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Remaking Of Race And Labor In British Guiana And Louisiana: 1830-1880, Amanda G. Lewis Ms. Dec 2011

Remaking Of Race And Labor In British Guiana And Louisiana: 1830-1880, Amanda G. Lewis Ms.

History Theses

During the nineteenth century, the Gulf of Mexico fostered the movement of people, ideas, and news throughout the surrounding regions. Although each colony and state surrounding the basin had distinct cultures and traditions, they shared the legacy of slavery and emancipation. This study examines the transformation of labor that occurred for sugar planters in British Guiana and southern Louisiana during the age of emancipation. In this comparative project, I argue that in the 1830s planters from the British West Indies set the trajectory for solutions to the labor problem by curtailing the freedom of former slaves with Asian contract labor. …


Ballads, Culture And Performance In England 1640-1660, Sarah Page Wisdom Nov 2011

Ballads, Culture And Performance In England 1640-1660, Sarah Page Wisdom

History Theses

Ballads published during the English Civil Wars and Interregnum were a uniquely potent cultural medium. Ballad authors and publishers used the tools of format and genre, music, and available discourses to translate contentious topics into a form of entertainment. The addition of music to what would otherwise have been merely another form of cheap print allowed ballads to be incorporated into many parts of daily life, through oral networks as well as through print and literacy. Ballads and their music permeated all levels of society and therefore the ideas presented in ballads enjoyed a broad audience. Because any given ballad …


Imagining Haiti: Representations Of Haiti In The American Press During The U.S. Occupation, 1915-1934, Molly M. Baroco May 2011

Imagining Haiti: Representations Of Haiti In The American Press During The U.S. Occupation, 1915-1934, Molly M. Baroco

History Theses

Throughout the United States occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934, the U.S. government and its supporters were forced to defend the legitimacy of American action. In order to justify it to the American public, officials and journalists created a dichotomy of capacity between an inferior Haiti and a superior U.S., and they presented the occupation as a charitable civilizing mission. This vision of Haiti and Haitians was elaborated in a racialized discourse wherein Haitians were assigned various negative traits that rendered them incapable of self-government. In examining how the New York Times, the National Geographic Magazine, and the Crisis …


Tactics, Politics, And Propaganda In The Irish War Of Independence, 1917-1921, Mike Rast May 2011

Tactics, Politics, And Propaganda In The Irish War Of Independence, 1917-1921, Mike Rast

History Theses

This thesis examines the influences on and evolution of the Irish Republican Army‘s guerrilla war strategy between 1917 and 1921. Utilizing newspapers, government documents, and memoirs of participants, this study highlights the role of propaganda and political concerns in waging an insurgency. It argues that while tactical innovation took place in the field, IRA General Headquarters imposed policy and directed the conflict with a concern for the political results of military action. While implementing strategies necessary to effective conflict of the war, this Headquarters staff was unable to reconcile a disjointed and overburdened command structure, leading its disintegration after the …


19th Century Tragedy, Victory, And Divine Providence As The Foundations Of An Afrikaner National Identity, Kevin W. Hudson May 2011

19th Century Tragedy, Victory, And Divine Providence As The Foundations Of An Afrikaner National Identity, Kevin W. Hudson

History Theses

Apart from a sense of racial superiority, which was certainly not unique to white Cape colonists, what is clear is that at the turn of the nineteenth century, Afrikaners were a disparate group. Economically, geographically, educationally, and religiously they were by no means united. Hierarchies existed throughout all cross sections of society. There was little political consciousness and no sense of a nation. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century they had developed a distinct sense of nationalism, indeed of a volk [people; ethnicity] ordained by God. The objective of this thesis is to identify and analyze three …


Red Helmsman: Cybernetics, Economics, And Philosophy In The German Democratic Republic, Kevin T. Baker May 2011

Red Helmsman: Cybernetics, Economics, And Philosophy In The German Democratic Republic, Kevin T. Baker

History Theses

Cybernetics, despite being initially rejected in the Eastern Bloc throughout the 1950s for ideological reasons, rose to a high level of institutional prominence in the 1960s, profoundly influencing state philosophy and economic planning. This thesis is an examination of this transition, charting the development of cybernetics from the object of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands’s (SED) opprobrium to one of the major philosophical currents within the party intelligentsia.


A Sacred People: Roman Identity In The Age Of Augustus, Edwin M. Bevens Dec 2010

A Sacred People: Roman Identity In The Age Of Augustus, Edwin M. Bevens

History Theses

The Romans redefined the nature of their collective identity to be centered on religion and the connection between the Roman people and their gods during the Augustan age, spanning Augustus’ dominance of Roman politics from the late 30s BC until AD 14. This sacral identity was presented through a comprehensive reimagining of Roman history, from the age of myth through the founding of the city and up to the present day, explaining the failures and successes of the city in history. According to Augustan writers, the chaos of the late Republic was due to a decline in piety. They connected …


Catholicism And Community: American Political Culture And The Conservative Catholic Social Justice Tradition, 1890-1960, Jayna C. Hoffacker Aug 2010

Catholicism And Community: American Political Culture And The Conservative Catholic Social Justice Tradition, 1890-1960, Jayna C. Hoffacker

History Theses

The prevailing trend in the historiography of American Catholicism has been an implicit acceptance of the traditional liberal narrative as formulated by scholars like Louis Hartz. American Catholic historians like Jay Dolan and John McGreevy have incorporated this narrative into their studies and argue that America was inherently liberal and that the conservative Catholics who rejected liberalism were thus fundamentally anti-American. This has simplified nuanced and complex relationships into a story of simple opposition. Further, the social justice doctrine of the Catholic Church, although based on undeniably illiberal foundations, led conservatives to come to the same conclusions about social and …


The Shia Migration From Southwestern Iran To Kuwait: Push-Pull Factors During The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Mohammad E. Alhabib Jul 2010

The Shia Migration From Southwestern Iran To Kuwait: Push-Pull Factors During The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Mohammad E. Alhabib

History Theses

This study explores the “push-pull” dynamics of Shia migration from southwestern Iran (Fars, Khuzestan and the Persian Gulf coast) to Kuwait during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although nowadays Shias constitute thirty five percent of the Kuwaiti population and their historical role in building the state of Kuwait have been substantial, no individual study has delved into the causes of Shia migration from Iran to Kuwait. By analyzing the internal political, economic, and social conditions of both regions in the context of the Gulf sheikhdoms, the British and Ottoman empires, and other great powers interested in dominating the …


Fifty Years Of Challenges To The Colorline Montgomery, Alabama, Alison L. Murphy Dec 2009

Fifty Years Of Challenges To The Colorline Montgomery, Alabama, Alison L. Murphy

History Theses

After fifty years of challenges to the color line in Montgomery, Alabama, the Metropolitan Statistical Area is more integrated now than it was in 1950. Through exploring the effects of Brown v. Board of Education, the bus boycott, school integration court cases, re-segregation of schools in city and suburban districts, and federal open-housing policies, the volatile transformation appears to shows how, after fifty years, Montgomery has moved from a segregated dual society to a partially integrated society in spite of the massive resistance to integration.


Relays In Rebellion: The Power In Lilian Ngoyi And Fannie Lou Hamer, Cathy Laverne Freeman Aug 2009

Relays In Rebellion: The Power In Lilian Ngoyi And Fannie Lou Hamer, Cathy Laverne Freeman

History Theses

This thesis compares how Lilian Ngoyi of South Africa and Fannie Lou Hamer of the United States crafted political identities and assumed powerful leadership, respectively, in struggles against racial oppression via the African National Congress and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The study asserts that Ngoyi and Hamer used alternative sources of personal power which arose from their location in the intersecting social categories of culture, gender and class. These categories challenge traditional disciplinary boundaries and complicate any analysis of political economy, state power relations and black liberation studies which minimize the contributions of women. Also, by analyzing resistance leadership …


Coke Vs. Pepsi: The Cola Wars In South Africa During The Anti-Apartheid Era, John Kirby Spivey Jul 2009

Coke Vs. Pepsi: The Cola Wars In South Africa During The Anti-Apartheid Era, John Kirby Spivey

History Theses

This thesis looks at the actions of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in South Africa during both the anti-apartheid movement and the post-apartheid era. The processes which led to those actions, both corporations’ removal of their presence in South Africa, the effects this had on South Africa, and their reemergence in a post-apartheid state are examined. It will be shown that, despite the public relations campaigns of both Coke and Pepsi, far more importance was placed on their products’ profitability than the well-being of the black Africans who produced, delivered, or consumed the soft drinks. However, both companies found their actions during …


A Small Place In Georgia: Yeoman Cultural Persistance, Terrence Lee Kersey May 2009

A Small Place In Georgia: Yeoman Cultural Persistance, Terrence Lee Kersey

History Theses

In antebellum Upcounty Georgia, the Southern yeomanry developed a society independent of the planter class. Many of the studies of the pre-Civil War Southern yeomanry describe a class that is living within the cracks of a planter-dominated society, using, and subject to those institutions that served the planter class. Yet in Forsyth County, a yeomanry-dominated society created and nurtured institutions that met their class needs, not parasitically using those developed by the planter class for their own needs.


Underneath The Rainbow: Queer Identity And Community Building In Panama City And The Florida Panhandle 1950 - 1990, Jerry T. Watkins Iii Nov 2008

Underneath The Rainbow: Queer Identity And Community Building In Panama City And The Florida Panhandle 1950 - 1990, Jerry T. Watkins Iii

History Theses

The decades after World War II were a time of growth and change for queer people across the country. Many chose to move to major metropolitan centers in order to pursue a life of openness and be part of queer communities. However, those people only account for part of the story of queer history. Other queer people chose to stay in small towns and create their own queer spaces for socializing and community building. The Gulf Coast of Florida is a place where queer people chose to create queer community where they lived through such actions as private house parties …


Dixie Progress: Sears, Roebuck & Co. And How It Became An Icon In Southern Culture, Jerry R. Hancock, Jr. Nov 2008

Dixie Progress: Sears, Roebuck & Co. And How It Became An Icon In Southern Culture, Jerry R. Hancock, Jr.

History Theses

This study will investigate Sears, Roebuck & Co. and the special relationship it established with the South during the first half of the twentieth-century. The study will examine oral interviews with former employees, southern literature and customer letters from the region in an effort to better understand how Sears became more than just a friend to the poor dirt farmers of the South; it became a uniquely southern institution.


Our Whole Future Is Bound Up In This Project: The Making Of Buford Dam, Lori I. Coleman Nov 2008

Our Whole Future Is Bound Up In This Project: The Making Of Buford Dam, Lori I. Coleman

History Theses

Twentieth Century Americans witnessed the construction of numerous massive dams that controlled the flow of rivers across the country. Many of these dams were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve navigation and to provide inexpensive electricity and flood control. This paper will seek to shed light on Georgia’s current water crisis by analyzing the initial purposes behind the building of Buford Dam in North Georgia, investigating how water supply issues were addressed in the first half of the twentieth century, and exploring how expectations of the Chattahoochee River changed over time due in part to metropolitan …


An Unquenchable Flame: The Spirit Of Protest And The Sit-In Movement In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Samuel Roderick Jackson Jul 2008

An Unquenchable Flame: The Spirit Of Protest And The Sit-In Movement In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Samuel Roderick Jackson

History Theses

ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to examine the Sit-in movement in Chattanooga, Tennessee during the early 1960s in the context of a perpetuating tradition of protest in the African American community spanning more than a century. The study will also illustrate how it was a unique episode in the annals of the Civil Rights Movement in that it was strictly orchestrated by high school students without the input or support of adults, yet it has largely been neglected by historians. The research conducted includes oral histories, newspaper clippings, private manuscript collections, books, videos, and periodicals which provide great …


"A Little Bit Of Heaven": The Inception, Climax And Transformation Of The East Washington Community In East Point, Georgia, Lisa Shannon-Flagg Jul 2008

"A Little Bit Of Heaven": The Inception, Climax And Transformation Of The East Washington Community In East Point, Georgia, Lisa Shannon-Flagg

History Theses

This thesis explores the evolution, growth and sudden decline of the East Washington community, located in East Point, Georgia. This African-American community was strategically created in 1912, when the city council passed its first residential segregation ordinance. This research uses oral histories and other documents to analyze the survival techniques that enabled East Washington to endure the turmoil of Jim Crow racial segregation from its 1912 inception to its 1962 transformation due to urban renewal. First, it identifies the people who chose to migrate to this area, where they came from and what enticed them to settle in East Point. …


Men Of War: The Seamen Of Hms Mars And The Revolutionary Era, Harold Hansen Apr 2008

Men Of War: The Seamen Of Hms Mars And The Revolutionary Era, Harold Hansen

History Theses

The late eighteenth century witnessed dramatic changes in the social, economic, and political fabric of the Atlantic World. The Sailors of the HMS Mars fully participated in this transition to modernity. Over the course of their naval careers, the men laboring on the Mars felt the pull of four distinct, but interlocking cultures. Working class, maritime, naval, and British culture all played a part in the sailors’ identity construction. As a result of these myriad influences the sailors could have chosen to join the emerging trans-national maritime working class, but instead the Mars’ seamen fought to gain full British citizenship …


Peace And Mind: Religion, Race, And Gender Among Progressive Intellectuals And Activists, David Humphries Aug 2007

Peace And Mind: Religion, Race, And Gender Among Progressive Intellectuals And Activists, David Humphries

History Theses

This paper explores how changing conceptions of religion, race, and gender at the beginning of the twentieth century promoted transnational anti-systemic movements and increased cooperation between progressive intellectuals and political activists. Using the cases of Bertrand Russell, George Bernard Shaw, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Jane Addams, and Sylvia Pankhurst, this paper chronicles and analyzes protest to the First World War and objection to the organization of the world-system.


Empire Of The Hajj: Pilgrims, Plagues, And Pan-Islam Under British Surveillance,1865-1926, Michael Christopher Low Jul 2007

Empire Of The Hajj: Pilgrims, Plagues, And Pan-Islam Under British Surveillance,1865-1926, Michael Christopher Low

History Theses

From roughly 1865 to 1926, the forces of European imperialism brought the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca under the scrutiny of non-Muslim interests. The driving force behind this dramatic change was the expansion of the British Empire’s maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean basin. With the development of steamship travel and the opening of the Suez Canal, colonial authorities became increasingly involved in the surveillance of seaborne pilgrims. During this period, the hajj came to be recognized as both the primary conduit for the spread of epidemic diseases, such as cholera and plague, and a critical outlet for the growth of …


Standup Comedy As Artistic Expression: Lenny Bruce, The 1950s, And American Humor, Andrea Shannon Prussing-Hollowell May 2007

Standup Comedy As Artistic Expression: Lenny Bruce, The 1950s, And American Humor, Andrea Shannon Prussing-Hollowell

History Theses

STANDUP COMEDY AS ARTISTIC EXPRESSION: LENNY BRUCE, THE 1950s, AND AMERICAN HUMOR by ANDREA SHANNON PRUSSING-HOLLOWELL Under the Direction of Michelle Brattain ABSTRACT Despite the common memory of the 1950s being an intolerant, conformist decade, many “underground” cultures developed and thrived in response to America’s homogenized national culture. Lenny Bruce was immersed within these cultures, using standup comedy as a vehicle to express his and his audiences’ disillusionment. This thesis aims to place Bruce back in his original context of the 1950s in order to understand why the 1960s youth embraced him as their own. By examining the 1950s underground, …


Christian Missions And Islam: The Reformed Church In America And The Origins Of The Moslem World, Christopher Cleveland Montrose Dec 2006

Christian Missions And Islam: The Reformed Church In America And The Origins Of The Moslem World, Christopher Cleveland Montrose

History Theses

This thesis examines the historical background of missionary attitudes toward Islam within the framework of the mission emphasis of the Reformed Church in America between the 1880s and 1911. It argues that the historical experience of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands produced a sense of pride and destiny that was transplanted by Dutch emigration to North America and maintained in the relationships of the Reformed Church in America with other nationalities and missions. That sense of pride ad destiny prepared the church to stand on its convictions in the face of opposition, which it drew upon itself when …


To Pick Up Again The Cross Of Missionary Work: The Life Of W. J. Northen, 1835-1913, Casey P. Cater Aug 2006

To Pick Up Again The Cross Of Missionary Work: The Life Of W. J. Northen, 1835-1913, Casey P. Cater

History Theses

Primarily focusing on his political career (1878-1894) and as an unofficial public figure after his retirement from formal politics (1895-1911), this study considers William J. Northen’s efforts in leading Georgia to the vague but resonant ideal of progress by analyzing his combination of religion and politics for social change, modern governance, and economic progress. After Reconstruction, urban middle-class southern Baptists like Northen began to realize the social problems of their civilization. Gradually, these reformers worked to expand their traditional mission of saving indivdual souls into a modern mission of saving the collective soul of society. Whereas personal, localized relationships customarily …


Kaethe Kollwitz: Women's Art, Working-Class Agitation, And Maternal Feminism In The Weimar Republic, Jamie Dortch Aug 2006

Kaethe Kollwitz: Women's Art, Working-Class Agitation, And Maternal Feminism In The Weimar Republic, Jamie Dortch

History Theses

The German artist Kaethe Kollwitz challenged the cultural constraints placed on women during the Weimar Republic. My thesis analyzes the artwork of Kollwitz and the effects of maternal imagery within the political debates of abortion reform, sexual equality and pacifism in the 1920s and explores historians’ use of the ideas of maternal feminism to understand Kollwitz’s art. I challenge the social constructs of private versus public spheres to illustrate the diversity of experience and the agency of women like Kollwitz who manipulated these spheres. I argue that Kaethe Kollwitz gained a voice within the public domain by creating artwork and …


Strike Fever: Labor Unrest, Civil Rights And The Left In Atlanta, 1972, Monica Waugh-Benton Aug 2006

Strike Fever: Labor Unrest, Civil Rights And The Left In Atlanta, 1972, Monica Waugh-Benton

History Theses

This thesis aims to provide a history of African American working class and Leftist activism in Atlanta, Georgia during the early 1970s. It places a series of wildcat strikes within the context of political and social transition, and charges unequal economic conditions and a racially charged discriminatory environment as primary causes. The legacies of both the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left are identified as key contributing factors to this wave of labor unrest. One path taken by former Civil Right activists was to focus on poor peoples’ movements, and one course taken by the 1960s-era New Left activists …


Perpetrators & Possibilities: Holocaust Diaries, Resistance, And The Crisis Of Imagination, Eryk Emil Tahvonen Aug 2006

Perpetrators & Possibilities: Holocaust Diaries, Resistance, And The Crisis Of Imagination, Eryk Emil Tahvonen

History Theses

This thesis examines the way genocide leaves marks in the writings of targeted people. It posits not only that these marks exist, but also that they indicate a type of psychological resistance. By focusing on the ways Holocaust diarists depicted Nazi perpetrators, and by concentrating on the ways language was used to distance the victim from the perpetrator, it is possible to see how Jewish diarists were engaged in alternate and subtle, but nevertheless important, forms of resistance to genocide. The thesis suggest this resistance on the part of victims is similar in many ways to well-known distancing mechanisms employed …


A Queer Miracle In Georgia: The Origins Of Gay-Affirming Religion In The South, Jodie Talley Aug 2006

A Queer Miracle In Georgia: The Origins Of Gay-Affirming Religion In The South, Jodie Talley

History Theses

The intersection of homosexuality and faith values, a very controversial topic in the United States, has generated both social accommodation as well as “culture war.” In the past forty years this nation has witnessed the establishment of predominantly gay congregations, gay “welcoming” and “affirming” mainstream congregations, as well as virulently anti-gay religious organizations. This study investigates the origins and evolving history of gay and gay-affirming religious traditions in America with an emphasis on Atlanta and Georgia. Primarily an oral history, this project draws from eighty-two interviews as well as primary and secondary documents to construct this history. Several conclusions unfold: …


Cuban Refugees In Atlanta: 1950-1980, Charlotte A. Bayala Aug 2006

Cuban Refugees In Atlanta: 1950-1980, Charlotte A. Bayala

History Theses

This thesis examines the lives of Cuban refugees who entered Atlanta, Georgia between 1950 and 1980. It explores early trans-national ties between the two areas. and how Cuban refugees relied on this relationship when they left the island. It shows the process they went through from finding aid and shelter to becoming a strong active community. It explains the role religious institutions had in settling refugees and shows how the state had to work to become equipped to provide resources to a large influx of Spanish-speakers. Through this thesis one will learn of the beginnings of an important Latino community …


Stop Taking Our Privileges! The Anti-Era Movement In Georgia, 1978-1982, Kristina Marie Graves Jul 2006

Stop Taking Our Privileges! The Anti-Era Movement In Georgia, 1978-1982, Kristina Marie Graves

History Theses

Graves discusses the important role that women played in the anti-ERA campaign in Georgia during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a controversial and divisive piece of legislation that polarized both legislators and constituents throughout the United States. Graves uses the anti-ERA campaign in Georgia as a model for studying the women who opposed the ERA on a national level. She writes about the differences between the feminist movement and the conservative grassroots movement, the role that anti-ERA women played in the rise of the New Right, and the legacy of the ERA’s failure …