History Commons^™

Irish Families In Portland, Oregon, 1850-1880 : An Immigrant Culture In The Far West, Michael Kazin

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an attempt to begin an examination of the social history of immigrant families in the cities of the West Coast. I chose to study Irish families in particular because they were the first group of migrants to come in large numbers to the United States from a primarily peasant culture, and because studies of Irish in the cities of the East have emphasized their resistance to assimilation into the dominant Anglicized Protestant society.

Labor Violence: The Centralia Case, The Iww And Its Enemies, Lawrence C. Skoog

Dissertations and Theses

Armistice Day 1919 was enthusiastically celebrated in Centralia, Washington. The Principle event of the day’s activities was a parade organized under the leadership of the newly formed American Legion. But the parade was to be more than the simple affirmation of the victory in France, it was to be a reaffirmation of the patriotism of the newly returned sailors and soldiers and their home-town supporters.

Centralia was a troubled city in 1919. Organized labor of the most militant and extreme sort was challenging the oligopoly of the lumber trust. The Industrial Workers of the World had been successful in their …

The Historical Imagination Of Francesco Petrarch: A Study Of Poetic Truth And Historical Distortion, Sally Scholz

Dissertations and Theses

In the continuing debate among historians over the nature, if not the actual existence, of the Italian Renaissance, the life of Francesco Petrarch has played a major role. Petrarch was an outspoken critic and commentator on the state of fourteenth-century society. His opinions have been cited by all scholars interested in the origins of the “Renaissance Mind.”

A Historiography Of The Elizabethan Poor Laws: Late Xixth And Xxth Century Historians, Susan C. Mcnaught

Dissertations and Theses

The Elizabethan poor laws stand as a great work from a dynamic period. How and why they were formulated have been questions which historians have asked for centuries. The discussions of these questions have varied, depending on the personal values and biases which each historian brought to this study. It is generally agreed that a very important function of the historian is interpretation. The study of history is not only a study of the events, but a study of the historians and their differing interpretations of those events.

In the past one hundred years, numerous historians have devoted themselves to …

Chicanos In Oregon: An Historical Overview, Richard Wayne Slatta

Dissertations and Theses

Spaniards were the first Europeans to explore the Pacific Northwest coastline, but the only evidence of these early visits is a sprinkling of Spanish place names commemorating the intrepid voyagers. The more than four centuries of recorded history since that time are nearly devoid, of references to Spanish-speaking people, especially Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent (Chicanos). Even the heavy influx of Chicano migrant farm workers in the 1950's and 1960's failed to attract the attention of historians or social science researchers. By 1970, the Spanish-language population had become Oregon's largest ethnic minority and was exerting influence in most areas …

The Background And Development Of The 1871 Korean-American Incident: A Case Study In Cultural Conflict, Robert Ray Swartout Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

This study is an attempt to combine the disciplines of Asian history and United States diplomatic history in analyzing the 1871 Korean-American Incident. The Incident revolves around the Low-Rodgers expedition to Korea, and the subsequent breakdown of peaceful negotiations into a military clash of arms.

To describe the Incident as merely another example of American "imperialism,'' or as a result of narrow-minded Korean isolationism, is to oversimplify its causes and miss the larger implications that can be learned from it. A basic premise of this paper is that the 1871 Incident is an example of East-West cultural conflict. As such, …

State Response To The Civil Right Issue, 1883-1885, Robert Lionel Rowe

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to reexamine the assumption in American historiography that the United States Supreme Court's monumental decision in the Civil Rights Cases striking down the 1875 Civil Rights Act represented the end of the Nineteenth Century commitment to "equality under the law" and the civil rights issue. The evidence shows that while the decision had overwhelming support, much of this was support for the Court’s view that such legislation was not within the scope of Federal power.

Eleven states responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by rapidly enacting civil rights legislation. The research centered on gathering …

Oregon And The Blue Eagle: A Study Of The Response Of Oregonians To The National Recovery Administration, John Craig Bledsoe

Dissertations and Theses

The original response of Americans to the National Recovery Administration (NRA) was almost unbounded enthusiasm in mid-1933. But the enthusiasm of the public, business and labor for the NRA noticeably declined by early 1934 and it continued to decline until the NRA was declared unconstitutional in May of 1935. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether the response of Oregon to the NRA followed that of the nation.

Focusing mainly upon the Portland metropolitan area, this study is based on information drawn from newspapers and other primary source materials available for the period during which the NRA …

James Butler And The Royalist Cause In Ireland, 1641-1650, Monica A. Brennan

Dissertations and Theses

On June 19, 1647 Ireland's Lord Lieutenant, the Marquis of Ormond, unconditionally surrendered the city of Dublin to the parliament of England. Ormond's biographer, Thomas Carte, records that in January of this year the marquis received a private dispatch clearly indicating Charles I’s pleasure -- if it were impossible to hold Dublin and the other royalist garrisons in his name they were to be surrendered to the English rather than the Irish. The loss of the major royalist stronghold in Ireland proved, in effect, to be the turning point of the war in that kingdom; its loss has given Ormond’s …

An Analysis Of The Interrelationship Between The Oregon School Law Of 1922, The Press Of Oregon, The Election Of Walter Pierce And The Ku Klux Klan, Robin Huffman

Dissertations and Theses

Oregon in 1922 was the scene of significant Ku Klux Klan activity. This thesis examines the interrelationship of the Klan, the press of Oregon, the gubernatorial race of that year and the passage of the Compulsory School Act. In addition, one chapter covers the ultimate fate of the Compulsory School Act in the courts.

Specific material in this thesis is derived principally from newspapers and periodicals of the time, although general sources on the Ku Klux Klan were utilized for the broader discussions of the situations.

The existence of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon in 1922 directly affected both …

Social Upheaval And Social Change In England, 1381-1750, Sarah J. Cooney

Dissertations and Theses

The social, revolutionary upheavals that frequently exploded on the American scene during the past ten years provided a contemporary, if not sophisticated, framework for the teaching of English history to secondary students. The insights gained from this relational approach emphasized two specific issues during the eras in which England developed into a modern nation: (1) historical events set the stage for social dissatisfaction; and, (2) parliamentary actions reflected the awareness levels that gradually seeped into the social consciousness of the English politic. In isolation, five of these societal insurrections, the Peasant Revolt of 1381, the Ket Uprising in 1549, the …