History Commons^™

North Korea’S Nuclear Program And Negotiation: How Nuclear Negotiation During The Clinton Years Produced Lessons For Current International Relations, Brian Hilliker

Senior Honors Theses

North Korea’s road of survival began in the aftermath of World War II, when the United States and the Soviet Union sparred over rival ideologies. Ultimately, Korea split into a free south and an authoritarian north. Over seventy years later, North Korea remains a bastion of communism. Nuclear weaponry is a factor behind North Korea’s survival, and the history of their program can offer insight for American policy makers today. This paper offers a history of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program during the Clinton presidency, along with recommendations for present day policy makers. Without an understanding of history decision-makers tend …

Emasculated Men: The Perception And Treatment Of Shell-Shocked Soldiers During World War I, Courtney Kramer

Senior Honors Theses

World War I differed from wars of the past in a variety of ways. Thus, it created a host of modern medical and psychological problems for soldiers, military leaders, and physicians to overcome such as shell shock. Since shell shock was a relatively new phenomenon in warfare, the medical and military communities were uncertain about how to interpret its appearance and decrease its occurrence in their armed forces. As a result, shell shock fell victim to several social constructs of the time. One of the main societal factors that fueled the negative stigmatization of shell-shocked soldiers during the war was …

The Power Of Leaving: Black Agency And The Great Migration In Louisiana, 1890 - 1939, M. Kay Brown

Senior Honors Theses

The Great Migration is the largest self-initiated movement of Black Americans in United States history. By leaving behind the rural areas which were familiar but offered little or no opportunities for advancement out of poverty and journeying to major urban centers, Blacks were able to exercise their individual and collective agency. Many thousands of Black Southerners chose to remain below the Mason-Dixon line: the populations of Atlanta, Houston, and New Orleans swelled during the 1910s and through the 1930s, due largely to an influx of Blacks from other areas of the South. These stories often get lost among the millions …

The Iron Curtain Of Russian Film: Russian Cinematography 1917-1934, Michael Anthony Levatino Jr.

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will study the separation between the three primary eras of Soviet cinema (Tsarist/Provisional Government-era, Bolshevik-era, and Stalinist-era) and how Soviet workers (both urban and rural) were affected by, reacted to, and associated with film propaganda. The thesis will attempt to establish a narrative that follows Soviet film from its early creation and nationalization in 1919 to the heavily oppressive Stalinist era. A variety of organizations, films, and individuals are studied to relate public perception to the use of film as propaganda. The thesis will also focus on the bourgeois film leaders that lead the film industry. Not only …

Comparing Monarchical Use Of Religion And Popular Responses In England And Russia In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Megan Miller

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the use of religion by Russian and English monarchies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the response of the public in each country. It examines official religion in each state, as well as the kinds of toleration each extended to other religions. In both cases, the outlook of the monarchy changed over the course of the period under study; while both monarchies clearly understood the key role religion played in the lives of their subjects and the power it afforded the state and its sovereigns, the “official” use of religion continued in Russia and …

Perception Is Everything: Repairing The Image Of American Drone Warfare, Luke Tubbs

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will trace the United States’ development of unmanned warfare from its initial use in the World Wars through the Cold War to its final maturation in the War on Terror. The examination will provide a summary of unmanned warfare’s history, its gradual adoption, and concerns regarding the proliferation of drones use to understand the emphasis on unmanned weapons in the American Military. In each phase of development, a single program will be focused on to highlight special areas of interest in the modern day. Finally, the modern era of unmanned systems will focus on the growing integration of …

The Pen Must Calm The Sword: A Call To Promote South Sudanese History For Peace, John Robert Flores Jr.

Senior Honors Theses

The Republic of South Sudan is the world’s youngest nation and its birth has been marred by horrific acts of tribal and ethnic strife that have been characterized by brutal attacks on women and children by both rebels and government forces and the destruction of its ability to feed and provide basic services for its citizens. South Sudan’s first few years of statehood have been heartbreaking especially when considered against the promise that existed only a few years ago. Working towards a peaceful and successful future will inevitably be founded, in part, on understanding the history of the diverse peoples …

A Study In Sovereignty: Federalism, Political Culture, And The Future Of Conservatism, Clint Hamilton

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis confronts symptoms of an issue which is eroding at the principles of conservative advocacy, specifically those dealing with federalism. It contrasts modern definitions of federalism with those which existed in the late 1700s, and then attempts to determine the cause of the change. Concluding that the change was caused by a shift in American political identity, the author argues that the conservative movement must begin a conversation on how best to adapt to the change to prevent further drifting away from conservative principles.

From Heo To Zir: A History Of Gender Expression In The English Language, Brodie Robinson

Senior Honors Theses

With the growing presence of the LGBTQ+ community on the global stage, the matter of gender has been rushed to the forefront of the public consciousness. News outlets have hotly debated the topic of gender expression, a topic which has motivated mass demonstrations and acts of violence, and this has promoted a linguistic conversation at the international level.

This thesis is intended to provide the historical context for the contemporary debate on gender expression in the English language, and explores both the grammatical background (the Indo-European origins of linguistic gender, the development of the modern pronoun system, etc.) and the …