History Commons^™

Catastrophe And Identity In Post-War German Literature., Aaron Dennis Horton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine selected German literature dealing with issues of history and identity in light of the catastrophic reshaping of society after World War II and reunification. The research process will involve an examination of selected authors and their works that are most relevant to the topic. In order to provide a clear understanding not only of important literary themes but also of the appropriate historical context, attention will be devoted to providing biographical information in addition to critical literary analysis. Because this study is primarily historical in nature, context is important for determining a …

From Condemnation To Conformity: Carter And Reagan's Foreign Policy Towards The Argentine Junta, 1977-1982., William Houston Gilbert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan responded to the widespread human rights abuses committed by the Argentine military during the country's Dirty War between 1977 and 1982. The objective is to gain a broader understanding of the policies pursued by both administrations. Under Carter, who brought human rights to the forefront of American foreign policy, Argentina was heavily targeted and sanctioned with the anticipation that such measures would enhance the human rights status in Argentina. Ultimately, such policies resulted in open hostility in bilateral relations, culminating in Argentina's refusal to support Carter's proposed grain …

The Church Of England In The First World War., Kevin Christopher Fielden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Church of England was at a crossroads in 1914 as the First World War began. The war was seen as an opportunity to revitalize it and return it to its role of prominence in society. In comparison to other areas of study, the role of the Church of England during this time period is inadequately examined.

Primary sources including letters, diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts and pastors' sermons were used. Also secondary sources provided background and analysis about the people, events and movements of the time. A handful of papers and journal articles that specifically dealt with a particular aspect …

Toiling Among The Seed Of Israel: A Comparison Of Puritan And Mormon Missions To The Indians, Christina A. Skousen

Theses and Dissertations

Substantial comparative analyses of Puritanism and Mormonism are lacking in historical scholarship, despite noted similarities between the two religions. This study helps to fill that void by comparing the Puritan and Mormon proselytization efforts among the Indians that occurred at the respective sites of Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Southern Indian Mission. In my examination of the missionization attempts that took place at these two locations, I analyze a common motive and method of the two denominations for attempting to Christianize the Indians. The Puritan and Mormon missionaries proselytizing in Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Southern Indian Mission shared an …

The Making Of The Ahupuaa Of Laie Into A Gathering Place And Plantation: The Creation Of An Alternative Space To Capitalism, Cynthia Woolley Compton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a labor history of the Laie sugar plantation between 1865 and 1931. It explores intercultural and race relations that were inherent to colonial and plantation processes in Hawaii. Particular attention is given to the role of religion in advancing the colonial project. In 1865 Mormon missionaries bought approximately 6,000 acres with the hope of creating a gathering place for Hawaiian converts to settle in. The ideal of the gathering was a metaphor the missionaries brought with them from Utah, and it was a metaphor appropriated by Hawaiians and infused with their own cultural meanings, particularly the importance …

Black Children And Northern Missionaries, Freedmen's Bureau Agents, And Southern Whites In Reconstruction Tennessee, 1865 -1869, Troy Lee Kickler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores one of the forgotten characters of Reconstruction and African American history: the black child. It begins with the experiences of young black Tennesseans during slavery and the Civil War. then examines their lives after freedom within and outside the family and schools, and ends with an account of their memory of Reconstruction.

During Reconstruction, black children's lives were affected daily by the ideological conflict among freedmen, white Southerners, Bureau agents, and Northern missionaries. By and large slave children had experienced a childhood-thanks to the efforts of slave parents in sustaining family bonds. Yet after the tumultuous change …

A Price On Freedom: The Problems And Promise Of The Vietnam Era G.I. Bills, Mark Boulton

Doctoral Dissertations

At the end of World War II, the federal government bestowed one of the richest rewards ever given a mass mobilized army in the form of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the OJ. Bill of Rights. The OJ. Bill offered veterans generous loans, education benefits, and unemployment insurance to help them readjust to civilian life. The bill is widely lauded as one of the most important federal acts of the twentieth century. Further 0.1. Bills followed for veterans of the Cold War including those who served in Korea and Vietnam. Despite their continued impact on the …

From Social Improvement To Scientific Racism: The Effects Of World War I On The Definition Of Racial Hygiene In Germany, Robyn Lee Hendrick

Masters Theses

During the First World War, there was a decisive change in the focus of the racial hygiene movement in Germany. Prior to the war, the terms "racial hygiene" and "eugenics" were synonymous. In contrast, during and after World War I while eugenics continued to be recognized as a "science" in Germany, as well as in other Western European countries and the United States, the racial hygiene movement was becoming increasingly racist. Although, as the term implies, racial hygiene included racial components, the radically racist overtones did not become prevalent until the Nazis' rise to power. Racial hygienists separated themselves from …

"Far, Fast, And Fashionable": American Women Swimmers And Their Swimwear In 1920s And 1930s Sport And Consumer Culture, Elizabeth A. Zanoni

Masters Theses

This thesis examines American aquatic stars of public acclaim as displayers of clothing, and how their changing swimwear shaped the debate over physical culture, femininity, modesty, and gender roles in sport and consumer culture during the 1920s and 1930s. Performing in shortened, functional athletic attire, leading swimmers and divers conveyed cultural messages about athleticism and femininity through their athletic accomplishments and their multiple representations of the female body clothed in swimming attire. It also considers how these female aquatic luminaries, in a sphere traditionally defined as male, shaped American culture by providing a public platform from which the entire sporting …

'A Sort Of Parricide': H.G. Wells And The Making Of George Orwell, Thomas Adams Coker

All Theses

George Orwell and H. G. Wells, both of whom have been dead now for nearly six decades, remain among the most popular and widely read authors in twentieth century English literature. At the same time, both men have become the foci of scholarly industries devoted to their life, thought, and work. Despite the fact that Orwell and Wells shared a number of significant literary, political, and even personal connections, relatively few Orwell or Wells scholars have bothered to examine them. As a result of this scholarly inattention, the nature and significance of Orwell's relationship with Wells have long been obscured …

'A Sort Of Parricide': H.G. Wells And The Making Of George Orwell, Thomas Adams Coker

All Theses

George Orwell and H. G. Wells, both of whom have been dead now for nearly six decades, remain among the most popular and widely read authors in twentieth century English literature. At the same time, both men have become the foci of scholarly industries devoted to their life, thought, and work. Despite the fact that Orwell and Wells shared a number of significant literary, political, and even personal connections, relatively few Orwell or Wells scholars have bothered to examine them. As a result of this scholarly inattention, the nature and significance of Orwell's relationship with Wells have long been obscured …

Atomic Childhood: An Analysis Of The Impact Of The Manhattan Project On The Children Of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, John David Prince

Masters Theses

The city of Oak Ridge was one of three major project sites built by the US Army during the Manhattan Project – the top-secret mission started in June 1942 in order to develop an atomic bomb within a three year period. The Oak Ridge site, chosen in September 1942, was responsible for the production of the uranium that armed the world’s first atomic bomb. Prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb, however, the real mission of Oak Ridge was known to only a few select individuals. Indeed, most of the residents and workers at the production plants in Oak …

The Myth Of The Lost Cause And Tennessee Textbooks, 1889-2002., Rachel Christine Duby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Myth of the Lost Cause is an inaccurate account of the Civil War that remains prominent in American society. The myth alters key aspects of the war such as its cause, participants, and outcome. It is my hypothesis that one reason many Americans misunderstand the war is because they learned inaccurate information as children. Most children first learn of the war in school textbooks. I became curious as to the accuracy of Civil War information. As there is little research on this topic, this paper begins the process of bridging the gap between education curriculum and the Lost Cause. …

The Tension Between Art And Science In Historical Writing., Michael Lee Depew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A perennial question in the philosophy of history is whether history is a science or an art. This thesis contests that this question constitutes a false dichotomy, limiting the discussion in such a way as to exclude other possibilities of understanding the nature of the historical task.

The speculative philosophies of Augustine, Kant, and Marx; the critical philosophies of Ranke, Comte along with the later positivist, and the historical idealist such as Collingwood will be surveyed. History is then examined along side art to discuss not only the similarities but, the differences.

Major similarities—narrative presentation, emplotation, and the selective nature …

Defining Peaceful Picketing: The Michigan Supreme Court And The Labor Injunction, 1900-1940, Coreen Derifield

Masters Theses

In a ruling which would stand for nearly half a century, the Michigan Supreme Court decided in 1898 that pickets and boycotts were inherently violent activities, and declaring them illegal, the Court sanctioned the injunction to restrict their use during a strike. This thesis traces the Court's rulings across these forty years, analyzing how these cases functioned, assessing their impact on union activity, and charting the role of the Michigan Supreme Court in legal procedure. Examining the Court's rulings in three different geographic, social, and cultural environments from the early 1900s to the 1930s, the thesis argues that the Michigan …

Aspects Of Fatherhood In Thirteenth-Century Encyclopedias, Philip Grace

Masters Theses

The thesis examines the treatment of fatherhood in Thomas of Cantimpré's Liber de Natura Rerum, Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De Proprietatibus Rerum, and Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Maius, all of whom were influential mendicant encyclopedists writing between 1240 and 1260. The study examines sections on anatomy, the ages of man, family relations, and the theology of marriage. The thesis argues that the anatomical concept of heat functioned as a metaphor for masculinity, strength and intelligence, and linked together such aspects of fatherhood as the father's formative role in conception and the responsibility to instill virtue in and provide for …

Appointing Stability In An Age Of Crisis: Lord Charles Cornwallis And The British Imperial Revival, 1780-1801, Bradley S. Benefield

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the ideological impetus to the founding of the second British Empire. The loss of the thirteen North American colonies left the British Empire in a state of crisis. Yet, by the early nineteenth century, the British Empire was once again in a position of global dominance. Many historians have theorized over how Britain united to face and overcome this period of crisis. One historian, C.A. Bayly, has argued that British elites rallied behind a progressive conservative ideology, which became the prerequisite to the founding of the second British Empire. To test this …

Gleaning The Harvest: Strangite Missionary Work, 1846-1850, Robin S. Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that in studying the missionary work of the followers of James J. Strang, one gains a better understanding of the expectations and complexities of first generation Mormons. The introduction provides a background of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) from 1844 through 1850. Chapter One discusses the reasons why former Mormons joined Strang, which included their dissatisfaction with Brigham Young and their attraction to the doctrines and positions of Strang. Chapters Two and Three analyze and discuss the successes and failures of Strang's actual missionary work. The work initially succeeded because of the …

Land Grabbers, Toadstool Worshippers, And The Sagebrush Rebellion In Utah, 1979-1981, Jedediah S. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

In 1979, a handful of Nevada state officials sparked a movement to transfer the large unappropriated domain to the western states. For two years what became known as the Sagebrush Rebellion swept across the American West like brushfire, engaging westerners of all stripes in a heated dispute over the question of the public lands. In Utah, as elsewhere in the West, public officials, rural ranchers, miners, developers, academics, environmentalists, and concerned citizens joined the debate and staked sides. This episode underscored western relationships between people and nature and featured contests over competing ideologies in the West. But it probably did …

American Media Perspectives On Post-War Germany: The New York Times And The Wall Street Journal, May 1 - June 30, 1949, Ryan Charles Edens

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Ethnic Conflict In South Texas: 1860–1930, Alberto Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

South Texas ethnic conflict has been documented as a White/Brown struggle excluding the many Blacks that came to the border from 1860–1930. Blacks that came to South Texas faced legal segregation by Anglos and a Mexican caste system that dated back to Spanish colonial times. Alliances with both Anglos and Mexican caused both social mobility and conflict for South Texas Blacks. This research argues that Blacks have been marginalized by both Anglos and Mexicans on the South Texas border. It describes the different waves of Black migration to South Texas and their interaction with the Anglo ruling class and the …

Visualizing Complexity : A Spatial Analysis Of Decorative Geometric Pattern In The Islamic World, 900-1400 Ad, Tracy Elizabeth Harrison

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores how the use of complex decorative geometric patterns in Islamic architecture spatially relates to advances in the fields of science and philosophy in the Islamic world between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. This project examines hypotheses developed by vario~s scholars on the forces that shaped the use of these patterns (known as the geometric mode) in Islamic architecture. The prevailing assumption that advances in mathematics contributed to the use of the geometric mode is used as a starting point for subsequent analysis.

For this study, two spatial databases were created. One contains over two hundred and twenty …

William Morris And The Society For The Protection Of Ancient Buildings: Nineteenth And Twentieth Century Historic Preservation In Europe, Andrea Yount

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Introduction Of Military Slavery: A Political Expedient, Brian Eastwood

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Military slavery constituted one of the most important institutions in medieval Islamic history. Most research concerning military slavery concentrates on the Mamluk dynasty, while relatively little research explores the beginning of the institution and the reasons for its introduction. Those works that concentrate on military slavery or the 'Abbasid time period either use it as an example for other arguments or do not provide enough detail to create a complete argument. As a result, the origins of an institution that affected almost a thousand years of Islamic history are not well understood. To understand the emergence of military slavery, primary …

Sacred People, A World Of Change: The Enduring Spirit Of The Cherokee And Creek Nation On The Frontier, Marjory Grayson-Lowman Greenbaum

History Theses

This documentary outlines the experiences on the frontier between the Creek and Cherokee Nations and the European settlers between 1763 and the Indian Removal by 1838. A final section is devoted to the Creek and Cherokee descendents today and issues that they address and lives that they live.

Revised History Of Fort Watauga., Brian Patrick Compton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The history of the Revolutionary War Fort Watauga located in present day Elizabethton, TN has yet to be completed.

The critique of several Tennessee historians including J. G. M. Ramsey, Lyman C. Draper, Samuel Cole Williams, and others uncovered discrepancies and errors in Fort Watauga’s written history. These problems forced a rethinking of the fort’s actual location, which raised questions as to the reliability of the archaeological excavation in 1974 as well as to the historians who wrote about the fort during the last 200+ years.

Evidence found pointed to new accounts of the fort’s history never before published as …

Uncivil War: Memory And Identity In The Reconstruction Of The Civil Rights Movement., Joanne Sarah Barclay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Memory is constructed to solidify a certain version of the past in the collective identity. History and memory occupy a controversial role in the New South, with battles over the legacy of the Civil War and the reassertion of Confederate symbols in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement's challenge to the status quo.

Memory of the Civil Rights Movement is entering public conscious through cultural mediums such as films and museums, as well as through politically contentious debates over the continued display of the Confederate battle flag and the creation of a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King …

Death At Elmira: George W. Jernigan, William Hoffman, And The Union Prison System., Thomas Watson Jernigan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the interaction between the Union Prison System led by William Hoffman and the Confederate prisoners-of-war, specifically those held at Elmira, New York. By focusing on Hoffman's actions and decisions in the last year of the war, the Confederate death toll can be better understood.

The treatise relies heavily on The War Of The Rebellion: A Compilation Of The Official Records Of The Union And Confederate Armies. Two studies were indispensable for this study: Hesseltine's Civil War Prisons: A Study In War Psychology, and Leslie's Hunter's Ph.D. Disseration, Warden For The Union: William Hoffman (1807-1884). …

The Man Who Tamed Mexico's Tiger: General Joaquin Amaro And The Professionalization Of Mexico's Revolutionary Army, Robert Carriedo

History ETDs

This dissertation focuses on the military career of General Joaquin Amaro, the officer most responsible for professionalizing the Mexican military after the tumultuous years of the Mexican Revolution. After 1917, with the most violent phase of the Revolution over, the military forces that crushed Mexican President Porfirio Diaz's Federal Army proved to be a two-edged sword. While effective in overthrowing Diaz, Mexico's revolutionary armies neither disbanded nor submitted themselves to civilian rule, but instead retained their character as undisciplined and fiercely independent armies whose ultimate loyalty lay with their commanding generals. Amaro' s significance resides not so much in his …

A River For War, A Watershed To Change: The Tennessee Valley Authority During World War Ii, William Wade Drumright

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how the Tennessee Valley Authority responded to, and was affected by, the demands placed upon this agency by America’s participation in the Second World War. Established by Congress in May 1993 at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Authority was charged with physical alteration and rehabilitation, and the economic revitalization of the Tennessee River basin and watershed. These tasks included making the river suitable for ship and barge navigation; achieving flood control through a system of dams on the main river and its tributaries; and producing, transmitting, and selling electric power. During the period covered …