History Commons^™

Representation, Narrative, And “Truth”: Literary And Historical Epistemology In 19th-Century France, Samuel A. Schuman

Honors Papers

My thesis examines the fluid boundaries between French historical and literary writing in the 19th century, and the shifts in “historical consciousness” that occurred in both fields as the century progressed. I examine three exemplary French writers—Jules Michelet, a historian, and Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola, both novelists—considering each primarily as a historical thinker, regardless of whether they considered themselves to be one. I argue that as the 19th century progressed, the broad shift in French institutions towards positivist epistemological and explanatory frameworks was reflected in literature, as well as in history. Both disciplines, one increasingly academic and one …

Mad: Conservative Mothers And The Political Transformation Of The 1970s In Detroit, Michigan, William A. Taylor

Honors Papers

In 1972, a group of thirteen white mothers founded an educational research organization that would become the Mothers Alert Detroit (MAD). Although primarily known for its role in Detroit's anti-busing movement, MAD was involved in a series of local disputes in the Detroit Public Schools. Through its tenure in the 1970s, MAD opposed efforts to desegregate the public schools, implement sex education courses, reform school textbooks, and increase the mill levy to fund the school system.

I argue that the local political activism of MAD was informed by a conservative gender ideology. Mothers comprised the organization’s leadership and rank-and-file. These …

Killing Time: Historical Narrative And The Black Death In Western Europe, Kira Zimmerman

Honors Papers

Echo epidemics would sweep through Europe well into the eighteenth century, yet none would parallel the terror and drama particular to the Black Death (1348-1351), nor would they inflict as violent an injury upon paradigms of historical writing. This thesis explores and evaluates how the Black Death affected medieval historical narrative.

Love And Refusal: Contrasting Dialectical Interpretations And Its Implications In The Works Of Erich Fromm And Herbert Marcuse, 1941-1969, Cole Mantell

Honors Papers

This thesis is an intellectual history of dialecticism and its use in the works of the Frankfurt School members, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse. Famously, these two men had a ferocious and polemical debate in the pages of Dissent Magazine in 1955-56. The Fromm-Marcuse Debate has since become almost the sole lens in which the intellectual differences and similarities between these men are analyzed. Through a comparative and historical analysis of their individual work, largely removed from the Dissent Debate, I offer a new interpretation of their conflict, their personal relationship, and a new perspective on critical theory and its …

I Love Lucy, That Girl, And Changing Gender Norms On And Off Screen, Emilia Anne De Leo

Honors Papers

Women on television of the 1950’s and 1960’s have a contested place in American television history. The common belief that women in postwar TV adhered to and promoted strict sexist stereotypes is pervasive, but there has been some debate as to how accurate this generalization is. This paper examines the roles women played on television through a close analysis of two shows, I Love Lucy (1951-7) and That Girl (1966-71). These two shows demonstrate women’s general places during the decades in which they aired, with Lucy Ricardo representing the housewife of the 1950’s and Ann Marie representing the increasingly popular …

The Flying Tigers: Transnational Memories Of A World War Ii Collaboration, Kaho Yasuda

Honors Papers

In 1941, under the leadership of General Claire Lee Chennault, the Flying Tigers- a volunteer group of fighter pilots and crewmen from the United States- traveled to Southwestern China to support the Chinese Nationalist military in their resistance against the Japanese. How do the United States and China remember the Flying Tigers, and how is the memory shaped by domestic and international politics? Drawing from media coverage, museums, popular media, and memoirs, this thesis traces the evolution of the memories of the Flying Tigers in the U.S. and China from 1941 to the present. I argue that from the war …

"The Fountain Pen And The Typewriter": The Rise Of The Homophile Press In The 1950s And 1960s, Elizabeth A. Coretto

Honors Papers

In this thesis, the author examines the role that queer-published periodicals played in the homophile era of American queer activism, roughly 1950-mid 1960s. The author argues that these periodicals operated at the intersection of identity creation, community formation, and activism. The queer press operated as a forum in which queer people could discuss what it meant to be homosexual, bisexual, lesbian, etc., and solidify an understanding of what queerness entails, leading to a more concrete definition of queerness. The creation of a queer identity based on a shared history and experiences allowed for the rise of a community based around …

Anti-Semitism And The Early Printing Press: A Study Of The Effect Of The Printing Press On Jewish Expulsions In Germany, 1450-1520, Amy O'Callaghan

Honors Papers

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire saw a dramatic escalation in anti-Semitism that paved the way for one of the largest waves of Jewish expulsions in medieval history. The Jews were expelled from Endingen in 1470, Mainz in 1473, and following the case of Simon of Trent, the Trent Jews were banished in 1475 and the Jews of Pass au in 1479; by the end of the fifteenth century Mecklenburg, Magdeburg, Salzburg and Nuremberg had also succeeded in driving out their Jewish populations. This is only a sample of the cities that lost their Jewish …

History Of Jews At Oberlin College: A Mirror Of Change, Andrea R. Meyer

Honors Papers

In searching for the first Jewish student at Oberlin College, I discovered and subsequently researched the life of, 1920 graduate Marion Benjamin Roth who started the Oberlin branch of the Menorah Society, a Jewish literary and cultural group. Mrs. Roth, whom I interviewed, started the group because she was concerned about the environment for Jewish students. In letters to Rabbi Wolsey in Cleveland she discussed her perceptions of life for Jewish students at Oberlin soon after her arrival.

Marion Benjamin later reflected that Jewish students needed to have "some place that they could get together if they wanted; to discuss …

Oberlin College And World War I, Todd Isao Endo

Honors Papers

Now trying to recover a short part of the past life of Oberlin, I have relied heavily upon The Oberlin Review for factual data and insight into the atmosphere of the times. By spot-checking the other town newspapers, The Oberlin Tribune and The Oberlin News with The Review, I concluded that the review is a reasonably reliable source.

To help construct the skeletal chronology of events I turned two other periodicals besides The Review. These included the Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer, The Oberlin College Alumni Magazine, and The Oberlin College Bulletin. These contained such valuable information as …

The Bicycle In America To 1900, William Herbert Mariboe

Honors Papers

The trend in American History in recent years has been to put a much-needed emphasis on the social history of the American people. Studies have been made of their habits, customs, reform movements, economic problems--in short, anything that informs us of the way our ancestors lived and behaved has become history. With this new interest in social habits, history has ceased to be the chronicle of a series of revolutions, treaties. elections, and wars. It has become a living, breathing story of the rise and development of America and the people who inhabited it. This change is not meant to …