History Commons^™

Making Good : World War I, Disability, And The Senses In American Rehabilitation, Evan Patrick Sullivan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study looks at how disabled American soldier-patients and the US Army used the senses as tools of rehabilitation after the Great War. Contemporaries argued that, when the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers came home wounded or sick after the Great War, the men needed to make good. The phrase “making good” meant that sacrifice in the war was not enough, and veterans had to become socially and economically independent, and return to heterosexual relationships. In an effort to return to normalcy, the US Army relied on rehabilitation, which aimed to medically and socially re-integrate the men into society.

"An Everlasting Service": The American And Canadian Legions Remember The First World War, 1919-1941, Mary E. Osborne

Theses and Dissertations--History

The public tends to think of war memorials as fixed monuments, but I argue that the American and Canadian Legions served as living memorials that acknowledged veterans’ war-time service by providing service to veterans and to the public. This dissertation focuses on how Legionnaires interacted with one another and with their local communities during the interwar years to construct memories of the First World War. By analyzing local chapter records from Michigan, New York, and Ontario, Canada, this case study highlights the contrast between the organizations’ national and local activities. The local posts’ and branches’ wide range of activities complicated …

Preserve Or Perish : The Orange County Food Preservation Battalion And Food Conservation Efforts In New York State During The Great War, 1917-1919, Sarah Elizabeth Wassberg

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis examines the role of both private voluntary organizations like the Orange County Food Preservation Battalion as well as city- and state-sponsored organizations in food conservation efforts during World War I in New York state (1917-1919). Society women such as Orange County Food Preservation Battalion chairman Mrs. Theodore Bailey, in conjunction with professional home economists, played an important role early in the war effort in disseminating the patriotic pleas of Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Food Administration, but their efforts were later subsumed by state-run entities such as the New York State Food Commission. Using an unpublished scrapbook kept …

Riveting Rosie's Riveting Struggles: Women Shipyard Workers In Wwii, Stephanie Lippincott

Young Historians Conference

The women workers of WWII are generally portrayed as strong, happy, independent women sporting colorful bandanas and cocky grins, yet this manicured Rosie-the-Riveter image is a far cry from capturing the experiences of the average woman laborer on the home front. An examination the Kaiser shipyards in Portland and Vancouver makes it evident that women workers faced a plethora of obstacles and stressors in the workplace, only to find themselves booted back into the position of housewife at the end of the war.

Democracy For Whom?: The Spanish-American War, The Philippine-American War, World War I, And The Naacp, Amanda Marie Nagel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation discusses race, identity, and white violence in relation to African American military service during the Spanish-American war, the Philippine-American war, and World War I. It examines the conditions at the turn of the century that African Americans faced, including military service as well as discrimination, racism, violence, and legal problems comamong African American military personnel throughout this time period. More specifically, it argues that the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 created a catalyst for increased activism on behalf of black soldiers serving in the American military. The NAACP …

Morale Maintenance In World War Ii Us Army Ground Combat Units : European Theater Of Operations, 1944-45, Kevin Kane

Honors Theses

This paper examines how both the Army as an organization and its small unit leaders attempted to maintain the soldiers’ morale in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Morale was critical to the Allied victory in the war, yet the morale of frontline GIs was often neglected. This occurred with such frequency that many combat soldiers suffered from a new category of wound known as “combat exhaustion.” Through an examination of what influenced combat soldiers’ morale, a clearer understanding of what the Army did well and how it failed to support combat GIs emerges, as does an …

The Ministry Of Economic Warfare: Anglo-American Relations 1939-1941, Jonathan Davis

Masters Theses

An exploration of Anglo-American relations beginning in the interwar period to American involvement in World War II. This thesis explores the actions of the Ministry of Economic Warfare and how it affected Anglo-American relations before American commitment to the allied cause. It highlights the existing economic contention that existed between Great Britain and America before the conflict and acknowledges that the Britain and American alliance that is enjoyed today was not inevitable or necessarily desired by either nation. It demonstrates through the actions of the British Ministry of Economic Warfare the paradigm shift in Great Britain concerning the preservation of …

Lead And Zinc: The "Gold" Of World War Ii And Picher, Oklahoma May 1st, 1942 To June 30th, 1947, Aaron Heidebrecht

Theory and Practice: HIST430

"Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." This was a quote from Franklin Roosevelt, one of the most recognized presidents of the United States, and it was the starting point of the events which would proceed after this day. Because of this event, the U.S. found the need to get involved in the midst of one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern day history. America and the world were brought together in the common …

The Economics Of The Atomic Bomb: Cost And Utilization, Jonathan M. Davis Mr.

Senior Honors Theses

Few moments in human history can be compared to the culmination of events that brought the atomic bomb into creation. It is incredible to contemplate that while a nation was fighting a two front war that spanned from Europe into the Pacific, that the United States was able to utilize the time, energy, brains, materials, manpower, and capital to complete a project in four years. That under any other circumstances would have taken greater than half a century to complete.

First, this thesis will discuss breakthroughs in research that led scientists to believe that the atomic weapons could be built, …

Soldiers Of Conscience : Conscription And Conscientious Objection In The United States And Britain During World War I, Timothy Mark La Goy

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Conscience and the freedom to exercise conscience have long been cherished civil liberties in western democracies. However, during World War I, traditional concepts of conscience and conscientious objection to military service were challenged by the demands of conscription and militarism in the United States and Britain. This dissertation examines the definition, context, and exercise of conscience by conscientious objectors (COs) during the war. This study finds that conscience existed in a dynamic state. COs were compelled by changing circumstances to reevaluate and restate their objections as they responded to changing circumstances in army camps, guardhouses, and prisons.

The American Expeditionary Forces In World War I: The Rock Of The Marne., Stephen L. Coode

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American participation in the First World War developed slowly throughout 1917 to a mighty torrent during the last six months of the war. United States participation undoubtedly helped not only repel but to stop all German assaults on the Western Front: it had substantially aided in defeating Imperial Germany.

Through primary and secondary sources a timeline, as well as a few of the more significant events, has been established following the United States' involvement in the war. Special attention has been focused on the United States Third Infantry Division and its part in the July 15- 17, 1918 Second Battle …

The Art Of War : Deconstructing The Monolith Of The World War Ii Poster, Sean Williams

Honors Theses

For most Americans, the introduction to World War II posters, or even the entire field of posters during wartime in general, comes in the form of an elderly, yet bold looking man wearing red, white and blue. He wears a striped hat, and stands with his finger pointed outwards. The message he gives is clear --"I want YOU!" This image has been faithfully reproduced in social studies and history textbooks for years. (Indeed, both generations of my family saw such an image in their school books).

Uncle Sam, though, dapper as he may be, is merely one example of hundreds …

Writing The Lives Of Others: The Veterans Project, Sandra Young

English Faculty Publications

This essay describes an advanced composition course in which the students studied the ethics, politics, history, and rhetorical strategies involved in writing the lives of others. The heart of the course was a service-learning project that introduced college juniors and seniors to veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The students interviewed, wrote brief biographies, and transcribed the wartime stories of a group of veterans from a local American Legion post and its women’s auxiliary. The stories were collected in a volume made available to local American Legion posts, veterans hospitals, and libraries in Connecticut.

Russian Supply Efforts In America During The First World War, Dale C. Rielage

History Theses & Dissertations

The Russian government entered the First World War unprepared for the strains that modern warfare would impose on its industrial resources. As a result, Russia turned to foreign suppliers, most significantly the United States, and made extensive purchases largely financed by British loans. These foreign supply efforts involved both the Tsarist government and representatives of the newly emerging civil elements in Russian society.

Central to the experience of Russian purchasing in the United States was the Russian Supply Commission in America. Established in October 1915 as a coordinating body, the Supply Commission was noteworthy in that it included representatives of …

1918-11-12, Frenzers First Cruise, Charles J. Frenzer

Charles J. Frenzer First World War poem

This poem, titled "Frenzers First Cruise," was written by Charles J. Frenzer during the First World War. Frenzer was stationed at the U.S. Naval Air Station Queenstown, Ireland. In this poem, Frenzer writes about his various feelings about being shipped out to Queenstown, wanting to serve in the military, wanting to fight in the frontlines, and regretting joining the U.S. Navy.

Ansel Brooks Smith-Mrs. Marie Smith, August 19, 1918, France, Ansel Brooks Smith Sr.

Ansel Brooks Smith, Sr. Letters

No abstract provided.

Ansel Brooks Smith-Mrs. Marie Smith, March 5, 1918, France, Ansel Brooks Smith Sr.

Ansel Brooks Smith, Sr. Letters

No abstract provided.

Ansel Brooks Smith-Mrs. Marie Smith, December 31, 1917, Indianapolis, Indiana, Ansel Brooks Smith Sr.

Ansel Brooks Smith, Sr. Letters

No abstract provided.