Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Assassination In Modern America: Political Participation Through A Gun Barrel?, Richard Grossenbacher

Masters Theses

Assassination has been a constant companion of the world's societies from the beginning of recorded history. Only relatively recently have social scientists begun empirical study of these acts in an effort to reveal any commonalties and possible predictive traits. Investigation of the assassination phenomenon assumed a special urgency in America as violence seemed to escalate in the 1960s, which resulted in some notable research.

The present research collected data of presidential and non-presidential assassinations and attempts that occurred from 1969 through 1992 and compared the findings with the results of earlier studies.

The data indicate that presidential assaults increased in …

Porter James Mccumber : Evolution Of A Senator, Amy Kathleen Rieger

Theses and Dissertations

Virtually nothing has been written about the early life and career of Porter James McCumber, who served North Dakota in the United States Senate from 1899-1922. Contributing to the lack of written material about the man is the fact that there are very few sources available concerning his social and political life. He left no official papers, and therefore no clear record of his life. The purpose of this thesis, then, is to illuminate the life and times of McCumber, with a special emphasis on his career in North Dakota through his election to the Senate in 1899. I will …

The Impractical Ideal Costa Rica, The United States And Central America Reunification, 1902-1932, Donald R. Lam

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the motivations of Central American Unionists and the failure of their movement in the early years of the twentieth century. The existing literature attributes the failure of Central American unification during this era to U.S. policies meant to maintain a divided isthmus in order to economically and politically exploit the region. A closer analysis of the primary sources, however, reveals that union failed because of internal factors, and that Washington's actions generally favored efforts to rejoin the nations to reduce isthmian tensions. Attempts to reunite the republics failed because of regional and domestic political rivalries, weaknesses in …

Genocide And The Indians Of California, 1769-1873, Margaret A. Field

Graduate Masters Theses

This study is an effort to determine whether the phenomenon of genocide, as defined in the UN Convention on Genocide of 1948, played a distinguishable role in the sharp decline of the California Indian population during the period 1769 to 1873. Through examination of such resources as memoirs, newspaper accounts of the time, anthropological and demographic studies, government documents, and works on genocide theory, it considers key issues of intent and action on the part of the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans who arrived in California during the period.

The evidence indicates that genocide of indigenous peoples occurred in California in …

Tobacco And Its Role In The Life Of The Confederacy, D. T. Smith

History Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the role that tobacco played in influencing Confederate policy during the American Civil War. Surprisingly, very little research has been done on this subject; historians have virtually ignored the influence of tobacco upon Southern economic interests between 1850 and 1870.

The southern tobacco-producing states grew 439,183,561 pounds of raw tobacco in 1860. Southern manufactured tobacco was worth $21,820,535 in 1860, and along with other agricultural products, especially cotton, played an important economic, political, and diplomatic role in the life of the Confederacy. The tobacco industry represented a very strong interest group in the Upper South during the …

Yellow Ribbons, D. Scott Drake

English Theses & Dissertations

Yellow Ribbons is a feature-film screenplay that dramatizes various aspects of the Persian Gulf War. The hero of the story, Lieutenant Jason Hart, a talented but quixotic naval fighter pilot, participates in one of the last allied offensive military actions: the bombing of the retreating Iraqi army. Jake suffers a crisis of conscience in the climactic moment of the bombing and decides that he cannot continue to serve the navy as a fighter pilot. The story then shifts from the Persian Gulf to the United States. There Jake encounters a new set of obstacles as he struggles with his experience …

Down On Hastings Street: A Study Of Social And Cultural Changes In A Detroit Community 1941-1955, John Fredrick Cohassey

Wayne State University Theses

The study of the Hastings Street jazz and blues scene affords a look into Detroit's African-American community when it faced the burden of segregation, and also shared in the city's economic prosperity. The study of the street contributes to the understanding of racial relations in Detroit, concentrating primarily on the years 1941 to 1955. The delineation of the distinct features separating the migrant Southern folk blues culture and the older established jazz community reveals the diverse social and cultural elements of Detroit's African-American population.

Whither Went The Upstairs Gentry? : The Colonial Council Of Virginia From 1763 To 1776, Charles Stephen Weidman

Master's Theses

Of the three branches of Colonial Virginia government, only two, the House of Burgesses and the Royal Governor, have been well chronicled during the period immediately preceding the American Revolution. The ignored third branch, the Colonial Council, has been largely dismissed by the few historians treating the subject as inconsequential-both as a political institution, and in the influence of its individual members. Witness both the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography and the William and Mary Quarterly, each with over a century dedicated to the nooks and crannies of all history Virginian, have collectively produced but a single article …

Salus Populi Suprema Lex: The Impact Of Three Major European Thinkers On The Constitution Of The United States, Corey W. Smith

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Within the context of discussions regarding the Constitution and its forming, great emphasis is given to the history of the ideas which influenced and/or became a part of that document. The general term given to the line of thought of which our Constitution is a part is "natural law" theory, referring to the rights which the founding fathers, or natural law theorists in general, deemed so basic as to be understood. Such a doctrine manifests as the "inalienable rights ... life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence, but in a more subdued and practical manner …

Reversal Of Fortune: Dick Clark, John Culver, And Iowa Politics In The 1970s, Clinton R. Boddicker

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

In January of 1975, Iowa Democratic Party activists and office holders could not have been happier. In the previous November's mid-term elections, Iowans had elected or reelected five of the six Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, including newcomers Michael Blouin, Berkley Bedell, and Tom Harkin. In addition, Democrats now controlled both branches of the state legislature. About the only thing for the state's Democrats to be unhappy about was the situation in the Iowa Executive Council, where the GOP controlled all seven offices (including that of governor). Even so, what probably excited loyal Democrats more than anything …

Domestic Management Of Woodlawn Plantation: Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis And Her Slaves, Mary Geraghty

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

What Sorrows And What Joys: The Civil War Diaries Of Cloe Tyler Whittle, 1861-1866, Emily R. Davies

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Hanna's Town: A Frontier Town In Western Pennsylvania, John Perry Wood

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

The Richmond Junto And Politics In Jacksonian Virginia, Wade Lee Shaffer

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation offers the first full-length study of the Richmond Junto and its role in shaping politics in Virginia between 1815 and 1845. The Junto led the Jacksonian movement in Virginia and worked successfully to keep the state allied with the Democratic party of andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren until the early 1840s. The Junto represented an influential force in Virginia politics during this transitional period, and to a certain extent this small group of men, led by Thomas Ritchie, Peter V. Daniel, andrew Stevenson, William H. Roane, and Richard E. Parker, epitomized the state's response to the turbulent …

Buying Into The World Of Goods: Eighteenth-Century Consumerism And The Retail Trade From London To The Virginia Frontier, Ann Smart Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This is a study of the cultural problem of consumerism. It examines the complex, rich, and multi-varied world of consumer goods in eighteenth-century Anglo-America, when traditional notions of hierarchy were increasingly challenged by new patterns of social and geographical mobility and changing measures of human worth. It was also a time when more and more consumer goods came into the lives of average men and women.;Few historians have scrutinized the role of those goods or the means and motives for their acquisition. Objects become an important part of the story of consumerism, however, by examining affordability (commodities and value), availability …

"Work Enough For Head And Heart": Dramatic Interaction And The Social Dynamics Of The Steward-Planter Relationship In Antebellum Tidewater Virginia, Neil Macrae Kennedy

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Voting Rights, Reapportionment, And Majority-Minority Districts, Christy Tosh

Honors Theses

The challenge is to navigate the untrodden area of reapportionment, in particular majority-minority districts. The Supreme Court has ruled in various reapportionment cases, yet these cases continue to plague the dockets of the United States Supreme Court. The focus of research is to evaluate the new phenomenon of majority-minority districts as it has progressed through constitutional amendments, civil and voting rights acts, and Supreme Court cases, all of which culminate in the 1992 elections. The 1990 Census and reapportionment were the birth of majority-minority districts. In creating these districts, one must look at the most effective percentage breakdowns in each …

A Participatory Study Of The Self-Identity Of Kibei Nisei Men: A Sub Group Of Second Generation Japanese American Men, William T. Masuda

Doctoral Dissertations

At one time, the Kibei were perceived as "a minority within a minority" (Me Williams, 1944: 322) who were "distrusted in both America and Japan" (1944:321). But today, the Kibei are hardly distinguishable from the Nisei as they both enter the evening of their lives. Raised in both America and Japan, but strongly influenced in their formative years by Japanese cultural values and beliefs, they were often perceived differently by their own family, by the Japanese American community, and by the American community at large. The apparent marginality of this group, living on the fringes of or in the space …

Beyond Southern Honor: Dueling Masculinities In The Life Of Robert Carter, Anna Elizabeth Jane Keatinge

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Agent Of Change Or Trusted Servant: The Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg Press, Susan Stromei Berg

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Martin's Hundred: A Settlement Study, David Muraca

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Honor: The Cement Of A Tennessee Brigade, Eric P. Michael

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Re-Education Of German Prisoners Of War In The United States During World War Ii, J. Barrie. Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

The Governorship Of Bob Riley, Brian Stanford Miller

Honors Theses

Without a backward glance Bob Riley, his wife, Claudia, and their daughter, Megan negotiated the Capitol stairway to the bottom floor, while above them in the House chamber legislators waited for the arrival of the 39th governor of Arkansas. At the bottom of the steps Vaughn Webb, an aide in the Secretary of State's office, presented Riley with an Arkansas state flag that had flown that morning of January 14, 1975, while several admirers applauded from the second floor railing above. Riley then left for Arkadelphia, where he would resume his role as head of the Political Science department at …

"Easy Or Hard" The Mentality Of Survival: The Gi In Europe In World War Two, Brian R. Bowen

Masters Theses

An oral history compiled from recollections of fourteen combat veterans, documented by over forty hours of tape-recorded interviews, the paper recreates GIs' mentality upon entering combat. The formation of the collective mentality is examined by exploring the attitudes, motivations, and historical circumstances determining thought and actions of these reluctant, yet dedicated soldiers. The collective mentality, defined as the way of thinking allowing the majority to best cope with their predicament, answers why men fought and how they persevered once in combat. Explaining sustained combat performance the paper proves how the collective mentality gave Gls the will and ability to withstand …

Perceptions Of Poverty: Material Life Among The Tenements Of New York City During The Nineteenth Century, Megan Mary Haley

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Slavery And A Low Country South Carolina Merchant-Planter Elite: The Dilemma Of Henry Laurens, Samuel P. Cox

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

"Much Blood And Treasure": South Carolina's Indian Traders, 1670-1755, Eirlys Mair Barker

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation examines the personnel actively trading with native Americans in the greater South Carolina area from 1670-1755. It concentrates on the mostly white and mostly male traders licensed to trade directly in the Indian towns by the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia.;Traders were active agents in formulating South Carolina's Indian trade and diplomacy. Some made a fortune in the trade while countless others died in the pursuit of that dream. Traders also took with them goods, germs, genes, a greed for deerskins, and attitudes that changed the old ways of life in Indian country.;Traders have traditionally been condemned …

To Separate The Tares From The Corn: Debts And Slaves In Post-Revolutionary Virginia, Philip George Swan

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts: Its Founding, 1930-1936, Elizabeth Geesey Holmes

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.