Digital Commons Network^™

Grayscale Thoughts: Reactions To Brown V. Board Of Education, Haylee Orlowski

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education established that the segregation of public schools based on race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Across the United States, there was a spectrum of reactions to Brown. Responses ranged from optimism and celebration to anger and violence. This paper surveys the varied reception of Brown from politicians, parents, teachers, journalists, and other parties. It acknowledges the grayscale of opinions within and across demographic lines. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the complexity of a critical moment in the civil rights movement to prevent …

The Committee On Public Information And The Four Minute Men: How The United States Sold A European War To American People, Madison Mcternan

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Shortly after America’s entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to garner public support for the War. This committee was created not only to drum up support for the war, but to ease a public frustrated by an isolationist president’s entry into such a conflict. Notable reporter and writer George Creel served as its chairman, and together with countless others created a massive propaganda campaign. The Committee was incredibly successful in its mission of “selling the war.” This was largely due to the fact that Creel and his men revolutionized the way propaganda …

A Safavid Royal Bathhouse Uncovered: Re-Evaluation Of The Sa‘Ādatābād Garden Of Qazvin With New Archaeological Evidence, Sean Silvia

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

In 2019, archaeologists broke ground at the site of Shah Ṭahmāsp I’s Sa’ādatābād in Qazvin, a royal garden and palace complex finished in 1557. There they discovered remains of a Safavid bathhouse. There have been many recent efforts to reconstruct Sa’ādatābād as it originally was, but none of them include the recently unearthed baths in their models. The archaeological team’s dig reports also do not perform this sort of analysis. This paper will consider historical and archaeological evidence to incorporate the bathhouse discovery into the reconstruction of Sa’ādatābād. It will situate the baths within the context of a garden city, …

8:46, Riell Swann

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

The multimedia poetic work, 8:46, attempts to shed light on the lengthy history of systemic racism in America. Through curated images meant to visually represent the spoken word, this creative piece guides the viewer through this reality via the eyes of the most enigmatic and stereotyped figures of modern times, a young black man. This poetic work seeks to enlighten others, as to potentially cultivate a bridge of understanding and empathy. Despite background, creed, or color, discussion of the issues is the most direct method towards progress. Through the use of text and imagery, the hope of this poetic work …

The Law And The Household: Criminal Courts In Early Twentieth Century Rockingham County, Jennifer Taylor

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the early twentieth century as a period of transition for rural, southern communities where the state began to increase its authority in matters of the family and the household. This prompted a transition from traditional patriarchal authority to state paternalism. Using the criminal court case records from the Rockingham Criminal Court, it is possible to evaluate the rural population’s reaction to this transition. Certain populations, particularly women, were willing to use the law as a place to find justice against male power, while men continued to perpetuate traditional ideas about masculinity and informal, violent retribution as a …

Book Reviewed: Jeremy Banas, Pearl: A History Of San Antonio’S Iconic Beer, Zachary Wise

Madison Historical Review

This review critiques Jeremy Banas, Pearl: A History of San Antonio’s Iconic Beer. Banas's seminal work presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the Pearl Brewery and its long history of trial and tribulations. This review evaluates the authors scholarship, unbiased narrative, and further studies of food history in Texas.

Baseball At The Precipice Of A Watershed Moment In The Production Of The Popular, Nathan E. Vaughn

Madison Historical Review

Baseball's 1919 season has been seen in two different ways. First, it has been seen as a triumphant season in which Babe Ruth ended the Dead-Ball Era and brought baseball into a productive Live-Ball Era. Second, it has been seen as disastrous season ending in the Black Sox Scandal, the worst sin in baseball history. Traditionally, the social historical perspective has made sense of these differing views by noting the power of the capitalist owners over their player-employees. In banning the eight Black Sox for life, the owners forcefully removed the offending party and brought their sport into line without …

Little Steel’S Labor War In Youngstown, Ben J. St. Angelo

Madison Historical Review

During the 1930s, in response to growing labor discontent, the United States Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Championed by President Franklin Roosevelt’s as an equalizing measure in the American workplace, the NLRA received vigorous opposition from powerful leaders in multiple industries. This article examines an outbreak of violence between workers and agents of management at Republic Steel in Youngstown, Ohio during the spring and summer of 1937 when workers attempted to organize—emboldened by new rights granted to them in the NLRA. It demonstrates the life and death consequences that marred labor relations in the United States. Disputes …

A Distinction Without A Difference: Vietnam, Sir Robert Thompson, And The Policing Failures Of Vietnam, Mark J. Rothermel

Madison Historical Review

The scholarship analyzing the failure of the American involvement in Vietnam began even before the war finished. Whether the Orthodox School which considered the war unwinnable or the revisionist which argued there was a path to victory for the Americans, there have been libraries of tomes arguing who or what was to blame for the American defeat. An increased amount of scholarship recently has been written regarding the influence of British officer Sir Robert Thompson and his attempt to advise both the South Vietnamese and American war efforts.

Thompson, who gained fame as one of the key leaders for the …

The Bourgeois Blues: Representations Of Race And Authenticity In The Songs Of Lead Belly, Jonathan Lower

Madison Historical Review

Abstract to come.

“By Her Needle Maintain Herself With Reputation:” Philadelphia Quaker Women And The Materiality Of Piety, 1758-1760, Laura Earls

Madison Historical Review

From the garments that they made to the ways that they spoke, Quakers grappled with the outward trappings of piety. Unofficial Quaker guidance enumerated some vague criteria for plain garments around the turn of the eighteenth century, but aside from this, pious members largely decided for themselves what was or was not plain. This paper utilizes a close study of the diaries and possessions of women including Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker, Grace Peel Dowell Parr, Hannah Callender Sansom, and their contemporaries to argue that, rather than represent lapses of faith, their material worlds represented individual interpretations of plainness within rigid social …

The Anglo-Saxons--Stoddard And Lovecraft: Ideas Of Anglo-Saxon Supremacy And The New England Counter-Revolution, Benjamin M. Welton

Madison Historical Review

This paper attempts to explain the New England Counter-Revolution through two very different men--H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) and T. Lothrop Stoddard (1883-1950). While one was a respected and popular scholar, and the other was a little-known pulp writer, both men combined New England regionalism, a belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority, the primacy of modern science, and a belief in racial/eugenic differences to create a unique political paradigm little recognized at the time but influential today.

Letter From The Editor, Jamie Bone

Madison Historical Review

Letter acknowledging editorial board and previewing this years journal.

Madison Historical Review: Volume 18 Full Issue

Madison Historical Review

Attached is the complete publication of the Madison Historical Review, Volume 18.

Battling Youth Unemployment In France: Can Macron Put Young People To Work?, Adriana C. Bolivar

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

High unemployment has been a persistent struggle for the French economy, especially over the last 30 years under presidents Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande, and now Macron. In recent years, this problem has particularly plagued young workers making them the “lost generation” of Europe. This paper studies the history of youth unemployment in France and assesses the impact of government policies and cultural norms on young workers. Additionally, it highlights the trade-off between workers’ rights and economic growth in an attempt to draw attention to the importance of culture and context in development.

The factors that have driven French structural youth …

Sleeping With Storyville: The Influence Of Media, Race, And Morality In New Orleans’ Red Light District, Tiffany R. Nelson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In 1897, the red-light district of Storyville was officially consecrated in New Orleans, Louisiana. Storyville encapsulated centuries’ worth of Southern cultural, social, and political values that culminated in the creation of a legally recognized district of vice. New Orleans was an economically situated city, profiting from the business and tourist routes provided by the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River. Known throughout the nation for a plethora of negative attributes, such as disease, prostitution, and murder, New Orleans developed a national reputation as a city of immorality, which was only furthered by the creation of a red-light district.

In exploring …

Stonington’S Revolution: The Role Of Small Port Towns In The American Revolution, Jay Feyerabend

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Merchants and sailors of the small port town of Stonington, Connecticut capitalized on the chaos of the American Revolution by transforming their town into a prosperous hub of privateering and trade while the larger neighbor city of New York was occupied by British forces. The study of the experience of port towns in the American Revolution broadly has overshadowed the diverse experiences of different port towns and largely neglected the war-time relationship between smaller ports and their larger neighbors. By highlighting the financial success of Stonington and illustrating its context within the larger Atlantic World, this work highlights the …

“Without Obscuring Deeper Truths:” Interpreting Slavery And Jefferson At Monticello, Andrew Miles

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the paradigmatic shift in interpretation that occurred at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello during the 1980s and 1990s. For decades, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation presented the site as a marvel of architecture, décor, as well as exemplifying Jefferson’s tranquil domestic life and intellectual talents. Beginning in the 1980s, the Foundation began to address slavery at the site. Chapter one introduction of slavery interpretation during this period. Early attempts to interpret slavery became intertwined with the Foundation’s positive portrayal of Jefferson before becoming more varied and provocative in the 1990s. Chapter two examines the parallel evolution in Jefferson scholarship, …

Worse Than Birmingham: How Segregationists In Danville Obstructed The Civil Rights Movement, Lauren E. Oakes

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis explores the civil rights movement in Danville, Virginia, and focuses on the tactics employed by prominent white men who, because they controlled the city’s leading institutions of power, were able to effectively squelch the movement by the end of the 1963 summer. This paper also traces how the Danville movement followed the path of the classical phase of the national civil rights movement, and represents the manner in which broader trends and events played out in small southern cities. The Danville movement began with a student-led sit-in at the whites only public library a few months after the …

Immigration After The Great Famine: A Case Study Of The Passengers Of The S.S. Canadian, Erin Kelly

Masters Theses, 2020-current

From 1879 to 1881 Western Ireland suffered a famine that left one million people in a state of destitution. To assist the starving, impoverished farming communities that were scattered across the region English Quaker and philanthropist James Hack Tuke successfully pitched the Tuke Emigration Scheme to the UK government in 1882, lasting through 1884. While historians of Irish immigration have recently begun to research famines other than the Great Famine, very few have delved more deeply into this particular scheme. Of those who have, including Christine Kinnealy and Gerard Moran, analysis has been limited to the perspective of Ireland and …

"When I Wore A Younger Man's Clothes": The Nostalgia Topic In The Music Of Billy Joel, Kendall Waters

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

My father and I often listened to Billy Joel together as I grew up, and I eventually formed nostalgic connections to Joel’s music. While music is well known as a conductor of nostalgia, this paper explores the idea that the nostalgia I feel while listening to specific songs in Joel’s catalog is not simply a result of the indexical connections I have built with these tracks. Rather, it is a result of a “nostalgia topic” in Joel’s work. This paper compares the soundtrack and select works from Joel’s catalog to reveal that there is no one gesture, melody, or harmonic …