United States History Commons^™

The Trent Affair: Avoiding A Possible Crisis During The Civil War, Alison Patterson

History & Classics Student Scholarship

In November 1861, Union Naval Captain Charles Wilkes seized the Trent, a British mailing ship, because it was transporting two Confederate diplomats, John Slidell and James Mason. Wilkes captured the two Confederate representatives due to what he considered were treasonous actions against the Union, but he did so without any orders from the Union government. Under a proclamation issued by the Queen of Britain at the start of the Civil War, Britain recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent and was not supposed to transport the dispatches of Slidell and Mason because international law considered them contraband. Yet, by acknowledging the …

Kennedy's Crisis: How John F. Kennedy Used History To Prevent Armageddon, Jordan L. Cerbone

Honors Scholar Theses

The Cuban Missile Crisis may be equated to a dangerous game of chess played between two powerful rival nations, the United States and the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers, including all Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended an air strike to destroy the Cuban missiles. Although Kennedy overruled them, he was nevertheless able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis through a combination of brilliant intuition and successful diplomacy. The mainstream consensus is that Kennedy’s personality was responsible for ending the crisis amicably. Consequently, Americans can consider the Cuban Missile Crisis as Kennedy’s crisis.

This thesis explores the role …

The Accidental Martyr, Shannon Moore

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Hayward Shepherd, a black railroad porter in Harper’s Ferry, was the first man killed in John Brown’s raid, an insurrection intended to free Shepherd’s own race from the grips of slavery. Many Democratic newspapers in both the North and South initially reported that Brown’s men shot Shepherd specifically because he refused to take up arms on the side of the abolitionists. Republican presses instead tended to use passive phrases when describing Shepherd’s death, suggesting that they did not want to report the fact that an anti-slavery group had killed a free black man. These moderate presses remained far less opinionated …

Reconciling The Past In Octavia Butler's Kindred, Haley V. Manis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses the observations of Nancy J. Peterson on historical wounds as a springboard to discuss Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred and its use of both white and black characters to reexamine the origins of the historical wounds and why they are so difficult to deal with even today. Other scholarly works will be used to further investigate the importance of each character in the story and what they mean to the wound itself. Specifically, Dana is analyzed alongside the other main characters: Rufus, Alice, and Kevin. Though Dana’s relationships with these characters, Kindred’s version of the past can be …

The American Nightmare: The Ford Edsel Flop And Sputnik Terror, Nicholas Moran

History & Classics Student Scholarship

During the late 1950s, it seemed everyone was pelting Ford Motor Company’s ill-fated Edsel. What was supposed to be the car of the future and an emblem of American prestige had turned into a symbol of America’s sharp decline. Two years earlier, Ford promised consumers riding on the waves of economic good times that they would no longer have to settle for their old entry-level Ford’s. Instead of allowing middle-class Ford customers to defect to General Motor’s flashy medium-price brands that showed personality and prestige, in 1957 Ford launched the Edsel as the perfect car for these “professional...famil[ies].” Yet soon …

The Disquieted Heart And The Lighted Path: Levar Burton’S Dedication Day Speech, Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This Saturday past brought with it an electric sort of chill, the kind fueled by a driving breeze that lifts your jacket, steals past your socks and up your legs, worms its way through gaps in scarves and gloves, and leaves you feeling naked and afraid and alive in ways that no one else can see. The kind of wind that whisks away complicity and surety, leaving you with nothing but a burning compulsion to do something that will reignite your humanity, your belief in goodness, your claim to a kind life. For those who attended, the Dedication Day ceremony …

The Rescuing Texas History Mini-Grant Program: Collaboration, Digital Collection Development And Preservation., Marcia Mcintosh, Jake Mangum

Central Plains Network for Digital Asset Management

The University of North Texas Libraries (UNT Libraries) have for, almost a decade, directed a digitization service called Rescuing Texas History Mini-Grant Program (RTH) with the goal of helping local and state-level cultural heritage institutions and private owners digitize and preserve their holdings. The RTH has allows UNT Libraries to work toward the goals of developing mutually-beneficial relationships with regional organizations while preserving and providing access to a large variety of historical items in The Portal to Texas History digital repository. Its overall structure can serve as a model for sustainable, large-scale digitization initiatives. The model described in this presentation …

Joiner-Rogers Collection (Mss 590), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text scans of selected items (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 590. Personal and professional papers of Christian County, Kentucky teacher and administrator Erleen (Joiner) Rogers, and novels, poems, skits, epigrams and witticisms written by her father, Robert Tinnon Joiner. Includes a collection of Joiner’s writings titled Nonsense and Wisdom From Flat Lick, Rogers’ family history titled Seven Generations in and From Flat Lick, other family data, and photographs.

A Tale Of Two Universities: Harvard And Georgetown Accept Their Ties To Slavery, Alexandria J. Andrioli

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The Washington Ideas Forum, a Washington D.C. hot-ticket event, reconvened for its eighth year on September 28th and 29th, 2016. Leaders in politics, policy, race and justice, education, science and technology, and even food met to share ideas and have meaningful conversations at the event hosted by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute. From Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Secretary of State John Kerry to author Chimamanda Adichie and chef and founder of Momofuku, David Chang, the best and the brightest were all in attendance.

[excerpt]

All For Honor: Officer Responses To The Mcconaughy Letters, Olivia J. Ortman

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In Special Collections here at Gettysburg College is a compilation of letters by Civil War officers responding to an invitation to attend the very first reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg. The reunion was initiated by David McConaughy–a lawyer in Adams County, PA who had organized a group of local men to fight for the Union during the war–and was meant to be a time for the officers who had fought here to come together and walk the battlefield. On this walk, they would point out the locations their troops had occupied during the fight so that McConaughy and his …

Images Of Power, Images Of War: Schmucker Art Gallery’S New Exhibit, Laurel J. Wilson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Bodies in Conflict: From Gettysburg to Iraq is a brand new exhibit in Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College. Curated by Mellon Summer Scholar Laura Bergin ’17, it features eleven depictions of bodies engaged in various conflicts in U.S. history, ranging from the Civil War to the war in Iraq. In addition to curating the physical exhibit found in Schmucker Art Gallery, Bergin also created a virtual version, which can be accessed online through the Schmucker Gallery web page. Of particular interest to those interested in the Civil War are two of the oldest pieces in the collection, a …

The Akron Roundtable: Bringing The World To Akron For Forty Years, David Lieberth

University of Akron Press Publications

For 170 years, Akron has been linked to the wider world—ever since John Brown, the famous abolitionist and Akron’s most consequential resident, traveled on behalf of Colonel Simon Perkins to the European capitals in 1846 to market the wool that became Akron’s first international export. In the late nineteenth century, Akron industrialist Lewis Miller captured international accolades for the farm machinery manufactured at his Buckeye Mower Works, located where E. J. Thomas Hall stands today. In 1912, Goodyear Superintendent Paul Litchfield established a beachhead for the company in Europe, and through the twentieth century, all Akron tire makers delivered rubber …

Pos 2041 American Government, Eric Hodges

Service-Learning Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Education For Victory: An Analysis Of Social Studies Education In American Secondary Schools During World War Ii, Rachael E. O'Dell

Student Publications

Secondary schools during World War II were viewed as a vital component of the war effort on the home front. The nation’s youth were seen as important potential contributors to the war effort, and were educated as such. The atmosphere of total war especially affected social studies classes at this level. An analysis of contemporary educational journals and supplementary teaching materials reveals that secondary school students were virtually indoctrinated with democratic and patriotic values in their social studies classes in wartime schools. Social studies classes thus functioned as a route through which students could be encouraged to participate in the …

Beneath The Mulberry Tree: Sarah Edmonds And Women In Memory, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In her memoir Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, Sarah Emma Edmonds, a woman fighting in the Union Army disguised as a man, employed florid diction and a subtle romantic flare to illustrate an emotional and confounding moment in the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam: discovering another woman undercover. Edmonds writes of the “pale, sweet face of a youthful soldier,” of a boy trembling from blood loss who, she knew, had only a few more minutes on earth. He tasted his last sip of water, and with his remaining breaths the soldier beckoned Edmonds closer and uttered a …

Bowling Green Civil War Round Table Newsletter (Sept. 2016), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Bowling Green Civil War Round Table Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Ms – 201: Hauser Collection Of Eisenhower Political Ephemera, Lauren H. Roedner

All Finding Aids

This collection comprises an assortment of President Dwight D. Eisenhower related political materials from the 1960s and 1970s. A few relate directly to the donor’s family (Hauser), but most do not. The collection is predominantly programs from Eisenhower-related events or dedications, a few pamphlets and photographs, and a few political bumper stickers from national elections. There is also the occasional item related to President Ronald Reagan or President Richard Nixon. This collection does not provide a wealth of information about or memorabilia from local politics or political events that Eisenhower attended.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery …

Ten Weeks At Manassas, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

My heart was pounding, my breath was shallow, and I wanted nothing more than to begin so that it would all be over sooner.

No, I was not preparing to jump from a plane. Nothing so dramatic. I was preparing myself to give a tour of Henry Hill detailing the position’s salient importance in the First Battle of Manassas.

[excerpt]

Attitudes About Work And Time In Los Angeles, 1769-1880, Tyler D. Lachman Mr.

Theses

This thesis argues that the industrious Californio people continued to prosper in Los Angeles after statehood in 1850. Certain historians have emphasized the hardworking Californio culture at various points in Los Angeles history. But no one has defended their overall work ethic. Thus, this thesis goes farther than other historians in discrediting the notion that Californio Angelinos died out quickly because they could not sustain success under American leadership.

A Summer At Fredspot: Far More Than Answering Phones And Getting Coffee, Jeffrey R. Martin

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Going into this summer, I was not quite sure what to expect at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Part of me suspected that since I was an intern, I would do nothing more than answer phones and get coffee. I was prepared to accept this; after all, I do want to work for the National Park Service someday, and if the only way to get my foot in the door was to do menial tasks for two and a half months, so be it. What I actually experienced, however, was something far different and far better.

[excerpt …

"Throwing Light" On Life At The Wayside, Alexandria J. Andrioli

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Over the course of these past ten weeks, I have come a long way since I started my internship at the beginning of June at Minute Man National Historical Park. This is my second Brian C. Pohanka Internship; last summer, I lived and worked at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. In Harpers Ferry, I was given a lot of responsibility while working for the education department, but at Minute Man, my responsibilities far exceeded just working with children.

[excerpt]

A Connecticut Yankee In Jeff Davis's Court, Jeffrey L. Lauck

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

For the past ten weeks or so, I have been interning at Richmond National Battlefield Park. The experience has been like no other. I began the summer with a few goals. First, I wanted to see if working for the National Park Service was everything that my fellow park geeks said it was. Second, I wanted to enrich my understanding of the Civil War by focusing my study on one particular community’s experience in the Civil War (Richmond). Third, as a born-and-raised New Englander, I wanted to see what it was like to spend a summer in Dixie. Finally, …

Serving The Public First: Archives 2.0, Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The hallmarks of contemporary archival philosophy, known casually as “Archives 2.0,” have everything to do with making archives open, attractive resources for researchers of all persuasions. These rotate around a few main assertions. First, that archivists should endeavor to make their repositories as attractive as possible to users—this means offering friendly, all-inclusive access, being responsive to user desires, being tech-savvy, and leaving some discovery and processing of collections to the researcher. Secondly, modern archiving stresses accessibility—having a standardized way of organizing collections that will be easily understood by visiting researchers, utilizing language familiar to average people for finding aides, and …

Yonder Stands Jackson Beyond Reproach, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Yonder, he stands, a lone sentinel of stone amidst the fallow fields of Henry Hill. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, his nom de guerre earned here on the fields of First Manassas, rides tall in the saddle of his steed. The statue’s commanding presence on Henry Hill anchors a memory of that battle that emphasizes the triumph of Jackson, his brigade, and the Confederate army in the defense of Southern soil. It is an embodiment of idealized notions of Southern courage, honor, and martial spirit. At the same time, the monument serves to depoliticize Jackson and the Confederate war effort—yet in doing …

Dead Center: Polarization And The Democratic Party, 1932-2000, Colin S. Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polarization forced massive changes in the institutions of Washington throughout the 20^th century, and the Democratic Party played a key role throughout. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic Party formed the powerful New Deal coalition. The coalition faltered in the turbulent 1960s under the pressures of the Vietnam War and racial unrest. The chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago dealt the coalition a mortal wound. Young voters and activists gained an outsized voice in the party. Several crushing defeats in presidential elections followed as the party chose unelectable candidates who appealed to the passions of left-wing activists …

The 'Angel Of Marye's Heights' And Civil War Memory, Jonathan G. Danchik

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

In 1862, the small Virginian town of Fredericksburg found itself between two opposing armies. The Federal Army of the Potomac sat restlessly, eagerly awaiting means with which to cross the Rappahannock River, while elements of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia were called to take defensive positions in and behind Fredericksburg. What ensued was a bloody spectacle that claimed thousands of lives, and tempered the fighting spirit of the armies for the remainder of the Civil War.

[excerpt]

America's Dutch Identity: The Dutch, New Netherland, And The Struggle For Freedom Of Religion, Kevan D. Keane

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This paper explores the history of New Netherland in light of the Dutch struggle for identity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Dutch originally belonged to the Holy Roman Empire as a Spanish territory, and were staunchly Catholic. However, with the coming of the Protestant Reformation, things began to change. With the Reformation came a revolution against their rulers, and also a religious diversity previously unheard of in Europe. This struggle carried over into the borders of America with the Dutch establishment of New Netherland. New Netherland was the experiment of religious freedom in practice for the Dutch. The …

Ms-195: Early American Document Collection, Tyler R. Black

All Finding Aids

The Early American Document Collection contains broadsides, manuscripts, and other material from the colonial era and early republic. The material covers a broad range of subjects, mostly pertaining to administration in colonial Philadelphia, and the American Revolution. The series listing below further specifies the subject areas within the collection. Possible research topics include: colonial-era legal, land, or government documentation, the influence of broadside announcements, the use of German in colonial American documents, and for a general investigation into the happenings of the Continental Army. The military documents are more sparse in subject area, and do not include engagement information. The …

Understanding The Civil War And Its Place In The American Mind, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Perhaps it is because I have spent so much time with people for whom the Civil War is a life choice, but I confess, there are times when I wonder if we—myself included—sometimes get carried away by our fierce and noble passion for the past. The Civil War is, of course, incredibly important both in its own right and in the long context of American history. But I do wonder if an overly-zealous fascination with the Civil War, especially if it becomes too single-minded, can distract us from other important moments in history, as well as from other types of …

"The Church Or The Wheel?" Religious Institutions Respond To The American Bicycle Boom.Pptx, Christopher A. Sweet

Christopher A. Sweet