Digital Commons Network^™

Encountering The Sublime: Early Hermit Lifeways, Visual-Spatial Worlds, And The Global Recluse, James Brown

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper will assess the degree to which reclusion in the early period can be labeled a global phenomenon and will examine three key areas, the institutional ambits of reclusion, the visual-spatial world of the eremite, and the enduring cultural canon associated with eremitisms across both geographical and temporal distances. In addition, the author will perform an epistemological and phenomenological exercise in deriving humanistic insight from the experiences of recluses, as gleaned through deep consideration of their environments and cultural products.

Reflections Of The Veil: Tracing Blurred Boundaries Of Politics And Desire In Vienna's Saturn-Films, Beth Withey

The Ozark Historical Review

This article considers the Saturn-Film Company founded in 1906 in Vienna. Their films often contained comic plot devices intermingled with erotic images which expressed the culture of Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century.

Divinity And Royalty In The Writings Of Motoori Norinaga, Chad Totty

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper concerns the kokugaku movement as seen through the philosophy of Motoori Norinaga. Specifically, it looks at Norinaga’s view of the divine and its connection to his philosophy regarding Japanese royalty, the emperor, and the imperial line. It will examine the qualities of Norinaga’s thought that linked his philosophy of the divine with his views of the emperor, served to formulate his world view, and his idea of Japan’s place in the world.

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.

Performing Piety, Commerce, And Community In The Medieval Italian Town, John D. Treat

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper explores the characters and set–like aspects of the Italian medieval town where much of the drama of the emergence of the modern individual and economy played out and examines the various changes in the presentation of the human body within Christianity and the evolution of the façades of the buildings of the medieval Italian street.

"The One Bright Spot Where All Else Is Dark And Hopeless." Images Of Class, Race And Culture In Britain's Imperial Education System During The Nineteenth Century, Jeff Grooms

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper outlines the ideologies that underpin the language of education, and the relationship between this language and educational policy in Britain and abroad. These topics illustrate that the abstraction of ‘civilization,’ and the themes of ‘darkness’ and ‘light’ that surround it, are an essential part of how nineteenth century sociocultural relations should be studied.

The Prophet's Medicine: How Mormon Doctrine And Medical Practices Evolved Along The American Frontier, Drew Robinson

The Ozark Historical Review

Joseph Smith rejected both the religious and medical orthodoxies of his day and developed his own theological systems while learning to rely solely on herbs for his medical care. His medical convictions regarding herbal medicine were as authoritative and binding for Mormons to practice as his religious revelations. However, by the time Brigham Young had become leader of the Mormons, regular medicine had become both modern and superior to other medical practices, including the Mormons’ herbal medicine. Though the use of herbal medicine had been codified into religious law by Smith, the benefits and availability of modern medicine earned the …

Britain And The Mediterranean: Empire And Culture In The Georgian-Victorian Era, James Brown

The Ozark Historical Review

I will examine the high age of British expansion into the Mediterranean – the mid- to late years of the Georgian- Victorian era. Since Britain’s imperialistic ventures were always intimately connected with domestic forces, I have chosen to divide my investigation into two main sections: the first analyzing the role of the Mediterranean, particularly Greece, in British culture and intellectual history prior to and during full-scale expansion, and the second presenting an account of Britain’s Mediterranean campaigns proper.

English King And German Commoner: An Exploration Of Sixteenth Century Clothing And Identity, Bradley Moore

The Ozark Historical Review

There is perhaps no other external article which is more closely tied to one’s sense of identity than clothing. With a quick glance, one can readily gauge a person by their dress. So too, in the sixteenth century; clothing was used to construct identity, and in some cases to deconstruct it as well. This paper seeks to explore how identity and clothing are in many ways, inseparable. Concepts of religiosity, gender, nationalism, and “the other” were all intimately tied to dress and fashion. During the sixteenth century, perhaps even more strongly than now, clothing could be read like a book …

The Ozark Historical Review, V. 42, 2013 Entire_Issue

The Ozark Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Early Theories On Fluid Resistance And Translation Of Euler’S “Dilucidationes De Resistentia Fluidorum”, Sylvio R. Bistafa

Euleriana

In 1763, Euler published Dilucidationes de resistentia fluidorum (Explanations on the resistance of fluids), a memoir that challenges the fluid resistance theories proposed by Isaac Newton and d’Alembert. Euler's work explores the resistance experienced by solid bodies moving through fluids, critiquing both Newton's "common rule" and d’Alembert's paradox, which predicted zero resistance for non-viscous fluids. Euler's treatise is divided into two parts: the first focuses on the mathematical modeling of fluid flow patterns, while the second addresses the calculation of fluid resistance on surfaces. Despite significant advancements, Euler's work remains constrained by the limitations of non-viscous fluid assumptions, ultimately grappling …

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.

An Assessment Of Transformations In American And Canadian Women Homesteaders In The Mid-Nineteenth To Early Twentieth Century Wests, Rachel Albinson

The Ozark Historical Review

Every woman’s western experience was not the same, regardless of whether they were from the United States or Canada. Therefore, the various physical, social and psychological transformations of each woman who made the journey west cannot be grouped into one generalization. Yet a great deal can be said for the amount of women who did and did not experience such significant changes during the rough journey westward, changes that are determined by the differences in each woman’s attitude and behavior prior to and after their arrival in the western regions of North America.

Erotic Dream And Governmental Nightmare: Use And Censorship Of Pillow Books In Edo Culture And The Influence Of The "Floating World", Emily Chase

The Ozark Historical Review

The “floating world” of Yoshiwara 吉原, the pleasure district of Edo, capital city of Japan during the Edo period (1600–1868), was a fantasy itself, one that fired the imaginations of the many artists who took it as their subject. Like the licensed red-light district of the capital, which contained both theater and many brothels, the art of the “floating world” was often erotic in nature. This eroticism ranged from the subtly arousing to the pornographic. It is the latter, known as shunga 春画(translated literally as “spring pictures”, but commonly called pillow books in the west) which is especially intriguing. These …

Escape From The "Floating World": Kabuki Theater In Conflict With The Bakufu Government Of Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868), Suzanne Schenewerk

The Ozark Historical Review

Ukiyo 浮世, the “floating world” of the Tokugawa 徳川 era (1600–1868) in Japan, holds a particular fascination that endures to this day. For townfolk and samurai alike, this realm of beauty and entertainment represented an escape from the ordinary, a place where pleasure took priority above all other concerns. However, for the entertainers themselves, this demi-monde was not a temporary refuge from the mundane – quite the opposite. Their occupations conferred them to a strange and, in many ways, unenviable position in society, as caste structure and governmental restrictions isolated performers of the period physically and socially.

Creating The Thomas Mcrae Sanitorium For Negros: Race, Contagion, And Space In Jim Crow Arkansas, Shauna Gibbons

The Ozark Historical Review

The Thomas McRae Memorial Sanatorium for Negroes, located in Alexander, Arkansas, opened its doors in 1931 as the only resource for the entire state’s population of consumptive African Americans. It was touted as one of the best of its kind under the supervision of Dr Hugh A. Browne. But its “kind” was a facility intended for individuals whom whites in the medical and political establishment viewed not only as second class citizens but as biologically and medically different.

Interview With A Film Professor, Jacey Terrill

What Happened Here

This is a transcript of an oral history with an associate professor of film, who was an assistant professor of film at the time of the protest at Cal Poly Humboldt. They had been teaching a class about social change through film and recalled letting their class out early, as the protest was just starting. The film professor realized later on the day of the protest how much more serious it had become, and signed up with other Art and Film Faculty to keep watch of the protesters to help them if police were to show up again. They emphasized …

The Buddhist Recluse In The Late Heian (794–1185) And Early Kamakura (1185–1333) Periods As Seen Through Kamo-No-Chômei’S Hôjôki And The Poems Of Saigyô, Scott Lloyd

The Ozark Historical Review

Kamo-no-Chômei and Saigyô,two of Japan’s most well-known aesthete-recluses and open a window through their works not only into the life of the recluse as an individual but also into the broader culture. The following pages will attempt to shed light on the overall concept of reclusion and its importance by looking specifically at what they had to say about their own experiences: Saigyô through his collected poems, and Chômei through his seminal poetic essay Hôjôki “Ten-Foot- Square Hut”, written in 1212.

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 …

Civilization: The Gaze Of Photography, William Alexander Ewing

Comparative Civilizations Review

If the lifetime of our species were imagined as a single 24-hour day, then civilization makes its appearance at the 23.02 mark. And photography? It comes on stage under a minute before midnight.

How marvelous it would have been to have had photography recording our lives throughout those millennia.

Beyond Earth: Strategic Pathways To A Multiplanet Civilization And The Case For Mars Settlement, Andrew Targowski

Comparative Civilizations Review

This research provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary exploration of the transition toward a multiplanet civilization, with a special focus on Mars as humanity’s first major step beyond Earth. By addressing technological, political, economic, and ethical dimensions, it aims to inform policymakers, scientists, and the public about the feasibility, challenges, and philosophical implications of interplanetary expansion.

As humanity approaches the threshold of becoming a multiplanet civilization, it faces unprecedented scientific, technological, economic, and ethical challenges. This paper explores the rationale, methodologies, and critical considerations for establishing sustainable human settlements beyond Earth, with a particular focus on Mars. By analyzing advances in …

Towards The Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison: How Civilizations Work - Case 1: The Monotheistic Civilization, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The purpose of this essay is to offer several hypotheses based on the concept of civilization and the conceptual scaffolding for the study of the cultural reality, proposed in the Spring 2024 CCR paper, regarding the three civilizations coexisting in the world today: the monotheistic, the Sinic, and the Indic. It introduces the modal dimensions along which civilizations may differ on the level of the individual mind — cognitive (pertaining both to the structure and contents of thought), moral, and emotional; and that of the society (separate institutions and institutional systems) and history.

Books Of Interest Fall 2025, Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

Books that may be of interest to scholars of the comparative study of civilizations, and may add significantly to the body of scholarship in the civilizational field. These books are also available for book reviews in future editions of Comparative Civilizations Review.

The Fragrance Muse: Musk As A Symbolic Tapestry In Classical Persian Poetry, Akbar Shirini, Shen Xudong, Zhao Dan

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper explores the symbolic representation of musk in classical Persian poetry, uncovering its role as a multifaceted emblem of Iranian cultural identity and human experience. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of primary texts from the Ganjoor archive and secondary sources, the study traces musk’s historical significance across China, Iran, and Islamic world. In China, musk is prized for its rarity, medicinal properties, and metaphysical roles; in Iran, it intertwines with mythology, Zoroastrian cosmology, and trade; in Islamic contexts, it holds commercial and therapeutic value, cherished by figures like Mohammad. Within Persian poetry, musk transcends its material origins, symbolizing blackness …

Towards The Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison: How Civilizations Work Case 2: The Indic Civilization, Monika Monika

Comparative Civilizations Review

Building on Liah Greenfeld’s (2024) framework of Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison, as outlined in her Spring 2024 CCR essay, this paper examines the cultural realities of the Indic civilization. Civilizations differ at both the individual level, including cognitive aspects (the structure and content of thought), moral dimensions (values and principles guiding behavior), and emotional patterns (typical emotional responses); and the societal level, i.e., distinct institutions, institutional systems, and historical trajectories (Greenfeld 2024).

In each civilization, these modal dimensions stem from and are shaped by the first civilizational principles — the foundational ideas framing the reality unique to that civilization. In Indic …

Herty Foundation Records, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

The collection dates from 1938 to 2001 and consists of meeting minutes, administrative records, photographs, and newspaper clippings documenting the activities of the Herty Foundation, its laboratory, and pilot plant. Photographs include views of the early pilot plant, laboratory, and shipyard around 1938 and the opening of the new pilot plant in 1957. Newspaper clippings report on the Herty Foundation and its work between 1953 and 1980.

Find this collection in the libraries' catalog.

Local Identity In The Lives Of The Fathers Of Mérida: When Ethnicity And Religion Aren’T The Point, Erica Buchberger

History Faculty Publications

While scholarship on early medieval Europe often centers ethnicity or religion over other forms of identity, they were not always the most relevant form of identification for contemporaries. In the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida (late sixth-early seventh century), ethnic and religious identity were actually deployed to construct a local identity around the space and people of the city. This article explores how the text did so by closely analyzing terms used and their context, and by applying social scientific theories of boundary construction to illuminate the strategies of identification behind it. It argues that such an approach …

Sociological Dichotomies Of Mława, Poland, Over Time: Misplaced Concreteness, Individual Triumph, Social Tragedy, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

For many years, I have been an active member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations and Editor-in-Chief of its journal, the Comparative Civilizations Review. Since the 1960s, I have also been a university administrator and a professor, globe-trotting to learn about societies near and far, their rises and falls. Yet even though I lived and worked in Prague, as president of a university, not far from the Polish border, I had never set foot in that country, notwithstanding that my paternal grandfather came from there.