Medieval Studies Commons^™

An Enduring Force: The Photography Of Laura Gilpin Among The Twentieth-Century Navajo, Carlyle Schmollinger

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

While some artisits travel the world in search of inspiration, Laura

Gilpin found hers in the arid, desert landscape of the southwestern United States. Gilpin had an affinity for the Navajo. In 1968, eleven years before her death, she published the first edition of her seminal work, The Enduring Navajo. A feat in its own right, the collection of photographs and accompanying text was the product of many years spent among the peoples located in the Southwest region of the United States. In the epilogue to her book, Gilpin boldly proclaims her love of the Navajo when talking about the …

"The End Is Near": Pop Culture Adaptations Of Premillennial Themes, Kelsey Samuelsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

March 1997: Thirty-nine people poison themselves, committing suicide in order to board an alien space ship allegedly trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet. December 2009: A fa iled cure for cancer sparks a pandemic which immediately kills most of the population and leaves the rest ravaged and cannibalistic. January 2000: The turn of the century threatens to crash the world's computers, wreaking havoc on civilized society. These scenarios, a mixture of fabricated and factual, represent the variety of apocalyptic myths in American culture. The popularity of end-of-the-world themes has risen in recent years. Numerous depictions of such events in well-known books, films, …

"Damn The Tyrant's Cause!": Primary Source Analysis Of The Morris Family Letters From 1829 To 1846, Lark Plessinger

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

From 1829 to 1846, members of the Morris family wrote a series of letters to their brother Jonathan Morris, who remained in Chorley, England, regarding their experiences immigrating to America. This set of letters only includes the correspondence addressed to Jonathan, but it still provides valuable insights about this transitional, frontier period of American history as witnessed by the Morris family. By analyzing the different concerns voiced in these letters, the social, economic, and political world of those who immigrated to nineteenth-century Ohio comes to life.

Contradictions Among The People: Mao Zedong And The Aims Of The Hundred Flowers Policy, Cameron C. Nielsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

As the year 1956 dawned, the People's Republic of China (PRC) was at a crossroads. After a mere six years in power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had successfully consolidated its control of mainland China, stabilized and reformed the economy, won the hearts of the peasants through land redistribution, fought the United States to a standstill in Korea, and silenced dissent through re-education campaigns. However, questions began to arise over where to go from there. To the surprise of many, at this moment of the Party's uncertainty, Mao Zedong began to push for greater openness to critical voices. Known as …

Masonic Motifs In Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, Bradley Kime

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In Roald Dahl's classic story, Charlie Bucket is one of five lucky children allowed to tour Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory. The tour is designed to test the character and integrity of each child. Ultimately only Charlie proves his virtue and commitment to keeping the secrets of the factory, while the tour itself reveals the character flaws of the other four children. Charlie's reward is to learn all of Wonka's "most precious candy-making secrets" and to eventually preserve and operate the factory as the candy-maker's heir.

Reed Smoot And The League Of Nations: Duty To Church And Party, Brandon Hellewell

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Senator Reed Smoot (R-UT) lived his life with two great devotions, the Republican Party and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1919, he held high positions in both. At that time, and in his seventeenth year as a senator, Smoot served as a member of the Senate Finance Committee. He also served as an Apostle of the LDS Church. These two parts of Smoot's life created tensions at several junctures, including 1919 when the Republican Party and LDS Church took opposing sides in the battle over United States membership in the League of Nations. The Church supported …

Changes In German Holocaust Memorials, Stephanie Bergeson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Since World War II, Holocaust memorials have been built in many countries for a variety of reasons. Many memorials have been erected as places to remember and mourn the loss of those who were its victims. Some are built mainly to raise difficu lt but important moral and ethical questions in a world of increasing globalization and relativism. Others have been built to distance a country's association with the Holocaust and the Nazi government. Still others, as was the case with early Holocaust memorials in West Germany, were built in an attempt to forget or bury the past.

Preface, Joseph Seeley

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The Ancient Chineases Philosopher Confucius once said, "I was not born to wisdom: I loved the past, and sought it earnestly there." Though many students of history would agree with this Eastern sage about the benefits of seeking wisdom in the past, in an era where information is often conveyed in thirty minute episodes and 140-charactcr tweets, the meticulous study of the past preferred by both Confucius and BYU history majors may seem as dated as the figures and events they research.

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Ai-Ghazali's Deliverance From Error And Mormonism, Jade Stocks

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the Doctrine and Covenants, we are encouraged to "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom." While this recommendation comes from Mormon scripture, no group or individual has a monopoly on wisdom or knowledge-these "best books" clearly include works by those of other faiths. One of history's most prominent religious writers is Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, who studied and wrote during the uoos on many topics, including the relationship between religion and the various forms of science. In his thesis Deliverance from Error, Al-Ghazali proposes that there are three levels of knowledge, each more concrete than …

Beeman, Richard. Plain, Honest Men: The Making Of The American Constitution, Garrett Nagaishi

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the twenty-first century America, it is nearly impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing talk of "Constitutional rights." But what did the Founding Fathers think about rights? What would Thomas Jefferson or James Madison say about the state of American political affairs today? Beeman's exhaustive analysis of the 1787 Constitutional Convention attempts to answer these questions. Beeman asks the reader to set aside long-held preconceptions of the founding of the United States and journey through the four-month assembly that constructed a nation from the rubble of the American Revolution. This book marks not only …

Memories In Stone: Family History Research In The Western Pyrenees, Paul Woodbury

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I stood in a small grove of trees, which afforded a respite from the misty rain. Streams of fog crept along the valley walls and covered the village of Aydius in foamy white waves. I admired the engravings decorating the lchante household- the heartfelt expression of a peasant farmer and shepherd. I would never have imagined that my internship and study abroad would culminate here, reading my ancestor's memoirs chiseled in stone. Yet here I was, thousands of miles from home, alone in a foreign country, away from the pristine comfort of the regional archives, reading Joseph lchante's legacy carved …

The Other American Revolution: Catalyzing The Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom, Amberlee Hansen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The American colonies were on the verge of revolution and the Commonwealth of Virginia was in turmoil, but the John and Elizabeth Semple family in King and Queen County, Virginia, had reason to celebrate. On that day they welcomed the family's youngest son, Robert Baylor Semple, into the world. As his mother lovingly examined his tiny features, myriad thoughts may have run through her mind-thoughts about her child's future in a world that seemed so politically uncertain. There would still be peace in the American colonies for several more years before the political explosion of revolution rocked the colonies, but …

"Many Hearts Yet Beat With The Hurt Of A Wounded Past:" Miss Indian Byu, Lamanite Identities, And The Subversive Potential Of Pageants, Jennifer Duque

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The theme of Brigham Young University's 1972 Indian week, an annual event set apart for Native guest speakers, Lamanite Generation performances, and the Miss Indian BYU pageant, was "New IndianNew Commitments." This might have well been the theme of Mormonism's oft-ambivalent relationship with Native Americans. The "new Indian" that the Mormon leadership celebrated was "modernized," "civilized," and, of course, Mormonized. The Miss Indian BYU pageant provides a compelling site in which to investigate the tension between new and old, the contemporary and the traditional. Although Miss Indian BYU existed within an oppressive neocolonial framework, it is reductive to see the …

Choiceless Choices: The Sonderkommando Of Auschwitz As Victims, Taylor Rice

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

To undertake the Extermination of Europe's Jews, the Nazis needed more manpower than the ranks of the SS could provide. The Germans relied on the constant supply ofJewish prisoners to meet their need for a large labor force in the concentration camps themselves. At its highest rate of extermination, more than one hundred inmates were assigned to work in each crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Sonderkommando (special detachment) at Auschwitz was composed of prisoners selected by the Nazis to participate in extermination work. As a result, members of this special detachment had an incredibly intimate view of the inner workings of …

The Monkey On America's Back: The Fears Of 1960s America As Seen In The Film Planet Of The Apes, Grant Reynolds

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Few movies with blatant socail messages are both entertaining and profitable, but 1968's Planet of the Apes is an historic exception. The launching point for a franchise that included seven additional films, Planet of the Apes became a box office financial success and a cult classic, perhaps because of its social message. Planet of the Apes was released during one of the most stressful periods of American history and was written to shine a spotlight on the fears of the times, especially fears about the issues of the Red Scare, race relations, Vietnam, and nuclear war.

"American And British Spoken Here": American Servicemen In Cambridge, 1942-1945, Jordan Meservy

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

During the 1940s, troops from the United States of America marched through parts of the world they had never before imagined, such as the dry heat of North Africa, the humid climate of the South Pacific islands, and the snow-clad forests of Belgium. & the troops interacted with different cultures, they made a deep impression on these countries and were impacted in their turn, forming new international relationships. One such interaction took place between British citizens and American troops, as Great Britain became the staging ground for the invasion of Europe, a giant aircraft carrier of sorts for the men …

A Precious Privilege, A Fragile Experiment: The Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rebecca Johnson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Empowered by a royal charter, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony seized the opportunity to organize a pure society unencumbered by the corruption of Old England. Anticipating the blessings of God on their covenant pursuit, but perhaps naive about the extreme challenges awaiting them, they embarked on their experiment full of confidence that a solution to their oppressive situation in Old England lay beyond the ocean in New England. Discounting the native population, they viewed the land as vacant, a virgin environment where the solution to the Puritan dilemma of doing what is right in a world that does …

Bluegrass Grays: Confederate Sons And Unionist Fathers In Civil War Kentucky, Elise Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

After clinging for four months to a futile neutrality policy, the Commonwealth of Kentucky officially pledged loyalty to the Union in September 1861. Though Federal officials welcomed the state with enthusiasm, expecting her to provide significant aid to the Union army, state commanding officer William T. Sherman was soon frustrated by the astonishing one-quarter of Kentucky volunteers who flocked, instead, to the Confederacy. Hardly lonely in his disappointment, Sherman's woes were echoed by thousands of fathers across the Bluegrass State-for these Kentuckian Confederates were, overwhelmingly, young sons of men who passionately supported the Union.