Medieval Studies Commons^™

Satorial Manipulation Within Historical Politics, Heather Dew

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Fashion's impact on the course of history largely unexplored. Herbert Blumer, a noted sociologist at UC Berkeley, accurately credits this oversight to

"a failure to observe and appreciate the wide range of operation of fashion; a false assumption that fashion has only nivial or peripheral significance; a mistaken idea that fashion falls in the area of the abnormal and irrational and thus is out of the mainsneam of human group life; and, finally, a misunderstanding of the nature of fashion."

Blumer was criticizing sociologists, but he may as well have been criticizing historians; scholarly works analyzing fashion's impact are rare …

Slavery And The Second Party System: The Senate Gag Rule As A Test Case, Lee J.F. Deppermann

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

By December 18, 1835, James Henry Hammond, freshman representative from South Carolina, had endured long enough. Hammond insisted that instead of discussing and tabling antislavery petitions, the House of Representatives should not even receive them. The result was the most intense and divisive slavery debate since the Missouri Compromise. When it became apparent that abolitionist tracts would not be allowed to penetrate the South, abolitionists brought their crusade for public opinion to the halls of Congress, claiming their constitutional right of petition. It was these petitions that drove many Southerners, especially the impulsive and fiery Hammond, to lash out and …

Preface, Peter Wright

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The eminent Russian humanist and novelist Leo Tolstoy once quipped, "Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them." Although Tolstoy intended this to be a criticism of contemporary historical trends, his thought reveals an important truth about the value of historical studies: historians often investigate questions that others never think to explore and thus provide new and unique perspectives on past human experience. Does the fact that the majority deigns not to entertain these questions decrease their significance? On the contrary, I believe that this is precisely what gives historical inquiry its …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Vision, Repetition And Redemption: Envisioning Universal Salvation In A Group Of Six Carolingian Ivory Book Covers, Valerie Thai

Theses and Dissertations

Six Carolingian ivory plaques share almost identical imagery. This thesis focuses on the figures of Synagoga and the rising dead repeated in the compositions. As the ivories are Gospel covers used in Mass, this study demonstrates how these motifs appeal to the congregation, conveying the Christian tenet of universal salvation.

Chaucer’S Contradictory Representations Of Fourteenth Century Knighthood In The Canterbury Tales, Nicholas Cabrera

Theses and Dissertations

Differences in interpretation have long dominated scholarship regarding knighthood in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. But these differences fail to consider the nuance of the text and the historical realities of the period in which Chaucer wrote. Chaucer’s depiction of knighthood represents the institution as filled with tensions and contradictions.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Geraldo The Fearless: The Unsung Hero Of Portugal, Jacob Badal

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

It is well known that Western Europe has enjoyed a longstanding fascination among scholars and students. So much so that calls to move beyond the region towards a global focus in academia are increasing daily. Yet, much of Western Europe's history beyond England, France, and Germany remains unexplored. Spain, as of late, has enjoyed a resurgence of interest, but Portugal has largely been ignored. Indeed, many do not even consider the two Iberian nations and their entangled histories with Islam and North Africa as part of Europe proper, despite the many advancements contributed by both nations to science, cartography, navigation, …

Binding Interdependence: The Necessity Of Marriage In The Stonor Letters, Sarah Emmett

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Upon her Mattiage to William Stonor in 1475, Elizabeth Stonor, nee Croke, was no wedding amateur. Twice before, she had stood on the steps of the church, as was the custom, and promised to share her wealth and her body with her husband. Twice before, her husband had promised to provide for her and leave her a dower portion upon his death. Both grooms had offered Elizabeth gold and silver coins and a ring to seal their union, and both times, Elizabeth and her husband had prostrated themselves before the altar of the church and heard mass among their family, …

The Jewish Assimilation Of Europe, Noah Allen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, historians consistently freamed Jewish crises a conflict between the forces of assimilation and preservation, or in some cases liberalism and orthodoxy. Israeli scholars like Katz helped reinforce this frame in volumes like Tradition and Crisis, describing rationalist trends in modern Jusdaism like the Haskalah movement as an assimilation reaction to the liberalizing force of the European Enlightenment. Szajkowski extended this narriative to the French Revolution, asserting that French Jewry was faced with a choice between the defense of ancient tradition and absorption into a radical new movement that was unappreciative of the …

The Becket Family Of Salem, Massachusetts, Kaitlyn Richardson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Though Notorious for the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s, history moved on in Salem after the trials. During the eighteenth century, Salem grew increasingly prominent in the seafaring trade, and by 1800 had a population of 9,400, making it the sixth-largest city in the United States and the second-busiest port in Massachusetts. Indeed, Salem and her trade contacts are considered by historians co be integral in the beginnings of United Scares international relations during the early nineteenth century. This port town had contacts with such far-flung places as other North American Colonies, the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, and the West …

Rivalries At Red Cliff: Recasting Historical Figures In Modern Chinese Film And Television, Jackson Keys

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When accomplished strategist Zhuge Liang visits the funeral of his bitter rival Zhou Yu, he does something no one expects. Mose of the attendees are loyal to Sun Quan , Zhou Yu's lord who controls China's southernmost provinces, and are well aware of the incense power struggle chat ensued between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang as che two cooperated in repelling Cao Cao's advances at Red Cliff. Zou Yu attempted multiple times before and after the battle to have Zhuge Liang killed, and each time Liu Bei's brilliant strategist was one step ahead of him. Zhou Yu's deathbed message, penned …

The Politics Of Removing Politics From The Bench: The Development Of Missouri's Nonpartisan Court Plan, Grant Baldwin

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Today, the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan-known informally as the "Missouri Plan"-informs the judicial selection processes in 38 of the 50 states. Put simply, the Plan operates through a nonpartisan commission that produces a list of potential judges to fill judicial vacancies. The state's governor then selects from the commission's list when making judicial appointments. After one year of service, the judges' names are then placed on a nonpartisan and noncompetitive retention ballot, in which the voters simply select whether the judge will retain his or her position or be removed. Despite its ubiquity, scholars have paid very little attention to …

Two Murder Confessions And The Struggle For Black Authority In Early 19th Century Philadelphia, Garrett Gaither

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

As Richard Allen Headed to the prision to help facilitate the confessions of a murder that shook the city of Philadelphia, he let his mind wander. It felt just like yesterday that he arrived in the city and started preaching and helping his Black brothers and sisters. They had made so much progress over his few decades in Philadelphia: an independent church they were still fighting to hold onto, the new law against the Atlantic slave trade, and a large Black community that was active in his church. Despite all of this success, racial tensions were rising in the city. …

Atatiirk's Reforms And Legacy: Exploring A Female Novelist's Critique, David Patton

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On May 19, 1919, in the post-World War I Ottoman Empire an Ottoman military officer named Mustafa Kemal Pasha abandoned his pose after he was sent to Samsun on the Black Sea coast to inspect the Ninth Army of the Ottoman Empire, taking up leadership of the Turkish Nationalist Movement against the Entente powers, Britain and France. This marked the commencement of the Turkish War of Independence, a conflict that lasted until the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which officially drove out the Western powers from Anatolia, the Turkish heartland. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, the …

Forgotten Fallout: The Missing Impact Of The Sl-1 Disaster, Darren Bradley

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Nuclear Energy has long been a volatile subject in American history and public discourse. Reactor accidents, domestic and foreign, such as the meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the disaster at the Chernobyl plane in Pripyac, Ukraine have been major milestones in shaping public opinion of nuclear energy in the United Scares. While these events have remained atomic milestones of sores, due to the fact chat nearly everyone has heard of chem, the 1961 explosion of the SL-I reactor at the Nuclear Reactor Test Site in Idaho, the first in the world to inflict casualties, has never held …

Ussr Influence On The Antiapartheid Movements Of South Africa, Brooke England

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On 21 March 1960, the Pan Africanist Congress urged people to join together to protest passes-identifying documents required to be carried at all times by black Africans-by surrendering themselves without the passes for arrest in defiance of the discriminatory law. Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station. After hours of singing and peaceful protest, a policeman was accidentally knocked down and the crowd rushed forward to investigate. Terror ensued when the policemen opened fire on the crowd. Humphrey Tyler, the assistant editor of Drum magazine, witnessed the chaos firsthand. He recounts chat after a cheerful and …

All Those Who Shall Pass An Italian's Resistance & Nazi Occupation, Alexander Willis

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The song "Bella Ciao" was originally written as an anthem for the struggles of the 19th century Italian working class. Amidst the beginning of Italy's monumental wrestle against fascism (both from Italy's own government and Nazi forces), the words were changed to reflect the struggle of the resistance fighters, known as partisans. "Bella Ciao" was now a song mourning the loss of their beautiful Italy. It was not just a song of grief, but also a song of belligerent determination to resist.

Editor's Preface, Travis Meyer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Every historical journal has a focus. Some journals center on a geographic region, others on the time period, and yet other on paterns common to every civilization. At first glace at this journal, however, there seems to be little thematic continuity between the articles. Topics range from medieval Portuguese legends to Missouri judicial politics. Despite varied subject matter, however, this journal's selections reflect important emphases on historical practice itself. First, the geographic, chronological, and thematic diversiry of this journal serves to express the value of all kinds of history. The articles represented here feature inquiry into the history of Asia, …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.