History Commons^™

Believing In God And The Youthful Manhood Of Our Time: Gender, Race, Empire And The Making Of Irish Nationalism 1860-1882, Patrick M. Bethel

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study examines the creation and development of Irish Nationalisms in the post-Famine period, focusing on the period 1860-1882 in the Irish counties of Mayo, Sligo, and Roscommon. In this study I argue that that Irish nationalists and British imperialists held remarkably similar views about the ambiguous racial status of the Irish, and in an effort to ameliorate those concerns, nationalists sought to impose standards of behavior derived from the colonial metropole, furthering the efforts of that same metropole to destroy indigenous ways of life. While Ireland was in this period a part of the United Kingdom, the Irish population …

Born In Defiance: The Public Career Of Virgil C. Blum, S.J., William M. Fliss

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study examines the life of the American Jesuit priest, political scientist, and political activist Virgil C. Blum (1913-1990). Blum was a leading Catholic advocate for public funding for children attending non-public schools, expressed most clearly through his writings and his leadership in Citizens for Educational Freedom (CEF), a parental lobby founded in 1958. In 1973 Blum founded the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Modeled on the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the Catholic League opposed what it saw as an entrenched anti-Catholicism in U.S. society, and it sought to protect the religious freedom of the nation’s Catholic …

'Our Duty Is To Furnish Such Education:' Black Children And Schooling In Baltimore City, 1828 - 1900, Lisa Rose Lamson

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation focuses on the ways Baltimore City’s public school system developed in the nineteenth century as it was shaped by Black Baltimorean’s expectations of their children’s schooling. From the beginning of the city’s public school system, established in 1828, Black Baltimoreans advocated for their children’s futures by demanding access to universal, state sponsored education. Black Baltimoreans declared that children had a right to an education that was in sufficient buildings, had appropriate graded curricular choices that would benefit their futures, and were taught by black teachers or those “in sympathy” with them. This dissertation argues that for Black Baltimoreans, …

"The Colored Problem:" Milwaukee's White Protestant Churches Respond To The Second Great Migration, Peter Borg

Dissertations (1934 -)

In 1963 Dr. King observed that America was most segregated on Sunday mornings when its churches were filled with worshippers. My dissertation investigates the response of Milwaukee’s white urban Protestant churches to the Second Great Migration, which led to tremendous growth in the city’s African American population. The difficulty caused by many white members living in the suburbs while still attending church in racially transitioning city neighborhoods was compounded in some cases by the negative influence exerted by denominational history and polity. While those realities were often far more significant than theology in determining how individual congregations reacted to the …

"The Age Demands It": Progressivism In Zion City, Illinois, A Conservative Protestant Theocracy, Gayle A. Kiszely

Dissertations (1934 -)

Historians have periodized the last decade of the nineteenth and first two decades of the twentieth centuries as the Progressive Era.The Era is characterized by booming industrialization, unregulated corporate capitalism, rapid urbanization, and immigration from countries other than northern Europe. These developments unleashed an explosion of reforms intended to solve the social problems that emanated from these unsettling developments. Reformers beseeched the courts and state and national legislatures to regulate banks and big businesses. Urban reformers and liberal religious leaders established settlement houses to uplift immigrants morally and socially. Other reformers espoused religious or secular communitarian philosophies to dignify labor, …

Transmitting Revolution: Radio, Rumor, And The 1953 East German Uprising, Michael Palmer Pulido

Dissertations (1934 -)

This project examines public opinion in the Dresden Region of the German Democratic Republic from the end of World War II through the summer of 1953. I argue that the Socialist Unity Party (SED) projected its legitimacy through an official public sphere by representing publicness to its citizenry. Through banners, the press, and choreographed public demonstrations, it aimed to create the appearance of popular support. Even more significantly, the SED used radio to ground its legitimacy in a burgeoning post-war internationalism that bound residents of the GDR in an imagined community of socialist nations under Stalin’s leadership. At the same …

Long Journeys To A Middle Ground: Indians, Catholics, And The Origins Of A New Deal In Montana And Idaho, 1855-1945, Aaron David Hyams

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study focuses on the experiences of individuals and families, on the Blackfeet, Flathead, and Nez Perce reservations of Montana and Idaho, who converted to Catholicism, adapted to agricultural living, accepted American education, and otherwise sought to find their places in a rapidly changing world. At the same time, this project follows local Catholic leaders from the missions and surrounding parishes who struggled with their contradictory roles as shepherds of their native flocks and agents of colonialism. I argue that Indians and Catholics on the reservations carved out often overlapping communities and identities as they negotiated the changes introduced by …

Gendering Scientific Discourse From 1790-1830: Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Beddoes, Maria Edgeworth, And Jane Marcet, Bridget E. Kapler

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation project operates on the belief that the democratic, everyday pursuits of science were at least as significant scientifically, and perhaps even more important culturally, as the elite, highly speculative work done by the gentlemen scientists of the Romantic Age (1790-1830). It focuses upon the literary works, careers, and discourse of Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Beddoes, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Marcet, tracing the role that gender played in assigning recognition and authority in the scientific community. Operating in a public sphere that favored the scientific discoveries of male gentlemen scientists, boundary crossing had to occur decisively, but quietly through a …

"The Property Of The Nation": Democracy And The Memory Of George Washington, 1799-1865, Matthew Ryan Costello

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores how Americans personally experienced George Washington’s legacy in the nineteenth century through visits to his estate and tomb at Mount Vernon. By the 1820s many Americans had conflicting memories of the American Revolution and its most iconic figure, George Washington. As America grew more divided, so too did the memory of Washington. On multiple occasions, government factions and organizations attempted to claim his remains for political reasons. At the same time, Americans and foreign travelers journeyed to Mount Vernon to experience his tomb and forge a deeper personal connection with the man. These visitors collected objects such …

"Breaking Up, And Moving Westward": The Search For Identity In Post-Colonial America, 1787-1828, Bethany Harding

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation approaches the early national United States as a post-colonial state, and draws new connections between the country’s westward development and Americans’ ability to detach from their colonial past. At the conclusion of the American Revolution in 1783, the new United States became the first nation built on the ruins of a British colonial foundation; its citizens faced the colossal task of forging an independent national consciousness without being able to draw clear racial or ethnic lines of distinction between themselves and the former mother country. White Americans of the founding generation occupied a unique and tenuous position: in …

In Harm's Way: Wisconsin Workers And Disability From The Gilded Age To The Great Depression, Karalee Donna Surface

Dissertations (1934 -)

During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the American workplace proved especially dangerous to its workers’ lives and limbs. The introduction of mass-production, coupled with a lack of safeguards on mechanized equipment and a dearth of workplace safety or sanitation regulations, ensured that an ever-growing number of workers were maimed or killed. Wisconsin legislators initially sought to remedy the issue of workplace violence by issuing a series of safety laws in the late 1870s and early 1880s. This, however, failed to stem the number of accident victims. Furthermore, the common law liability system through which injured workers could seek restitution from …

Illuminating The Irish Free State: Nationalism, National Identity, And The Promotion Of The Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme, Mckayla Kay Sutton

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation focuses on the ways in which the Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme influenced perceptions of Irishness in the fraught context of postcolonial nation building. The Irish Free State, established by a treaty with Great Britain in 1921, faced the difficult task of maintaining order and establishing stable institutions for the new state. One of the government's most audacious efforts to achieve these objectives was to construct the largest hydroelectric dam in the world on the River Shannon in 1925 with the help of German contractors from Siemens-Schuckert. The first half of the dissertation deals with several ideological issues brought to …

Big Men On Campus: Administrative Response To Title Ix And The Development Of Women's Sports In The Big Ten Conference, 1972-1982, Jeffrey T. Ramsey

Dissertations (1934 -)

Signed into law in 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments was designed to eliminate gender discrimination throughout the American educational system. Title IX applied to all educational programs at any level of schooling including admissions, financial aid, academic programs, and social organizations. However, Title IX has primarily been associated with college sports. Since 1972, female participation in intercollegiate athletics has increased dramatically. Yet additional opportunities for

women in sports have not come easily. Significant battles between university leaders and the government about how this piece of legislation was to be enforced have persisted throughout the decades since passage of …

Imperially-Minded Britons: A Study Of The Public Discourse On Britain’S Imperial Presence In The Cape-To- Cairo Corridor, Military Reform, And The Issue Of National And Provincial Identity, 1870-1900, Timothy Ramer Lay

Dissertations (1934 -)

The Victorian era was marked by the incremental expansion of the British Empire. Such developments were not only of enormous importance for government officials and the contributors of that expansion, but for the broader general public as well, as evidenced by the coverage and discussion of such developments in the Cape to Cairo corridor in the national and provincial presses between 1870 and 1900. Transcending the discussions surrounding the politics of interventionism, the public’s interest in imperial activities— such as the annexation of the Transvaal, the First Anglo-Boer War, the Zulu War, Gordon’s mission into the Sudan, the Jameson raid …

Brides, Department Stores, Westerns, And Scrapbooks--The Everyday Lives Of Teenage Girls In The 1940s, Carly Anger

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study establishes a more nuanced look at fictional teenage girls of the 1940s. With the beginning of World War II many teenage girls took on jobs that were left vacant by men. With these new jobs came the opportunity to gain financial independence. However, teenage girls, along with their mothers, were expected to leave their jobs once soldiers returned from war. Thus, there was a gap between the actual experiences of teenage girls and what they were expected to be--Rosie the Riveters who were willing to become housewives at the end of the war.

This gap between actual experiences …

Urban Rifts And Religious Reciprocity: Chicago And The Catholic Church, 1965-1996, Dominic E. Faraone

Dissertations (1934 -)

From the late 1960s onward, a sequence of unusually transformative, combustible, and sometimes alarming urban phenomena beset the city of Chicago and bred considerable turmoil and uncertainty: post-industrial transition; street gang activity and unprecedented levels of interpersonal violence; the political ascendancy in 1983 of African American reform candidate Harold Washington to the mayor's seat; gay liberation; and AIDS. Each accentuated a host of social and/or spatial rifts--between the deteriorating city and comparatively thriving suburbs; the economically impoverished, culturally alienated, and frequently isolated inner city and the rest of Chicago; machine and reform politicians; Black lawmakers and White "ethnics"; sexual majorities …

Mass Consumption In Milwaukee: 1920-1970, Christopher Chan

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study focuses on mass consumption's role in the development of the city of Milwaukee. This study's main focus is on the mid-twentieth century, though this case study will look at mass consumption's role in Milwaukee from its founding to the present. Mass consumption focuses on the actions of buying and selling and how consumer options reflected the city's general development. After studying the composition of Milwaukee's population and income levels, the story of mass consumption in Milwaukee will be told through studying how automobiles and food were bought and sold, as well as how other assorted shopping venues affected …

Girls "In Trouble": A History Of Female Adolescent Sexuality In The Midwest, 1946-1964, Charissa Keup

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation attempts to show how Americans reacted to adolescent female sexuality, looking specifically at unwed school-age pregnancy in the post-World War Two decades. It documents the origins of the transition of the conversation about unwed teens from caring for them in maternity homes and boarding houses to discussing their problems on television shows and in popular magazines. Teenage sexual delinquency and pregnancy have always raised innumerable questions about American culture and values. Because they challenged the traditional concept of motherhood, they offer a lens through which to study American sexuality and reveal that an alternate 1950s existed beyond the …

A Place Under Heaven: Amerindian Torture And Cultural Violence In Colonial New France, 1609-1729, Adam Stueck

Dissertations (1934 -)

This doctoral dissertation is entitled, A Place Under Heaven: Amerindian Torture and Cultural Violence in Colonial New France, 1609-1730. It is an analysis of Amerindian customs of torture by fire, cannibalism, and other forms of cultural violence in New France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contemporary French writers and many modern historians have described Amerindian customs of torturing, burning, and eating of captives as either a means of military execution, part of an endless cycle of revenge and retribution, or simple blood lust. I argue that Amerindian torture had far more to do with the complex sequence of Amerindian …

Ontological Subordination In Novatian Of Rome's Theology Of The Son, Daniel Lloyd

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation evaluates Novatian of Rome's theology of the Son in his De Trinitate. It argues that Novatian presents the Son as ontologically subordinate to the Father, which is not a conclusion shared by a majority of recent scholars. This conclusion is reached by comparing Novatian's presentation of the Father's divinity with that of the Son. The first half of this work, therefore, demonstrates the manner by which Novatian affirms that the Father is transcendent, supreme, and unique in His attributes. Novatian employs a range of concepts and terms found in Christian and non-Christian sources. Specifically, I present and analyze …

Introducing The Incomparable Hildegarde: The Sexuality, Style, And Image Of A Forgotten Cultural Icon, Monica Gallamore

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study is an historical biography of the popular American entertainer from the nineteen-forties and fifties named Hildegarde. Known by her first name long before such designations became commonplace, Hildegarde achieved such celebrity status that she influenced women's fashions and promoted a number of consumer products. She even had her own signature Revlon lipstick and nail polish called "Hildegarde Rose." Hildegarde's career spanned for more than seventy years, beginning as a pianist for silent movies in Milwaukee and eventually becoming the darling of nightclubs and supper clubs. Unfortunately, few people remember this entertainer or her influence. She has been overlooked …

Irish-American Identity, Memory, And Americanism During The Eras Of The Civil War And First World War, John French

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation connects the well-documented history of the repression of wartime dissent in the United States with the complex relationship between Americans and immigrants. The study focuses specifically on Irish-American efforts to insulate themselves from accusations of unpatriotic and un-American attitudes and behaviors by highlighting their uniquely American contributions and principles. The Civil War and First World War eras provide ideal time frames for such an evaluation. Marked by xenophobia and institutionalized nativism, each era found many Americans and government officials accusing the American Irish of disloyalty because of their opposition to the prosecution of the war. In order to …

A Want Of News In An Occupied Zone: Newspaper Content In Occupied Lille, Roubaix, And Tourcoing, Candice Addie Quinn

Dissertations (1934 -)

The purpose of this dissertation is to ascertain exactly what news people in the occupied zone of France received during the First World War, in an attempt to assess the general assumption that the people of occupied France received little to no news. It is certain that the people in the occupied cities of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing received less news than before the occupation, and most of the news they did receive came from an untrusted source, namely the German occupiers. However, research for this dissertation reveals that the cities at the urban heart of northern France, Lille, Roubaix, …

Lack Of Oversight: The Relationship Between Congress And The Fbi, 1907-1975, Aaron Stockham

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study fills a hole left in research about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While previous authors have examined the Bureau's relationship to the executive branch, especially under its long-time Director, J. Edgar Hoover, comparatively little has been written about the Bureau's relationship with the United States Congress. Using their investigatory and appropriations powers, members of Congress could have maintained stringent oversight of Bureau officials' activities. Instead, members of Congress either deferred to the executive branch, especially presidents and attorneys general, or developed close relationships with Bureau officials based on a shared politics, mainly anti-communism during the Cold War. Examining …

Gender And Crime, 1815-1834, Julie C. Tatlock

Dissertations (1934 -)

The years between 1815 and 1834 marked a transition from the Age of Napoleon to the Age of Victoria. England experienced a period of civil strife and economic fluctuations. London was in the midst of industrialization and urban growth. These changes affected all classes of society and their effects impacted views of crime and justice. This study focuses on the Old Bailey, London's central court. Its intent is to look at this age of transition through the microcosm of criminal trials with a view toward gauging contemporary opinions on the nature of crime and assessing the impact of economic fluctuations …

Joseph Smith's Doctrine Of The Holy Spirit Contrasted With Cartwright, Campbell, Hodge, And Finney, Lynne Wilson

Dissertations (1934 -)

The dissertation is an historical–critical examination of Joseph Smith’s (1805–1844) sermons and writings from 1830 to 1844 to determine the scope of his doctrine on the Holy Ghost. Many biographers dismiss Joseph Smith as a product of his environment. Superficially, his thoughts on the Holy Ghost appear to fall within the mainstream of the enthusiastic outbursts of the Second Great Awakening, but a closer look shows that they are an abrupt and radical departure from the pneumatology of his day. To clarify the unique parameters of Smith’s pneumatology, it is necessary to place Smith’s views in a historical context by …

"Justice Without Partiality": Women And The Law In Colonial Maryland, 1648-1715, Monica C. Witkowski

Dissertations (1934 -)

What was the legal status of women in early colonial Maryland? This is the central question answered by this dissertation. Women, as exemplified through a series of case studies, understood the law and interacted with the nascent Maryland legal system. Each of the cases in the following chapters is slightly different. Each case examined in this dissertation illustrates how much independent legal agency women in the colony demonstrated.

Throughout the seventeenth century, Maryland women appeared before the colony's Provincial and county courts as witnesses, plaintiffs, defendants, and attorneys in criminal and civil trials. Women further entered their personal cattle marks, …

Strategic Air Warfare And Nuclear Strategy: The Formulation Of Military Policy In The Truman Administration, 1945-1950, Patrick William Steele

Dissertations (1934 -)

This work analyzes the military decision making within the Truman administration that culminated in the purchases of aircraft and the establishment of a virtual nuclear only strategy. When Harry S. Truman became President in April 1945, the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) was in the formative stage of a firebombing campaign that attempted to burn the Japanese out of the war by targeting the civilian population. Four months later, the use of nuclear bombs ushered in the atomic age and completely altered the military and political decision-making processes within the administration. Despite evidence to the contrary about the efficacy …

"Irish Blood, English Heart": Gender, Modernity, And "Third Way" Republicanism In The Formation Of The Irish Republic, Kenneth Lee Shonk, Jr.

Dissertations (1934 -)

Led by noted Irish statesman Eamon de Valera, a cadre of former members of the militaristic republican organization Sinn Féin split to form Fianna Fáil with the intent to reconstitute Irish republicanism so as to fit within the democratic frameworks of the Irish Free State. Beginning with its formation in 1926, up through the passage of a republican constitution in 1937 that was recognized by Great Britain the following year, Fianna Fáil had successfully rescued the seemingly moribund republican movement from complete marginalization. Using gendered language to forge a nexus between primordial cultural nationalism and modernity, Fianna Fáil's nationalist project …

A Window Into Their Lives: The Women Of The Faubourg Saint-Antoine, 1725-1765, Julie Elizabeth Leonard

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study is an examination of laboring class women of Paris during the early eighteenth century. These women did not leave written records of their lives, so information about them comes from legal and judicial records, specifically the papers of the commissaires de police and the records of criminal cases that went before the Châtelet, one of the royal courts of Paris. By examining the challenges and conflicts that individual women faced, we can better understand how laboring-class women of eighteenth-century Paris successfully navigated the legal and customary restrictions that were part of the patriarchal system under which they lived. …