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Electronic Theses and Dissertations

University of Central Florida

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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Byzantine Foreign Policy During The Reign Of Constans Ii, Joseph Morris Jan 2014

Byzantine Foreign Policy During The Reign Of Constans Ii, Joseph Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the foreign policy of Constans II as the first Byzantine Emperor to rule after the initial Arab conquests in Syria-Palestine. His reign, 641-668, was the first reign of a Byzantine Emperor where the entire reign was subject to Arab raids and invasions. Constans II also had to contend with the Slavs in Thessalonica and Greece and the Lombards in Italy. To complicate matters more, Constans II was forced to cope with the religious division between the eastern and western churches due to Monothelitism in the East. Beset on every frontier and inheriting a much reduced empire after …


Martin Cenquizqui, Christina Guillen Jan 2014

Martin Cenquizqui, Christina Guillen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historical novel, Cortes Cenquizqui, set in sixteenth century Mexico and Spain, follows the conflicted lives and minds of several characters through an age of freshly crossing culture, language, and power. The narrator, Maria de Quesada of high ranking Spanish and Mexica parents, resents the white world for condemning her work as a female healer or curandera. Yet she acknowledges that she is ill-equipped to leave Mexico City to live in the outlying Indigenous villages. Maria recalls the tale of her three brothers who were caught in a web of pride and prejudices. Her interjections throughout shed light on questions …


Reconciling Order And Progress: Auguste Comte, Gustave Le Bon, Emile Durkheim, And The Development Of Positivism In France, 1820-1914, Khali Navarro Jan 2014

Reconciling Order And Progress: Auguste Comte, Gustave Le Bon, Emile Durkheim, And The Development Of Positivism In France, 1820-1914, Khali Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the philosophy of positivism in nineteenth century France. Based on an empirical vision of society, positivism advocated values of rationality, progress, and secularization. In that way, it stood as one of the defining systems of thought of the modern era. I discuss, however, an undercurrent of anxiety about those same values. Positivism's founder, Auguste Comte, argued that all sciences would become unified and organized under universal principles and empirical standards. He viewed the human mind as becoming more rationalized throughout history. In his later career, however, he argued that rationalism was a destructive force and that a …


Entering Nam: A Comparative Study Of The Entrance Experiences Of Volunteer And Drafted Service Members Into The Military During The Vietnam War, Ashley Wilt Jan 2012

Entering Nam: A Comparative Study Of The Entrance Experiences Of Volunteer And Drafted Service Members Into The Military During The Vietnam War, Ashley Wilt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many historians have conducted oral history interviews with Vietnam War veterans in an attempt to offer a more personal perspective to the study of the Vietnam War; however, most historians do not consciously differentiate between drafted and volunteer veterans. Identifying whether a veteran was drafted into service or volunteered is critical because the extent to which this service was voluntary or coerced may affect the way a veteran remembers his military service. By conducting oral histories, one can consciously delineate service members who volunteered as opposed to those who were drafted to determine if the veterans‟ experiences change based on …


Confrontational Christianity: Contextual Theology And Its Radicalization Of The South African Anti-Apartheid Church Struggle, Miguel Rodriguez Jan 2012

Confrontational Christianity: Contextual Theology And Its Radicalization Of The South African Anti-Apartheid Church Struggle, Miguel Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is intended to analyze the contributions of Contextual Theology and Contextual theologians to dismantling the South African apartheid system. It is intended to demonstrate that the South African churches failed to effectively politicize and radicalize to confront the government until the advent of Contextual Theology in South Africa. Contextual Theology provided the Christian clergy the theological justification to unite with anti-apartheid organizations. Its very concept of working with the poor and oppressed helped the churches gain favor with the black masses that were mostly Christian. Its borrowing from Marxist philosophy appealed to anti-apartheid organizations. Additionally, Contextual theologians, who …


Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden Jan 2012

Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 …


The North Comes South Northern Methodists In Florida During Reconstruction, Heather K. Bollinger Jan 2011

The North Comes South Northern Methodists In Florida During Reconstruction, Heather K. Bollinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines three groups of northern Methodists who made their way to north Florida during Reconstruction: northern white male Methodists, northern white female Methodists, and northern black male and female Methodists. It analyzes the ways in which these men and women confronted the differences they encountered in Florida‟s southern society as compared to their experiences living in a northern society. School catalogs, school reports, letters, and newspapers highlight the ways in which these northerners explained the culture and behaviors of southern freedmen and poor whites in Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Monticello. This study examines how these particular northern men and …


Death And Disengagement: A Critical Analysis Of The International Community's Intervention Effort In Darfur, Victor Hodges Jan 2010

Death And Disengagement: A Critical Analysis Of The International Community's Intervention Effort In Darfur, Victor Hodges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to analyze the international community's conflict management capabilities through its response to the Darfur crisis. Primarily, it aims to show through the lens of the Darfur crisis, which is widely accepted as the first genocide of the twenty-first century, that the international community has yet to develop a framework to collectively intervene in and resolve crimes against humanity. Additionally, this thesis will show the international community's recognition of their shortcomings through the gradual transformation of policies undertaken by several of its leading entities in response to the crisis. The research will pinpoint several major factors behind the …


Outside The Circle: The Juxtaposition Of Powwow Imagery And Cherokee Historical Representation, Dana Brumley Jan 2009

Outside The Circle: The Juxtaposition Of Powwow Imagery And Cherokee Historical Representation, Dana Brumley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at the juxtaposition presented by the Eastern Cherokee's struggle to present an accurate historical representation of 'Cherokee' against the backdrop of the more lucrative 'Tourist-ready Indian', influenced by powwow imagery. The thesis gives a brief history of the contemporary powwow, discusses the debates surrounding its intrinsic value to American Indians as historically representative, and then examines the shared elements of Cherokee and powwow history. There is an analysis of the influence of powwow imagery on notions of Cherokee history and its correlation to the expectations of visitors to the Cherokee Reservation. Thus, the author argues that the …


Selling Sunshine: How Cypress Gardens Defined Florida, 1935-2004, David Dinocola Jan 2009

Selling Sunshine: How Cypress Gardens Defined Florida, 1935-2004, David Dinocola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between Cypress Gardens and the state of Florida. Specifically, it focuses on how the creator of the park, Dick Pope, created his park after his own idealized vision of the state, and how he then promoted both his park and Florida as one and the same. The growth and later decline of Cypress Gardens follows trends in Florida's growth patterns and shifts in tourism. This study primarily uses a combination of newspaper sources and promotional pictures and other media from the park to explain how Pope attempted to make Cypress Gardens synonymous with Florida. In …


Vibia Perpetua's Diary: A Women's Writing In A Roman Text Of Its Own, Melissa Perez Jan 2009

Vibia Perpetua's Diary: A Women's Writing In A Roman Text Of Its Own, Melissa Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Writing the history of women in antiquity is hindered by the lack of written sources by them. It has been the norm to assume that the only sources that can tell us something about them are the sources written by men. This thesis challenges this convention as it concerns the social history of Rome through the exploration of a written source by a woman named Vibia Perpetua. She was a Roman woman of twenty-two years from Roman Carthage, who was martyred on March 7, 203 C.E. The reason that we know of this Roman woman and what happened to her …


A Pure Space To Be Mexican: Ethnic Mexicans And The Mexico-U.S. Soccer Rivalry, 1990-2002, Paola Rodriguez Jan 2008

A Pure Space To Be Mexican: Ethnic Mexicans And The Mexico-U.S. Soccer Rivalry, 1990-2002, Paola Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the soccer rivalry between Mexico and the United States that has been evolving since the early 1990s. Neither Mexico nor the United States are soccer powerhouse nations, yet their rivalry is arguably one of the most passionate contests in the world. For the Mexican National team the rivalry has become a struggle to maintain dominance and power in one of the few arenas where Mexico traditionally has had an advantage. The ability of the United States to challenge Mexican hegemony has intensified the rivalry. Although the United States has been able to score some victories inside the …


Another Forgotten Army: The French Expeditionary Corps In Italy,1943-1944, Brook White Jan 2008

Another Forgotten Army: The French Expeditionary Corps In Italy,1943-1944, Brook White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The French Expeditionary Corps that fought in Italy during World War II was a French army, but that description must be qualified. Therefore this thesis asks two questions: how did France manage to send the equivalent of an army to Italy if French military leadership in 1943 had no direct access to French manpower resources; and the most important question since it is unique to the historical debate, why were the troops that were sent to Italy so effective once there when compared to the 1940 French army? To answer the first question, it was a French colonial army - …


Visioning The Nation: Classical Images As Allegory During The French Revolution, Kristopher Guy Reed Jan 2007

Visioning The Nation: Classical Images As Allegory During The French Revolution, Kristopher Guy Reed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, France experienced a seismic shift in the nature of political culture. The king gave way to the nation at the center of political life as the location of sovereignty transferred to the people. While the French Revolution changed the structure of France's government, it also changed the allegorical representations of the nation. At the Revolution's onset, the monarchy embodied both the state and nation as equated ideas. During the Revolutionary Decade and through the reign of Napoleon different governments experienced the need to reorient these symbols away from the person of the …


Trianon And The Predestination Of Hungarian Politics: A Historiography Of Hungarian Revisionism, 1918-1944, Dezso Bartha Jan 2006

Trianon And The Predestination Of Hungarian Politics: A Historiography Of Hungarian Revisionism, 1918-1944, Dezso Bartha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes to link certain consistent themes in the historiography of interwar and wartime Hungary. Hungary's inability to successfully resolve its minority problems led to the nation's dismemberment at Trianon in 1920 after World War I. This fostered a national Hungarian reaction against the Trianon settlement called the revisionist movement. This revisionist "Trianon syndrome" totally dominated Hungarian politics in the interwar period. As Hungary sought allies against the hated peace settlements of the Great War, Hungarian politics irrevocably tied the nation to the policies of Nazi Germany, and Hungary became nefariously assessed as "Hitler's last ally," which initially stained …


Plant City, Florida, 1885-1940: A Study In Southern Urban Development, Mark W. Kerlin Jan 2005

Plant City, Florida, 1885-1940: A Study In Southern Urban Development, Mark W. Kerlin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the development of Plant City, Florida as a railroad town developing on the Southwest Florida frontier from 1885-1940. The study chronicles the town's origins and economic, political, and social development in relationship to the broader historical theories of southern urban development, specifically those put forward in David Goldfield's pioneering work, Cotton Fields and Skyscrapers: Southern City and Region 1607-1980. Goldfield contended that southern cities developed differently than their northern counterparts because they were not economically, politically, philosophically and culturally separated from their rural surroundings. Instead, they displayed and retained the positive and negative attributes of southern society …