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Being Careful : Progressive Era Women And The Movements For Better Reproductive Health Care, Sarah Patterson Dec 2020

Being Careful : Progressive Era Women And The Movements For Better Reproductive Health Care, Sarah Patterson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACTFor American and British women, the definition of being healthy changed in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Previously, there had been a resigned acceptance of the fact that a woman’s reproductive capacity often relegated her to a lifetime of suffering and ill health. Certainly, individual women sometimes sought out solutions to their health problems, but there was no concerted social movement to help all women. Then in the Progressive Era that changed. The professionalization of medicine, combined with scientific breakthroughs, such as using Salvarsan to treat syphilis and urine testing to identify eclampsia meant that women could …


Empire State Interrupted : Seneca Sovereignty And Settler Debates Over Land, 1779-1889, Elana Krischer May 2020

Empire State Interrupted : Seneca Sovereignty And Settler Debates Over Land, 1779-1889, Elana Krischer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

New York’s western expansion began during the American Revolution. From then on, a variety of American settler groups and individuals attempted to possess and control Seneca land in what is now western New York. These American settler groups, such as missionaries, land speculators, state and federal officials, and land surveyors, carried out individual projects of dispossession and erasure throughout the nineteenth century. In the process, they shaped the space of the Seneca reservations and the trajectory of American expansion. In justifying dispossession, American settlers crafted elaborate sets of laws and rights. These conflicting claims became so entangled that dispossession was …


The Last Step To Whiteness : American Jews, Civil Rights, And Assimilation, 1954-1988, Eric Morgenson Jan 2020

The Last Step To Whiteness : American Jews, Civil Rights, And Assimilation, 1954-1988, Eric Morgenson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the relationship between American Jews and African Americans through the prism of evolving Jewish whiteness. In the post-World War II period, American Jews were an outsider group that were moving into the mainstream. American Jews interested in assimilating tied themselves to the cause of African American civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. This was partially motivated by a desire to help an oppressed minority work towards equality in the United States. However, it was also motivated in part by a desire to aid in their own assimilation process. The idea of creating a colorblind American society …


Proletarian Modernism : Aesthetic Intervention In Naturalist Epistemology In Steinbeck, Wright And Mccullers, Kenji Kihara Jan 2020

Proletarian Modernism : Aesthetic Intervention In Naturalist Epistemology In Steinbeck, Wright And Mccullers, Kenji Kihara

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores three proletarian novels published at the end of the Depression era—John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Richard Wright’s Native Son, and Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter—in light of how their aesthetics complicates the inherited epistemology of literary naturalism in response to the changing political climates in the age of the Popular Front. Calling these texts “proletarian modernism,” I investigate how their aesthetics mediate the relations among Marxist ideas, political solidarity and the American value of individualism in an age when it became gradually difficult to fundamentally criticize capitalism and liberalism.


Making Good : World War I, Disability, And The Senses In American Rehabilitation, Evan Patrick Sullivan Jan 2020

Making Good : World War I, Disability, And The Senses In American Rehabilitation, Evan Patrick Sullivan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study looks at how disabled American soldier-patients and the US Army used the senses as tools of rehabilitation after the Great War. Contemporaries argued that, when the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers came home wounded or sick after the Great War, the men needed to make good. The phrase “making good” meant that sacrifice in the war was not enough, and veterans had to become socially and economically independent, and return to heterosexual relationships. In an effort to return to normalcy, the US Army relied on rehabilitation, which aimed to medically and socially re-integrate the men into society.


Black Trojans : The Free Black Community's Grassroots Abolition Campaign In Troy, New York Before 1861, Jennifer J. Thompson Burns Jan 2019

Black Trojans : The Free Black Community's Grassroots Abolition Campaign In Troy, New York Before 1861, Jennifer J. Thompson Burns

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores the evolution and trajectory of the abolition movement led by black men and women in Troy, New York, before 1861. At the grassroots level, black Trojan men and women claimed public spaces and founded societies and associations that simultaneously supported local black upliftment and laid the foundation from which a larger abolitionist network, within New York State and across state and national borders, was constructed. Through the operations of an “Aboveground Railroad” system that complimented the Underground Railroad system through Troy but focused on the movement of free people, as well as communications in abolition and black …


A Glittering Dream : Celebration, Spectacle, Power, And Identity In American Cities, 1886-1924, Wyatt Erchak Jan 2019

A Glittering Dream : Celebration, Spectacle, Power, And Identity In American Cities, 1886-1924, Wyatt Erchak

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In July 1886, the city of Albany, New York celebrated the Bicentennial of the granting of its city charter, an event that synthesized and innovated existing forms of spectacle and celebration. Parades of municipal, fraternal, commercial, and military organizations joined orations and elaborate pyrotechnics to mark the occasion. Its central feature—a grand “historical pageant”—was one of the first times a city told the sequential story of its creation using dramatic and mechanical techniques, with expert assistance from Mardi Gras and Carnival float designers.


"True Principles Of Liberty And Natural Right" : The Vermont State Constitution And The American Revolution, Kevin R. Ingraham Jan 2018

"True Principles Of Liberty And Natural Right" : The Vermont State Constitution And The American Revolution, Kevin R. Ingraham

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Vermont state constitution was the most revolutionary and democratic plan of government established in America during the late eighteenth century. It abolished adult slavery, eliminated property qualifications for holding office, and established universal male suffrage. It invested broad power in a unicameral legislature, through which citizens might directly express their will through their elected representatives. It created a weak executive with limited power to veto legislation. It mandated annual elections for all state offices, by which the people might frequently accept, or reject, their leaders. It thus established a participatory democracy in which ordinary citizens enjoyed broad access to …


The Education Of Thomas Sweeny : A Case Study Of Education For The Poor In New York City, 1828-1845, Josie Madison Jan 2018

The Education Of Thomas Sweeny : A Case Study Of Education For The Poor In New York City, 1828-1845, Josie Madison

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores the education of one of the first inmates of the New York House of Refuge, the first juvenile reformatory in the country. The relationship between reformatory staff and inmates is considered, along with indenturing practices of the institution, including the practice of indenturing a significant number of boys to the whaling industry. In the case of Thomas Sweeny, the Refuge’s plan for reformation was successful because of the unique circumstances that led Sweeny to live for a time as a beachcomber in the islands of the South Pacific. His skill at acquiring languages and his ability to …


Legislating For American Empire : The U.S. Congress And Territorial Policy, Timothy Lindberg Jan 2015

Legislating For American Empire : The U.S. Congress And Territorial Policy, Timothy Lindberg

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The United States has always administered territorial governments and the primary entity entrusted with this authority is the United States Congress. This dissertation, using an American Political Development framework, seeks to uncover the variety of ways in which Congressional decision-making over territorial policy has shifted. The goal is to understand how the United States Congress worked toward establishing and maintaining an American Empire via the use of territorial policy. A variety of causal mechanisms causing are investigated, including the demographic targets of policy, partisan conflicts, changing norms and rules of Congress, pressures from other branches or the states, national security …


Defending God : Thomas Paine's Last Crusade And The Contest Over His Memory, Theodore William Marotta Jan 2015

Defending God : Thomas Paine's Last Crusade And The Contest Over His Memory, Theodore William Marotta

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation is focused on two key elements. First, it offers a new interpretation of Thomas Paine's religious writings, arguing that Paine was not attacking religion, but rather was defending God. Second, the dissertation explores Thomas Paine's hotly contested place in America's historical memory by focusing on the individuals who have fought for decades to restore Paine's reputation in the eyes of Americans, and the tremendous difficulties they experienced as a result of their efforts.


Nationalism In New England : Keene, New Hampshire And The American Civil War, Thomas Anthony Mcgrath Jan 2015

Nationalism In New England : Keene, New Hampshire And The American Civil War, Thomas Anthony Mcgrath

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract: Nationalism in New England: Keene, New Hampshire and the American Civil War


Preserve Or Perish : The Orange County Food Preservation Battalion And Food Conservation Efforts In New York State During The Great War, 1917-1919, Sarah Elizabeth Wassberg Jan 2015

Preserve Or Perish : The Orange County Food Preservation Battalion And Food Conservation Efforts In New York State During The Great War, 1917-1919, Sarah Elizabeth Wassberg

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis examines the role of both private voluntary organizations like the Orange County Food Preservation Battalion as well as city- and state-sponsored organizations in food conservation efforts during World War I in New York state (1917-1919). Society women such as Orange County Food Preservation Battalion chairman Mrs. Theodore Bailey, in conjunction with professional home economists, played an important role early in the war effort in disseminating the patriotic pleas of Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Food Administration, but their efforts were later subsumed by state-run entities such as the New York State Food Commission. Using an unpublished scrapbook kept …


For The Improvement Of The Breed Of Horse : Thoroughbred Racing And National Security In The Age Of Horsepower, 1776-1945, Elizabeth Redkey Jan 2014

For The Improvement Of The Breed Of Horse : Thoroughbred Racing And National Security In The Age Of Horsepower, 1776-1945, Elizabeth Redkey

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

From Biblical times through the mid-twentieth century, humans relied on horses as a critical vehicle of war. But horses, unlike modern machines, could not simply be manufactured to the necessary specifications, in the necessary numbers, at the necessary times. In addition, cavalry warfare was the most physically demanding of all tasks to which humans have put horses, and required horses of exceptional endurance and athletic ability. Creating a pool of such horses to be drawn from in times of military need took careful breeding and planning. But the United States, with its fear of a standing military, and its decentralized …


The Collision Of Political And Legal Time : Foreign Affairs And The Court's Transformation Of Executive Authority, Kimberley Liané Fletcher Jan 2014

The Collision Of Political And Legal Time : Foreign Affairs And The Court's Transformation Of Executive Authority, Kimberley Liané Fletcher

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A dynamic institutional relationship exists between the United States executive branch and the United States Supreme Court. This dissertation examines how the Court affects constitutional and political development by taking a leading role in interpreting presidential decision-making in the area of foreign affairs since 1936. Examining key cases and controversies in foreign policymaking, primarily in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this dissertation highlights the patterns of intercurrences and the mutual construction process that takes place at the juncture of legal and political time. In so doing, it is more than evident that the Court not only sanctions the claims made …


The Church And Modern Marriage : Denominational Marriage Counseling And The Transformation Of Mainline Christian Religion In Germany And The United States, 1920s-1970s, Anette Lippold Jan 2014

The Church And Modern Marriage : Denominational Marriage Counseling And The Transformation Of Mainline Christian Religion In Germany And The United States, 1920s-1970s, Anette Lippold

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Competition is at the heart of the religious market model, which serves as the primary counter theory to the longstanding concept that modernity inevitably included secularization. Using the United States as its primary example, the market model postulates that the longstanding presence of multiple religious offerings encouraged religious institutions to pay attention to popular religious needs and interest, in turn promoting their own continued vitality. In contrast, lack of competition prompted a certain lassitude among religious providers in Europe, leading to their ultimate inability to address the needs of European religious consumers. The market model, however, assumes that competition expresses …


"For Divers Good Causes And Considerations" : Manumission Practices Of Albany, Ny Slaveholders, 1799-1824, William Angelo Meredith Jan 2014

"For Divers Good Causes And Considerations" : Manumission Practices Of Albany, Ny Slaveholders, 1799-1824, William Angelo Meredith

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

On March 29, 1799, the New York State Legislature received notice that the state's Council of Revision had approved, "an Act for the gradual abolition of Slavery." The bill changed slavery in such a way that children born to slaves after July 4, 1799, became free upon reaching the age of twenty-five for females and twenty-eight for males. Given the monumental change produced by this legislation, historians have linked passage of the gradual abolition bill to an increase in slave manumissions. While the gradual abolition bill may have prompted slaveholders to consider manumission, it was not the overall motivating force …


Investigating New York : Governor Alfred E. Smith, The Moreland Act, And Reshaping New York State Government, John T. Evers Jan 2013

Investigating New York : Governor Alfred E. Smith, The Moreland Act, And Reshaping New York State Government, John T. Evers

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

By examining Governor Alfred E. Smith's use of gubernatorial investigations sanctioned by law under the under the Moreland Act, this work details his efforts to transform New York State government from a chaotic system of boards, bureaus, commissions, and departments to a streamlined cabinet-style executive branch dominated by a strong governor. Hindered by a state constitution which severely limited gubernatorial power, Smith utilized one of the few tools open to governors to draw attention to, and then change, state government: executive investigation. In order to gain control of state administrative, budgetary, and public policy initiatives Smith challenged legislative leaders and …


Steam, Electricity & Gas : Historical Perspectives On What We Drive Today And Why, Michael Edward Flinton Jan 2013

Steam, Electricity & Gas : Historical Perspectives On What We Drive Today And Why, Michael Edward Flinton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT


The Subject As Subjective : Benjamin Franklin's Biographers, Alex Starr-Baier Jan 2013

The Subject As Subjective : Benjamin Franklin's Biographers, Alex Starr-Baier

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This Thesis is a case study in biographical subjectivity. We are taught in primary school to trust biographies, as they are meant to objective. However, the truth is each biographer brings with them their own bias, and thus leaves with their own perception of their subject. I chose to focus on Benjamin Franklin because a good example of this phenomenon. Franklin's fascinating and full life brings with it a treasure trove of biographical speculation. Each Biographer, in constructing their own version of Franklin, manipulates the facts of Franklin's life. I traced Franklin's biographical legacy through time, from the 1800's to …


"The Centre Of Our Union" : George Washington's Political Philosophy And The Creation Of American National Identity In The 1790s, Ryan Staude Jan 2013

"The Centre Of Our Union" : George Washington's Political Philosophy And The Creation Of American National Identity In The 1790s, Ryan Staude

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

For most of his presidency (1789-1797), George Washington worked to establish the federal government's legitimacy in the eyes of America's citizens while trying to gain international respect for the new nation. Although there was a broad elite consensus at the start of the decade it quickly dissipated in the face of basic questions about the federal government's power and scope of authority. Domestic political issues became entangled with foreign policy problems to create an intractable divide between opposing groups of Americans termed the Federalists and the Republicans. The two parties contended to see not only who would administer the government, …


Injurious Benevolence : How Washington Irving's "The Sketchbook" And "A Tour On The Prairies" Illuminates Nineteenth Century Us-Indian Policy, Ashley Tanzillo Jan 2013

Injurious Benevolence : How Washington Irving's "The Sketchbook" And "A Tour On The Prairies" Illuminates Nineteenth Century Us-Indian Policy, Ashley Tanzillo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The most common narratives of encounters with the indigenous race are from the early colonial period of American history. Indian relations were central to the struggle of early American settlers to tame the American wilderness and flourish as colonies under the Crown. After the Revolution, however, it seems that the Indian position in history has been thought of as a side story to the main event of American Independence. In this thesis I explore an alternate perspective, a reading of history which promotes the idea that after the American Revolution, the fate of the new nation was irrevocably defined by …


The Most Interesting Place : The Eastern Mediterranean And American Cultural Knowledge, Gregory Wiedeman Jan 2013

The Most Interesting Place : The Eastern Mediterranean And American Cultural Knowledge, Gregory Wiedeman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study addresses how nineteenth-century Americans perceived the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean. The project rests upon a detailed examination of American primary school geography textbooks that enjoyed widespread circulation during the century. The lack of an effective education apparatus in the period rendered American students incredibly reliant on their textbooks. These texts reflect the general common knowledge of the region shared by most educated Americans. Additionally, this study draws support from a thorough analysis of travel accounts that were extraordinarily popular during the period. These works offered Americans a chance to explore vicariously the most interesting lands of the …


The Voyage Of Refinement : The Many Talents Of Thomas Cole, Anthony Edwin Anadio Jan 2013

The Voyage Of Refinement : The Many Talents Of Thomas Cole, Anthony Edwin Anadio

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT


Stars Of The East And West : The Anglo-American Invention Of The Circassian Girl, Alexandra E. Mcdowall Jan 2013

Stars Of The East And West : The Anglo-American Invention Of The Circassian Girl, Alexandra E. Mcdowall

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The choices a society makes regarding their entertainment speak to their deeper desires, fears, and values. A uniquely nineteenth century freak show attraction known as "Circassian Girls" represented a tension in the changing world. More than an entertaining spectacle of a person from a far-flung corner of the world, Circassian Girls became constructed symbols of race, nationalism, class, and gender. Through their manufactured perfection, these performers became a caricature of white, middle-class womanhood. This paper compares the freak show performers with other descriptions of Circassian Girls through the nineteenth century, placing them into the context of perceptions of the East, …


Pretty In Pink : Jacqueline Kennedy And The Politics Of Fashion, Barbara Pascarell Brown Jan 2012

Pretty In Pink : Jacqueline Kennedy And The Politics Of Fashion, Barbara Pascarell Brown

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

When John Fitzgerald Kennedy began his long-shot quest for the presidency, he and his advisors feared his wife was a political liability and would alienate American voters with her aristocratic bearing and tastes. Not only did the Sorbonne-educated Jacqueline Kennedy cultivate a sophisticated style and dress in the slim sheaths and tight slacks favored by Parisian couturiers, she spoke in a cultured, whispery voice and was fluent in several languages. She exuded glamor. To an America used to its First Ladies looking and dressing like Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower, Mrs. Kennedy was an anomaly. In this analysis, I trace …


City Of Brick And Stone : New York And Hanover Square From Settlement To Revolution, 1626-1783, Jeffrey Heymann Knaack Jan 2012

City Of Brick And Stone : New York And Hanover Square From Settlement To Revolution, 1626-1783, Jeffrey Heymann Knaack

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As the only city occupied for the duration of the American Revolution, 1776-1783, New York City has been the subject of numerous studies that have sought to evaluate the nature of the British occupation, its significance militarily and culturally, its impact on the populace, and the loyal or rebel character of the population. In general, these studies single out specific individuals or groups; themes or trends; or attempt to place the story of New York City during the American Revolution in the greater context of the founding of a nation and the development of a people. The character and impact …


Sons Of Liberty : Organization And Influence, 1765-1766, John Jay Miller Jan 2012

Sons Of Liberty : Organization And Influence, 1765-1766, John Jay Miller

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


Sowing The Seeds Of Change : The Back To The Land Movement In St. Lawrence County, Ny 1960-1980, Willow Nolland Jan 2012

Sowing The Seeds Of Change : The Back To The Land Movement In St. Lawrence County, Ny 1960-1980, Willow Nolland

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

From 1965 - 1980, numerous individuals established homesteads and communes in St. Lawrence County, NY as part of the Back to the Land Movement. The Back to the Land movement occurred as a direct response to the problems that arose in the 1960's and 1970's. Unlike the radical activists of the 1960's, the Back to the Landers chose to show their disgust with mainstream society by dropping out. They sold their belongings and relocated to the country, where they attempted to live off the land. St. Lawrence County was a popular destination for Back to the Landers because it offered …


"Selling New York State To The Nation" : The 1939/1940 New York World's Fair, Mary Ann Borden Jan 2011

"Selling New York State To The Nation" : The 1939/1940 New York World's Fair, Mary Ann Borden

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

American exhibitions after 1853 were linked to motivating themes and the celebration of historical events, while presenting at various times a prophetic implication. They were cultural, political, social, scientific, educational, and promotional extravaganzas, and at times a direct response to a depressed economy. The fairs presented ingenuity from the smallest mouthwatering pickle to the automobile. Amusements ranging from decadent peeps shows to thrilling rides sparkled within the various Midway Plaisances. Architecture became a marketing strategy, especially within the later fairs. Advertisements abounded via posters, pamphlets, magazine and newspapers ads, radio, newsreels, and finally television. An underlying theme, one that appears …