Political History Commons^™

The Gendering Of Nevada Politics: The Era Ratification Campaign, 1973-1981, Caryll Batt Dziedziak

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines Nevada‟s Equal Rights Amendment ratification campaign spanning from 1973 through 1981. Using legislative records, newspapers, archival records, oral histories and interviews; this work traces the creation of two distinct political cultures that arose in Nevada during this period. Women from both sides of this debate sought to make themselves heard in the political deliberations over this proposed amendment; thus finding new agency with which to express their political views. As ERA activists led a grassroots campaign for equality under the law, conservative women mobilized existing church networks to effect a massive counter attack. In the end, while …

The Republican-Liberal Continuum: De-Polarizing The Historiographical Debate, Katrina Loulousis Combs

M.A. in Philosophy of History Theses

The historiography of the American Revolution and the Early National Period remains a polarized debate. Historians attribute either classical Whig republican ideology or classical liberal ideology to influencing those periods. However, republicanism and liberalism exist along a philosophical and practical continuum. Because Louis Hartz attributed American liberalism exclusively to John Locke, I first examine Locke’s relationship to Algernon Sidney, observing similarities between these exemplars of liberalism and republicanism. Next I examine the confluence of Thomas Reid’s commonsense moral philosophy (via John Witherspoon) and republicanism, particularly concerning views on man and moral liberty. These commonalities are further demonstrated in Thomas Jefferson’s …

Rhode Island's Wars: Imperial Conflicts And Provincial Self-Interests In The Ocean Colony, 1739–48, Greg Rogers

Master's Theses

Whether in terms of political and military threats or economic and demographic growth, this thesis argues that Rhode Island’s involvement in this period of imperial warfare was characterized by self-interest on a variety of levels. The government’s military plans, the expansion of provincial power, attempts to raise expeditionary forces, the use of privateers, and the indirect participation of non-combatants all depict a colonial society very interested in its own local political and economic interests. Although literally “provincial,” these interests exhibit the Atlantic and global networks that the smallest of the New England colonies was situated in. These two different sets …

Alone At The Top: A Revisionist History To Determine The True Measure Of Presidential Success, Christopher Spiers

History

No abstract provided.

Atomic Governance: Militarism, Secrecy, And Science In Post-War America, 1945-1958, Mary D. Wammack

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This history of America's post-World War II atomic program examines the institutional impulses that drove its evolution from 1945 through the 1958 moratorium on atmospheric weapons testing. Based on archival research and methodologies borrowed from sociologists and legal theorists, it focuses on the motivations of and decisions made by military officers, program managers and affiliates in the private sector, their relationships, and the alliances they formed with congressmen. This analysis identifies a two-stage process of self-interested decision-making through which the armed forces, seeking to mitigate postwar loss of funding and influence, gained de facto control of the atomic program that …

The Italian Emigration Of Modern Times: Relations Between Italy And The United States Concerning Emigration Policy, Diplomacy, And Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, 1870-1927, Patrizia Fama Stahle

Dissertations

In the late 1800s, the United States was the great destination of Italian emigrants. In North America, employers considered Italians industrious individuals, but held them in low esteem. Italian immigrants were seen as dangerous subversives, anarchists, cheap laborers who were always ready to accept jobs for lower wages. Indeed, numerous episodes of violence and even lynching of Italians occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. In most cases, the violence went unpunished by the local authorities. Such episodes of violence provoked a diplomatic controversy between Italy and the United States concerning treaty-guaranteed protection of …

Emigre Anti-Imperialists And America's Philippines, 1898-1899, Alex Schmidt

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis considers similarities between key members of the American Anti-Imperialist League who, born in the Old World, emigrated to the United States and became luminaries in their adopted country.

The American Anti-Imperialist League formed in 1898 to oppose America’s annexation of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. Anti-war activists had not prevented the conflict itself, but members of the new League hoped to effect a real protest against the United States taking far-flung Pacific colonies.

The League drew support from a vast array of Americans. With diverse branches in several major American cities, its members included writers, businessmen, philosophers, …

The Experience Of The 756th Tank Battalion In World War Two: A Microcosm, Scott Millenbach

Senior Theses

December 7, 1941, "a day which will live in infamy," was the moment that the United States was plunged into the largest conflict that the world had ever seen. The sovereignty of the United States was being threatened at two ends of the globe by tyrannical leaders on the continent of Europe and the islands of the Pacific. In the years to come, the U.S. would have to fight to stop the spread of Emperor Hirohito's army in the Pacific and Hitler's Nazi Wermacht in Europe. It would take all the resources our mighty country could muster and the fighting …

Governing Gambling In The United States, Maria E. Garcia

CMC Senior Theses

The role risk taking has played in American history has helped shape current legislation concerning gambling. This thesis attempts to explain the discrepancies in legislation regarding distinct forms of gambling. While casinos are heavily regulated by state and federal laws, most statutes dealing with lotteries strive to regulate the activities of other parties instead of those of the lottery institutions. Incidentally, lotteries are the only form of gambling completely managed by the government. It can be inferred that the United States government is more concerned with people exploiting gambling than with the actual practice of wagering.

In an effort to …

Theodore Roosevelt On Labor Unions: A New Perspective, Louis B. Livingston

Dissertations and Theses

Historical studies of Theodore Roosevelt's views about labor and labor unions are in conflict. This was also true of contemporary disagreements about the meaning of his labor rhetoric and actions. The uncertainties revolve around whether or not he was sincere in his support of working people and labor unions, whether his words and actions were political only or were based on a philosophical foundation, and why he did not propose comprehensive labor policies.

Roosevelt historiography has addressed these questions without considering his stated admiration for Octave Thanet's writings about "labor problems." Octave Thanet was the pseudonym of Alice French, a …