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Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, And Enduring Conflicts Of The U.S.-Dakota War Of 1862, Julie A. Anderson Dec 2011

Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, And Enduring Conflicts Of The U.S.-Dakota War Of 1862, Julie A. Anderson

History Dissertations

The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 resulted in the deaths of more than 500 Minnesota settlers, the expulsion of the Dakota people from their homeland, and the largest mass execution in U.S. history. For more than a century, white Minnesotans declared themselves innocent victims of Indian brutality and actively remembered this war by erecting monuments, preserving historic landscapes, publishing first-person narratives, and hosting anniversary celebrations. However, as the centennial anniversary approached, new awareness for the sufferings of the Dakota both before and after the war prompted retellings of the traditional story that gave the status of victimhood to the Dakota as …


The Apocalypse Will Be Televised: Representations Of The Cold War On Network Television, 1976-1987, Aubrey Underwood Aug 2011

The Apocalypse Will Be Televised: Representations Of The Cold War On Network Television, 1976-1987, Aubrey Underwood

History Dissertations

This dissertation examines how the major television networks, in conjunction with the Reagan administration, launched a lingering cloud of nuclear anxiety that helped to revive the Cold War during the 1980s. Placed within a larger political and cultural post-war context, this national preoccupation with a global show-down with the Soviet Union at times both hindered and bolstered Reagan’s image as the archetypal conservative, cowboy President that could free America from its liberal adolescent past now caustically referred to as “the sixties.” This stalwart image of Reagan, created and carefully managed by a number of highly-paid marketing executives, as one of …


The African-American Emigration Movement In Georgia During Reconstruction, Falechiondro Karcheik Sims-Alvarado Jun 2011

The African-American Emigration Movement In Georgia During Reconstruction, Falechiondro Karcheik Sims-Alvarado

History Dissertations

This dissertation is a narrative history about nearly 800 newly freed black Georgians who sought freedom beyond the borders of the Unites States by emigrating to Liberia during the years of 1866 and 1868. This work fulfills three overarching goals. First, I demonstrate that during the wake of Reconstruction, newly freed persons’ interest in returning to Africa did not die with the Civil War. Second, I identify and analyze the motivations of blacks seeking autonomy in Africa. Third, I tell the stories and challenges of those black Georgians who chose emigration as the means to civil and political freedom in …


Nationalizing The Dead: The Contested Making Of An American Commemorative Tradition From The Civil War To The Great War, Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D. May 2011

Nationalizing The Dead: The Contested Making Of An American Commemorative Tradition From The Civil War To The Great War, Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D.

History Dissertations

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the importance of collective memory in the making of national identity. Where does death fit into the collective memory of American identity, particularly in the economic and social chaos of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How did death shape the collective memory of American national identity in the midst of a pluralism brought on by immigration, civil and labor rights, and a transforming culture? On the one hand, the commemorations of public figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt constructed an identity based on Anglo-Saxonism, American imperialism, and …


Most Desperate People: The Genesis Of Texas Exceptionalism, Michael G. Kelley May 2011

Most Desperate People: The Genesis Of Texas Exceptionalism, Michael G. Kelley

History Dissertations

Six different nations have claimed sovereignty over some or all of the current state of Texas. In the early nineteenth century, Spain ruled Texas. Then Mexico rebelled against Spain, and from 1821 to 1836 Texas was a Mexican province. In 1836, Texas Anglo settlers rebelled against Mexican rule and established a separate republic. The early Anglo settlers brought their form of civilization to a region that the Spanish had not been able to subdue for three centuries. They defeated a professional army and eventually overwhelmed Native American tribes who wished to maintain their way of life without inference from intruding …


Finding Their Place In The World: Meiji Intellectuals And The Japanese Construction Of An East-West Binary, 1868-1912, Masako N. Racel May 2011

Finding Their Place In The World: Meiji Intellectuals And The Japanese Construction Of An East-West Binary, 1868-1912, Masako N. Racel

History Dissertations

The Meiji era (1868-1912) in Japanese history was characterized by the extensive adoption of Western institutions, technology, and customs. The dramatic changes that took place caused the era’s intellectuals to ponder Japan's position within the larger global context. The East-West binary was a particularly important part of the discourse as the intellectuals analyzed and criticized the current state of affairs and offered their visions of Japan’s future. This dissertation examines five Meiji intellectuals who had very different orientations and agendas: Fukuzawa Yukichi, an influential philosopher and political theorist; Shimoda Utako, a pioneer of women's education; Uchimura Kanzō, a Christian leader; …


"Our Good And Faithful Servant": James Moore Wayne And Georgia Unionism, Joel C. Mcmahon Apr 2010

"Our Good And Faithful Servant": James Moore Wayne And Georgia Unionism, Joel C. Mcmahon

History Dissertations

Since the Civil War, historians have tried to understand why eleven southern states seceded from the Union to form a new nation, the Confederate States of America. What compelled the South to favor disunion over union? While enduring stereotypes perpetuated by the Myth of the Lost Cause cast most southerners of the antebellum era as ardent secessionists, not all southerners favored disunion. In addition, not all states were enthusiastic about the prospects of leaving one Union only to join another. Secession and disunion have helped shape the identity of the imagined South, but many Georgians opposed secession. This dissertation examines …


The Nashville Civil Rights Movement: A Study Of The Phenomenon Of Intentional Leadership Development And Its Consequences For Local Movements And The National Civil Rights Movement, Barry Everett Lee Apr 2010

The Nashville Civil Rights Movement: A Study Of The Phenomenon Of Intentional Leadership Development And Its Consequences For Local Movements And The National Civil Rights Movement, Barry Everett Lee

History Dissertations

The Nashville Civil Rights Movement was one of the most dynamic local movements of the early 1960s, producing the most capable student leaders of the period 1960 to 1965. Despite such a feat, the historical record has largely overlooked this phenomenon. What circumstances allowed Nashville to produce such a dynamic movement whose youth leadership of John Lewis, Diane Nash, Bernard LaFayette, and James Bevel had no parallel? How was this small cadre able to influence movement developments on local and a national level? In order to address these critical research questions, standard historical methods of inquiry will be employed. These …


Removing Reds From The Old Red Scar: Maintaining And Industrial Peace In The East Tennessee Copper Basin From The Great War Through The Second World War, William Ronald Simson Mar 2010

Removing Reds From The Old Red Scar: Maintaining And Industrial Peace In The East Tennessee Copper Basin From The Great War Through The Second World War, William Ronald Simson

History Dissertations

This study considers industrial society and development in the East Tennessee Copper Basin from the 1890s through World War II; its main focus will be on the primary industrial concern, Tennessee Copper Company (TCC 1899), owned by the Lewisohn Group, New York. The study differs from other Appalachian scholarship in its assessment of New South industries generally overlooked. Wars and increased reliance on organic chemicals tied the basin to defense needs and agricultural advance. Locals understood the basin held expanding economic opportunities superior to those in the surrounding mountains and saw themselves as participants in the nation’s industrial and economic …


From Countrypolitan To Neotraditional: Gender, Race, Class, And Region In Female Country Music, 1980-1989, Dana C. Wiggins Apr 2009

From Countrypolitan To Neotraditional: Gender, Race, Class, And Region In Female Country Music, 1980-1989, Dana C. Wiggins

History Dissertations

During the 1980s, women in country music enjoyed unprecedented success in record sales, television, film, and on pop and country charts. For female performers, many of their achievements were due to their abilities to mold their images to mirror American norms and values, namely increasing political conservatism, the backlashes against feminism and the civil rights movement, celebrations of working and middle class life, and the rise of the South. This dissertation divides the 1980s into three distinct periods and then discusses the changing uses of gender, race, class, and region in female country music and links each to larger historical …


Athens Of The South: College Life In Nashville, A New South City, 1897-1917, Mary Ellen Pethel Nov 2008

Athens Of The South: College Life In Nashville, A New South City, 1897-1917, Mary Ellen Pethel

History Dissertations

The Progressive Era affected the South in different ways from other regions of the United States. Because Southern society was more entrenched in patriarchy and traditional social strictures, Nashville provides an excellent lens in which to assess the vision of a New South city. Known as “Athens of the South,” Nashville legitimized this title with the emergence of several colleges and universities of regional and national prominence in the 1880s and 1890s. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Nashville’s universities solidified their status as reputable institutions, with Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities garnering national prominence. Within Nashville, local …


The "New Woman" On The Stage: The Making Of A Gendered Public Sphere In Interwar Iran And Egypt, Fakhri Haghani Nov 2008

The "New Woman" On The Stage: The Making Of A Gendered Public Sphere In Interwar Iran And Egypt, Fakhri Haghani

History Dissertations

During the interwar period in Iran and Egypt, local and regional manifestation of tajadod/al-jidida (modernity) as a “cultural identity crisis” created the nationalist image and practice of zan-e emrouzi-e shahri/al-mar’a al-jidida al-madani (the urban/secular “New Woman”). The dynamics of the process involved performance art, including the covert medium of journalism and the overt world of the performing arts of music, play, and cinema. The image of the “New Woman” as asl/al-asala (cultural authenticity) connected sonnat/al-sunna (tradition) with the global trends of modernism, linking pre-nineteenth century popular forms of performing arts to new genres, forms, and social experiences of the space …


Stories Of Lynwood Park, Veronica Menezes Holmes Oct 2008

Stories Of Lynwood Park, Veronica Menezes Holmes

History Dissertations

History of African American underclass community in northwestern DeKalb County, Georgia, from its settling in the late-1920s to its present displacement through gentrification. Thesis is that black underclass communities are the result of America's historic racism and subordination of blacks, whose members are left little choice but to engage in illegality as survival strategies. The work reveals the hard-work routines of people relegated to the bottom of American society, as well as their fun-loving leisure activities and embracing of vice as pleasurable. Established during Jim Crow segregation, Lynwood Park cultivated a reputation for danger and toughness to keep out outsiders, …


God And Slavery In America: Francis Wayland And The Evangelical Conscience, Matthew S. Hill Jul 2008

God And Slavery In America: Francis Wayland And The Evangelical Conscience, Matthew S. Hill

History Dissertations

The work examines the antislavery writings of Francis Wayland (1796-1865). Wayland pastored churches in Boston and Providence, but he left his indelible mark as the fourth and twenty-eight year president of Brown University (1827-1855). The author of numerous works on moral science, economics, philosophy, education, and the Baptist denomination, his administration marked a transitional stage in the emergence of American colleges from a classically oriented curriculum to an educational philosophy based on science and modern languages. Wayland left an enduring legacy at Brown, but it was his antislavery writings that brought him the most notoriety and controversy. Developed throughout his …


Spanish Orientalism: Washington Irving And The Romance Of The Moors, Michael S. Stevens Nov 2007

Spanish Orientalism: Washington Irving And The Romance Of The Moors, Michael S. Stevens

History Dissertations

Edward Said's description of Orientalism as a constitutive element of the modern West is one of the enduring concepts of cultural history. The Orientalism thesis begins with the observation that in the 19th century Westerners began describing the "Orient," particularly the Middle East and India, as a place that was once gloriously civilized but had declined under the influence of incompetent Islamic governments. This construction was then employed to justify Western Imperialism and the expansion of Christianity into Asia. This dissertation examines a case of Orientalism with a twist. Between 1775 and 1830 a group of Anglophone writers and artists …


Public And Private Voices: The Typhoid Fever Experience At Camp Thomas, 1898., Gerald Joseph Pierce Nov 2007

Public And Private Voices: The Typhoid Fever Experience At Camp Thomas, 1898., Gerald Joseph Pierce

History Dissertations

This dissertation examines the experience of those involved in the typhoid fever outbreak at Camp Thomas, Chickamauga National Military Park, Georgia between April and August 1898. Among American volunteer soliders in the Spanish-American War, those stationed at this camp suffered the highest number of typhoid cases and deaths from typhoid. Treatments of the war have referred to the outbreak and some studies have examined it as part of wider subjects, but none from the standpoint of those involved, commanders, doctors, civilians, officers and enlisted men. The mobilized soldiers represented numerous states and reflected the disease experience of civilian society. The …


Africans, Cherokees, And The Abcfm Missionaries In The Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story Of Redemption, Gnimbin Albert Ouattara Aug 2007

Africans, Cherokees, And The Abcfm Missionaries In The Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story Of Redemption, Gnimbin Albert Ouattara

History Dissertations

My dissertation, “Africans, Cherokees, and the ABCFM Missionaries in the Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story of Redemption,” assesses the experience of American missionaries in the Cherokee nation and in Western Africa during the nineteenth century. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), founded in 1810, was the first successful foreign missionary society in the U.S., and its campaign among the Cherokees served as springboard for its activities in “Western Africa”—Liberia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and South Africa. Although the Cherokees and the West Africans were two different peoples, the ABCFM used the same method to Christianize them: the Lancasterian …


Reconfiguring Memories Of Honor: William Raoul's Manipulation Of Masculinities In The New South, 1872-1918, Steve Ray Blankenship Apr 2007

Reconfiguring Memories Of Honor: William Raoul's Manipulation Of Masculinities In The New South, 1872-1918, Steve Ray Blankenship

History Dissertations

This dissertation examines how honor was fashioned in the New South by examining the masculine roles performed by William Greene Raoul, Jr. Raoul wrote his autobiography in the mid-1930s and in it he reflected on his life on the New South's frontier at the turn of the century as change came to the region in all aspects of life: politically, economically, socially, sexually, and racially. Raoul was an elite son of the New South whose memoirs, "The Proletarian Aristocrat," reveals a man of multiple masculinities, each with particular ways of retrieving his past(s). The paradox of his title suggests the …


The Polish Army In France: Immigrants In America, World War I Volunteers In France, Defenders Of The Recreated State In Poland, David Thomas Ruskoski Jul 2006

The Polish Army In France: Immigrants In America, World War I Volunteers In France, Defenders Of The Recreated State In Poland, David Thomas Ruskoski

History Dissertations

Independent Poland ceased to exist in 1795 and the various insurrections to restore the Polish state were thwarted by the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and Russians. During the First World War, Polish statesmen called upon the thousands of Polish immigrants in the United States to join the Polish Army in France, a military force funded by the French government and organized by the Polish Falcons of America and Ignacy Paderewski, the world-famous Polish pianist. Over 20,000 men trained in Canada and fought in the final months of the war on the Western front. While in France they were placed under the command …