976.2 But the Beatles did not want to share the apple branding and sued Apple Computer three times for trademark infringement. Over the course of the next three decades, the two companies fought for the right to use their version of the “Apple” name and logo. The recycled apple image that brought together a graphic designer, pop band, and computer company sat at the heart of an intellectual property battle defining computer and music innovation in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.
Topic:
History, Arts, Capitalism, Symbolism, Beatles, Logo, René Magritte, Steve Jobs, and Trademarks
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

3. The Alaskan fur rush and the Russian-American Company

Author:
Jonathan Tiemann and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
On 18 July 18031 , Russian Navy Lieutenant Nikolai Aleksandrovich Khvostov, commander of the Sv Elizaveta, faced a critical peril, threatening shipwreck. Having left Kodiak Island in what is now Alaska, bound for the port of Okhotsk, the Elizaveta carried for the Russian-American Company (the Company) an enormous cargo comprising more than 16,000 sea otter skins, some 10,000 fox skins, 8,000 sables, and a small number of other furs, a cargo that was worth about 1.5 million roubles.
Topic:
Capitalism, History, Trade, and Fur Trade
Political Geography:
Russia, North America, and United States of America

4. Holy Scarcity and the Management of Mecca

Author:
Barclay Bram, Charlie Harris, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
11-2022
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
There are three stone pillars in the city of Mina, just east of Mecca. During the Hajj, pilgrims must strike one of the three jamraat with seven pebbles. In the subsequent days they must return and stone each of the pillars, with pebbles no greater than the size of a chickpea that they find in the plain nearby or in Mina itself. Pilgrims collect at least 49 such pebbles, keeping them in a small pouch as they perform their other religious duties. “The stoning of the devil” is a ritual that is a key part of the Hajj pilgrimage, which is a religious obligation all able-bodied Muslims who are capable of doing so must complete at least once in a lifetime.1 It is such an important act that some Muslims change their name afterwards, adding the honorific al-H or hajji. In parts of the Arab world families of returned hajjis paint murals on their homes to alert their neighbours to the pilgrim in their midst.2 Throwing the stones symbolises the actions of Ibrahim when he faced the trial of sacrificing his son, Ismail, upon the commandment of Allah. The pillars represent each of the three places in which the devil tried to dissuade Ibrahim from carrying out Allah’s will.
Topic:
Islam, Religion, Capitalism, and Management
Political Geography:
Saudi Arabia and Mecca

5. Burn Brightly and Fade Fast: The Story of Sun Records

Author:
KC Harris and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Rock ‘n’ roll owes its origins to a one-room converted auto repair shop in Memphis, Tennessee and a man named Sam Phillips. As a talent scout, producer, and record-label operator, Sam Phillips defined the genre of rock ‘n’ roll and, consequently, the evolution of popular music in the 20th century through his label Sun Records.1 From his tiny recording studio in Memphis, Phillips discovered Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, and many more famous performers. Situated at a geographic and cultural crossroads in Memphis, between Nashville, the home of country music, and Chicago, the capital of the Blues, Sun Records codified the new sound of rock ‘n’ roll, which bridged racial, economic, and generational divides in the 1950s and 60s.
Topic:
History, Capitalism, and Music
Political Geography:
United States

6. Discounting Gold: Money and Banking in Gold Rush California

Author:
Jonathan Tiemann and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Two momentous events early in 1848 completely and abruptly transformed California. On 24 January, James Marshall found gold in a millrace he was building for John Sutter at Coloma, on the South Fork of the American River. Nine days later, on 2 February, the United States and Mexico concluded the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending nearly two years of hostilities. Under the Treaty, Mexico ceded much of the present south-western United States to the US for monetary consideration. An American occupation government had ruled most of California since mid-1846, but neither the American military governor nor the earlier Mexican governors had held firm political control over the remote, sparsely populated territory. 1 Now, the problem was fully in the hands of the Americans.
Topic:
Economics, History, Monetary Policy, Capitalism, Currency, and Banking
Political Geography:
United States

7. Ching Shih and the Pirates of the South China Coast: Shifting Alliances, Strategy, and Reputational Racketeering at the Start of the 19th Century

Author:
Charlie Harris and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
At the end of the 18th century, China’s coastal Kwangtung Province was a pirate’s dream. Colonial cargo ships sailed along Kwangtung’s coastline transporting increasingly valuable goods ripe for liberation. Among the countless waterways that drained into the South China Sea, fugitives could easily find shelter, and bandits could easily prepare an ambush. Chinese authorities found the surrounding archipelago of roughly 700 islands impossible to explore, providing the pirates further cover. Locals described this maze of canals, rivers, estuaries, and deltas that connected with the ocean, the ‘inner sea’. Outsiders often ran aground while pursuing or fleeing the pirates, who had grown up plying its labyrinthine waters. Looking further inland, a mountain range separated Kwangtung geographically and economically from the rest of China, acting as a buffer against easy intervention by the Chinese Emperor. As a last resort, the pirates could also quickly flee west across the national border into Vietnam.
Topic:
History, Piracy, Capitalism, Alliance, Trade, and Reputation
Political Geography:
Asia and South China Sea

8. Mansa Musa I of Mali: Gold, Salt, and Storytelling in Medieval West Africa

Author:
Christopher McKenna and Charlie Harris
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
In 1312, the reigning emperor of Mali – Mansa Abubakari Keita II – sent 200 manned boats and 100 support boats containing supplies to sail until they found the edge of the Atlantic. After a long excursion, one boat returned. Its captain bore only a horror story about the whirlpool that had swallowed his comrades. Unimpressed (and perhaps obsessed) the emperor chose to make the expedition himself – this time with a retinue of 3,000 ships. He chose his deputy, Musa – a member of the court with no blood relation to the king – to act as ruler in his absence. The deliberate appointment, untainted by the hereditary rule that has produced so many poor monarchs, is likely a testament to the character and abilities of Musa.
Topic:
History, Natural Resources, Capitalism, Currency, Trade, and Atlantic World
Political Geography:
West Africa and Mali

9. Morris Motors: How Oxford became a Motor City

Author:
David White, Jack Felton, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
Oxford’s history is one of industry. One of Britain’s largest cities in the medieval and early modern period at a crucial crossing of the River Thames, the city remained a transport hub through the First Industrial Revolution. As the meeting point of the West Midlands’ canal network and the major river, Oxford facilitated water transport between the industrial heartlands and the capital. With the advent of the railways, Oxford’s position as a crossroads solidified. Later, Oxfordshire’s inland position and relatively flat geography would make it an ideal location for airbases in wartime. Road traffic, first horse-drawn and later horseless, also passed through Oxford as major roads led to and from the city. But Oxford is a home to vehicle manufacture not just a transport hub. Oxford is the UK’s motor city. These days the majority of Formula 1 teams have their headquarters in Oxfordshire, while BMW’s Mini plant is situated in the Cowley area of Oxford on the site of the old Morris Motors factory.
Topic:
Economics, History, Capitalism, Transportation, Industry, and Cars
Political Geography:
Britain and UK

10. Money, Cattle Hides and William A Leidesdorff: California before the Gold Rush

Author:
Jonathan Tiemann, Oenone Kubie, and Christopher McKenna
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Case Study
Institution:
Oxford Centre for Global History
Abstract:
The discovery of gold in January 1848, at Nueva Helvetia, John Sutter’s property in the Sacramento Valley, changed the course of Californian history. By the end of March, San Francisco had emptied as its population swarmed to the gold fields that had opened up around Sutter’s lumbermills and by August, the East Coast newspapers were reporting the discovery of Californian gold. In December of that year, President James K Polk confirmed the find in front of Congress and in 1849, one of America’s largest migrations ever took place as hundreds of thousands of gold prospectors, the ‘Forty-niners’, descended on ‘Gold Country’.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, History, Natural Resources, Capitalism, Economic Development, Cattle, and Farming
Political Geography:
United States