European History Commons^™

America, An Aloof Friend: The Limits Of U.S.-Czechoslovak Relations From Munich To War, Connor Schonta

Masters Theses

Between 1918 and 1938, the United States and Czechoslovakia maintained unique, friendly, and special diplomatic relations. This was mainly due to the two countries’ shared commitment to liberal, democratic values. In 1938, however, Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy came to a head in the form of the Munich Agreement, which not only set Czechoslovakia on a course of destruction but also fundamentally transformed the nature of U.S.-Czechoslovak relations. This study seeks to unpack the development of U.S.-Czechoslovak relations in the eleven months between Munich (October 1938) and the start of World War II (September 1939). During this time, the friendly ties …

Unwritten: The Hidden History Of The Holodomor, Amy Whisman

Masters Theses

Between 1930 and 1933, Joseph Stalin unleashed an assault on Ukraine that resulted in the starvation of 5 million people. Their story went untold for decades. The fact that Soviet propaganda was largely successful in suppressing the truth speaks less to its sophistication than to the gullibility and complicity of Westerners. Although there were truth-tellers from Great Britain, the United States, and even Europe who accurately reported on the Ukrainian famine, Stalin understood that such voices could be effectively neutralized. Because the story of the Holodomor remained essentially unwritten, the West did not recognize it as the legitimate offspring of …

Death, Friendship, And The Power Of Words: Reflections Of The Holocaust In Liesel Meminger’S Traumatic Story, Jerusha J. Yoder

Masters Theses

Recounted through the voice of Death, The Book Thief explores the process of trauma recovery as it follows the story of young Liesel Meminger in Nazi Germany. The traumatic loss of her mother and brother rattle Liesel’s developing identity and destroy her personal narrative; however, as her story unfolds, she finds the strength to recover through the safety of friends and the power of words. Utilizing prominent theories in trauma recovery, this thesis charts Liesel’s recovery process in the wake of her traumatic loss. In this way, her story exposes the destructive power of trauma and affirms the importance of …

The Thirty Years War(S), Logan Kilsdonk

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The Thirty Years War, spanning 1618-1648, has been described as the last great war of religion despite pitting Catholics against Catholics and Protestants against Protestants. In addition to religion not playing the role it is supposed to have, a closer look at the motives and goals of the major participants reveals that what we have called a single war is actually much more easily understood as four: The Bohemian Rebellion (1618-1624), Denmark's War with the Emperor (1625-1629), Sweden's War with the Emperor (1630-1648) and France's War with the Habsburgs (1635-1648/59). These four wars are related and sometimes overlap, but they …

From Fallen Women To Founding Mothers: How Petty Criminals Became Pioneers On The Australian Frontier 1788-1828, Katherine Spencer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Historians have often portrayed female convicts transported to the Australian colonies as victims of circumstance, exploited by Britain's outdated legal system, colonial authorities, and even their male counterparts. This research paper will seek to move away from the victimhood narrative that plagues the historical record of convict women and instead analyze female convict agency. Contrary to the current research on the subject, convict women in the Australian penal colonies had agency to improve their lives given their unique circumstances. Despite poor conditions, discrimination, and their image as unredeemable “fallen women” among English society, convict women were resourceful, resilient, and able …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Literarische Filmsimulation: Heinrich Eduard Jacobs Medienphilosophische Filmästhetik In "Blut Und Zelluloid", Paula Vosse

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Heinrich Eduard Jacob´s novel Blut und Zelluloid was published in 1929 and therefore mostly reviewed as a critical artwork regarding European film-propaganda before the outbreak of the Second World War. This thesis provides the interested scholar with a different approach: It discusses Jacob´s media-philosophical method to simulate the upcoming medium film in literature. With his implicitly and explicitly organized systems of diverse media, he circumvents constraints of the Paragone-discourse and offers a well-balanced literary construction.

Jacob´s method is compared with Pinthus´ Kinobuch and Pirandello´s Shoot!, while Simmel and Benjamin provide the thesis with a fundament to support Jacob´s theoretical approach. …

Power And Authority Of Royal Queen Mothers: Juxtaposing The French Queen Regent And The Ottoman Validé Sultan During The Early Modern Period, Reneé N. Langlois

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women and their relationship to sovereignty, during the early modern era has become a rapidly growing topic, given that during this period an unprecedented number of women rose to high positions of power. This paper aims to compare the lives of the queen regents in France with their counterparts, the validé sultans in the Ottoman Empire, over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when both groups of royal women acquired substantial power. Although these women were prohibited from ruling in their own right, the paper explores the ways in which queen regents and validé sultans used both official …

To The Frustration Of Many A Birdwatcher: The Rise And Development Of Naturism In Great Britain, Jacob David Santos

History & Classics Dissertations and Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Planning Chaos: The Foundations And Organization Of The 1381 Peasants' Revolt, Michael Bartels

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

On May 30, 1381, a newly recruited tax commissioner summoned several English townships to pay their dues. Within the space of a week, the working classes of southeast England revolted against the actions of officials whom they perceived as enemies of their king, Richard II, the first of many events which comprised the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. While source matter on the Peasants’ Revolt has its limitations, and we have not been able to access all of the original literature from the time of the revolt, we do have enough information for an informed inquiry into exactly how the rebellion …

Gladstonian Liberalism: A Catalyst For Social Representation And Democratic Reform In Victorian Britain, Jason Belcher

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to discuss the significance of William Gladstone and his political administration which demonstrated a unique approach to social representation in nineteenth-century Britain. Most of the research for this thesis focused on historians who examine both the variable nature of the term democracy in Victorian Britain as well as Gladstone’s bureaucratic achievements as an MP. A large portion of the thesis employs information extracted from nineteenth-century British newspapers to convey the firsthand viewpoints of Britain’s political administration. Secondly, a plethora of modern perspectives provide varying outlooks on Gladstonian Liberalism as a gradually progressive form of …

Anna Larpent And Shakespeare, Fiona Ritchie

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

Anna Larpent (1758-1832) is a crucial figure in theater history and the reception of Shakespeare since drama was a central part of her life. Larpent was a meticulous diarist: the Huntington Library holds seventeen volumes of her journal covering the period 1773-1830. These diaries shed significant light on the part Shakespeare played in her life and contain her detailed opinions of his works as she experienced them both on the page and on the stage in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century London. Larpent experienced Shakespeare’s works in a variety of forms: she sees Shakespeare’s plays performed, both professionally and by …

European Jazz: A Comparative Investigation Into The Reception And Impact Of Jazz In Interwar Paris And The Weimar Republic, Douglas A. Kowalewski

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Both Paris and the Weimar Republic were fascinated with American jazz in the interwar period. Because of jazz's connection to African American culture, this fascination is linked with the themes of identity and race relations. This work will demonstrate that interwar Parisians were not always receptive of African Americans that played jazz, and that the citizens of the Weimar Republic were more aware of and interested in the African American culture that permeated jazz in the 1920s and 30s.

Saving Grace On Feathered Wings: Homing Pigeons In The First World War, Brandon R. Katzung Hokanson

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Soldiers of the First World War came in all shapes and sizes. The humble homing pigeon is one of the more unique and critical examples of such. They served in the armed forces of both the Allies and the Central Powers. Used as a last-ditch form of communication, the homing pigeons were exceptional in the work of sending messages back and forth between the battle lines. Little has been written about their vital role and even less in the rigorous training the birds and their handlers both endured. Understanding their training is critical to understanding how the homing pigeons performed …

Through The Eyes Of Children: Social Oppression Under Nazi Rule From 1933 To 1938 Reflections Of Three Holocaust Survivors, Lauren Ashley Bradford

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This paper discusses the experiences of three Berlin native child survivors of the Holocaust through analysis of their oral testimonies. Their unique voices help shed light on the various ways in which lives were forever changed for those who were legally identified as Jewish in Nazi Germany by way of social oppression. This paper highlights three key years that each survivor discussed at length in their testimonies: Hitler’s Chancellorship in 1933, the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, and Kristallnacht in 1938. Ultimately, this paper argues for the importance of these years and labels them as being a crucial part in the …

Der Hungerwinter: Family, Famine, The Black Market, And Denazification In Allied-Occupied Germany (1945 - 1949), Tyler Stanley

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper analyzes numerous letters written among several members of a German family living under the Allied occupation. The Lingenhoel family were one of a great many Germans enduring hunger, famine, and denazification in the immediate postwar period. Using the Lingenhoel family as the lens of analysis, this paper ultimately assesses the Allies' efforts to alleviate the widespread hunger and the Germans' responsibility of collaborating with the former Nazi government.

The Presbyterian Enlightenment: The Confluence Of Evangelical And Enlightenment Thought In British America, Brandon S. Durbin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Eighteenth-Century British American Presbyterian ministers incorporated covenantal theology, ideas from the Scottish Enlightenment, and resistance theory in their sermons. The sermons of Presbyterian ministers strongly indicate the intermixing of enlightenment and evangelical ideas. Congregants heard and read these sermons, spreading these ideas to the average colonist. This combination helps explain why American Presbyterians were so apt to resist British rule during the American Revolution. Protestant covenantal theology, derived from Protestant reformers like John Calvin and John Knox, emphasized virtue and duty. This covenant affected both the people and their rulers. When rulers failed to uphold their covenant with God, the …

“‘Bere We Þe Cros’: The Persistence Of The Cross In English Ritual And Religious Practices From Bede To The Reformation”, David Black

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Long before Christian missionaries arrived in England in the 7^th century, the pagan population recognized the cross as a potent magical symbol. As a result, proselytizers shrewdly used the population’s familiarity with the cross, and their understandings of its power, to encourage converts to the new religion. Over the ensuing centuries of English Christian dominance, the magical aspects of the cross continued to develop both mythologically and theologically, without ever losing connection to their pagan origins. The Crusades, both through the propaganda of preachers and the massive influx of True Cross Relics, contributed in a substantial way to new …

Dracula: The Anti-Vaccination Movement And Urban Life In Victorian England, Mary Elisabeth Carter Goode

Tenor of Our Times

Often, scholars examine Dracula through the lens of sexual dangers and exploits; however, there is another avenue that deserves investigation. "Dracula: The Anti-Vaccination Movement and Urban Life in Victorian England" examines the relationship between Bram Stoker's Dracula and the anti-vaccination movement in Victorian England. In particular, this paper focuses on Stoker's commentary on Victorian England's vaccination movement throughout the pages of his work.

Should France And Great Britain Have Gone To War With Germany In 1938? Maybe…, Lee Eysturlid

Faculty Publications & Research

The situation in Europe in 1938 can only be seen, in the historical light of the war that was to come a year later, for what did actually come to pass. However, there exists a single, great counter-factual question that makes for a really interesting analysis of the time, the politics, and the military abilities of all the states involved. The question is what if the United Kingdom and France had decided—or felt themselves forced—to go to war with Hitler's Germany at some point in 1938, as opposed to a full year later? The numerous crises and the changing nature …