Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From Burma To Berlin: The Development Of U.S. Air Transport 1938-1949, Benjamin J. Johnson

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work examines the development of U.S. military airlift from unproven curiosity to a transformative system of technologies, tactics and logistical support which enabled the United States to engage diplomatic and military scenarios around the world. Through an examination of contemporary reports, technological advances and statistical analyses of airlift practices it is shown that the period of 1938-1949 witnessed a great leap in tactical and technological innovation within the U.S. air transport community. The capabilities utilized during air supply missions to China during World War II and the Berlin Airlift foreshadowed a transformative capability providing military and diplomatic solutions when …

Close On The Wind: An Environmental Military History Examining Wind’S Influence On The Early United States Navy, Scott J. Beehler

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Utilizing General Carl von Clausewitz’s theory of friction in combat, Close on the Wind examines wind’s historical influence on early United States naval warfare, specifically small scale engagements fought during the Quasi War, First Barbary War, and the War of 1812. To accomplish this, the thesis first engages in a scientific discussion of wind, concentrating on how it occurs and what forces dictate its velocity and direction. The examination goes on to also present the types of wind that period sailing vessels encountered, including global, regional, and local patterns, as well as how wind influenced the practice of sailing and …

Jewel Of Womanhood: A Feminist Reinterpretation Of Queen Katherine Howard, Holly K. Kizewski

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 1540, King Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Katherine Howard. Less than two years later, the young queen was executed on charges of adultery. Katherine Howard has been much maligned by history, often depicted as foolish, vain, and outrageously promiscuous. Her few defenders often attempt to exonerate Katherine by claiming that she was chaste, innocent of the adultery charges brought against her, or a victim of rape. Both detractors and defenders usually reduce Katherine to her sexuality.

However, the surviving primary sources about Katherine reveal a more complex individual. In fact, examination of conduct books for young women of …

Ella Deloria: A Dakota Woman’S Journey Between An Old World And A New, Susana Grajales Geliga

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The subject of this thesis is a Yankton Dakota Sioux woman named Ella Cara Deloria who lived from 1889 to 1972. The intent of this thesis is to use her own construct of an educated Indigenous woman to examine her personal and professional life as a middle figure between a world of Dakota traditionalism and a modern academic arena during an era of intellectual curiosity about Native Americans. She flowed between these worlds to become a distinguished author and accomplished Dakota woman who built bridges of understanding between cultures. Ella initially set out to follow the patriarchs in her family …

Black Radicals And Marxist Internationalism: From The Iwma To The Fourth International, 1864-1948, Charles R. Holm

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project investigates historical relationships between Black Radicalism and Marxist internationalism from the mid-nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century. It argues that contrary to scholarly accounts that emphasize Marxist Euro-centrism, or that theorize the incompatibility of “Black” and “Western” radical projects, Black Radicals helped shape and produce Marxist theory and political movements, developing theoretical and organizational innovations that drew on both Black Radical and Marxist traditions of internationalism. These innovations were produced through experiences of struggle within international political movements ranging from the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century to the early Pan-African movements and struggles …

Accounts Of Settler Colonialism: A Comparative Study Of The Dakota & Palestinians’ Plight, Baligh Ben Taleb

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the course of the nineteenth century, American settlers spread throughout the Western frontier, driving out indigenous populations to establish unique and permanent homelands of their own. In doing so, they caused the death and displacement of thousands of Plains Indians, including the Dakota people in the young state of Minnesota in 1862. Indeed, the US-Dakota War represented a salient instance of settler colonial expansion on the frontier, triggering a bloody conflict between the Dakota Sioux and American military expeditions led by Henry H. Sibley. This paper attempts to contextualize this war within the broader framework of settler colonialism and …

"Heal Their Land": Evangelical Political Theology From The Great Awakening To The Moral Majority, Joseph D. Harder

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the 1970s, a movement arose among white American evangelicals and fundamentalists that has been labeled variously as the “Christian Right,” or more broadly, “the Religious Right.” While they had not been entirely apolitical in the middle decades of the twentieth century, in the 1970s many theologically conservative Protestants began to organize specifically around their religious concerns, forming a number of groups—of which the Moral Majority was the best-known—in an effort to “bring the nation back to God.” They also moved to the political right, joining forces with “New Right” activists who were seeking to push the Republican Party in …