Digital Commons Network^™

"From The Cradle Up We Have Been Fed On Battles And Heroic Deeds": The Militarization Of Adolescent Boys In England, 1897-1916, Cameron Blake Godfrey

History Theses

Approximately 400,000 underage soldiers served in the British Armed Forces during the First World War. This thesis examines the cultural and social factors that potentially influenced and compelled young boys to lie about their ages and head to the front where the war would quickly shatter their illusions of adventure and glory. Youth organizations, schooling, organized sports, toys, and ideas of Empire all worked in tandem to provide an overly romanticized representation of war and at the same time implemented ways to reverse perceived societal and racial decline. Using the Boy’s Own Paper as a case study, this thesis explores …

Shadow Of Culloden: The Political Legacy Of The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, Autumn Miller

History, Politics & International Relations Student Scholarship

Legacies change over time, and the Battle of Culloden is no different, especially depending on who is seeking out election in Westminster. Often, the Jacobite failure is used to garner political gain during nationalistic movements; while others included when Westminster needed to push back against the Scottish people to keep them subdued. The catastrophic failure of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion led to changing political legacies over the next two hundred years, which has permeated modern-day United Kingdom politics with the result of a Scottish referendum in 2014. With a close analysis of stateless nations theory, as well as Wales as …

England's Fairest Creatures, Madison Hart

MSU Graduate Theses

Set in 1616 Jacobean England, surrounding a tragic chamber pot incident, the place setting of the small fishing town of Lechlade, England, begins our story. From generations of fisherman, Elias Eaton, is the first Eaton not to bear a son. Instead, his fierce daughter in her mid-twenties, Julia, our protagonist, helps her father at the docks daily. Although Julia is a champion for women of her time, she dreams of there being something more out there for her than the town that has shackled Eatons for centuries. Julia’s mother, Sybil, is the daughter to the town baker. Her literate father …

Charles I – Dead Is Better, Joe Gallo

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

This paper attempts to pin down the moment that the English regicides of 1649 decided to execute Charles I. It argues that the political situation between Dec 6th, 1648 and Jan 20th, 1649 grew more hostile to King Charles I, and as the King styled himself as a martyr and rebuked all previous attempts at settlement, the Parliamentarian faction slowly came to the collective realization that the king would never stop scheming to reclaim his throne. By the time that the trial had begun, his fate had already been decided.

Angels Who Stepped Outside Their Houses: “American True Womanhood” And Nineteenth-Century (Trans)Nationalisms, Gayathri M. Hewagama

Doctoral Dissertations

“Angels who Stepped Outside their Houses” examines the fashioning of a gendered white American middle-class Protestant subject called the “American true woman” as a fitting representation of the emerging new American nation, as reflected in the writings of white American women authors from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Locating the formation of this identity on a transnational plane, this work argues that in their myriad texts, these women authors reveal the significant role that imperial Britain and the non-national/not-yet-national colonial Orient played in the (de/)construction/(de/)centering of American true womanhood. For, in the face of a particular Englishness and …

James I: Monarchial Representation And English Identity, Elizabeth Maria Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work unpacks James’s representational performance and the issues he faced in assimilating himself into English identity during him time on the English throne. He implemented tropes he previously utilized in Scotland, presenting himself as Solomon, David, Constantine, a philosopher-king, and Rex Pacificus. James relied upon print for his public representation, he was an avid writer and seems to have thought of himself as something of a theologian, for he frequently commented upon religious doctrine and paid acute attention to sermons. This dissertation explores his entrance to England, the union debates, the Gunpowder Plot and its remembrance, James’s religious …

Staging English Affairs In Early Modern Italy: History, Politics, Drama, Fabio Battista

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation looks at the creation and dissemination of alternative versions of English history through the means of dramatic fiction, and contextualizes them in the panorama of the intellectual debates of seventeenth-century Italy. Staging English Affairs in Early Modern Italy studies the ways in which the reinvention of Tudor and Stuart affairs in dramatic literature mirrored the ambitions, fears, and fantasies of a century in disquieting transformation. This research documents how news and information from England entered the Italian states, how they were perceived, and what their repurposing can reveal about the potentialities of intercultural exchange. Anglo-inspired drama became a …

Home Sweet Home: Domesticity In English And Scottish Insane Asylums, 1890-1914, Vesna Curlic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis considers the implementation of domestic aesthetics and activities in the insane asylum at the end of the nineteenth century. Doctors sought to bring elements of the Victorian home into the asylum as part of a modern, humane regime of mental healthcare, which I call “institutional domesticity.” I argue that this process was fraught with challenges. While implementation of domesticity was relatively successful in regard to asylum activities, like labour and employment, domesticity reached its limitations in the physical asylum space. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates the ways in which all asylum actors, including patients, staff, community members, and the …

Clever Cleric: Saint Wilfrid Of York And The Complexities Of Power And Authority In Seventh-Century England, Olivia E. Gannon

History ETDs

Saint Wilfrid of York was a Northumbrian bishop, abbot, and missionary. He was born in 634 and died in 709/710. His life was characterized by his landholdings that spanned territories and kingdoms, his enduring persistence to remain bishop, his monastic empire, his hostile relationships with kings, his powerful friends and supporters, and his resistance in the face of adversity. Wilfrid’s achievements were remarkable for a seventh-century bishop – a bishop deserving of recognition for his lasting impact on England. By closely examining the sources, this thesis analyzes Wilfrid’s tumultuous life and career in the form of his landholdings, his trips …

Hadrian Iv (1154-1159) And The “Bull” Laudabiliter: A Historiographical Review, Sebastian Lidbetter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This work represents an exploration into the historiography of a hotly debated historical document known as Laudabiliter. In 1155 Pope Hadrian IV (most often styled Adrian and sometimes Adrien) issued Laudabiliter to King Henry II of England. Laudabiliter states that King Henry could invade Ireland to root out the weeds of vice amongst the Irish people, who had supposedly steered away from the Catholic faith, and rule Ireland as its lord. Hadrian IV claimed the right to do this because the Donation of Constantine granted successors of St. Peter, i.e. the pope, dominion over any and all islands.

Any …

Producing The Past: Contested Heritage And Tourism In Glastonbury And Tintagel, Vivian Beatrice Gornik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Heritage, the “present-centered” use of the past (Ashworth 2007) influences the identities of contemporary citizens (Palmer 2005, Sommer 2009). Grasping the ways in which the production and consumption of heritage takes place is becoming increasingly relevant in a post-Brexit Britain, where the national identity is constantly up for debate. This research asks: what role does heritage tourism play in (re)producing hegemonic national narratives in Glastonbury and Tintagel? And subsequently, what do these narratives say about broader conceptualizations of English identity?

Arthurian legend permeates the historical narrative in both locations. According to the legend, King Arthur was conceived and born in …

There And Back Again; Tolkien’S Recovery Of Englishness Through Walking, Chris Scott Cameron

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the complex representation of walking in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In his 1951 letter to his close associate Milton Waldman, Tolkien lamented the lack of a specifically English (as opposed to British) myth, and expressed his desire to create a mythology that he could dedicate to England. Tolkien’s novels, which are primarily structured around hobbits undertaking quests on foot, are an attempt to create this mythology. Through representing walking in all of its diversity, Tolkien engages with the politics and philosophy associated with the pedestrian mode. The genre of fantasy and …

Prudery And Perversion: Domination Of The Sexual Body In Middle-Class Men, Women, And Disenfranchised Bodies In Victorian England, Ashley Barnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research argues that with the rise of the middle-class, Victorian England saw the development of a power model in which middle-class men, middle-class women and disenfranchised bodies of children and lower-class women suffered from the demands of bodily domination. Because the bodily health of middle-class men was believed to represent national health, it was imperative that he dominate his body, particularly with regard to sexual urges. Consequently, the bodies of women with whom he sought sexual release suffered from forms of bodily domination as well. Through an analysis of journals and private writings of those living in Victorian England, …

Cultural Subtexts And Social Functions Of Domestic Music-Making In Jane Austen’S England, Lidia A. Chang

Masters Theses

Barring a few notable exceptions, English music between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries earns scant notice in music history textbooks, despite overwhelming evidence that England enjoyed a vibrant musical culture, especially during the Georgian era. However, I will argue that the English of this period were, in many respects, even more committed to music than their continental counterparts. The problem, for England, was not that it made no music during this period, but that it made the wrong kind of music, and enjoyed it in the wrong ways. At a time when Germanic critics like E.T.A. Hoffmann and A.B. Marx …

Pleasure, Honor, And Profit: Samuel Hartlib In His Papers 1620-1662, Timothy Earl Miller

History Theses

Discovered in 1933 after having been hidden from the academic world for 271 years, the Hartlib Papers have been called the greatest 17^th century research revelation of the 20^th century. Yet 81 years later the author and collector of the papers remains a mystery and the content of the papers have been little appreciated. Who was this auctor prudens and what do his voluminous papers have to say about his time? This thesis argues that Hartlib is a critical link in a long chain of scholars who formed and shaped the development of science. An evolution which began …

"All Men Born In Britain Are Britons": The Development Of Britishness During The Long Sixteenth Century, 1502-1615, Zachary Bates

History Theses

The sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries saw the development of a British identity that was contingent upon a shared dynasty through intermarriage and the composite monarchy of James VI and I, religious developments that led to both Scotland and England breaking with the Roman Catholic Church, and especially England’s overseas colonial empire. Using sources representative of the nascent print culture, the Calendar of State Papers, the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, and Journals from the House of Commons, this project argues that contrary to prior historical analysis of Britain, empire, and English imperialism that British identity in the …

A Regional British Dialect Guidebook For Actors, Kylie J. Rose

All Undergraduate Projects

This book endeavors to cover the major dialectical regions of the UK by focusing on one to two major dialects in each region. It additionally seeks to provide actors with the tools they need to convincingly portray characters from these areas: primarily in the form of audio recordings and accompanying transcriptions using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

James And Shakespeare: Unification Through Mapping, Christina Wagner

ETD Archive

The art of exploration became an important aspect of theater in early modern England. Exploration is typically done through the utilization of a map. The map scene in Lear provides a focal point to peer into the political ventures of King James I. As a proponent for peace, James both unified and divided his kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland through the use of cartography as a way to show the aspirations of a king. Lear, in dividing his kingdom between his three daughters, shows Shakespeare's careful strategic planning of the division of a kingdom and what that means in …

Ailments Of The Soul: Blood Transfusions And The Treatment Of Melancholy In Seventeenth-Century England, Emily Bowlus

Theses and Dissertations

The first animal-to-human blood transfusions performed in seventeenth-century England focused on patients suffering from mental diseases such as melancholy. Many physicians diagnosed melancholy as a disease of the body, mind, and soul in which blood played a key role. Philosophy, religion, and folklore helped formulate blood as an elusive yet powerful substance with access to immaterial mind and soul in addition to the body. English physician Richard Lower conducted these first transfusions yet recorded little about his personal theories regarding how melancholy and blood affected the body, mind, and soul. The philosophies of Lower’s colleagues, Thomas Willis and Robert Boyle, …

A Poetic Canvas: Byron And Visual Culture, William Donati

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A Poetic Canvas: Byron and Visual Culture argues for a reading of Byron's poems within the cultural context of the sister arts of poetry and painting. In addition, the theatre and sculpture were also influential as visual inspiration for Byron. This study reveals the poet's substantial knowledge of the visual arts; consequently, informed by images he knew, readings convey a richer context of significance. The influence of drawings, print caricature, and paintings is found to be substantial, and the research challenges Byron's own statements, often repeated, that he knew nothing of painting. Although Byron is regarded as a poet of …

Chaucer And The Politics Of Penance, Karl G Wilcox

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Chaucer and the Politics of Penance argues for a Chaucerian fusion of penitential values with Wycliffite ideals in the 1390s. The historical setting for this study is the political crisis of 1388 and the political agenda that Richard II employs in the 1390s in an attempt to reassert an image of royal legitimacy and power. The case is made that Chaucer critiques Ricardian autocracy by employing penitential discourse as a possible corrective to Richard's exemplarism or use of positive exempla to suppress political dissent. Chaucer is joined in this emphasis on the politics of penance by the Carmelite Richard Maidstone …

John Dryden: Persuasive Principles In "Absalom And Achitophel" And "Religio Laici", Kathy Seymour Albertson

Legacy ETDs

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Reactions To The Popish Plot And The Exclusion Crisis, Elizabeth Breeden Townes

Master's Theses

It is often said that history is made up of the lies of a man's own times. This thesis looks at the highly controversial years, 1978-81, in England the years of the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis, through the eyes of men prominent on both sides of the issues. Much of the analysis of contemporary cannon draws from the words of Gilbert Burnet, John Evelyn, Roger North, Roger L'Estrange, William Temple, and George Savile, Marquis of Halifax. These men were all close to the court or had connections close to the Court, yet they did not see every twist and …

Archaeological Features Of The Iron Age In Southern Britain, Karen V. Wallace

Honors Theses

An OBU Honors Special Studies Grant, matched by a donation from a private source, enabled me to spend five weeks during the summer of 1981 studying British archaeology, particularly that of the Iron Age, at Christ College, Cambridge. After one week of extensive lectures at the college and one week of touring major archaeological sites of the area, five other American students and I spent tow and one-half weeks at the Claydon Pike excavation near Fairford, Gloucestershire. During our stay at the dig the excavation director, Dr. David Miles, and the assistant director, Simon Palmer, both of Oxford University and …

The Relations Between The English And The Scottish Reformations, Carl Napier Jr

Bachelor of Divinity

The purpose of the writer's original investigation was to find out what influences and connections existed between the two Reformations. The purpose of this study is to show that before Henry VIII English efforts at union were almost wholly political. At least there is no mention of religious-political parties. War and conciliation were the diplomatic weapons. After Henry's break with the Pope by the Act of Supremacy in 1534 and to 1707 when the final union of the crowns took place political and religious relations became closely entwined. Henry and his successors, particularly Elizabeth, used religion in fostering the political …