History Commons^™

Ladylike: The Necessity And Neglect Of Camp Followers In The Continental Army, Emma Ward

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The contributions of female camp followers to the Continental Army are often overlooked in the study of the American Revolution. The lower-class women who followed the army performed services absolutely necessary for its operation and created a vital support network for the fledgling army that could not care for its own needs. Camp followers were therefore integral to the success of the American Revolution, but they rarely receive due credit for their contributions because they acted outside the bounds of eighteenth-century feminine values.

The intent for this thesis is to pull camp followers out of the footnotes of history and …

Maiden, Martyr, Sinner, And Saint: Performing The Narratives Of Joan Of Arc, Emma Cox

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This Capstone Experience/Thesis Project, made possible through the WKU Mahurin Honors College, is a study of historiography, or the way history is written. Joan of Arc is used to explore historiography because she is a figure that is written in many ways, each version giving us a snippet of the whole picture. The show written based on my research is titled Jehanne. I wanted to tell Joan’s story, but not just one version of it; I wanted to tell the whole story of who she is, not just what she did or what she believed. Not only does Jehanne …

From The Volga To The Mississippi: African Americans And The Soviet Experiment, Daniel Candee

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis investigates the role of African American Communists in the struggle for Black liberation during the interwar period. Making a vital intervention into the field, this work attempts to debunk the harmful Cold-War stereotype of African American Communists as “puppets of Moscow” while simultaneously engaging critically with the relationship between Black liberation and international Communism. Drawing on a vast array of secondary and archival sources, this work charts a course between a vision of the Comintern as an avenging anti-colonial angel, and a cynical force disinterested in Black Liberation.

Tracing the developing relationship between Black intellectuals and the Comintern …

Centralizing The Purse: Why A More Centralized National Government Was Crucial For Managing America's Revolutionary War Debt, Ethan Berg

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Research on the American Revolutionary debt has particularly focused on the leadership of American financial figures: most notably Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris and U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. While scholars affirm their indispensable leadership, they also acknowledge institutional and political conditions that distinguish their tenures. This CE/T seeks to further analyze these conditions. It draws upon scholarly works while evaluating different aspects and time frames of Americas’ public debt, including the initial accumulation of debt, the tenure of Robert Morris, the formation of the U.S. Constitution, and the tenure of Alexander Hamilton. The CE/T also analyzes the papers of …