History Commons^™

Liminal Liberation: Courtesans And Embodied Anxieties In Sixteenth-Century Venice, Mandonesia Carter

LSU Master's Theses

Invectives against the courtesan—a more educated, erudite, and socially elite version of the ordinary prostitute—were commonplace in early modern Venice. A metropolitan center by the sixteenth century, Venice had become one of the most tolerant cities in Europe, allowing the courtesan to rapidly rise far past her social standing. The courtesan, through strategic self-fashioning and self-promotion, blurred the boundaries of gender roles, class roles, and the conventional social hierarchy. This precipitated attacks from critics seeking to provide clarity of the courtesan’s place and protect the interests of their patriarchal society. This thesis examines representations of the sixteenth-century Venetian courtesan in …

Free People Of Color In West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, Evelyn Lenora Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Free People of Color in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana” documents the presence, land ownership, business development, and personal relationships of free people of color in a rural Louisiana parish. Beginning with how free people of color came to be in the parish, it shows an absence of segregation by skin color in home ownership, business relationships, and friendships. Free people of color found themselves accepted in a community that valued their talents and skills and disregarded the color of their skin.

Free people of color bought and sold homes in whatever part of the parish suited them. Most lived surrounded …

Protestant Experience And Continuity Of Political Thought In Early America, 1630-1789, Stephen Michael Wolfe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The debate on the continuity of American political thought from the 17^th century Puritan settlements to the 18^th century American founding assumes a bipolar spectrum, ranging from strong continuity to strong discontinuity. The degree that scholars recognize distinctively Christian, theological, or Protestant ideas operating in the founding era determines where they are placed on the spectrum. The most popular view today is the “amalgam” thesis, which is a moderate view, resulting from decades of debate. Amalgam theorists argue that the founders' political theory relied on a variety of sources, from classical to Protestant. The current debate centers on …

Reshaping An Earthly Paradise: Land Enclosure And Bavarian State Centralization (1779-1835), Gregory Devoe Tomlinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The Electoral state of Bavaria was reformed through a comprehensive project of land-based allodification (the creation of a distinction between privileged titles and property designations) through the process of “redemption” beginning in 1799. This process was previously impeded by the strength of landholding estates that included notables and the Catholic Church. In addition, Electoral Bavarian leaders lacked centralized control. Civil servants, known as cameralists, mediated political and economic interactions between these estates. The economy was based on subsistence and the productive capacity of Gutsherrschaft, a manorial system based on regional jurisdiction and rent collection by notables who largely did …

Bernard Palissy: Early Career - Securing Patronage And Mimicking Nature In A Moment Of Crisis, Karissa Bailey

LSU Master's Theses

Early in 1562, France was experiencing a state of high religious tension between Protestants and Catholics that would precipitate the outbreak of the Religious Wars on March 1. A week before, Bernard Palissy, a Huguenot potter, wrote a letter to his Catholic patron from prison inBordeaux where he was being held on charges associated with an iconoclastic incident in his home city of Saintes. This letter would later be published as a dedication letter for the pamphlet Architecture et Ordonnance, which featured the description of a grotto commissioned by Anne de Montmorency, Palissy’s patron, seven years earlier. This thesis analyzes …

The Strange Death Of American Democracy: Judicial Supremacy And The New Constitutional Politics, 1910-1916, Logan Istre

LSU Master's Theses

American constitutional politics reached a crisis point during the Progressive Era. At the center of the crisis was the question as to what the Constitution meant and who had the final word in interpreting it: The Supreme Court or the People of the United States. That fundamental question came to a head in the presidential election of 1912. The result of that contest was the confirmation of judicial supremacy in constitutional interpretation and a mortal blow the nation’s traditional popular constitutional politics. The ensuring consensus of judicial supremacy has defined the nation’s constitutional politics since, which has resulted in the …

Hyear Come De Parade: The History Of The Black Mardi Gras Tradition In Baton Rouge, Kirsten L. Campbell

LSU Master's Theses

The aim of this thesis to emphasize the importance the role of photography in preserving and archiving cultural memories and histories as well as demonstrate the impact of digital archives. Using archival materials such as local newspapers and press photographs, this thesis offers, for the first time, the history of the African American Mardi Gras parading tradition in Baton Rouge between the years 1910 through 1941. This thesis, too, provides an art historical analysis of the visual material that exists of these early African American parades in Baton Rouge, and contextualizes the histories that shaped, influenced, and made these parades …

There's No Place Like Home: Arlene Francis And Domesticity In Doubt, Caroline Argrave

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the life and career of stage, film, and television personality Arlene Francis, in order to add nuance to the understanding of how women broke into the entertainment industry. Francis, rather than brazenly flouting norms, wooed her employers and audience into acceptance by combining her prominent new “power” with comforting old-fashioned norms. The result was a woman doing something patently new while speaking in a way disarmingly familiar. In this way, Francis is reminiscent of other female pioneers, who used a traditionally feminine persona to charm their male colleagues into supporting their leadership, and as a result has …

Between The Judean Desert And Gaza: Asceticism And The Monastic Communities Of Palestine In The Sixth Century, Austin Mccray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on the religious culture of Christian monasticism in sixth-century Palestine. Rather than see the monastic communities of the Judean Desert, just to the east of Jerusalem, and those around Gaza as two independent monastic regions, as much scholarship has done, the dissertation focuses on the common threads that can be seen in the monastic teachings and idealized ascetic practices in the literature of the area. This dissertation reveals ways to redefine the boundaries between the monastic communities of Palestine during the sixth century as well as emphasizes the continuities between the monks of the Judean Desert and …

Monuments And Memory: A Quantitative Analysis Of Union And Confederate Monuments, Kris Plunkett

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Light Within The Dark: Lasting Successes Of The New Orleans Public School Integration In 1960, Bailey Breuhl

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Voting On A Prayer Religious Objection To Presidential Candidates And Response In The Progressive Era, Luke Anthony Dupre’

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

James I: Monarchial Representation And English Identity, Elizabeth Maria Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work unpacks James’s representational performance and the issues he faced in assimilating himself into English identity during him time on the English throne. He implemented tropes he previously utilized in Scotland, presenting himself as Solomon, David, Constantine, a philosopher-king, and Rex Pacificus. James relied upon print for his public representation, he was an avid writer and seems to have thought of himself as something of a theologian, for he frequently commented upon religious doctrine and paid acute attention to sermons. This dissertation explores his entrance to England, the union debates, the Gunpowder Plot and its remembrance, James’s religious …

Black And White: Derailment Of Desegregation In East Baton Rouge Parish Schools, Leonard Ray

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Andrew T. Hatcher: Press, Public Information & Perception For A Nation In Transition Historical Content Analysis On The First African American To Serve As A White House Associate Press Secretary, Nayita Wilson

LSU Master's Theses

Andrew T. Hatcher rose to one of the highest positions in U.S. government when he became the first African American to serve as associate White House press secretary in 1960 under the administration of President John F. Kennedy and during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. This is a historical content analysis that analyzes Hatcher’s role through primary sources, presidential archives, and select national, local, and minority newspapers.

The overarching purpose of this study was to ascertain Hatcher’s role as associate White House press secretary during civil rights. This study provides further insight into: 1) to what extent did …

The Ties That Bind: The Meaning Of Attachment In State Constitutional Revision, 1820-1845, Allison J. Morvant

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the changing conception of attachment in state constitutional conventions from 1820 – 1845. During the colonial and early national periods, attachment was defined primarily through property ownership. Accordingly, early state constitutions limited the rights of citizenship, namely suffrage, to free white men who possessed a freehold. Over time, in response to pressure from upwardly mobile white males, state constitutional conventions began to create a new political order based on an expanded definition of attachment: non-propertied white males could exhibit attachment and be granted citizenship through affection, civic virtue, and public duty.

Eleanor Lansing Dulles And The Fate Of Berlin: 1953-1989, Chad Everett Shelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

At the end of the Second World War, Berliners lived in a war-ravaged city and faced occupation under Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The occupation of Berlin and Germany became a competition between capitalism and communism. East Germany became a communist nation while West Germany recovered under the supervision of capitalist nations. In the 1950s West Berlin found a new ally in the director of the Berlin Desk at United States Department of State, Eleanor Lansing Dulles.

Eleanor Dulles came from a privileged family who participated in American diplomacy at the end of the nineteenth …

Politics And Religion During The Rise And Reign Of Anne Boleyn, Megan E. Scherrer

LSU Master's Theses

During the 1520s and 1530s England endured a tumultuous time of drastic political change and religious reform. At the heart of it all was Anne Boleyn, whose relationship with King Henry VIII launched the English Reformation and the Royal Supremacy, and whose tragic end became a story passed down through the current day. This work examines Anne’s life, particularly her religion and influence in politics, and the figures who shone and dimmed as she came to power and once she lost everything. Some of the most significant of these figures include Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Hugh …

The Impact Of Black Civil War Veterans In Reconstruction Era Louisiana, Sarah K. Weiss

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Women Of The Edward J. Gay Family As Textile And Dress Consumers In Louisiana, 1849-1899, Lindsay Danielle Reaves

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Economic, social, and cultural historians have studied and analyzed consumption behaviors throughout the 20^th century and into the 21^st century. Decorative household textiles and dress items are two product categories that follow the consumption process. American consumption behaviors during the introduction of mass-produced textiles and dress items throughout the 19^th century have not been well documented.

The purpose of this research is to expand the knowledge of Southern planter-class women’s consumer behavior in relation to decorative household textiles and dress items. Arnould and Thompson’s (2005) Consumer Culture Theory and Belk’s (1988) research into possessions and the extended …

A History Of Drag And The Aids Crisis In Louisiana, Rebecca Lawler

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

The New British Christianity Of C.S. Lewis, Thomas Kemp

LSU Master's Theses

The emergence of C.S. Lewis as a popular author known for Christian content during the second half of the twentieth century provides an ideal case study for the transformation of religiosity within Britain. As religious behavior shifted from institutional adherence to private experience, Lewis became a ‘popular theologian’ who represented Christianity both for Christians – who looked to him for spiritual inspiration– and for non-Christians – who treated his views as representative of contemporary Christianity. By analyzing the reception, representation, and use of Lewis (his figure and his work) throughout the twentieth-century and into the twenty-first, it becomes clear that …

Racial Discrimination In Jury Selection: James Batson, The Sixth Amendment Fair-Cross-Section Doctrine, And The Racially-Based Peremptory Challenge, Kristen Marie Vicknair

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

‘For If Wrong Must Be Done’: Depictions Of Romans And Parthians In The First Century Bce, Remi Ducote

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Carlos Puebla And The People's History Of The Cuban Revolution (1956-1980), Juan Rodríguez-Cepero

LSU Master's Theses

The Cuban Revolution was one of the most important events in 20th century Latin American history. The unlikely success of revolutionary heroes such as Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara inspired not only similar movements throughout the region, but an entire generation of artists and musicians. One such artist was Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Puebla. A long-time critic of Batista and his corrupt administration, Puebla set to music the ideals that the Revolution sought to build a new Cuba upon. In a country which

most of the population was illiterate until 1961, the music of artists such as Puebla served as …

Will To Remember: Counter-Archives In The Work Of Alvarez, Danticat, And Díaz, Megan Elizabeth Feifer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues the essays, fiction, non-fiction, and non-profit work of authors Julia Alvarez, Edwidge Danticat, and Junot Díaz produce counter-narratives that when assembled, create a counter-archive of the Rafael Leonidas Trujillo dictatorship and its lasting effects. To support this claim, I analyze the various genres and medias they employ throughout the late 20^thand early 21^st centuries as redressing not only the “official” state history of the dictatorship, but also the overarching construction of history with a capital “H”. Through a close reading of form and the thematic concerns present in their work, I demonstrate how they …

Relics, Replication, And Reputation King Arthur, Edward I, And The Conquest Of Wales, Danielle Maurer

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Jews And The Sources Of Religious Freedom In Early Pennsylvania, Jonathon Derek Awtrey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Historians’ traditional narrative regarding religious freedom in the colonial period and early republic focuses on Protestants and sometimes Catholics to the exclusion of other religious groups; the literature also emphasizes the legal dimensions of freedom at the expense of its cultural manifestations. This study, conversely, demonstrates that Jews, the only white non-Christian minority group in early Pennsylvania, experienced freedom far differently than its legality can adequately explain. Jews, moreover, reshaped religious freedom to include religious groups beyond Protestant Christians alone. But such grassroots transformations were neither quick nor easy. Like most of the Anglo-American world, William Penn’s “Holy Experiment” excluded …

The Lavender Scare Of New Orleans, Laura Tracy

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.