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Southerners On New Ground: The Battle For Civil War Memory Since 1993, Andrew William Hoffman

History Theses & Dissertations

Between the years 2015 and 2020, over 300 Confederate symbols, including over 140 monuments, were removed from public land across the United States. This unprecedented movement to discard Confederate symbols reflected a shift in how Americans chose to remember the Civil War. By 2015, the wide-spread attack on the legacy of the Confederacy was much-anticipated. In fact, its foundation was laid during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. This thesis fills a gap within the historiography of Civil War memory by exploring controversial events that reflect Americans’ contrasting interpretation of the American Civil War from the years 1993 to …

Peaceful Collaboration: The Truman Administration's Response To The Costa Rican Revolution Of 1948 And The Costa Rica-Nicaragua Crisis Of 1948-1949, James Wilkerson

History Theses & Dissertations

Before, during, and after the Costa Rican Revolution of 1948 and the Costa Rica-Nicaragua Crisis of 1948-1949, the Truman Administration maintained a posture of strict neutrality and helped to isolate, and bring a quick end to, both conflicts. This thesis attempts to revise the historiography of the Costa Rican Revolution by challenging the common view that the United States inaugurated the Cold War in Latin America by facilitating the overthrow of the communist-supported government in Costa Rica. The Truman Administration did not care who won and only wanted the Revolution and Crisis to come to a quick end. The United …

Pueblo Sovereignty And Voting Rights: Miguel Trujillo And A New Tactic For Self-Determination, Alexander Douglas Bright

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the 1948 Trujillo v. Garley case and contextualizes it with the long history of Pueblo sovereignty in New Mexico. Recent literature on Indigenous electorates in the U.S. southwest has led to new understandings about Pueblo participation in elections. Given this new context, this thesis argues that the Trujillo v. Garley decision has been a misunderstood moment of Indian activism. Rather than marking the end of a long campaign for voting rights, the 1948 court decision was pushed by non-Pueblo advocates and only supported by a handful of Pueblo Indians. When Pueblo Indians, like Miguel Trujillo, began to …

"In-Betweening" Disney: An Animated History Of Hollywood Labor And Ideological Imagineering, 1935-1947, Bradley Edward Moore

History Theses & Dissertations

The Walt Disney Company’s meticulously-crafted corporate mythos, as it developed in the mid-twentieth century, hid a conflicted history of anti-New Deal, nationalist ideology that was popularized during the clashes of the Hollywood labor movement in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act was passed as Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) entered full-scale production, and each were central to the labor-management conflict that lurked behind the scenes of the motion picture industry. By the mid-1940s, following the conclusion of the Second World War, Congress passed the Labor Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act and imposed a …

“Mixed Up In The Coal Camp”: Interethnic, Family, And Community Exchanges In Matewan During The West Virginia Mine Wars, 1900-1922, Lela Dawn Gourley

History Theses & Dissertations

The West Virginia Mine Wars are etched in the popular memory of West Virginians, who view these events as an important part of their identity as Mountaineers; yet, there is still much historians do not know about the Mine Wars, especially when concentrating on the perspectives and experiences of the working-class miners. These everyday miners and their families are the topic of this thesis. Using oral histories from the Matewan Development Center Records housed in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, this thesis argues that community-building across ethnic and racial lines within Matewan’s …

Interpreting The Other: Natives, Missionaries, And Colonial Authority In New England, 1643-1675, Violet Galante

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis studies the rise, maintenance, and decline of New England praying towns from 1643-1675. Nestled between the Pequot War and Metacom’s War, the mid-seventeenth century was a period of relative peace between Indians and English settlers. Despite this supposed peace, violence continued between the two sides. The decades of peace were uneasy, and marked by increased tension over land and resources. Missionaries went to natives in Massachusetts and established towns aimed at converting large numbers of Indians. These towns would become a volleying point for local authorities, missionaries, and royal governors as natives, missionaries, settlers, and elites vied for …

“For The Homeland”: Die Deutsche Hausfrau And Reader Responses To World War I, Julie Sliva Davis

History Theses & Dissertations

When the Great War broke out in the summer of 1914, many German Americans living in the United States expressed renewed support and loyalty for Germany in the German-language press. While scholars have thoroughly examined the collective experiences and sentiments of German Americans in the U.S. during World War I, particularly in their press, German-American women and their press have remained largely underrepresented. Notably, however, as evidenced by the largest nationally circulated monthly women’s journal of the time, Die Deutsche Hausfrau (The German Housewife), German-American women did indeed use their press as well to convey increasingly pro-German rhetoric in support …

Changing The Message: Battered Women's Advocates And Their Fight Against Domestic Violence At The Local, State, And Federal Level, 1970s-1990s, Clara Amy Van Eck

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis analyzes congressional hearings, reports to Congress, government statistics, acts of Congress, Supreme Court rulings, and newspaper articles to examine how, in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, battered women's advocates altered their rhetoric when dealing with local, state, and federal governments in order to change policies, laws, and to obtain funding for domestic abuse shelters. In the 1970s, battered women's advocates used anti-patriarchal language to help survivors of sexual assault and of domestic violence understand the pervasive and systemic nature of violence against women to liberate survivors from the belief that the violence was their fault. In the 1980s, …

Black Gold: Molly Maguireism, Unionism, And The Anthracite Labor Wars, 1860-1880, Samantha Edmiston

History Theses & Dissertations

The class and ethnic tensions that manifested in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania were a microcosm of the broader, nation-wide labor wars of the late-nineteenth century. These labor wars, violent and sometimes bloody, shaped workingmen’s condition and the larger history of unionism. The Molly Maguires, in both their real and imagined form counted as key protagonists in these wars between big business and unions. More local wars also occurred between workers, those like the Mollies who wanted to use violence to encourage change, and others who instead sought to peacefully organize and bargain collectively with their employers.

This thesis …

Boys Of The Maple Leaf, Maggie Kontra Emmens

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the development of a distinctive Canadian national identity articulated in trench newspapers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) fighting during World War I on European soil. Three English Canadian sources, The Listening Post, The Dead Horse Corner Gazette, and The Iodine Chronicle, form the bases for analysis and the inquiry into the history of nascent Canadian-ness among English Canadian soldiers in the European trenches between 1914 and 1919. The trench journals reflect specifics of their units, their locality in the trenches, and the affects of British roots, American influence, geographic influence, news from and memories of the …

Displaying Race At The Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition, Bryan Patrick Bennett

History Theses & Dissertations

World expositions of the nineteenth and early twentieth century often displayed the latest anthropological, ethnological, biological, and technological research on race and ethnicity, promoting the view that whites were superior to all other peoples. The Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition of 1907, held in Norfolk, Virginia to commemorate the three-hundred anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement and its contribution to the building of the United States, offers an opportunity to examine American perspectives on whiteness, race, and society.

First, the Jamestown Exposition offered a glimpse into the historical memory of white America, especially the influential citizens that comprised the controlling …

"Elite Assault:" The 85th Infantry Division In Italy, 1944-1945, Charles Ross Patterson Ii

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis fills a major gap in the historiography of the Second World War by emphasizing the role of drafted divisions in the United States Army. Specifically, this thesis examines the 85th Infantry Division from its formation in May 1942 to its disbanding in August 1945. This thesis challenges the age-old assumption that conscripted soldiers were inferior to volunteer forces. By the 1940s, the United States retained a long-standing prejudice against drafted troops dating back to the poorly-executed drafts of the American Civil War, with many citizens arguing that volunteers were better soldiers. The 85th Division stands in direct contradiction …

Achieving Sourdough Status: The Diary, Photographs, And Letters Of Samuel Baker Dunn, 1898-1899, Robert Nicholas Melatti

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines Samuel Baker Dunn and other prospectors from Montgomery County in Southwestern Iowa who participated in the Yukon Gold Rush of 1896-1899. The thesis explores three min research questions: Why was there such an exodus of people to the Yukon from Montgomery County and the town of Villisca in particular? 2) How did Montgomery County citizens experience the Yukon Gold Rush and furthermore, what meaning did they attribute to the journey and the mining experience? How did they measure success? 3) What particular insights do letters, diaries, and photographs – and in particular Samuel Baker Dunn’s personal documents …

Employee Opportunism In Two Early Modern British Trading Companies, Robert Franklin Unger

History Theses & Dissertations

The English East India Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company were the most prominent of a score or more of seventeenth and eighteenth century joint stock European trading companies whose merchants conducted their trading activities around the globe. The extraordinary distances and length of time that separated the London directorate committees of both companies from their distant employees was perhaps their greatest managerial challenge. Neither company could directly supervise their employees at their remote trading concessions, whether it was India and the East Indies for the East India Company or sub-arctic North America for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Because of …

Residential Segregation In Norfolk, Virginia: How The Federal Government Reinforced Racial Division In A Southern City, 1914-1959, Kevin Lang Ringelstein

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines how Norfolk, Virginia maintained residential segregation between the years 1914, when the city passed its first segregation ordinance, and 1959, when it received the All-America City Award for its massive slum clearance projects. By focusing on federal government initiatives in Norfolk, it shows that Norfolk’s leaders used the federal government’s assistance to map, analyze, and remove the city’s African American slums. Ultimately, it highlights the central role the federal government played in perpetuating residential segregation in Norfolk and how it opened a space for Norfolk’s leaders to act on their prejudice.

This thesis demonstrates that in the …

See And Hear James "Catfish" Cole: Identity, Manhood, And The North Carolina Ku Klux Klan, 1952-1967, John Scholl Hinton

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the influence of Reverend James "Catfish" Cole on the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan (KKK). By focusing on the white supremacy movement, it shows efforts made by white North Carolinians who opposed the Civil Rights Movement. Cole's contributions to the white supremacy movement are unique. As an evangelist and Grand Wizard of the North Carolina Knights of the KKK, Cole believed he was ordained by God through what he called his "divine commission." His divine commission led him to believe he was a prophet leading whites in a fight against civil rights.

A study of Cole's time …

Set Adrift By The Confederacy: The Civil War Occupation Of Virginia's Eastern Shore, Paige Kelly Solomon

History Theses & Dissertations

Despite the profusion of literature examining the importance of Virginia's Civil War, the Old Dominion's two Eastern Shore counties have been too often ignored by historians. To correct this deficiency, this thesis examines the events that occurred there during the Civil War Era, illuminating specifically President Lincoln's attempt to rekindle loyalty to the Union through an evolving military occupation strategy. Although Federal soldiers and sailors invaded the land and waters of the Eastern Shore with relative ease, citizens found ways to resist occupation and aid the Confederacy. In the end, the four-year Federal occupation brought an end to slavery, but …

Bracero Families: Mexican Women And Children In The United States, 1942-64, Rachael Frances Delacruz

History Theses & Dissertations

The Bracero Program created a bilateral agreement between the United States and Mexico that legalized US agricultural growers to import Mexican workers on seasonal labor contracts between 1942 and 1964. The Bracero Program exclusively contracted men, allowing male laborers known as braceros to migrate according to seasonal patterns. Many braceros left their families behind in Mexico. However, some bracero families made the dangerous choice to remain together, with women and children migrating illegally to the United States. The experiences of these women and children are silenced in traditional documentary sources like government reports and sociological studies, as well as glossed …

The World Of Goods In Pre-Revolutionary Virginia, Ronald C. Merritt Jr.

History Theses & Dissertations

This paper will study the effects that the expansion of consumerism and nonimportation had in the colony of Virginia. It will analyze the validity of the arguments made by T. H. Breen's The Marketplace of Revolution. Breen's first contention was that a world of goods had been formed in the American colonies and that this consumer culture helped unite the colonists. This second contention was that the non-importation and non-consumption associations were successful in unifying the colonies and quelling opposition to the Continental cause.

Evidence of the growth of consumerism in mid-eighteenth century America will be analyzed and a …

The Role Of Agricultural And Land Policies In The Failure Of The British Mandate For Palestine, Beth Ann Lynk

History Theses & Dissertations

This study follows the thread of chronic land loss for small and subsistence Arab farmers in Palestine and the key solution repeatedly advocated by the British of intensive agriculture and how it routinely failed only to fuel increased tensions and violence between Arabs and Jews contributing to the reversal of the goal of a unified Palestine under the Mandate. A variety of primary and secondary sources were used to identify the main social patterns and laws during the Ottoman Empire which set up the dynamic of agricultural debt leading to land sales to Jewish immigrants. This pattern is then traced …

Strike A Pose: Propaganda In Augustus' And Mussolini's Imperial Imagery, Colleen Syler Parker

History Theses & Dissertations

In Ancient Rome, the transition from Republic to Empire was a volatile time. Augustus used his skills as a propagandist to consolidate his military position and craft specific images after the death of Julius Caesar. Augustus needed to appeal to Roman ideals in leadership, and recover the morality and traditional family values which had become lost in the Late Republic. In conjunction with this, he attempted to bolster religion and create a lasting legacy in a dynastic and architecturally structural sense.

Almost two thousand years later, Mussolini echoed many of the same themes as Augustus in his use of romanitá …

The Pacific War Crimes Trials: The Importance Of The "Small Fry" Vs. The "Big Fish", Lisa Kelly Pennington

History Theses & Dissertations

In the post-World War II era, the Allied nations faced multiple issues, from occupying the Axis countries and rebuilding Europe and Japan to trying war criminals for atrocities committed prior to and during the war. War crimes trials were an important part of the occupation process and by conducting the trials, the Allied nations hoped not only to punish war criminals, but to provide examples of democratic principles to the former Axis powers and deter future wartime atrocities. When considering war crimes trials, it is most often Nuremberg that comes to mind, and it is Nuremberg that has dominated much …

The Forgotten Sixty-Ninth: The Sixty-Ninth New York National Guard Artillery Regiment In The American Civil War, Christopher M. Garcia

History Theses & Dissertations

In Civil War historiography, consistent attention and public interest has illuminated the history of various Irish organizations, no regiment more so than New York's famed "Fighting Sixty-Ninth." During the conflict, the State of New York fielded three regiments designated the Sixty-Ninth, but the scholarship has tended to favor just one of them, the 69'" New York Volunteers of the Irish Brigade. The 69" New York National Guard Artillery, the first regiment in General Michael Corcoran's Irish Legion, has been virtually forgotten. This regiment was, in essence, the standing 69ia New York Militia in federal service for three years or the …

Richmond Iron: Tredegar's Role In Southern Industry During The Civil War And Reconstruction, Lisa Hilleary

History Theses & Dissertations

The American South contained few iron industries in the decades before the Civil War. Not until the Civil War did southern states produce significant quantities of vital industrial products, such as iron. Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, was a rare exception. Under the ownership of Joseph R. Anderson, the company established a national reputation for quality products. Prior to the war, Tredegar did business with northerners and with the Federal government. During the war, Tredegar became one of the main weapons suppliers to the Confederate military. Since this iron company physically and economically survived the war, Anderson regained many …

The Death Of Jefferson Davis, Kasey J. Dell

History Theses & Dissertations

Although there are numerous studies of Jefferson Davis and countless more of the Civil War and its consequences, little work has been done to study what the death of Jefferson Davis revealed in terms of the United States' reunification. A political nonperson in the nation's capital, Davis was never fully pardoned and did not receive full rights of citizenship in his lifetime, giving him a unique position in society. Moreover, as the former president of the Confederacy, he was a polarizing figure whose death elicited strong emotions.

The response to Davis's death, almost twenty-five years after the Civil War ended, …

The Bound "Giddy Multitude": Runaway Indentured Servants Convicts And Slaves In Colonial Virginia, Nicole K. Dressler

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the social, political, and cultural significance of escaped indentured servants, convict servants, and slaves in colonial Virginia. By analyzing judicial records, letters, diaries, independent documents, and particularly, runaway advertisements, researchers can develop a clearer understanding of bondsmen's activities and identities while gaining valuable insight into the relationship between masters and laborers. As a key group of defiant laborers, runaway servants and slaves engaged in powerful acts of resistance that exposed the precarious nature of the colony's social order and added to planters' worries over labor management and colonial affairs, facilitating Virginia elite's participation in the movement for …

Closing The Greenland-Iceland Atlantic Air-Gap: 1939 To 1943, James F. Boland

History Theses & Dissertations

The Battle of the Atlantic during World War II centered on the submarine guerre de course of the German Kriegsmarine, aimed at severing the maritime bridge between Great Britain and North America. From 1939 until mid-1943 all of the belligerents involved struggled to balance the scarce resources they could marshal for the fight. For the Allies the limited number and quality of escort ships and patrol aircraft they could muster reflected this scarcity. During the summer of 1943 the Allies achieved their turning point in the battle when a complex mix of factors coalesced. Prominent among those factors was …

Woman's Work: Female Lighthouse Keepers In The Early Republic, 1820–1859, Virginia Neal Thomas

History Theses & Dissertations

During the Early Republic between 1820 and 1859, women, on average, comprised about five percent of the principal lighthouse keepers in the United States. These women represent a unique exception to the experience of the majority of working women during the Early Republic. They received equal pay to men, and some supervised lower-paid male assistants. They filled these predominately male positions because lighthouse work had much in common with stereotypical woman's work, they were most often related to the previous keeper, and they fit within cultural ideals of gender roles. Inquiry beyond the romantic image crafted for these light keepers …

Meaning In History? The Young Hegelian's Battle For Historical Meaning And The Resurgence Of Nihilism, Angelo J. Letizia

History Theses & Dissertations

After the Reign of Terror, the German thinker J.H. Jacobi saw only two options for Europe: faith in God or nihilism, the belief in nothing. His ultimatum between faith and nihilism for the modern era called into question for some thinkers the entire revolutionary project and its ideals of reason and self government. Two answers to Jacobi's ultimatum were put forth by the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who rejected both faith and nihilism, and instead crafted a vision of progress, and Arthur Schopenhauer who opted for nihilism. Jacobi's ultimatum, and Hegel and Schopenhauer's answers to it, opened up …

"Adoption Will Determine The Worthiest Successor": Roman Imperial Adoption, Stephen C. Hebert

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the process by which successors to the Roman Principate were chosen under the Julio-Claudians, Flavians, and Antonine dynasties. Rome extended its hegemony over the Mediterranean and Europe with citizen-farmer legionaries who were loyal to the senate and Roman state. Warfare necessitated the creation of a professional army in which loyalty shifted from that of the state and senate to their respective military commander. Generals such as Sulla and Caesar used their legions to gain power establishing new political precedence from which future ambitious generals built upon, ultimately leading to the end of the Republic and the birth …