Digital Commons Network^™

An Intellectual History Of The American Right To Keep And Bear Arms, John Charles Davis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation presents an examination of the intellectual history of the American right to keep and bear arms, as well as its embodiment in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. The document presents the history of ideas surrounding the concept of the right to keep and bear arms, from early Western Civilization through various channels, including English traditions, and how they contributed to the unique perspective on the right to keep and bear arms that emerged in America. Explores not only English contributions, but those of the Scots, and philosophers throughout Europe and Western Civilization, as well as …

Billiken As Transcultural Object From American Mascot To Japanese Pop Deity, M.W. Shores

Asia Pacific Perspectives

This article examines Billiken’s transcultural journey from American novelty mascot (1908) to cultural icon, illuminating early twentieth-century Pacific exchange networks and patterns of cultural adaptation. Drawing on American and Japanese archives, it demonstrates how this commercial figure, born from Progressive Era optimism and incorporating Japanese (and Orientalist) design elements, was transformed within Japanese religious and cultural frameworks. The study analyzes Billiken’s metamorphosis from “good luck” commodity to quasi-religious icon, particularly in Osaka’s Shinsekai district, where strategic marketing drove his its late twentieth-century revival after decades of obscurity. While largely forgotten in America and elsewhere, Billiken’s endurance in Osaka challenges narratives …

Criteria For Rejecting Ideas In African Philosophy : A Historical And Epistemological Analysis, Eric C. Mgalula

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

The rejection of African ideas remains a pivotal debate in African philosophy, centring on tensions between universalist epistemologies and culturally specific criteria. This study synthesizes fragmented discussions into a cohesive framework, interrogating when and why African ideas may be deemed inadequate. It critiques contemporary African scholarship that rigidly adheres to indigenous traditions under decolonial and nationalist imperatives, advocating instead for a balanced approach that harmonizes intellectual rigor with cultural authenticity. Through a historical analysis of key thinkers—from Tempels and Hountondji to Wiredu and Oyewumí—this article historicizes the evolution of evaluative criteria in African philosophy, challenging colonial legacies and romanticized traditionalism. …

Mediation Partiality And The East African Community’S ‘Quiet Diplomacy’ In The Kenyan Post-Election Crisis Of 2007/2008, Rasul A. Minja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the role of East African Community (EAC) in mediating the 2007/2008 Kenyan post-election crisis, analysing its engagement in regional conflict resolution. Despite its mandate to promote peace, the EAC's response was constrained by institutional weaknesses, political dynamics, and reliance on quiet diplomacy. The African Union-backed Panel of Eminent African Personalities, led by Kofi Annan, ultimately led the mediation, sidelining the EAC. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, the article indicates that EAC lacked a binding conflict management framework and faced decision-making delays that hindered swift intervention. The partiality of key figures, particularly President Yoweri Museveni …

Jonathan M Jackson, Visions For An African Valley: Histories Of Development In Kilombero, Tanzania Since 1877., Emanuel L. Mchome

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Research on the history of colonial development and future-making in Tanzania has focused on the racial and class politics that influenced development visions and practices. Studies of postcolonial development history have demonstrated how state leaders and their ideologies shaped nation-building trajectories. Notwithstanding of the temporal dynamics, scholars have analysed how the flow of finance and technical assistance reveals intertwined global forces such as nationalism and the Cold War, and how foreign development assistance shaped development in Tanzania. Visions for an African Valley moves beyond this conventional analysis. Instead of employing ideological lenses in analysis, it specifically examines how colonial and …

The Tomb Of Andraemon And Colophonian Burial Culture, Emily Brophy

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The ancient city of Colophon is surrounded by extensive necropoleis from the Mycenaean, Geometric, and Classical periods of Greek history. Long before the necropoleis’ modern rediscovery, Pausanias described his encounter with the tomb of Andraemon in the 2nd century CE. Searching for Andraemon’s tomb using specific details from Pausanias’s Descriptions of Greece, as well as geographic and archaeological evidence, firmly places the tomb within a complex burial culture surrounding the site of ancient Colophon in modern-day Izmir, Turkey.

Developing Civic Competence With Educative Curriculum Materials Featuring A Historical Photograph Of Antarctica, Cory Callahan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Here the author advocates for an innovative teaching approach synthesizing three research-based, instructional strategies: promoting civic competence within international and global contexts, planning with educative curriculum materials, and exploring historical photographs for higher-order thinking. He traces the crafting of an exemplary lesson through this approach and discusses its underpinning rationale. The lesson helps students and teachers think deeply about land claims and resource disputes in Antarctica while addressing a persistent value conflict throughout history: balancing national sovereignty and international law. A teacher-friendly narrative constitutes the lesson plan; however, it is not teacher-proof, as teachers are encouraged to make instructional decisions …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 1, Fall 2025, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Beyond The North Star: The Southward Flight Of Enslaved People To Mexico, Kayro Gonzalez

Theses (2016-Present)

When most people think of the Underground Railroad, they often picture brave individuals escaping the slave-owning South, seeking safety in the northern United States or Canada. However, it's essential to recognize that the fight for freedom went far beyond those regions. In 1830, Mexico abolished slavery, leading many escapees from enslaved areas across the United States. With freedom just a few miles away, hundreds of American slaves established several secretive and advanced routes into Mexico’s northern states, settling in newly founded free black colonies like San Lorenzo de los Negros and El Nacimiento de los Negros, among others. Using data …

False Friends: The Pereiaslav Agreement Of 1654 And Competing Narratives In Russian And Ukrainian Historiographies, Jiansheng Zhang

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

The Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654, concluded between the Cossack Hetmanate and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy at the Pereiaslav Rada, marked the beginning of modern Cossack-Muscovite (in perspective, Ukrainian-Russian) relations. Owing to its central role in shaping both Russian and Ukrainian national narratives, the agreement remains a highly contentious event in Eastern European history. Historians from the Russian and Ukrainian historiographical traditions offer divergent interpretations of how the agreement was conceived and received by the Cossacks and Muscovites. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, this essay critically examines these competing narratives and concludes that Ukrainian historiography—emphasizing …

The Soviet Truth About China: Portrayal Of The Prc In Pravda During The Sino-Soviet Split, Artem Rakitskii

Chronos

No abstract provided.

The International Perception Of The Irish Republican Army And Chechen Insurgency, Henry Forteith

The Ozark Historical Review

The purpose of this article is to explain how acts of violence influenced the media’s description of the Irish Republican Army and Chechen insurgencies and how the label of ‘terrorist’ affected the perception of the Anglo-Irish and Russo-Chechen conflicts. Quantitative data from the New York Times and International Newsstream databases are used to examine the change in word frequency to describe the IRA and Chechen fighters across a twelve-year span and four-month span before and after certain international events.

The Paper Brigade Of Vilna, Maeghan O'Conner

The Ozark Historical Review

For the Jewish community in Europe, threats to their life, culture, and community had become a real burden, even before Nazi-occupation. An ever marginalized and terrorized lot, efforts to collect Yiddish history and literature had not been particularly successful. That is why the presence of the Libraries and Archives in the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," or Vilna, which had made efforts to preserve and research Yiddish culture, was so important and why their fall in 1940 was so devastating. This work looks at the actions of everyone involved, from the fearless smuggling of the Paper Brigade to efforts to collectivize and …

The Ozark Historical Review, V.49, 2021

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Parallel Lives: Revitalization Of An Ancient Method Of Inquiry, Geoffrey Thomas Uhal

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Parallel Lives style examination and biography is one of the oldest forms of historical inquiry, providing a comparison between a foreign subject and a more familiar subject as a frame of reference. This style of examination was popular for dissertations in the 19th century among military historians writing about generals who were stylistically known as “Great Captains” for much of history. While the moral comparisons of such histories in bygone eras possess less utility, multimodal comparisons of lives that readers have more and less contextual background to provide a model to bridge the gap between foreign and familiar subjects. …

Recent Arrivals: Refugee Resettlement In Nebraska, Emira Ibrahimpašić, Julia Reilly

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

One of the stories Nebraskans tell themselves is that the story of Nebraska is a story of immigration. One of the most recent versions of this story is that Nebraska is one of the best and most welcoming places in the country to be a resettled refugee. In many respects, this narrative is true, but as with all narratives, reality is more complicated. This chapter attempts to paint a fuller picture by providing a detailed history of the foundation of Nebraska’s refugee resettlement program, and an overview of five of the most populous refugee communities in Nebraska. First, we survey …

The Black Curse: The Curse Of Ham And The Mark Of Cain As Justification For Black Subjugation, Margaret Phillips

History in the Making

The concept of race, particularly the construction of blackness and anti-blackness, emerged during the Medieval and Early Modern periods around the Mediterranean and its surrounding cultures. It is a concept of religious origin, in that it first depended on the worldview of the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam— and their interpretations of the narratives surrounding the Biblical figures Cain and Ham. This established the “mark” of black skin as a curse placed by the Abrahamic God that made up the foundational justifications for racial hierarchies and the subjugation of black Africans. The convenient narrative framed blackness as inherently inferior and …

Russian Arctic Land Forces And Defense Trends Redefined By Nato And Ukraine, Troy J. Bouffard, Lester W. Grau, Charles K. Bartles, Mathieu Boulègue

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues that Russia’s Arctic land forces have been weakened by the Russia-Ukraine War and NATO’s northern expansion, creating a strategic window for Western militaries to bolster their Arctic capabilities. Unlike existing studies that focus on maritime operations and the Northern Sea Route, it integrates technical assessments of ground-based Arctic platforms with analysis of military-district reforms. Using a mixed methodology that incorporates equipment specifications, Russian government documents, media reports, and NATO strategic-response evaluations, this article constructs a comprehensive baseline understanding of Russia’s Arctic land-force potential and readiness. Policy and military practitioners will benefit from actionable insights into Arctic force-design …

Talking With Dragons: How Dragons Reveal The Hero's Heart, Anne Elise Crafton

The Ozark Historical Review

The author shines a light onto the transformation Dragons over time and their relationships with heroes in European narrative and art. The study provides primary source analysis as well as a review of the secondary literature as represented through the works for Frazer, Dundes, and Tolkien.

The Ozark Historical Review, V. 46, 2018

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Migration In The Early Chesapeake: Dorchester Co., Md, As A Case Study, 1650–1750, Thomas Daniel Knight

History Faculty Publications

This article examines the migration patterns that shaped the early settlement of Dorchester County, Maryland. Dorchester County is located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, an area distinctive in terms of its geography, history, and culture. In U.S. history, migration has generally proceeded from eastern areas to western ones and from northern areas to southern ones, a pattern dating back to the earliest colonial settlements. Settlement in Dorchester County proceeded primarily from east to west and south to north, with additional migration streams coming from the north out of Delaware and from the west out of Somerset County. This gave Dorchester County …

Sermons And/In/As Literature, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

Five of the nineteen contributors to Preaching and the Sermon in the Twentieth Century are members of English departments, so it is somewhat ironic that none of their chapters could be categorized as “literary studies” (they are instead in the sections for history, book history, media studies, and digital humanities). This presentation is intended to offer a perspective that is not represented in that collection.

In about five minutes each, I will survey the three elements mentioned in my title:

1. Sermons and literature. This section will address how sermons can be influenced by other forms of literature, and influence …

Anishinaabe Nibiing: Anishinaabe Waterscapes And Canoe Building As Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Jeremy Kingsbury

The Cicadian

This paper explores the cultural, ecological, and technological significance of birch bark canoe (wiigwaasi-jiimaan) building among the Anishinaabe people, emphasizing their identity as an inland maritime society. Drawing on historical accounts, oral traditions, and personal experience as a park ranger, the author examines the intricate process of harvesting materials and constructing canoes, highlighting the deep environmental knowledge and gendered labor involved. The canoe served not only as a vital means of transportation and subsistence—facilitating fishing, wild rice harvesting, and seasonal migration—but also as a symbol of familial and spiritual connection. Through detailed descriptions of material selection and craftsmanship, …

Fashioning A Political Identity: French Women And The White Neoclassical Dress, Michele Dobbins

The Ozark Historical Review

This essay seeks to probe the question of women’s neoclassical dress – how was it represented in art, why did it maintain longevity, and what did it mean for the hundreds of women who decided to wear the ideals of Greek and Rome upon their very bodies?

Ozark Historical Review, V.45, 2016

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

The Métis And The Manifest Destiny Of The Canadian Northwest, Donald Holler

The Ozark Historical Review

As the United States, hoping to pursue “Manifest Destiny,” attempted to expand until North America truly was the “American” continent, the newly formed Dominion of Canada, ever fearful of its expanding neighbor to the south, tried to cobble together a trans-continental nation and forge its own unique identity and destiny. These two competing impulses came to a head in the long neglected Métis Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870 which sealed the future of the North American continent.

The "Uniform Rule" And Its Exceptions: A History Of Congressional Naturalization Legislation, Daniel Rice

The Ozark Historical Review

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution empowers Congress “[t]o establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” In Part I of this article, I discuss the American colonial experience with naturalization laws and account for the Naturalization Clause’s. I then examine the historical development of Congress’s “uniform rule” and deconstruct the mechanism by which certain groups have been excluded from and brought back within its reach. Lastly, I scrutinize Congress’s posture towards expatriation, the logical converse of naturalization. In Part II, I ask why Congress might have thought it expedient to carve out statutory exceptions to the naturalization procedures it had …

The Ozark Historical Review, V. 40, 2011 Entire_Issue

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Liberation: Philosophy And The Making Of World Culture In China And The West, Chunjie Zhang

Philosophy & Theory

Contemporary debate on cosmopolitanism routinely refers to Immanuel Kant as its intellectual origin. A group of Chinese and German-speaking thinkers in the early twentieth century, however, used classical Chinese philosophy as an alternative intellectual genealogy to reimagine ethics, politics, society, and modernity for the entire world. Their engagement with Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism broadens the scope of global intellectual history to include a non-European origin of concepts and ideas.

Due to the differences in their local crises, the Chinese and the European stories are often narrated in separate national and cultural contexts. Bridging the critical divide between China and the …

Resisting Islamophobia: “Westophobia” In Social Media, Peter O'Brien, Jordan Nelson

Comparative Civilizations Review

Both the practice and study of Islamophobia repose on the concept of comparative civilizations. Purveyors of Islamophobia use what Roger Westcott calls a “denotative” understanding to posit an objective conflict (or “clash” à la Samual Huntington) between Western and Islamic civilizations. Scholars who analyze Islamophobia tend to take what Westcott calls a “connotative” approach that views civilizations as subjective, social constructs (à la Edward Said’s “Orient”).

Despite many advantages, the latter approach tends to dismiss the agency of Muslims to resist Islamophobia. This article counters that trend by exploring Islamist resistance to Islamophobia, to which we give the shorthand label, …