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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
"After All, Who Takes Care Of The Red Cross's Morale?": The Experiences Of American Red Cross Clubmobile Women During World War Ii, Paige Gulley
War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses
This thesis examines the experiences of the women who served in the American Red Cross Clubmobile Service in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Their job required them to travel through England, France, and even Germany in converted buses and 2 ½ ton trucks, serving coffee, donuts, and a smile to soldiers just off the front lines. Though considered essential to maintaining soldiers’ morale, historians have virtually ignored these women’s experiences and role in the war. The inattention to their participation by the academic community parallels the disregard the women faced during the war. Clubmobile women encountered …
The Good War?: Reinterpreting The Second World War In Contemporary Musical Theatre, Leana Sottile
The Good War?: Reinterpreting The Second World War In Contemporary Musical Theatre, Leana Sottile
SURF Posters and Papers
For years, American musicals have contributed to the mythologization of the Second World War and upheld ‘Greatest Generation’ nostalgia in mainstream war memory. For example, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is effectively silent on the brutality and dehumanization of the Pacific Theater and exoticizes the experience of service members. In the past five years, the New York theatre scene has seen three shows that portray the Second World War more accurately and less romantically: Allegiance, Bandstand, and Alice by Heart. While none of these shows ran for longer than a few months in New York, in that short …
Desegregation Through Entertainment: Rodgers And Hammerstein’S South Pacific As An Instrument Of Military Policy, Leana Sottile
Desegregation Through Entertainment: Rodgers And Hammerstein’S South Pacific As An Instrument Of Military Policy, Leana Sottile
Voces Novae
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific became a staple of mainstream popular culture. However, the musical also served a specific function within the American military where its usage by the United Service Organizations and Department of Defense was widespread. This case study examines how South Pacific arguably served a way to ease the blow of desegregation on the military by other means, in this case, entertainment. This was achieved by combining the show’s progressive views on racial tolerance with the prevalent wartime nostalgia and romanticism in the piece. All of …
Requisitioned: American War Art Of The Second World War, Spenser Carroll-Johnson
Requisitioned: American War Art Of The Second World War, Spenser Carroll-Johnson
War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses
The United States requisitioned artists to assist with military objectives and servicemen requisitioned art as a form of rhetoric. This research reexamines the role of “official artists” and thereby extends its definition to include the multitude of art they produced during the Second World War. The underpinnings of this thesis reside during the economic crises of the 1930s that brought about American emergency relief initiatives for artists under the direction of Holger Cahill and, by extension, Edward Bruce. For the first time in history, the American public engaged with state-sponsored art. Due to a symbiotic relationship that formed between the …
Between The Devil And The Deep Sea: The Korean American War For Independence (1910-1945), Andrew Chae
Between The Devil And The Deep Sea: The Korean American War For Independence (1910-1945), Andrew Chae
War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses
From 1910 to 1945, while the Korean peninsula was a protectorate- and eventual colony- of the Empire of Japan, Koreans in the United States began an arduous process to maintain their sense of identity in a new land, and struggled to have a voice in a society that rejected their race. As a people in diasporic exile, Korean Americans engaged in a collective war for their independence by gathering resources to liberate Korea and committing extraordinary effort to deconstruct contrived stereotypes of Koreans. There are a number of forms of primary sources that corroborate the major arguments of the thesis, …
Denied To Serve: Gay Men And Women In The American Military And National Security In World War Ii And The Early Cold War, Gianni Barbera
Denied To Serve: Gay Men And Women In The American Military And National Security In World War Ii And The Early Cold War, Gianni Barbera
War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses
Gay men and women have existed in the United States and in the armed forces much longer than legally and socially permitted. By World War II, a cultural shift began within the gay communities of the United States as thousands of gay men and women enlisted in the armed forces. Military policies barred gay service members by reinforcing stereotypes that gay men threatened the wellbeing of other soldiers. Such policies fostered the idea that only particular kinds of men could adequately serve. There were two opposing outcomes for the service of returning gay and lesbian veterans. For many hiding their …
Threads Of The Zoot Suit Riots: How The Initial Explanations For The Riots Hold Up Today, Antonio Franco
Threads Of The Zoot Suit Riots: How The Initial Explanations For The Riots Hold Up Today, Antonio Franco
Voces Novae
This paper is about the 1943 Los Angeles Zoot suit Riots. These riots lasted for five days and were fought between the city’s young Mexican-American population and U.S. servicemen who were in the city. The name comes from a popular style that many young Mexican-Americans in L.A. wore at the time called the zoot suit. The Zoot Suit Riots was one of the most important moments in Chicano history. Throughout the riots as well as sometime afterward, many who were in the city at the time tried to discern its origins. The local newspapers, the Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican-Americans, …
Fighting A War Without Rifles: Deconstructing The Image Of The Unflappable Medic, Robert Del Toro
Fighting A War Without Rifles: Deconstructing The Image Of The Unflappable Medic, Robert Del Toro
Voces Novae
“Fighting a War Without Rifles: Deconstructing the Image of the Unflappable Medic” focuses on comparing the official romanticized image of the medic in World War II and the soldiers’ reality. During the Second World War, the US Army in Europe faced high casualty rates, and the soldiers of the Medical Department were tasked with treating the wounded. The medic was the first echelon of care that the wounded would receive, as well as the most important. After the War, the medics were portrayed in a romanticized light. Official literature presented them as highly competent soldiers; infantry men saw them as …
The Warner Brothers Prove Their Patriotism, Lara Jacobson
The Warner Brothers Prove Their Patriotism, Lara Jacobson
Voces Novae
Warner Bros. Pictures did not become the widely successful company they are today by sitting back and letting “the world go to pot.” The Brothers patriotic beginnings in America earned them a reputation as trailblazers in the motion picture industry. Their Polish and Jewish family heritage initially motivated the four brothers to take a stand when they released Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) as a direct result of Hitler’s growing reign in Europe. Many of the Brothers’ early movies focused on injustice, prejudice, and violation of basic human rights; the era of World War II would be no different. …
Honorable Mention Contest Entry: A “Land You Could Not Escape Yet Almost Didn’T Want To Leave:” Japanese American Identity In Manzanar Internment Camp Gardens, Mckenzie P. Tavoda
Honorable Mention Contest Entry: A “Land You Could Not Escape Yet Almost Didn’T Want To Leave:” Japanese American Identity In Manzanar Internment Camp Gardens, Mckenzie P. Tavoda
Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize
This is McKenzie Tavoda's submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won honorable mention. She wrote about Japanese American identity in the Manzanar Internment Camp gardens. You can read the final essay that came out of her research here.