The Memory of John Paul Jones in Scottish-American Relations, 1890s-1970s

Citation

Toth G & Bowman S (2023) The Memory of John Paul Jones in Scottish-American Relations, 1890s-1970s. [Video on Youtube.com] 16.10.2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6O8D-aB88

Abstract
Despite his controversial past as a ‘brutal’ ship’s captain, a ‘slaver’, an alleged murderer and rapist, and subsequently a ‘mercenary’ commander in the Russian navy, John Paul Jones’ figure and memory served as a symbolic plank in the Anglo-US relations of the 20th century. President Theodore Roosevelt used Jones as an icon to promote the expansion of US naval power, and his relative President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a screenplay on Jones. In 1947 the US Congress had established the John Paul Jones Bicentennial Commission to orchestrate anniversary celebrations, including official events in Scotland. In 1953, a plaque was unveiled at Jones’ birthplace in Scotland by the Navy and the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1959, Hollywood finally premiered its film John Paul Jones, a movie that had been in various stages of production – and periodic international political controversy – since the 1930s. From the 1950s, the United States Navy regularly took groups of officers from its ships in port at Leith, Scotland, on training and goodwill visits to Jones’ birthplace in Arbigland in Dumfries and Galloway. Such transatlantic commemorations served not only the US government’s domestic agendas, but also a realignment in early Cold War Anglo-American relations.

Keywords
John Paul Jones, public diplomacy, US-UK/Scots relations, Cold War, heritage diplomacy

Notes
https://chicagoscots.org/event/scottish-american-history-forum-29/

People

Dr Stephen Bowman

Lecturer in British Political History, History

Dr Gyorgy Toth

Lecturer, History