Spencer C. Olin
Professor, History
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
PH.D., Claremont Graduate School, 1965
University of California, Irvine
260 Murray Krieger Hall
Mail Code: 3375
Irvine, CA 92697
260 Murray Krieger Hall
Mail Code: 3375
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Modern American and California History
Research Abstract
Of special concern to me is the emergence and development of a corporate capitalist economic system in the United States during the twentieth century. I am interested in various social, political, and cultural consequences of that significant transformation, such as the rise of an interventionist state, social formations, race relations, oppositional movements, international conflict, and political ideology.
During the past several decades, an internal restructuring of the American economy (away from its manufacturing base toward the service and information sectors) has been combined with spatial shifts in investment and a massive expansion of the area of organizational control. This "global option" has been made possible by the rise of multinational corporations and by information technologies. In this process, some regions have experienced rapid growth and others have experienced severe decline. My current research examines the spatial and political consequences of these profound transformations in such emerging metropolitan regions as Orange County. I am interested in attempts to link such regions to the needs of global capital and in movements that have arisen in opposition to such linkages. In other words, how does the realm of regional politics intersect with the new global economy?
During the past several decades, an internal restructuring of the American economy (away from its manufacturing base toward the service and information sectors) has been combined with spatial shifts in investment and a massive expansion of the area of organizational control. This "global option" has been made possible by the rise of multinational corporations and by information technologies. In this process, some regions have experienced rapid growth and others have experienced severe decline. My current research examines the spatial and political consequences of these profound transformations in such emerging metropolitan regions as Orange County. I am interested in attempts to link such regions to the needs of global capital and in movements that have arisen in opposition to such linkages. In other words, how does the realm of regional politics intersect with the new global economy?
Publications
California's Prodigal Sons: Hiram Johnson and the Progressives, 1911-1917 (1968)
Racism in California: A reader in the History of Oppression, (1972) with Roger Daniels
Why War? Ideology, Theory, and History, (1980) with Keith Nelson
California Politics, 1846-1920: The Emerging Corporate State (1981)
Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County Since World War II, (1991, 1995) with Rob Kling and Mark Poster
Major Problems in California History (1997), with Sucheng Chan
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=2767
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=2767
Last updated
10/13/2017
10/13/2017