History Commons^™

American Identities In Virginia Education, Michael Mallery

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The students who attended The University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Harrisonburg State Normal and Industrial School (HSNIS), and Fredericksburg State Normal and Industrial School (FSNIS) during the early twentieth century (1900-1918) showed changes in Southern gender identities. At UVA and VMI young men challenged the southern ideals of how they felt about their education by disagreeing with faculty and showing stressors within their education. Young men also fell into conflict with each other on certain social behaviors such as the usage of alcohol which went against Southern Christian morals and gentlemen behaviors if one embraced the idea …

Working For The Benefit And Advancement Of Women: Three Women's Organizations That Commemorated The American Civil War, 1880-1920, Annette F. Guild

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In the past forty years, scholars and members of the public alike have obsessed over the complex legacy of the American Civil War (1861-1865). As debates over Confederate monuments and the United States’ racial past have frequently emerged in politics, many Americans have disagreed as to how the Civil War should be remembered. In examining the evolution of Civil War memory in American society, numerous scholars have noted the important role that women’s organizations played in influencing the Civil War’s collective memory in the fifty years following the conflict. However, while scholars have noted the significance of these organizations for …

Perceptions And Identity: Poverty In 19th Century Rockingham County, Kayla Heslin

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The historical analysis of poverty has lain silent for nearly two decades, with only recent authors, such as Nancy Isenberg and Kerri Leigh Merritt, broaching the topic. While several others have taken a deep dive into understanding the causes and effects of contemporary poverty, it seems to me a great deal has yet to be written on the identity of those impoverished and their active endeavors to define themselves in economic circumstances largely beyond their control. Until we truly explore the complexity of economic dearth and its relation to collective identity, we cannot fully understand the topic of “poverty.”

In …

A Woman's Place: Historicizing The Persistence Of The Gender Gap, Alexandra J. Kolleda

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the distinction created between men and women in regards to their use of power in England through the Medieval (476-1492) and the Victorian periods (1837-1901). While women have displayed power through the ages, the nature of that power has traditionally been behind the scenes and relegated to the domestic sphere. As a result conceptions of femininity and masculinity confined women to a role not compatible with modern ideas of power and leadership. Present-day individuals are indoctrinated into this gender discourse through characterization of women in literature and gendered laws, which have been passed down since the Middle …

The Model Of Masculinity: Youth, Gender, And Education In Fascist Italy, 1922-1939, Jennifer L. Nehrt

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Youth and masculinity are keys to understanding Italian Fascist culture. The Fascost regime used educational institutions to enforce binary gender roles to encourage boys grow into heroic soldiers and girls to become dutiful wives. However, by the mid-1930s, their was a frustrated awareness among the youth that the regime had not fulfilled its promise to deliver Italy to glory. Young citizens were denied a voice in the government and they became disillusioned with Fascism.

Envisioning The Apocalypse: (Dis)Order, Progress, And Brazil’S Canudos War, 1896-1897, Gray Fielding Kidd

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis uses the Canudos War (1896-7) as an analytical lens for unpacking issues of class, race, and gender in late nineteenth century Brazil. Brazil’s perhaps bloodiest civil war between millenarian backlanders and the state and federal military sheds light on elite urban social preoccupations during a critical formative period of republican rule. I analyze travelogues, newspaper reports, political cartoons, and other period documents. I do so in order to engage with elite urban Brazilians’ readings of, and prescriptions for, Order and Progress as articulated through questions of gender, class, and race. Throughout this project, I argue that urban sympathetic …

Citizens Of The Empire: A Molding Of Victorian Childhood Identity, Christopher B. Gallagher

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The Victorian Era in Great Britain was a time period of dramatic change. The Industrial Revolution was altering the social and economic fabric of society. Socially, Victorians were confronted with new theories that challenged their religious beliefs. The British Isles were progressing steadily in creating a national identity. Finally, the existence of the British Empire made imperialism a factor that cannot be ignored. Yet, many historians have pointed out that the history of the British metropole itself is often disconnected from the political and cultural history of the Empire. It is within this conversation that this project seeks to find …