Digital Commons Network^™

Recovering The Saumurois: Lay Patronage To Saint-Florent Of Saumur, Ca. 950-1150, Adam C. Matthews

Masters Theses

In the mid-tenth century, the lay powers of the Loire valley established the abbey of Saint-Florent at Saumur with the local aristocracy welcoming the monks and forming spiritual and economic relationships through acts of patronage. The brothers remembered gifts of property, grants of rights, and exemptions in charters which were ultimately collected into the abbey's first cartulary, the Livre Noir. Despite this wealth of sources, historians have paid only cursory attention to Saint-Florent in recent scholarship. The present study incorporates the abbey's charter sources into broader debates concerning society in eleventh-century France. The use of case studies provides insight …

Change And Continuity: Euro-American And Native American Settlement Patterns In The St. Joseph River Valley, Allison M. Kohley

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a particular interest in the fur trade and colonialism through identification and investigation of Fort St. Joseph. This fort was an 18th century French trading post in the St. Joseph River valley located in southwestern Michigan and northwestern Indiana. This study expands our current understanding of the change and continuity of the Euro- American and Native American settlement patterns in the valley during the periods immediately prior to, during, and after the abandonment of Fort St. Joseph through the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analyses.

Agriculture, Influence, And Instability Under The Ancien Régime: 1708-1768, Adam J. Polk

Masters Theses

The French Revolution has been studied from myriad perspectives. The majority of scholarship focuses on the political and urban chaos of the times. Agricultural conditions and the influence of onerous taxation and stagnant agricultural options are given only a cursory examination in most research. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between agronomic and environmental conditions and the eruption of violence in urban centers during the French Revolution and the years leading up to it (1708-1768). This period prior to the French Revolution serves as a template to investigate the nature of the rural-agricultural influences, with a particular focus paid …

Gender And The Boundaries Of National Identity: U.S. Women As A Citizen Class In The Long 1960s, Sara Bijani

Masters Theses

This text analyzes the public ideologies and institutions that underpinned women's unequal status within the national collective of United States citizens during the long 1960s, paying particular attention to the executive office of Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the national security establishment. Women were frequently framed within these institutions as a separate special class of citizen, with rights and responsibilities not akin to those of the elite—male bodied—members of the national collective. Allowing for the imaginative construction of "women" as a subject class in U.S. society, this text argues that even with the guarantee of formal political rights in place, women …

A Position Of Strength: Arms Dealing As Diplomacy Under The Reagan Administration, William D. Watson

Masters Theses

My thesis is an examination of the Cold War during the 1980s, with a focus on arms dealing and diplomacy under President Ronald Reagan from 1981-1989. I chose to write about three specific case studies based on the unique intersections of American diplomatic goals in relation to geography, the sophistication of weapons technology involved, and geopolitical considerations. The purpose of this thesis is to explain why and how the Reagan administration was able to carry out three separate arms deals, and in turn, how those deals fit into the broader, global Cold War between the United States and the Soviet …

Nutrition And Stature: The Residents Of The Island Of Gotland, Sweden Killed In The Battle Of Wisby, 1361, Michelle A. Miller

Masters Theses

This research examines stature in order to assess the socio-economic status of Gotland, an island (and municipality) off the coast of Sweden, before the 1360's. Gotland was known as a wealthy and autonomous peasant republic although it was loosely ruled by the Swedish Crown. In 1361, the Danish Army laid siege on the seaport city of Wisby to obtain its riches. Three days after the battle, the approximately 1800 dead Gotlanders were tossed haphazardly into five common graves. Archaeological excavations took place from 1905-1930 by Bendt Thordeman, among others. The human remains were analyzed in 1937. Osteological analysis in the …

"Videbantur Gens Effera": Defining And Perceiving Peoples In The Chronicles Of Norman Italy, Jesse Hysell

Masters Theses

The goal of this project is to analyze the ways different cultural groups in Sicily and southern Italy were depicted in a set of historical texts associated with the Norman takeover of those regions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. To achieve that aim, I consider social vocabulary applied to three distinct peoples (native Italians, Greeks, and Muslims) in five sources written by Amatus of Montecassino, Geoffrey Malaterra, William of Apulia, Alexander of Telese, and Hugo Falcandus. Although recent scholarship has posited that medieval identity was often felt through a "self versus other" or "Christian versus non-Christian" dichotomy, I have …

The Impact Of The European Economy On An Indigenous Productive Regime: Coca Production In The Yungas Of La Paz, 1548-1570, Krista Anderson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a European system of mercantile production on the indigenous organization of coca production in the yungas of La Paz in the years immediately following the Spanish conquest until the administration of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo (1569-1581 ). European mercantile ambitions in the earliest years of Spanish rule had an enormous, and often adverse, impact on the people of the yungas and their productive capabilities. The transformation of the yungas was introduced largely through the reorientation of coca production toward a market economy. This contact resulted in a marked increase …

In Relation: Marguerite De Provence And Her Many Roles, 1221-1295, Cristina Dawn Moody

Masters Theses

This thesis uses a body of letters between Marguerite de Provence, a thirteenth-century French Queen, and others to discuss her role as a link between several European courts, assisting the French crown to be free of major wars in this period. It investigates Marguerite's attempts to reverse the will of her father, which gave Provence to her youngest sister, Beatrice. Marguerite's life speaks to a variety of topics and themes, including but not limited to, queenship, monarchy, political discourse, letter-writing, and the social construction of gender. Since relatively little work has been done on her life, this thesis seeks to …

Black Power In Green And White: Integration And Black Protest In Michigan State University Football, 1947-1972, John Matthew Smith

Masters Theses

While southern college football teams remained all white until the late 1960s and early 1970s, Michigan State University head football coach Duffy Daugherty formed championship teams in 1965 and 1966 by recruiting the best southern black players. While coaches in the North recruited black athletes and played them regularly by the mid-1950s, no other coach took the risks Daugherty did to integrate his teams. Duffy Daugherty's path-breaking teams broke all the rules of integrated competition and forced southern schools to reconsider their stance on segregated college football.

The ground breaking integration of black athletes in the mid-1950s and 1960s under …

"Far, Fast, And Fashionable": American Women Swimmers And Their Swimwear In 1920s And 1930s Sport And Consumer Culture, Elizabeth A. Zanoni

Masters Theses

This thesis examines American aquatic stars of public acclaim as displayers of clothing, and how their changing swimwear shaped the debate over physical culture, femininity, modesty, and gender roles in sport and consumer culture during the 1920s and 1930s. Performing in shortened, functional athletic attire, leading swimmers and divers conveyed cultural messages about athleticism and femininity through their athletic accomplishments and their multiple representations of the female body clothed in swimming attire. It also considers how these female aquatic luminaries, in a sphere traditionally defined as male, shaped American culture by providing a public platform from which the entire sporting …

Defining Peaceful Picketing: The Michigan Supreme Court And The Labor Injunction, 1900-1940, Coreen Derifield

Masters Theses

In a ruling which would stand for nearly half a century, the Michigan Supreme Court decided in 1898 that pickets and boycotts were inherently violent activities, and declaring them illegal, the Court sanctioned the injunction to restrict their use during a strike. This thesis traces the Court's rulings across these forty years, analyzing how these cases functioned, assessing their impact on union activity, and charting the role of the Michigan Supreme Court in legal procedure. Examining the Court's rulings in three different geographic, social, and cultural environments from the early 1900s to the 1930s, the thesis argues that the Michigan …

Aspects Of Fatherhood In Thirteenth-Century Encyclopedias, Philip Grace

Masters Theses

The thesis examines the treatment of fatherhood in Thomas of Cantimpré's Liber de Natura Rerum, Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus Rerum, and Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Maius, all of whom were influential mendicant encyclopedists writing between 1240 and 1260. The study examines sections on anatomy, the ages of man, family relations, and the theology of marriage. The thesis argues that the anatomical concept of heat functioned as a metaphor for masculinity, strength and intelligence, and linked together such aspects of fatherhood as the father's formative role in conception and the responsibility to instill virtue in and provide for …

A Preliminary Study Of The Kaogong Ji (The Book Of Artificers), Hanmo Zhang

Masters Theses

The focus of this paper is on the ancient Chinese text of the Kaogong ji, which is now included in the Zhouli as one of its chapters. Through a careful comparison between the Kaogong ji and the rest of the Zhouli and through a synthetic analysis of academic discussions of the completion date and authorship of the Kaogong ji, this paper attempts to show that the Kaogong ji had been an independent text before its inclusion. It goes on to disprove the argument that the Kaogong ji was forged by the Han scholar Liu Xin as political propaganda. …

Hybrid Or Counterpoise? A Study Of Transitional Trebuchets, Michael J. Basista

Masters Theses

This study investigates the engineering and use of a proposed type of trebuchet in the Middle Ages. A study by a prominent historian has suggested the existence of a type of siege weapon that made use of both human and gravitational forces to fire its projectile. My research will investigate this claim by examining select sources, reviewing the engineering principles involved, and determining the viability of such a machine.

After dealing with this theory I will offer my own new interpretation made from the sources. This interpretation will center on the application of ancient technology to make trebuchets more efficient. …

Castles In The Crusader Kingdom Of Valencia, 1257-1276, Marius Nielsen

Masters Theses

For my thesis I proposed to study the registered charters of James I (1208-1276), King of Aragon, to examine how castles were distributed and utilized in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia for the period 1257-1276. A little over two thousand register charters were issued for Valencia during this period. Around 250 of the two thousand charters mention castles indicating the importance of castles in the administration of the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia. Although there are many works on Western European castles the majority focus on castles in France, Britain and the Crusader States in the Middle East and rely on …

Tinners And The Stannaries: Law, Life, And Labor In Fourteenth-Century Cornwall, Michael Kurt Deen

Masters Theses

Based on extensive archival research, this thesis analyzes the socio-economic position occupied by fourteenth-century tinners in Cornwall, England. The tinners represented a privileged group of laborers in the later Middle Ages, and the records of their stannary courts provide a unique glimpse into their lives. the evidence from these records show that the stannaries of Cornwall experienced a transformation of the structure of labor after the Black Death out of tin production and into agriculture. The result was a shift from a system overwhelmingly dominated by independent prospectors, dependant on credit for survival, to one which included large-scale operations owned …

Cultural Encounters: The Peruvian Artifacts Collected By Cristobal Vaca De Castro, Genoveva Garcia-Gallardo Carcedo

Masters Theses

This project examines the collecting activities of Cristobal Vaca de Castro through a comparative analysis of official and private letters, inventories of items he collected, trial records, his judicial review (an appraisal of his activities in office taken after his term ended, known as residencia), and secondary sources. Vaca de Castro was originally sent to Peru to act as a judge to ensure that Francisco Pizarro carried out the royal orders and instructions he had been sent and to establish peace in a Peru struggling with civil wars. The assassination of Francisco Pizarro on the eve of Vaca de …

Steamboat Passenger Ferries In Nineteenth Century London: A Cultural Survey, Jennifer Wohlberg

Masters Theses

Traditionally, steamboats and their history have belonged to the area of antiquarians. Many sources in my bibliography focus on the design and use of the boats and neglect the social and cultural impact the boats had on mid-Victorian London life. Steamboats, however, were an important transportation system in mid-Victorian London, so that a study of steamboats can provide an insight into mid-Victorian times. In this thesis, I will place steamboat design construction and use in the context of the social and cultural worlds of mid-Victorian London and the River Thames.

The results of my research yielded a thesis describing the …

The Sense Of The Past In Saint Antoninus Of Florence's Summa Historialis, Brian Nathaniel Becker

Masters Theses

This study examines Antoninus of Florence’s Chronicles for the presence of a "sense of the past.” Through the careful examination of those sections of the Chronicles that are original to Antoninus and the utilization of important scholarly works on medieval and Renaissance Italian literature, it is shown that the Chronicles is characteristic of both a history written in the traditional "medieval” style and the increasingly modem style of historical writing that was coming into vogue during the later part of his life in mid-fifteenth century Florence. By defining a "sense of history” as containing, and organizing the three body chapters …

"A Conflict Of Truth With Error": Southern Preachers, Their Worldview, And Sectional Tensions, 1830-1865, Timothy A. Ehrhardt

Masters Theses

White evangelical preachers of the antebellum era presented the American South with a cosmology that was rooted in the Bible as God's revelation to all humans, with God as sovereign over a strict social hierarchy that placed the white male as household head, and women, children, and black slaves (in that order) as subordinates. This cosmology contributed to sectional tensions, as southern pastors were at the forefront of advocating a proslavery worldview, and supported secession from the Union and war as an act of purification from northern infidels who did not endorse the ministers' brand of biblical literalism.

Southern clergymen …

Toward A Provident Working Class: French And English Social Reform Rhetoric, 1880-1914, James R. Gavan

Masters Theses

This research examines the rhetoric of belle epoque English and French middle class social observers. Addressing the "social question," they engaged in a debate on how best to appease an impoverished, alienated, and increasingly militant working class. Historians cite this discourse, and the meager legislation it fostered, as a transition from the unbridled nineteenth century laissez-faire to the welfare democracy characteristic of the twentieth century.

Central to the "social question" was the issue of improving social relations without altering existing class hierarchies (which favored the middle classes). Many social commentators shunned the passage of legislative safety nets in favor of …

The Role Of Nikita Khrushchev's 1959 Visit To The Us In The Development Of Soviet-American Relations, Tatyana I. Puchkova

Masters Theses

The end of the Cold War brought the uncertainty of the future relationship between the US and the countries of the former communist bloc. The major component of the prognosis is the analysis of the factors that determined the policies and the directions of the Cold War.

The visit of the Soviet Premier to the US marked a turning point in the Cold War mentality of the two nations. This paper will attempt to prove that the visit was a unique and revolutionary event in the course of the confrontation, and yet a logical continuation of earlier developments in the …

French Influences On The Historical And Nationalist Thought Of Nicolae Balcescu: An Inquiry Into The Structure Of Romanian Nationalism, Ion Matei Costinescu

Masters Theses

In the past decade nationalism has been conceptualized as a cultural artifact, a product of invention and social engineering. Yet despite the flourishing interest in questions of national identity, we still have no theory explaining the reasons why nationalism presents itself in a manifold diversity of forms and aspirations. One way of . accounting for the malleability of modern nationalism is to approach it as a product of dialectical interactions between various national ideals. In this respect, the case of Romanian nationalism is particularly instructive. Its nineteenth-century proponents consciously borrowed and adapted French cultural mores and ideological forms since they …

The Lost Treasure Of Valencia: Fugitive Muslims From The Kingdom Of Valencia 1290-1410, Michael A. Ryan

Masters Theses

The fourteenth century, an epoch infamous for war, disease, famine, and devastation across the whole of Europe, also saw an increase in the number of fugitive Muslims from the Christian kingdom of Valencia. Due to the reconquest of Valencia in the thirteenth century, an immense Muslim populace found itself subject to a dominant Christian minority. These Muslims had been either enslaved outright for resisting the Christian domination, or had been placed into a semi-free status. The members of this latter group were known as the Mudejars, and like the Muslim slaves, fled when their social and political standings were in …

Painter And King: Gustav Klimt’S Work At Peles Castle, Lucica Curta

Masters Theses

Gustav Klimt's work at Peles Castle, which was unknown until now due to the cultural isolation of Communist Romania, is the focus of this study. Against the background of Carol of Hohenzollern's life and activities as King of Romania (1866-1914), the castle is viewed as playing an important role in forming the King's new identity in his new homeland. The eclectic decoration of the castle reflects Carol's life experience and character. The King represented the best match for Klimt's artistic aspirations at that time.

Klimt's early life and work during the early 1880s is examined in the light of his …

The Spirit Of The Great Lakes Native Confederacy, 1805-1813, Timothy D. Willig

Masters Theses

Native American resistance to American expansion during the War of 1812 occurred in the wake of a significant spiritual revitalization movement in the Native community. The extent to which this spiritual movement prompted Native resistance has never been fully explored or developed. Traditional theories maintain that once the revitalization ended, a secular resistance movement began -one that was fueled by British support. The objective in this thesis is not only to establish the connection between the Natives' religion and their efforts to resist, but it is also to determine what factors initially gave rise to the revitalization movement.

My findings …

Survival Strategies Of Black Kalamazooans: Migration, Kinship Networks And Work In A Midwestern Village, 1860-1900, Carson Jeanne Leftwich

Masters Theses

An investigation of the lives of African Americans in a small Midwestern village in the second half of the nineteenth century finds that paradigms vary significantly from that of urban Northern or rural Southern black lives. Three survival strategies are explored: work, migration, and kinship networks. Residential and home ownership patterns are explored, as is the structure of the village, neighborhood, and home. The work of men and women, education, state of birth and subsequent migrations, household structure, and kin relationships are analyzed.

The study uses only public records: manuscript census records from 1860, 1870, and 1880; Kalamazoo City Directories …

Women In The Fuero Real Of Alfonso X El Sabio: Thirteenth-Century Law And Society, Michelle Martin De Figueroa

Masters Theses

The history of Iberia, unlike her European counterparts, was formed through the interaction of Christians, Jews and Mouslims. Thirteenth-century life, influenced by the Reconquest and friction between these groups, adapted to the turbulent nature of Castilian frontier society. With each military contest, Castilian society evolved to meet the demand placed upon her strained resources and citizenry. Women played a paramount role in this process. Through the use of legal codes as historical sources, the roles, rights and responsibilities of women can be established and assessed. This provides historians with an opportunity to view this period of time and the social …

Facets Of Courage: Colonel Charles Victor Deland And The American Civil War, Anthony P. Glesner

Masters Theses

This work constitutes a case study of a historical paradigm, that during the course of the Civil War civilians came to view the concepts of valor and virtue very much differently than soldiers, and that this caused tension within communities, both during the war, and after, when civilians continued to judge returning soldiers by an outdated sense of values, while the soldiers themselves, disillusioned by war, only wanted to forget. As time dimmed the memories of war, many veterans began to once again see it in terms of valor and virtue, and thus they reshaped their visions of war and …