Social History Commons^™

Interview With Reverend Dr. Larry Greenfield, Lauren Kostiuk

Chicago 1968

Length: 76 minutes

Interview with Larry Greenfield by Lauren Kostiuk

Rev. Greenfield begins by describing organizations he’s been involved with, devoted to religious ethics and social justice, protecting the rights of women, gender and sexual minorities, economic justice, and other related causes. He recounts his early years in Sioux Falls with his parents and how his religious involvement prompted questions about equality and social justice. He then recounts his time at the University of Chicago, where he began his involvement in political activism and civil rights. He recalls in detail his experiences at the Democratic National Convention, serving as a …

Interview With Reverend Dr. Stan Davis, Dawn Butler

Chicago 1968

Length: 116 minutes

Interview with Reverend Stan Davis by Dawn Butler

Rev. Davis begins by sharing details about himself, his family, and his early years in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and his religious community, the Church of the Brethren. He talks about growing up during World War II and how he first became aware of prejudice, witnessing the internment of the Japanese-American community. He recalls his studies at Juniata College and his decision to attend Bethany Theological. He describes moving to North Lawndale, a diverse immigrant community that underwent drastic demographic changes as a result of unscrupulous lending practices designed to move …

Ways We Remember: Rethinking Symbols Of Italian American History And Imagining Alternative Narratives, Kathryn N. Anastasi

American Studies Honors Projects

My project re-examines dominant historical narratives of Christopher Columbus and assimilation of southern Italian immigrants to the United States. Arguing that such narratives partly result from historic anxiety surrounding southern Italians’ unstable whiteness, I challenge masculinist, white-washed histories by centering and contextualizing a history of Italian immigrant garment worker and labor leader Angela Bambace (1898-1975). By weaving my own exploration of my Italian immigrant ancestors’ pasts throughout, I ultimately encourage other white descendants of European immigrants to explore their histories in a critical and loving way that "resurrects" histories without sanctifying historical figures or their white descendants to racial innocence.

Inevitable Rebellion: Jacobite Risings And The Union Of 1707, Lindsay E. Swanson

Young Historians Conference

In the beginning of the 18th century, the landscape of Europe was changed with the proposal of legislation to unite Scotland and England. While the Union of 1707 served as an important starting point in the English quest for unification, it was not powerful enough to truly prevent insurgency among Scottish natives. This paper explores the problems associated with and Scottish opposition to the Union of 1707, and the measures it took to truly join the two nations under the name Great Britain. It also highlights the endurance of a Scottish identity, examining resistance to empires and questioning the longevity …

The Limits Of Tolerance: The Equal Treatment Act And Discrimination In The Netherlands, Dylan E. Wells

Young Historians Conference

The Netherlands has a reputation for being one of the most liberal and accepting nations in the world. However, when analyzing the traditions, politics, education, and other aspects of everyday life in the country, a long-lasting history of racism and prejudice is revealed. This paper explores the possible reasons for inequality in the Netherlands, and the Equal Treatment Act of 1994, the first explicit Dutch anti-discrimination legislation. This paper will discuss the potential reasons why the Equal Treatment Act ultimately failed to curb bias based on race, ethnicity, and religion—challenges still faced by many in the Netherlands today, twenty years …

Christianity's Influence On Attitudes Toward Homosexuality In The Roman Empire, Jennie Jiang

Young Historians Conference

Attitudes towards sexuality are deeply influenced by the intricate interplay between religion and social values. How do polytheistic and monotheistic societies differ in how they view sexuality? In the pre-Christian days of the early Roman Empire, polytheism fostered a remarkable tolerance toward both same-sex relations and various expressions of sexuality, as evident in social expectations, literature, and written law. In contrast, a closer examination of the Roman Empire’s transition from a polytheistic to Christian society in the 4^th and 5^th centuries reveals that the rise of Christianity corresponded with, and likely contributed to, increasingly strict attitudes towards homosexuality.

The Irish Hunger And Its Alignments With The 1948 Genocide Convention, Larissa M. Banitt

Young Historians Conference

The Irish Hunger of the mid nineteenth century began when a potato blight ruined most of Ireland's crop. While this was indeed a natural crisis, Britain's ineffective response exacerbated the sugaring the Irish endured. Widespread discrimination of the Irish, economic and moral ideologies all contributed to the British government's reaction to the famine. This paper evaluates how British adherence to these ideologies increased Irish suffering and aligns with the definition of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention

Power Structure, Nathaniel Klein

Young Historians Conference

By today's standards morally reprehensible subjects are difficult to examine, however, from a historical perspective topics such as infanticide offer insight into individual behavior, therefore reflecting societal norms. This paper explores the practice of infanticide used during the course of the 7th century BCE to reinforce the power structures of the period. Infanticide was far more than a simple way to dispose of unwanted offspring; it was a tool that was used by ancient Greek societies to maintain systems of control and promote social values upon which society depended.

Interview With Jack Wuest, Grace Fanning

Chicago 1968

Length: 63 minutes

Interview with Jack Wuest by Grace Fanning

Mr. Wuest begins by outlining the details of his childhood, family, and early education. He describes his role in the draft resistance during the Vietnam War, and describes the process the young men were subjected to as part of the draft. He recalls his time working with the Juvenile Protective Association which is what first brought him into contact with the Democratic National Convention protests. He recalls witnessing the police violence perpetrated against protesters. He remembers his reactions to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. He …

Interview With James A. "Jim" Aull, Jeremiah Morales

Chicago 1968

Length: 120 minutes

Interview with James A. "Jim" Aull by Jeremiah Morales

Mr. Aull begins by describing his childhood in a rural community outside of Philadelphia, living with his parents, sister, and paternal grandmother. He describes his experiences in school, including the required church attendance and his first social service activities through the boarding school programs serving poor communities. While at Princeton, he says he became involved with the YCMA and Christian student organizations, leading to his involvement in civil rights. He recalls his travels through the Soviet Union and Turkey. He recalls his time at the Chicago Theological Seminary …

Interview With Father Dominic Grassi, Paul Brennan

Chicago 1968

Length: 105 minutes

Interview with Father Dominic Grassi by Paul Brennan

Fr. Dominic Grassi begins his interview by detailing his childhood, growing up the youngest of five to Italian immigrant parents on the North side of Chicago, He credits his high school work with the children at Cabrini Greens for introducing him to the community service aspect of religious life and recalls the significant role the priests played in his early years. He describes daily life at the college seminary and the formation of his religious vocation amidst “almost a tsunami” of worlds events: the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights …

A Conversation With Anonymous (3)

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who attended in the early 2000s and came out during her senior year. She provided insights on her experiences as a queer woman on the Holy Cross campus and shared how her life has changed since leaving "the Holy Cross bubble."

Interview keywords: alum, ally, Catholic shame, college, identity, Iraq War, Jesuit, microaggressions, multicultural, oppression, post-college, social justice, queer/dyke

Interview With Reverend Dr. B. Herbert Martin Sr., Matthew Kevin Robinson

Chicago 1968

Length: 84 minutes

Interview with Reverend B. Herbert Martin, Sr. by Matthew Kevin Robinson

Rev. Martin begins by describing his childhood in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, the oldest all-Black community in America, with his parents, grandparents, and nine siblings. He describes his strong religious upbringing and how he was called to ministry at the age of nine. He recounts being attacked and severely beaten by a group of “vigilante” white men for trying to register Black people to vote. He talks of his time at Philander Smith College, working for a wealthy retired counsel general, and the first churches he pastored …

The Grizzly, April 23, 2015, Rachel Brown, Deana Harley, Phoebe French, Caitlin Tillson, Niriesa Kalaga, Brian Thomas, Dayana Suncar, Nikki Djambinov, Hunter Gellman, Jonathan Vander Lugt

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Mayday Concert Returning • "Not on My Campus" Campaign Launches • Student Art Show to Open on CoSA Day • Elections Results • Holocaust Survivor to Share Her Story to Campus • CoSA Spurs Second Annual Creative Exchange in Myrin • CoSA to Celebrate Wide Variety of Student Work • Opinion: Crigler Beneficial But Needs Improvements; What Makes Crigler Worthwhile for Students? • Sibling Stickhandlers Stayed Side by Side • UCWR Sticks it to Gender Norms

A Conversation With Joe Sasso

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1975. He discusses his experience of Holy Cross during the 70's and the lack of awareness the student body had for any type of gay identity. Additionally, he describes his experience coming out at age 45. In the interview, he reflects on how it would be or would not be different if he had been out on campus at this time and his recommendations on how Holy Cross can continue to support LGBTQ students.

Interview keywords: adulthood, alum, Catholic Church, college, cycling, family, friendship, gay …

"Too Young To Fall Asleep Forever": Great War Commemoration And National Identity In Interwar England And Germany, Angela Clem

History Honors Projects

This thesis compares English and German commemorative practices after the Great War. In England, commemoration strengthened national identity by giving value to communal suffering and creating an almost-mythical figure in the Unknown Warrior, an anonymous soldier buried in Westminster Abbey. In contrast, German commemoration met with political instability, hyperinflation, and the infamous “war guilt clause” of the Versailles Treaty, which rejected a national mode of commemoration. Despite these differences, both countries constructed a new “language of loss” physically (through memorials) and metaphorically (through war literature), forever shaping their respective national identities and collective memories.

Importance Of Preserving History: A Conservation Of An Edwardian Wedding Dress, Brittany Aris

Honors Theses

The Importance of Preserving History: The Conservation of an Edwardian Wedding Dress

This thesis concentrates on the significance of recorded history, and the importance of conserving artifacts such as an Edwardian wedding dress. Such treasured pieces contribute to our perception of the past, not only as artifacts but as an insight into how, why, and by whom, they were created.

The Edwardian period is so important in women’s fashion because it was such a short-lived era. The socio-economic times that preceded the Edwardian era, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, all had profound impacts which helped influence …

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2015

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

“Servants, Obey Your Masters”: Southern Representations Of The Religious Lives Of Slaves, Lindsey K.D. Wedow

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This paper focuses on how representations of the religious lives of slaves, specifically their abilities to comprehend the Bible and flourish spiritually, became an issue that not only propelled the North and South toward the Civil War, but also perpetuated the conflict. Using original documents from the collections housed at Chicago’s Newberry Library, predominantly sermons written by proslavery ministers as well as documents published by missionary organizations, this paper explores the fierce defense of the institution of slavery mounted by proslavery Christians. Specifically, this paper’s interest is in how the representation of slaves by proslavery evangelical Christians as incapable of …

1st Place Contest Entry: Moviegoers And The Moon In 1953, Hannah E. Gary

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Hannah Gary's submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. She wrote about the industrial and cultural implications of the film The Moon is Blue during the heavily censored Cold War period. You can read the final essay that came out of her research here.