Digital Commons Network^™

U.S. Extremism And Media: How The New Age Of Politics Speaks To Media Usage, Josephine R. Haneklau

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

On January 6th, 2021, the nation watched from their television screens as a group of extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. An interesting emotion fell over the U.S. public – it was both shocking and not shocking at all. The attack on the Capitol was a by-product of years of internal division, catapulted by Trump’s presidency. Between racial divisions and the progression of Black Lives Matter, the advancement of COVID and its governmental policies, and Trump’s divisive nature of president at a peak, it seemed almost inevitable that an offense like this would occur.

As political conversations …

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.

Richmond's Urban Crisis: Racial Transition During The Civil Rights Era, 1960-1977, Marvin T. Chiles

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Between 1960 and 1977, Richmond, Virginia, experienced a tremendous racial shift in its overall population. The shift from majority white to majority black brought about the city’s first black majority city council, black mayor, and majority black school district with a black superintendent. How and why this racial transition happened is the focus of this work. Richmond’s racial transition was a part of Civil Rights legislation destabilizing the sociopolitical landscape. As federal Civil Rights legislation was intended to create a post-racial America, in Richmond, blacks and whites ensured the opposite. Both races combined class interest, past racial norms, and future …

Demon Rum In The City Of Churches: A Spirited Fight For Alcohol Reform In Danville, Virginia, 1883-1933, Evelyn Dawn Riley

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Utilizing previous research of American alcohol reform movements, and specifically studies of alcohol in Virginia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this thesis explores the multi-faceted story of Danville, Virginia and its alcohol reform from 1883-1933. Contained within these dates are critical events and stories chronicling the complex history of conflict, and occasional cooperation, regarding alcohol in a southern town. The goal of the thesis, comprised of two parts--a context paper and an accompanying digital exhibit--was to explore how Danville’s community structure and public discourse affected the way alcohol reform was experienced and discussed in the city. Findings indicated that …

Political Aspirations Of Colonial Women: The Correspondence Of Mercy Otis Warren And Abigail Smith Adams, Jillian Larue Viar

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis seeks to understand how women could become politically active during the War for Independence. As I began researching women of the period, I grew aware of the connection between Abigail Smith Adams and Mercy Otis Warren through the letters they left behind which developed into the following work. Though both women were better educated than a majority of women of the time, their conversations give a unique window into viewing the world women lived in. Their letters especially highlight how they not only became invested in the cause of independence but also how they sought to express their …