History Commons^™

Conducting Oral History: Background And Methods, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter-length essay describes the practice of oral history through real world examples: the steps to conducting oral history interviews, things to consider when developing a project or an interview plan, and ethical considerations. How oral history has enlarged the historical record and changed scholarly interpretation of the past are highlighted.

Menstruation Products And Perceptions: Breaking Through The Crimson Ceiling, Ava Colleran

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines different views on menstruation throughout history and their effects on social, political, and economic landscapes. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Mayans all believed in the supposed ‘magical powers’ of menstrual blood. These societies held their own ideas on the limits of these magical abilities, and the good and evil forces they could be used for. Throughout these ancient societies, menstruation was used as a justification for the increased control of the state and men over women’s bodies. If menstrual blood did have these magical powers, it was a power that needed to be limited and controlled so …

Public History Is Now, Sarah E. Dougher

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

A walking tour of downtown Portland in August 2021 raises questions for the writer about the purpose of “memory activism,” its relation to writing-as-activism. Drawing on critiques of urbanist Jane Jacobs and interrogating the concept of “reckoning,” the essay explores ways in which the streetscape and people there can deliver meaning and pose questions about systemic racism and unsheltered existence.

Stumptown On Strike With Garrett Palmer, Garrett Palmer

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Garrett Palmer (History, '22) discusses the 1934 Portland Waterfront Strike. The strike has largely been portrayed as "static", where striking workers clashed with the establishment at the hiring halls and the docks of Portland. While that is correct, it is a bit simplistic; we can glean more from the event by considering how urban space, the relationship between metropole and hinterlands, and the role of unconventional groups played roles in the strike. That line of inquiry ultimately showcases that this event was anything but static, as groups like church parishes, the Communist Party, sex workers, …

Blacks In Oregon, Darrell Millner

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Periodically, newspaper or magazine articles appear proclaiming amazement at how white the population of Oregon and the City of Portland is compared to other parts of the country. It is not possible to argue with the figures—in 2017, there were an estimated 91,000 Blacks in Oregon, about 2 percent of the population—but it is a profound mistake to think that these stories and statistics tell the story of the state's racial past. In fact, issues of race and the status and circumstances of Black life in Oregon are central to understanding the history of the state, and perhaps its future …

The Spies That Founded America: How The War For Independence Revolutionized American Espionage, Masaki Lew

Young Historians Conference

Prior to the American Revolutionary War (1775-1883), tensions rose as American colonial smugglers circumvented British taxes. By the onset of the conflict, Continental General George Washington faced a daunting British military invasion. Washington's strategy to outmaneuver and tire enemy forces necessitated a way to anticipate incoming attacks. Thus, he looked to espionage, but found few colonists with professional experience. So who would have the deceptive skills to fulfill the task? An exploration of Washington’s dilemma provides compelling evidence explaining how the colonial smugglers who started the war became the Patriot spies who ended it.

Social, Scientific, Litigious: The Birth Of A Queer Americanism, Claire M. Fennell

Young Historians Conference

The queer rights movement is often assumed to have advanced because of the collateral benefit of other social rights movements occurring around the same time, in the 1950s and 60s. However, the inception of an organized queer rights movement did not happen in line with any progressive time in United States public thought. In reality, the movement began at a time when America was at its least forward-thinking, during the Cold War. It was not the times becoming more progressive, but rather the shift in the model of oppression the queer community faced which allowed for the advent of an …

You Don’T Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows: The Prison Break Of Timothy Leary, Phoebe N. Holman

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines the revolutionary merit of the Weather Underground Organization’s prison break of LSD guru Timothy Leary. Was Leary truly an activist willing to risk everything to introduce the public to the healing powers of psychedelics? Or was he an unprofessional mad scientist using his students to further his own agenda? It also provides an explanation of how the WUO and other anti-war organizations like it brought the United States to the brink of a massive societal shift—and then disappeared.

Music And Race In The American West, William Steven Schneider

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the complexities of race relations in the nineteenth century American West. The groups considered here are African Americans, Anglo Americans, Chinese, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans. In recent decades historians of the West have begun to tell the narratives of racial minorities. This study adopts the aims of these scholars through a new lens--music. Ultimately, this thesis argues that historians can use music, both individual songs and broader conceptions about music, to understand the complex and contradictory race relations of the nineteenth century west.

Proceeding thematically, the first chapter explores the ways Anglo Americans used music to …

Using “Evil” To Combat “Evil”: The Regulation Of Prostitution In Renaissance Florence, Lilah F. Abrams

Young Historians Conference

In accordance with the general opinions towards women at the time, the establishment of the Office of Decency (known as the Onestá) in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance served to dehumanize the women participating in the profession. While many argue that the Florentine Onestá was established to preserve the city’s image, the ultimate intention of the ordinances was to use women as tools to regulate male behavior. Drawing on the remaining ordinances established by the Onestá as primary source material, this paper identifies the utilization of prostitutes to restrict the defiling of “virtuous” women by men through regulations on attire …

Breaking The Mold: Joan Of Arc's Unyielding Individuality, Sierra Ha

Young Historians Conference

During the Hundred Years’ War, Joan of Arc became known for her unusual dress, piety, and leadership. While these aspects of Joan’s personality have been studied independently by historians, through a comprehensive study of these characteristics, it becomes clear that Joan stood out from her peers because of the strict obstinacy with which she maintained her unique lifestyle. Her mannerisms caught the attention of her English rivals and even the French, whom she fought to protect. Because of the individualistic ways in which she dressed, exercised her faith, and guided others that broke social expectations and the unyielding persistence with …

Lesbians In The Middle Ages: Bietris De Romans, Maggie A. Benware

Young Historians Conference

Sexuality, particularly homosexuality, in the Middle Ages was heavily enshrouded by a culture saturated in religious values. Coupled with a lack of voice of women in this time, it is no wonder that evidence of lesbians is sparse. In lieu of this, historian Judith M. Bennett has offered the classification of a “lesbian-like” woman. This paper not only supports her assertion, but also offers the example of author Bietris de Romans as a “lesbian-like” woman.

Teaching Australian Literature In A Class About Literatures Of Social Reform, Per Henningsgaard

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article presents an intriguing thesis about proximity and identification, distance and empathy based on the experience of teaching Sally Morgan’s My Place to American university students alongside Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a class examining literature as an agent of social change. Indeed, its response to the question, “How does the Australian production of My Place influence its American reception?” will surprise many people. Students more readily demonstrate empathy with characters and are prepared to ascribe their unenviable life circumstances to social structures that propagate oppression when reading literature about cultural groups …

The Consolidation Of The Consociational Democracy In Lebanon: The Challenges To Democracy In Lebanon, Micheline Germanos Ghattas

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation looks at democracy in Lebanon, a country that has a pluralistic society with many societal cleavages. The subject of this study is the consolidation of democracy in Lebanon, described by Arend Lijphart as a "consociational democracy". The research question and sub-question posed are:

1- How consolidated is democracy in Lebanon?

2- What are the challenges facing the consolidation of democracy in Lebanon?

The preamble of the 1926 Lebanese Constitution declares the country to be a parliamentary democratic republic. The political regime is a democracy, but one that is not built on the rule of the majority in numbers, …

Rural Revolution: Documenting The Lesbian Land Communities Of Southern Oregon, Heather Jo Burmeister

Dissertations and Theses

Out of the politically charged atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s emerged a migration to "the land" and communes, which popularly became known as the back-to-the-land movement. This migration occurred throughout the United States, as well as many other countries, and included clusters of land based communities in southern Oregon. Within these clusters, lesbian feminist women created lesbian separatist lands and communes. These women were well educated, and politically active in movements such as the New Left, Civil Rights, Women's Liberation, and Gay Liberation. These lands or communes functioned together as a community network that developed and commodified lesbian art, …

Holism And Human History, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

This paper uses a systems-theoretic model to structure an account of human history. According to the model, a process, after its beginning and early development, often reaches a critical stage where it encounters some limitation. If the limitation is overcome, development does not face a comparable challenge until a second critical juncture is reached, where obstacles to further advance are more severe. At the first juncture, continued development requires some complexity-managing innovation; at the second, it needs some event of systemic integration in which the old organizing principle of the process is replaced by a new principle. Overcoming the first …

Radicalism In American Political Thought : Black Power, The Black Panthers, And The American Creed, Christopher Thomas Cooney

Dissertations and Theses

American Political Thought has presented somewhat of a challenge to many because of the conflict between the ideals found within the "American Creed" and the reality of America's treatment of ethnic and social minorities. The various forms of marginalization and oppression facing women, blacks, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans have been as much a part of the story of America as have been natural rights and the Constitution.

Taking this into account, this thesis is an effort to argue that the radicalism on display in the Black Panther Party, a group that emerged in the turmoil of the 1960' s, was …

A Cycle Of Crisis And Violence : The Oregon State Penitentiary, 1866-1968, Joseph Willard Laythe

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines seven crises at the Oregon State Penitentiary between 1866 and 1968 which are symptomatic of a larger pathology of power at play at the institution. These prison crises brought the pathology of power out from behind the thick grey walls of the institution and to the eyes and ears of an uninformed public. This arousal of such attention forced the prison to re-evaluate its penal model, enact half-hearted reforms, but then resume to the institution's traditional pattern and style of punishment. This inability to address the crises or resolve the immediate problem points to a larger problem--namely …

Richard Whately's Theory Of Argument And Its Influence On The Homiletic Theory And Practice Of John Albert Broadus, Robert Allan Vogel

Dissertations and Theses

In his Treatise On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, the Southern Baptist preacher and educator of the latter nineteenth century, John A. Broadus, acknowledged the influence of classical and contemporary theorists upon his work. Among those named, particularly with regard to notions of argument, was Richard Whately, the Anglican Archbishop and rhetorical theorist of the early nineteenth century. The research task involved in this thesis was to determine whether and to what extent Whately's theory of argument was employed in Broadus's homiletic theory and practice.

The writer gathered his data using methods of documentary research. Most of the sources …

The Mobilization Of The Gay Liberation Movement, Ramom De Souza Torrecilha

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the development and evolution of the gay movement. It raises the questions as to why the gay movement was not organized prior to the 1960's. The study starts in the 1940's and ends in 1970. It employs qualitative research methods for the collection and analysis of primary and secondary data sources. Blumer's description of general and specific social movements and Resource Mobilization Theory were used as theoretical frames of reference. The former explained the developmental stages in the career of the movement and the latter focused on the behavior of movement organizations.

Fort Ross, Russian Colony In California, 1811-1841, Kathryn E. Mitchell

Dissertations and Theses

The essential objective of this study was to fill a bibliographic void of secondary source material concerning Russian California. This was accomplished by combining available translations and more specific studies on the subject into one extensive work. Introductory chapters provide: (1) a brief statement regarding Russia's massive eastward expansion through Siberia, to Kamchatka and Alaska; (2) an examination of the nature of the Russian-American Company; and (3) a detailed look at the programs instituted by the Company to provision Alaska and Kamchatka. The establishment of Fort Ross in 1811 is viewed as one of those programs. The settlement's primary function …

The German-Oregonians, 1850-1918, Roberta Lee Schmalenberger

Dissertations and Theses

To a large extent this study is demographic. In order to arrive at descriptive statements, statistics regarding the German-born, native-born and foreign-born in the census reports from 1850 to 1910 were compared. Where appropriate, secondary history sources were utilized in order to relate the statistical observations to the historical events of which they were a part. This method if inquiry identified the German-Oregonians according to general trends and attitude.s. Immigrant memoirs and self-expressions added a more personal dimension to the statistical observations.

The French Connection In Early Oregon, Gregory Charles Rathbone

Dissertations and Theses

Many French-speaking people came to the Pacific Northwest. Although most came from Quebec, some traveled from as far away as France, Belgium and Switzerland. When they arrived in Oregon Territory, a juxtaposition of three cultures merged to form a unique French-speaking community governed by a dominant Western Anglo-American character and a living Indian culture for daily subsistence. Most importantly, the French brought their own traditions from Quebec and France. Also, French individuality became altered upon their arrival and through their necessity to adapt to the strange, unknown wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Some changes came through the need for convenience, …

A Comparative Study Of The Resettlement Status Of Indochinese Refugees In Portland, Rosalynn R. Ringor, Chareundi Van-Si, Steven Hernandez

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to explore the resettlement of Indochinese refugees to their new life in Portland, Oregon. Three basic areas were under consideration. The first area dealt with demographic data: who are the refugees and what are their pasts? The second area focused on aspects of successful resettlement: what do refugees seek in order to consider themselves successfully resettled, and how do their ideas of successful resettlement collate with their present state of resettlement? The third area dealt with the effectiveness of resettlement programs: how have various assistance programs been helpful to the refugees, and are the refugees aware of …

The Transition To Nazism, The History Of The German Town Of Pfungstadt, 1928 To 1935, David E. Arns

Dissertations and Theses

Pfungstadt is a small German town which to date has not earned a footnote in the histories of either the Weimar Republic or the Third Reich. Based upon the efforts of men in towns like Pfungstadt (and towns which were not like Pfungstadt) the members of the Nazi party built a political structure which reached to the pinnacle upon which Adolf Hitler stood. Researching the growth of the Nazi party, the intense struggles that occurred with democratic forces, the seizure of power and the installation of a workable system of government is the problem. This thesis in no way purports …

"Address To Faculty And Students On The Black American", Nathan Hare

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

Recorded in the Old Main (Lincoln Hall) auditorium at Portland State.