United States History Commons^™

James Mcgowan, James Mcgowan, Elissa Ledvort 2013

All oral histories

James McGowan, Professor of English Emeritus, joined IWU's faculty in 1969 and retired in 2000. He and Anne (Class of 1976) remain active in the community. Dr. McGowan read his original poem commemorating the inauguration of IWU's 15th President Richard F. Wilson may be found at http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/wilson_inauguration/15

Senator Dodd Versus The National Rifle Association: Passing The Gun Control Act Of 1968, Bennett D. Sorensen

Young Historians Conference

After the assassination of President Kennedy, Senator Dodd sought to pass gun control legislation. The National Rifle Association took the forefront on the debate against Dodd and became more politically active as an organization. After long debate, news coverage, and blame on both sides, the assassinations of two political figures MLK and Robert Kennedy spurred Dodd's Bill into passing, but only after amendments lessening its original effect The Gun Control Act of 1968 formed the basis of the modern, polarizing gun control debate and reflects the process of passing gun control legislation today.

John Law’S Flawed But Well Intended Système, Katy Baker

Young Historians Conference

Of the world's many economic meltdowns spurred by desperation, overconfident leaders with too much power, and a lack of experience or transparency, the Mississippi Bubble was one of the first that wiped out an entire economy. This paper explores how the decisions of John Law, a Scottish financier, economist, and compulsive gambler, led to the so-called Mississippi Bubble. A phenomenon which contributed to the drastic rise and fall of individuals' finances, hyperinflation, the devaluation of France's currency during the regency of Philippe d'Orleans.

How Did Wwii Pull The United States Out Of Economic Stagnation?, Chris Constans

Young Historians Conference

This investigation will evaluate how U.S. involvement in WWII stimulated the economy allowing America to climb out of economic stagnation and decline. To assess the extent to which the war stimulated the U.S. economy, this investigation will focus on parts of the economy specifically effected by the war, and the U.S. economy as a whole from 1939‐1945. To understand the drastic change in economic growth, Depression era statistic will be referenced for comparison. The investigation will cover macroeconomic topics specifically government spending and the multiplier effect and their effects on GDP. This investigation does not extend to Roosevelt’s New Deal …

Hardcore Punk For A Hardcore President: The Action And Response To Ronald Reagan, Julian Heninger

Young Historians Conference

President Ronald Reagan has been both highly revered and despised by different groups of Americans. In order to find an accurate view of what life was really like under the Reagan presidency, this study views Reagan through the exciting and gritty lens of the Punk movement, specifically in Southern California. Through research of lyrics, a personal interview, and writers of the Punk era, the voice and feelings, personality and purpose of a great amount of people reveal the true opposition to the effects the Reagan Administration had on the Nation.

The Armenian Problem: What Was The United States’ Response To The Armenian Genocide?, Alexandra Fleming

Young Historians Conference

The Armenian Genocide was an appalling tragedy that has proven to have longstanding effects upon many individuals. Would the effects have been so widespread if the Armenian people received more help? This paper will explore the United States' involvement in the Armenian Genocide as shown through primary sources by individuals in the U.S. and Armenia.

Labor Issues During The Construction Of The Panama Canal, Paul C. Diebold

Young Historians Conference

The Panama Canal represented America’s first great achievement on the international stage. But in its triumph, the United States showed itself willing to pursue success on the backs of the laborers—most of them black—without whom the canal could not have become a reality. This paper focuses on these men—men who braved dangerous conditions and the institutionalized segregation of the Canal Zone despite America’s reluctance to confront the issue of racism over a group of non-citizen, non-white laborers hundreds of miles removed from any American city or shore.

Smith, Elizabeth, 1824-1920 (Sc 2706), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2706. Mimeographed copy (no. 30 of an edition of 55) of “Bishop Benjamin Bosworth Smith as Seen by a Daughter,” a memorial sketch written for Bishop Alfred Lee of Delaware by Elizabeth “Lizzie” Smith. Includes annotations by Eugene Hester Thompson, Jr. with additional family and biographical information.

Civil War, 1861-1865 - Loyalty Oaths (Sc 2705), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2705. Blank oath of allegiance and United States bond, to be sworn by residents of Warren County, Kentucky.

Pennsylvania At Chancellorsville, But Headed Back Home, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

With the anniversary of the battles around Fredericksburg this week, the Civil War world's eyes seem to be turned toward Chancellorsville and the battles there. Almost as a reflex, my mind has gone there too. I've been thinking about Simon Stein Wolf, the Gettysburgian who faced death at Chancellorsville only to find it terribly displayed in the days after. So today another excerpt from my manuscript, to start re-conceptualizing Chancellorsville through the eyes of a Pennsylvania College dropout. [excerpt]

Archeological Investigations For The Levi Jordan Plantation House Stabilization, Brazoria County, Texas, Jennifer K. Mcwilliams, Douglas K. Boyd, Aaron Norment

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Levi Jordan plantation house is one of the few antebellum plantation structures to have survived in Brazoria County. It is the only standing structure associated with the plantation, which began operating in 1848 and was occupied continually up through the 1990s. The original house, built in the early 1850s using slave labor, was a 20x60-ft two-story wooden frame structure. It was altered many times during its long occupation, often due to hurricane damage. A portion of the Levi Jordan Plantation was acquired by the State of Texas in 2002 and managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department until …

From Practical Woodsman To Professional Forester: Henry S. Graves And The Professionalization Of Forestry In The United States, 1900-1920, Brendan D. Ross

Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections

This research paper looks at the life and career of Henry S. Graves (1871-1951), the founding dean of the Yale Forest School who, along with Gifford Pinchot, lead efforts to professionalize forest science in the United States. In working to bring a new applied science to the U.S., Graves sought to legitimize forestry within academia, federal bureaucracy, and the communities of the American West. Graves’ diverse career adds rich context to the environmental history of forestry and the history of professionalization. Drawing on Graves’ extensive archives, from his work at the Yale Forest School to his time as second chief …

Who Governed Yale? Kingman Brewster And Higher Education In The 1970s, Nathaniel Zelinsky

Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections

Relying on archival material and oral history, this essay examines two committees at Yale in the 1970s as case studies in how University President Kingman Brewster reshaped the school after the student unrest of the long 1960s. The first committee, led by the political scientist Robert Dahl, endorsed the equal admission of female students in 1972. The second committee, chaired by historian C. Vann Woodward, composed a nationally renowned report on the importance of “unfettered” free expression at the university in 1974-5. I show how each of these committees was a carefully calibrated political tool that allowed Brewster to moderate …

Second Families Of Virginia: Professional Power-Brokers In A Revolutionary Age, 1700-1790, Wesley Thomas Joyner

Dissertations

Between 1700 and 1790, a diverse assortment of merchants, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, and various other specialists forged a prominent position in Virginia that was integral to the colony’s planter-elites. These professionals complicated Virginia’s social hierarchy and affected numerous decisions planters made on personal business ventures, urban development, military conflicts, and political policies. Consequently, as Virginia planters struggled to maintain a sense of socioeconomic dominance, political influence, and familial solidarity, this upper-middling, professional contingent forced planters to compromise their seemingly exclusive modes of behavior. Accounting for the perspectives of professionals and planters, this study addresses how and why this occurred, as …

Tabor, Sharon - Collector (Sc 2704), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of contents (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2704. Calendar of events, historic walking tour information, and Pioneer Cemetery Lantern Tour scripts and supporting research, all relating to Civil War Sesquicentennial commemorations in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Includes information on Civil War-era burials in Pioneer Cemetery.

Bowling Green Civil War Round Table Newsletter (May 2013), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Bowling Green Civil War Round Table Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Went Off To The Shakers: The First Converts Of South Union, William R. Black

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In 1807 the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (Shakers)
established a society near the Gasper River in Logan County, Kentucky. The society was soon named South Union, and it lasted until 1922, the longest-lasting Shaker community west of the Appalachians. Most of the first Shaker converts in Logan County had only a few years beforehand participated in a series of evangelical Presbyterian camp meetings known collectively as the Kentucky Revival, the Revival of 1800, or the Great Revival.Though Presbyterian revivalism and Shakerism shared certain characteristics (particularl millennialism and enthusiastic forms of worship), there were many differences between …

Many Worlds Converge Here: Vision And Identity In American Indian Photography, Alicia L. Harris

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Photographs of Native Americans taken by Frank A. Rinehart at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in 1898 were then and continue to be part of the construction of indigenous identities, both by Anglo-Americans and Natives. This thesis analyzes the ramifications of Rinehart’s portraits and those of his peers as well as Native American artists in the 20^th and 21^st centuries who have sought to re-appropriate these images to make them empowering icons of individual or tribal identity rather than erasure of culture.

This thesis comprises two sections. In the first section, the analysis is focused on the historical …

Never Quite Settled: Southern Plain Folk On The Move, Ronald J. Mccall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the settlement of the Mississippi Territory through the eyes of John Hailes, a Southern yeoman farmer, from 1813 until his death in 1859. This is a family history. As such, the goal of this paper is to reconstruct John’s life to better understand who he was, why he left South Carolina, how he made a living in Mississippi, and to determine a degree of upward mobility.

Local, state, and federal government records provide the general context of this study and accurately track John’s movements and land purchases within the territory. John's frequent movements and the land he …

From The Committee Of 100 To The Committee To Re-Elect The President: The Political Campaigns Of Richard M. Nixon, Niklas Trzaskowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From the Committee of 100 to the Committee to Re-elect the President: The Political Campaigns of Richard M. Nixon offers the reader a comprehensive biography of Richard M. Nixon through the lens of his political campaigns. This thesis illustrates how Richard Nixon became one of the fiercest campaigners in 20^th century American political history. This thesis, furthermore, examines the key staff and strategy of each campaign Nixon waged. This thesis, additionally, presents to the reader insight on how Nixon often fought his campaigns independently from the Republican Party and how he relied on the help of a few dedicated …