History Commons^™

Stigma Cities: Dystopian Urban Identities In The United States West And South In The Twentieth Century, Jonathan Lavon Foster

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines how historical events and representation of those events relative to the wider historical context have allowed the media, opinion setters, and the ordinary public to use the names of San Francisco, California, Birmingham, Alabama and Las Vegas, Nevada as denigrating adjectives and the effect of this usage on those cities. Exploration of Birmingham’s image as a racist city, San Francisco’s as a gay Mecca, and Las Vegas, Nevada’s as an adult playground or sinful city serves this purpose. These case studies support a central argument that the nature of place-based stigmatization’s influence depends upon ever-shifting cultural values …

Self-Actualization In The Lives Of Medieval Female Mystics: An Ethnohistorical Approach, Cherel Jane Ellsworth Olive

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation explores the cultural and psychological factors that permitted six medieval female mystics to assume positions of leadership and innovation in a world marked by extreme gender inequality. Women religious have often been charged with being neurotics, hysterics, narcissists, and nymphomaniacs whereas males with similar experiences are rarely subject to the same degree of criticism. It is argued here that the women may well have been seeking to achieve the form of self-actualization described by humanist psychologist, Abraham Maslow, as a result of the "conversion" experience analyzed by William James. Furthermore, applying modern categories of mental illness to these …

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV participated in the 100% Design Concept Plan meeting, June 10-12, 2009 at the BLM Las Vegas Field Office and Walking Box Ranch (WBR), and provided comments toward proposed concepts for the museum and field, research, and training center at Walking Box Ranch.
• A request for funding for road construction and repair at WBR was submitted to NDOT (6/24/09).
• UNLV participated in the following meetings related to the search for renewable energy funding for the ranch: ARRA Implementation Workshop sponsored by Senator Reid (4/16); UNLV Stimulus Funding Workshop (4/17), Renewable energy meeting with UNLV engineering faculty (4/21), Harry Reid Center …

Documenting The American South, Tom D. Sommer

Library Faculty Publications

If you’re interested in researching the American South, then the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill has an extensive digital collection for you. Documenting the American South is a fascinating digital collection that is geared towards K–12 and college-level students and teachers. The collection provides its users a variety of sources ranging from texts, images, and other materials that originate from various libraries of the UNC. These materials provide a springboard into several aspects of the American South and the Tar Heel State.

Gray Zones Of Modern Genocide, Megan Dale Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Italian-Jewish chemist and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote in his work The Drowned and the Saved about the "Gray Zone," or holding place for all things difficult to categorize about his experiences in the Nazi camp Auschwitz. Because human tendency is to divide things in a rigid dichotomy, he argued, anything without a set role is brushed aside. I have extended this Gray Zone to include mutually shared situations from modern genocide including: the relationship of race/land to genocide, the "Forced Victim-Perpetrator" (victim forced to commit atrocities against his or her own people), and the complex international reaction to genocidal …

The Plunge Into Secession: The Presbyterian Schism Of The Reverends. Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell And Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Deborah Jane Rayner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Presbyterian Church had one of the largest pro-slavery clergy of any antebellum Protestant church. These men extracted verses and passages from the Bible to prove God sanctioned slavery. Many Southern Presbyterian ministers including Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer used the pulpit to defend slavery and advocate secession, collapsing political and religious boundaries. I focus on the 1855-1861 debates about slavery in the Presbyterian Church led by Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell, and Benjamin Morgan Palmer. I reorient the argument from the usual political and economic accounts of the antebellum secession discussions and build upon current …

'So Manie Gallant Gentlemen': Imperial Humanists And Tudor Imperial Identity, Karin Alana Amundsen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the intersection of imperialism, humanism and gender to argue that the Elizabethan period enabled imperial humanists to develop an identity for England as an empire of liberation rather than conquest. A subset of the imperial faction at Court, imperial humanists sought to reconcile activist and pragmatist agendas by marrying civic humanism with chivalry. Imperial humanists deployed this humanist chivalry--with an emphasis on temperance, wisdom, and justice--to elaborate a national mythos of pious restraint that denied avarice and oppression were inherent to extending English dominion overseas and envisioned empire as a virtuous pursuit for gentlemen. With increasing unemployment, …

"The Latent Enmity Of Georgia": Sherman's March And Its Effects On The Social Division Of Georgia, Michael Jason Spurr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In September 1864, Union General William T. Sherman's Savannah Campaign targeted the growing animosity between wealthy and poor Georgians when he proposed that Union forces "arouse the latent enmity of Georgia." This thesis continues the study of the March to the Sea by examining the effect of Sherman's campaign as it pertained to the social divisions between Georgians. Sherman's army alone did not ruin the state's ability to remain a vital contributor to the war effort, but rather focused upon the already growing social disputes between Georgians over economic contributions, military sacrifice, and political support. Even before Sherman's army arrived, …

Governor James G. Scrugham And The Search For Economic Prosperity For Nevada, 1923--1927, Paul Robert Bruno

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

James G. Scrugham, Nevada's 14 th governor, assumed office during the economic downturn of the early 1920s. The Comstock, and Tonopah - Goldfield mining boom days were in the past, and the new governor made development of a sustainable economic model for the state the top priority of his administration.

Governor Scrugham focused on education, irrigation, parks, and highways as vehicles for economic development, and significant accomplishments were made in all these areas during his term. The governor's initiatives, however, failed to immediately alter the state's economy away from agriculture and mining. The passage of the gambling and divorce bill …

New Yarmouth, Eastern Neck, Maryland: Resistance To Town Building From The Colonial Period To The Present, Brynn Torelli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The work presented in this thesis is an attempt to shed light on the early colonial development of Maryland's Eastern Shore and its possible relationship with current settlement patterns in the region, with particular interest in Kent County. Traditional interpretations of the lack of urban development on the Eastern Shore, both in the Colonial era and the present, have tended to focus on environmental and geographical factors. This research seeks to examine this trend toward rural living in newer and broader ways by incorporating human agency and investigating the possibility that the lack of town development during the Colonial era …

"The Varied Carols I Hear": The Music Of The New Deal In The West, Peter L. Gough

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Federal Music Project and subsequent WPA Music Programs served as components of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" efforts to combat the economic devastation precipitated by the Great Depression. Operating during the years 1936 to 1943, these programs that engaged unemployed musicians mirrored similar efforts of the Federal Theatre, Art and Writers' Projects. Though the Federal Music Project proved to be the largest of the cultural programs in terms of both employment and attendance, to date it has received the least attention from scholars. This dissertation demonstrates that, given the societal landscape of 1930s America, a regional perspective is …

Mining Wars: Corporate Expansion And Labor Violence In The Western Desert, 1876-1920, Kenneth Dale Underwood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation analyzes the class struggle in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Mexico and the western United States to illuminate the social transformation taking place in this trans-national region. The US and Mexico both underwent a significant metamorphosis in this era. The creation of a labor based working class and the displacement of occupational professionals from the upper class in many communities into an emerging middle class disrupted traditional social structures in both nations. This systematic social change, occurring nearly simultaneously in the US and Mexico, was complicated by the emerging system of monopoly capitalism, which led …

Shuttle To Serenity: The History And Impact Of Zion National Park's Transportation System, Reuben Edward Wadsworth

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Shuttle to Serenity focuses on the history of the Zion National Park transportation system's planning, construction and implementation process. It details the unfavorable conditions in pre-shuttle Zion and shows how the shuttle has drastically improved the visitor experience and park environment since operations began in May 2000. The thesis also chronicles the groundbreaking partnership between Springdale, the gateway community, and Zion National Park, which proved vital in the shuttle implementation process. Ultimately, Shuttle to Serenity demonstrates that public transportation systems in national parks align the NPS with its mandate to preserve the natural beauty of each park for the enjoyment …

Chinese Transnationalism And The Creation Of A Liberal Public Sphere, Lanelle Elizabeth Christman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis is a global comparative study tracing the functions and historical development of Chinese huiguan ["official organization"] and its leadership in China, Indochina, and San Francisco. Early Chinese immigration to America and Indochina involved the formation of huiguan, organizations based on dialect and native place, paralleling the functions and demography of merchant associations originating in China. The merchant elite representing its leadership were preeminent arbitrators of Chinese tradition and authority. French Indochina and America recognized their status as community leaders, further exalting the social standing of merchants and increasing their positions of authority. These organizations greatly influenced the lives …