Thoughts On The Mediterranean Summary

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Tommy Buttaccio HIS 505 Short Essay Of Migrants and Mobility: Thoughts on the Mediterraneans In her book Mediterraneans: North Africa and Europe in an Age of Migration, c. 1800–1900 Julia Clancy-Smith takes the reader to the Mediterranean during what Clancy- Smith calls an age of migration. She states that this migration that we see in the mediteranian is the bedrock of civilization and that it drives history. Interestingly in her work, instead of looking to Greece or turkey to examine the Mediterranean, but to Tunisia and parts of North Africa. This significantly shifts the view of the Mediterranean from a Eurocentric view point to one that gives voice and agency to the people of Tunisia, Algeria, and North Africa in general. By examining…show more content…
Before exploring that aspect, however it would be a good spot to look at the nature of her sources. In the beginning of the chapter, the author gives a narrative about Neapolitan servants who were punished by their master by failing to serve a meal on time. This shows the nature of the author’s sources. By looking at records of altercation and punishment Clancy-Smith “read against the grain” of her sources and learned valuable pieces of information about the subjects of her study through these brief moments. Now, going back to the example the author gives in the beginning of chapter three, she shows not only the rage of their employer, but also shows that the domestic servants who avoided punishments fled to Tunisia. The author speculates how they came into service to their abusive proprietors, but then poses the question on what lines of work they had available to them. Employment, was shaped by a myriad of factors, including gender, race, legal protection, education and class. Despite all of these reasons migrants had to be on the lookout for social networks they could associate themselves with from other migrants to find employment. These migrants who obtained jobs and rose to a middle class within their ranks produced an anxiety for upper class Tunisians because of the upset in social order. These migrants weren’t the only anxiety producing agent in the text. Women in the social sphere opened up a whole new set of fears, which is set up in the next

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