Author: Maggie Maston

I went into this research process with fairly low expectations about how many primary sources I would find. I assumed I would mostly come across Hollander’s academic writing and not much informal, personal, or opinion-based material that could help me understand his thinking and decision-making. In some ways, that expectation was accurate, but it also changed as I worked through the sources. While I did not find much in the way of personal correspondence or diaries, I did find a wide range of primary sources beyond his own writing such as newspapers and congressional documents. These sources helped fill in gaps and provided context for his work. At the same time, I found that even his academic writing could be useful for identifying elements of his personal perspective. By doing close reading and paying attention to context, I was able to pull out some of his underlying opinions, even when he was trying to write in a more objective and factual way. I also saved a lot of time by returning to sources I had already bookmarked during my secondary source research, which made this phase more efficient.

I began my research with a structured brainstorming process. Drawing on Herring’s From Colony to Superpower as well as prior knowledge of Hollander, I identified several broad themes that might frame his life and work. I also compiled a list of outstanding questions, key figures associated with him, and relevant topics from class discussions, with particular attention to the first decade of the twentieth century. This step proved incredibly helpful in the long-run. Not only did it prepare me to thoughtfully analyze the sources as I read them, but it also made my research more productive by shaping the direction of my final paper.

The next stage involved reviewing the primary sources I had previously collected from databases such as JSTOR, Jumpstart, the New York Times archives, and Google Books. Although I initially expected this process to be relatively quick, I was pleasantly surprised at the value I found in many of the 15 sources I had saved. Among them was Hollander’s article, “Mandeville in the Twentieth Century: A Correction,” which, while not directly related to my central topic, offered revealing insight into his personality and the way in which he responds to critique. Another significant source was the House and Senate document Debt of Santo Domingo, a roughly 200-page report prepared by Hollander in 1905. It contains a lot of the preparatory work that was needed in order to move forward with legislation and eventually reach the 1907 Convention between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. I also examined a 1907 article in which Hollander directly analyzes this convention, as well as a later piece titled “Dominican Republic.” These last two sources revealed his vision for the Dominican Republic and demonstrated how U.S. intervention was framed as neutral, scientific assistance rather than regional dominance and control.

Debt of Santo Domingo (ProQuest)

I was unable to find relevant materials through The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, and a closer examination of FRUS did not provide sources of particular significance for my project. However, I did find the Jacob Harry Hollander Papers housed in the Johns Hopkins University libraries. I was super excited to find this collection when I saw it contained correspondence between Hollander and significant people I had noted prior such as his secretary, Otto Schoenrich, and President Theodore Roosevelt. It also contains a handful of writings, speeches, and subject files. Unfortunately, the materials are stored off-site and require advance notice for access, which prevented me from consulting them during this phase of research. I intend to look further into this collection as I continue developing my paper.

Finally, I turned to newspaper databases, including those of the Library of Congress and ProQuest. Through keyword searches for “Hollander” and “Santo Domingo,” I identified several particularly useful articles, including “PROF. HOLLANDER SUCCEEDS,” “PROFESSOR HOLLANDER REPORTS,” and “NEW DOMINICAN PACT.” These sources revealed patterns in coverage, with frequent attention to Hollander’s travel, his negotiations with European creditors, and a minor controversy regarding his pay. The reporting on his interactions with European creditors was especially interesting, as it highlighted the complex diplomatic juggling he managed and the range of stakeholders he was dealt with, including the U.S. government, European powers, and Dominican officials.

Evening star (Washington, D.C.), April 2, 1910 (LOC)

Overall, while some gaps remain, this research process has deepened my understanding of how Jacob Hollander thought about his work, his personality, and the kinds of challenges he was facing. I would have liked to find more personal, private writing, other than what he wrote publicly that might have given more insight into his personal beliefs and decision-making. Still, I was surprised by how useful the sources I had already set aside turned out to be, and I can already see my paper beginning to take shape.

Bibliography

Debt of Santo Domingo. Congressional Document. 1905. [PROQUEST]

Hollander, Jacob H. 1907. “The Convention of 1907 Between the United States and the Dominican Republic.” The American Journal of International Law (New York, USA) 1 (2): 287–96. [JSTOR]

Hollander, Jacob H. 1916. “Dominican Republic.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science(Los Angeles, CA) 68 (1): 176–176. [JSTOR]

Hollander, Jacob H. 1918. “‘Mandeville in the Twentieth Century’: A Correction.” The American Economic Review(Nashville) 8 (2): 338–39. [JSTOR]

“NEW DOMINICAN PACT: Signed by Minister Dawson at Island Capital. Will Be Rushed to Senate State Department Hopes Convention, Designed as Substitute for That Pending, Will Be Confirmed at Present Session. Provides for Issue of Bonds to Santo Domingo’s Creditors.” The Washington Post (1877–1922), February 5, 1907. [PROQUEST]

“PROF. HOLLANDER SUCCEEDS: Foreign Creditors of Santo Domingo Agree to Adjustment Plan.” New York Times(1857–1922), November 8, 1906. [PROQUEST]

“PROFESSOR HOLLANDER REPORTS.” Boston Advocate (1905–1909), May 26, 1905. [PROQUEST]

Although I would consider my research efforts largely successful, they were by no means efficient. While I have experience in qualitative research and source analysis, this exercise served as a valuable reminder that adhering too rigidly to established habits can result in unnecessary work. Beginning with American National Biography as my point of departure, I learned to focus my research on Jacob H. Hollander’s time in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. As a professor of economics and a dedicated scholar of the history of economic thought who occupied numerous roles throughout his career, Hollander produced an extensive body of work. The sheer volume of available sources ultimately proved to be my greatest challenge, as it was both time-consuming and difficult to identify those most relevant to the objectives of this project.

At the outset, I found myself overly focused on primary sources. While reviewing the American National Biography page, I noted several individuals, such as President McKinley, President Theodore Roosevelt, and Hollander’s wife, Theresa G. Hutzler, whose correspondence with Hollander I began planning to investigate. However, I soon realized that pursuing these materials would mostly lead to primary sources, prompting me to shift my attention to Dickinson’s JumpStart library catalog. In conducting searches related to diplomatic history, I consciously decided to include both “Santo Domingo” and “Dominican Republic,” as well as “Porto Rico” and “Puerto Rico,” in order to account for historical variations in spelling and maximize search results. Although this approach produced numerous sources, I found relatively few secondary works and instead compiled a list of primary materials for potential future use.

President Theodore Roosevelt (Inventing Dollar Diplomacy, courtesy of Harvard Library)

JSTOR proved to be the most productive database I searched in. I focused on modern scholarship published after Hollander’s lifetime, now specifically searching for works published between 1940 and 2026. Despite this refinement, relevant sources remained limited, requiring careful, laborious review to identify those aligned with my research interests. Periodically, however, I identified particularly relevant works, which I saved for later examination. My chosen method of saving any possible sources in a document before closely reviewing their contents ultimately contributed to the inefficiency of my process. After assembling an extensive list of potential materials, I reviewed each source using keyword searches (“control + f”).

While Hollander’s work in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic is significant, I found that many secondary sources condense it into only a few sentences within broader discussions of U.S. history and imperialism. Many sources only mentioned him in footnotes or in a paragraph or two of writing. Still, I was able to find a handful of solid secondary sources. This journal article, Foundations of United States International Financial Power: Gold Standard Diplomacy, 1900–1905 (1985), primarily focused on figures such as Charles Conant, Jeremiah Jenks, and Edwin Kemmerer who held similar roles to Hollander. However, the article provides important contextual analysis and does include a substantial discussion of Hollander’s work in both regions. Additional sources I found included Inventing Dollar Diplomacy: The Gilded-Age Origins of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (2003) and The Roosevelt Corollary and the Dominican Model of 1905 (2003), both of which emphasize Hollander’s role in the Dominican Republic. During this phase of research, I also discovered that certain legislation associated with Hollander in Puerto Rico was referred to as the “Hollander Act” or “Hollander Bill,” which helped me to create more targeted and specific searches going forward.

Jacob Harry Hollander (JSTOR, Twenty-third President of the American Economic Association)

The database America: History and Life yielded relatively few useful results when employing similar search strategies. Google Books, however, proved to be more productive, despite some limitations of accessibility. During this stage, I briefly attempted to use ChatGPT to identify additional sources, but the results were largely unhelpful, consisting of broken links, repeated results, or primary sources. Through Google Books, I identified several important secondary sources, including Constructing a Colonial People: Puerto Rico and the United States, 1898–1932 (2018), which examines U.S. governance in Puerto Rico following the War of 1898. Additionally, A World Safe for Capitalism (2002) by Cyrus Veeser expanded on the role of the Santo Domingo Improvement Company (SDIC) in managing the Dominican Republic’s foreign debt and infrastructure. Throughout my research, it quickly became clear how central the SDIC was to Hollander’s work. Finally, Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921 (2015) offered further in-depth analysis of his activities in the Dominican Republic.

Throughout the research process, I frequently encountered frustration with sources that devoted only minimal attention to Hollander. They were often repetitive, clearly rephrasing the words of another author who had themselves summarized Hollander’s work into a short piece. Despite these challenges, I was able to assemble a collection of secondary sources while also identifying many primary sources for future research. Although Hollander’s scholarly output is significant, much of it was not directly relevant to my research focus and required considerable time to sift through. In retrospect, a more narrowed and targeted approach to database searching might have improved the overall efficiency of my research.

Bibliography

Cabán, Pedro A. Constructing a Colonial People: Puerto Rico and the United States, 1898–1932. United States: Taylor & Francis, 2018.

“Jacob Harry Hollander: Twenty-Third President of the American Economic Association, 1921.” The American Economic Review 38, no. 3 (1948). http://www.jstor.org/stable/1810623.

Munro, Dana Gardner. Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921. United States: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Rosenberg, Emily S. “Foundations of United States International Financial Power: Gold Standard Diplomacy, 1900–1905.” The Business History Review 59, no. 2 (1985): 169–202. https://doi.org/10.2307/3114929.

Rosenberg, Emily S. “The Roosevelt Corollary and the Dominican Model of 1905.” In Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900–1930. Duke University Press, 2003. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1220kxb.6.

Veeser, Cyrus. A World Safe for Capitalism: Dollar Diplomacy and America’s Rise to Global Power. United States: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Veeser, Cyrus. “Inventing Dollar Diplomacy: The Gilded-Age Origins of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.” Diplomatic History 27, no. 3 (2003): 301–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24914415.