History Commons^™

Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Through a generous donation to Morehead State University, research has been conducted on thousands of slides containing images of artwork and artifacts of historical significance. These images span from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the inaugural dress of every first lady of the United States. The slides are in the process of being recorded and catalogued for future use by students in hopes of furthering academic comprehension and awareness of the influence of fashion and costume history through the ages. Special thanks to the family of Gretel Geist Rutledge, faculty mentor Denise Watkins, as well as the Department of Music, Theatre, and …

Imperial Correlations Between The German Kaiserreich In Eastern Europe And The Third Reich In Eastern Europe, Laura Guebert

Posters-at-the-Capitol

This project is an examination of correlations between imperial enterprises of the Second German Empire and the Nazi Reich through the lenses of global and imperial critiques. The two primary case studies are the German Ober Ost and Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, particularly the General Government. This research draws heavily on certain themes and theories developed by leading historians of modern German and Eastern European history, including Timothy Snyder, Alexander Watson, Ben Kiernan, Shelley Baranowski, and Peter Fritzsche. By understanding the shared trends of empire and genocide, it is my aim to bring the actions of the National Socialists out of …

Slavery: The Main Ingredient To An Ancient Greek Polis' Military Dominance, Steven T. Tran

Young Historians Conference

Spartan and Athens' victories against the Persians and their eventual military dominance cannot be attributed to military strategy or government alone. The social acceptance of slavery provided the foundation for Greek poleis' social and economic spheres, leading to the development of slave deployment during the Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War. An in-depth analysis of Classical Greece slavery shows that its prevalence is much greater than what previous historians have thought, and more notably, that it was one of the most massive slave usage in history, allowing for the development of a dominating western world.

Print Media In The Cold War, Madeline Chu

Young Historians Conference

This investigation evaluates the degree to which print media propaganda in America reflected its anti-Communist ideologies during the early years of the Cold War. Specifically, the decade following the end of World War II in 1945 is examined. The messages, mediums, and subjects addressed of four images are analyzed in order to determine the degree to which they embody anti-Communist sentiments. These four pieces include a Time magazine cover from 1950, a comic book cover, a page of a Life magazine fashion article, and an advertisement by Radio Free Europe. Through these images, a conclusion was reached that while anti-Communist …

The Art Of War: Battles Won And Wars Lost, Mark W. Dekay

Young Historians Conference

Sun Tzu is one of the most influential military figures of all time; his treatise The Art of War provides the framework for waging an effective war. War is much more than a game of numbers or pawns on a board, Sun Tzu identifies the underlying factors that determine the outcome of every war, past or present. Follow The Art of War and victory is ensured, but if you ignore Sun Tzu defeat is inevitable. Many wars throughout history are proof of this statement, but there is no greater example than America's defeat in Vietnam. Despite having a much more …

Not Written In Letters Of Blood: The Forgotten Legacy Of The Army Of The Cumberland, Andrew R. Perkins

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

There is a chapter missing in the annals of Civil War history. The story of an entire army, the Army of the Cumberland, is not being told. Instead, the army teeters on the verge of absolute obscurity due to three factors: poorly timed battles, personal feuds between Union officers, and the undue emphasis of Civil War historians on Southern Romanticism.

The Army of the Cumberland won numerous victories, including Shiloh, Stones’ River and the Tullahoma Campaign. Yet, because the Eastern army, the Army of the Potomac, fought larger battles at nearly the same times, the Cumberlanders did not receive their …

The Power Of A Secret: Ireland’S Secret Societies Involvement In Irish Nationalism, Sierra M. Harlan

Scholarly and Creative Works Conference (2015 - 2021)

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) and the Irish Volunteer Force (I.V.F.) altered Irish Nationalist tactics from Parliamentary supported Home Rule to a republican movement for Irish Independence. The actions of these secret societies between the years of 1900 through 1917, before the Irish Revolutionary period,[1] are the reason that Ireland gained independence from United Kingdom in 1921. The change from political negotiations by the ineffective Irish Parliamentary Party to the republican movement would never have happened without the Easter Rising of 1916. The centennial anniversary of this Easter Rising makes The Power of a Secret: Ireland’s secret societies involvement …

No Night For Mexican Tears: Juan Cortina And The Brownsville Raid, Justin Oakley, Scott Sosebee

Undergraduate Research Conference

THEY CALLED HIM THE “RED ROBBER OF THE RIO GRANDE.... ” Whether this moniker developed from the reddish tinge of his beard, or from the red blood that he shed on either side of the border depends on who is telling the story. The image of this man that is left to posterity is muddied; obscured by the rhyme and the romance of the corrido, and subject to the whims of political lionization or character assassination. Why Juan Nepomuceno Cortina rode into Brownsville on that early autumn day in 1859 at the head of an armed band of men has …

The Women's Army Invades Nacogdoches, Sarah Ebert, Courtney Wooten

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Useful By Nature, Defensive On Demand: Topography And Sieges Of Rome In The Gothic War, Peter Francis Sian Guevara

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

This project shows how the use of topographical elements impacted the development of siege warfare during the Gothic Wars in the 6^th century A.D. Scholars studied topography and archaeology within the context of warfare in Late Antique Italy but they omit non-natural topographical features such as tombs, bridges, and aqueducts. Analyses undertaken include comparison and contrast of the sieges that the city of Rome endured during the Gothic Wars of a contemporary eye-witness, the Greek historian Procopius of Caesarea. The analysis includes other sieges such as Ravenna and Rimini. Christopher Lillington-Martin’s essay Procopius on the Struggle for Dara in …

The Death Knell For Jim Crow: How African-American Soldiers’ Experiences Abroad Impacted The Modern Civil Rights Movement, Richard J. Sipe

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

This paper examines African-American soldiers’ experiences abroad in Europe during the Second World War and the occupation of Germany, and how these experiences affected their fight for Civil Rights on their return to the United States. The paper argues that the experiences of African-American soldiers in Europe, where they were free from Jim Crow Laws and treated with respect and equality by Europeans, created a new consciousness of equality that led to the demand for equal rights at home. The paper challenges traditional historical interpretations of the Civil Rights Movement by emphasizing the Movement’s international aspect. It accomplishes this by …

Session B-2: Why World War I? Being Intelligent About The Causes, Lee Eysturlid

Professional Learning Day

This presentation will guide attendees through the complicated and often misrepresented ideas that have formed around understanding why it is that World War I started the way that it did. The focus will be mostly on the military and technological elements. Participants will be ready to teach the topic when they leave, and it suits US and World History teachers (and middle school).

Session B-3: Operation Paperclip And The Rise Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Diane Haleas, Matthew Miller

Professional Learning Day

On November 26, 1944 Dutch-American particle physicist Samual Goudsmit and his fellow members of the secret Operation Alsos carefully scoured the private papers of Nazi scientists, uncovering startling information on the extent of Nazi biological weapons experiments. Operation Alsos would give rise to Operation Paperclip – the U.S. government’s effort to bring over 1,600 German and Nazi scientists, doctors, engineers, and technologists to the United States. Also recruited were Nazi war criminals whose scientific prowess seemed to override the U.S. government’s moral qualms. The period from November, 1944 – May, 1945 changed the world as the U.S. government began to …