Digital Commons Network^™

Women's Empowerment Through Strength Sports—And Its Limits, Alison Clark Efford

History Faculty Research and Publications

This historical case study demonstrates that the purpose of a program of strength training affects whether it will empower women. The Turnverein or Turners was a German American organization that combined physical training, ethnic pride, and civic engagement. From the 1880s to the 1920s, it was at the forefront of promoting women’s exercise in the United States, including strength training with weighted clubs, dumbbells, and apparatuses. Woman Turners seized on physical training to challenge patriarchal power structures. They found joy in exertion, achievement, and comradery, while contesting the notion that to be feminine meant to be weak. Yet male Turners …

Performance Patriotism: The State Council Of Defense, The Illinois Women’S Committee, And The Role Of The State In World War I Illinois, Joshua David Fulton

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation traces the role of the State Council of Defense and Women’s Committee as Illinois’s wartime state between 1917-1918. Centered around dynamics of voluntarism, pageantry, and how the state negotiated the use of coercion in mobilization for war, the project draws heavily on the State Council and Women’s Committee records at the State Archives in Springfield, Illinois. Wartime mobilization in Illinois—and nationally in 1917—relied on a complex combination of federal messaging and resources working in concert with state and local forces who were supportive of the Wilson administration’s war effort. Bringing together disparate prewar communities, the State Council and …

U.S. Senate And House Perspectives On Missile Defense Systems Opposed By Russia And China, Constance Valarie Baroudos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States and its allies and partners have deployed three missile defense systems to protect against Iranian and North Korean missile threats: the European Phased Adaptive Approach, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and Ground-based Missile Defense. Russia and China oppose these systems because they view them as undermining their strategic interests. The purpose of the present study was to better understand the perspectives of Senate and House Armed Services Committee HASC members about the three missile defense systems in congressional hearings. The three models of the congressional behavior model, the preference, simple party, and asymmetric categories, and neorealism and …

U.S. Senate And House Perspectives On Missile Defense Systems Opposed By Russia And China, Constance Valarie Baroudos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States and its allies and partners have deployed three missile defense systems to protect against Iranian and North Korean missile threats: the European Phased Adaptive Approach, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and Ground-based Missile Defense. Russia and China oppose these systems because they view them as undermining their strategic interests. The purpose of the present study was to better understand the perspectives of Senate and House Armed Services Committee HASC members about the three missile defense systems in congressional hearings. The three models of the congressional behavior model, the preference, simple party, and asymmetric categories, and neorealism and …

Mai Bhago And Amrita Devi Bishnoi: Women Of Strength, Sowmya Ayyar

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Mai Bhago (1670-1720), also known as Bhag Kaur, distinguished herself on the battlefield to defend the Sikh faith. Amrita Devi Bishnoi (d. 1730) is said to have sacrificed her life with 362 others to protect the Khejari trees in the Rajasthan desert. Both women continue to inspire social justice and ecological activism.

An Examination Of Gandhian Economic And Political Thought And Its Relevance To The Empowerment Of Women, Purnima Mehta Bhatt

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) sought to alleviate poverty and empower women. His commitment to nonviolence and the economic ideal of “small is beautiful” continue to inspire grassroots movements around the globe. This article discusses the Chipko movement of northern India, the protection of rain forests in Kerala’s Silent Valley, the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and Medha Patkar’s valiant though ultimately futile attempt to save the Narmada River from a massive government damming project. The ongoing legacy of these movements can be found in AWAG, the Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group and Women’s Shanti Sena (Peace Force).

Identities Of Women In Indian Art And History, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The stereotypical image of Indian women portrayed in the art of stone sculpture is often interpreted as images of beauty that are sensuous, religious as well depict social life. There are historical reasons for depicting her as such. This paper inquires into the changing depiction and social forces that influenced feminine imagery. This paper examines the portrayal of beauty through idealization of female body which has evolved over the centuries in India. It also aims to understand their changing status and explores issues of feminine identity, status, and empowerment largely in ancient and medieval India. It also provides a brief …

Prairie Roots Run Deep: A Geologically Grounded History Of Elk Horn, Iowa, Warren Watson

The Bridge

Clay Township is located in the southeast corner of Shelby County, Iowa. It is made up of thirty-six one-mile square sections. The top tier of sections one through six are somewhat larger due to a surveying correction. It was one of the last townships in Shelby County to be settled. The first settlers were drawn to the northeast corner of Shelby County in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Once a Dane got a foothold in Clay Township in the 1860s, the area became populated quickly. It was eventually settled by the largest contingent of Danes in America. This is …

Six Objects From Sned: Remembering The Past On Jens Jensen’S Childhood Farm, J.R. Christianson

The Bridge

When Jens Jensen was growing up in Denmark, the past was never very far away. Sometimes it was way too close, like the day one of the great events of Danish history happened right there on their family farm. Jens was only three years old, but it was not something one would forget, even at his age. The day was April 18, 1864, when one of the fiercest battles in Danish history was fought on the hillside where their farm lay. Needless to say, it tore the place apart.

Losing My Religion: Contextualizing Continental Catholic Seminaries In The Elizabethan Reformation, 1558-1603, Cole Volman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines the impact and influence of a portion of the early modern Jesuit seminary network within the narrative of the Counter Reformation. Following the rise of Elizabeth I, a significant number of Catholic recusants fled England to take up residence in a series of schools spread across Europe with the intention of completing their education and later contributing to the efforts to preserve Catholicism in their homeland. This dissertation argues that these schools played a significant role in the course of the “English Mission,” contributing to its conception, escalation, and eventual collapse in the late sixteenth century. Despite …

“Ingenious Entanglements”: Sheriffs, Capitalism, And Civil Society In America, 1750-1850, Chad R. Holmes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Sheriffs served as indispensable legal actors who facilitated the expansion of democracy and capitalist transformation, processes that eventually limited their ability to profit from their work and diminished their social status. This dissertation is organized around specific sheriffs and the actions they performed to illustrate how county officers influenced society beyond the execution of court orders. These men—Rhode Island’s Beriah Brown, Pennsylvania’s John Barker, and Massachusetts’s Elisha Porter, Luke Baldwin, and Charles P. Sumner—believed they understood how to balance community demands and state directives in ways that would produce personal profit and greater authority. The work of these officers and …

“Long Have I Wished To See The King:” Indigenous Transatlantic Diplomacy In The 18th Century North American Southeast, Riley Christian Bowers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis situates three examples of transatlantic diplomacy practiced by Cherokee and Yamacraw diplomats in the eighteenth century within their Indigenous contexts. Utilizing treaty negotiations, transcripts from diplomatic summits, official correspondence, published journals, and newspapers, this study aims to situate these delegations within an Indigenous and transatlantic sociopolitical context. The aim of this work is to address questions regarding the objectives of the people involved, and to trace the outcomes of their policies. The answers to these questions explain one of many southeastern Indigenous political strategies of the eighteenth century, one that highlights the imperial center as a crucial setting …

The Function Of A Nail: An Archaeological Examination Of Three 18th- And 19th-Century Eastern Pequot Reservation Homes In Southeastern Connecticut, Salvatore A. Ciccone

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines three indigenous households excavated on the Eastern Pequot reservation in North Stonington, Connecticut. Architectural artifact and spatial analyses, combined with historical documents, are utilized to understand reservation building practices of Native Americans navigating colonialism in the 18th and 19th century. The homes are small in design with at least one window and one stone chimney each. They all possessed cellars, but not all are stone-lined. Nails and window glass serve as the primary architectural artifact classes in this work, with an emphasis on their manufacture and modification. Examining nail and glass type, quantity, modification, and spatial patterns …

The Bavarian Birthright: Dynasticism, Faith, And The Creation Of The Bavarian State In A Federated Empire, Nathan Ray Mauslein

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Bavarian Wittelsbachs waged a war against their own estates, the encroachment of Protestantism, and checks on their own ducal and electoral power, at both the imperial and territorial levels. Through dynastic maneuvering the Wittelsbachs unified the whole of Bavaria under their banner and created an early modern bureaucratic state in order to aid in their rule. The creation of this system involved the creation of their own Counter Reformation system, state institutions, and an early modern bureaucracy to submit the territory to their will. The story of Bavaria’s state development …

Memories Of War: An Oral History Of The United States Army Special Forces Actions In The Gulf War, Justin Mcintosh

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This thesis uses memories of former members of 5th Special Forces Group as the lens to explore the impacts and context of US Army Special Forces operations and activities during the Persian Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War was the defeat of the Iraqi military in Kuwait at the hands of a technologically superior United States force. Historians have focused Persian Gulf War scholarship on three key aspects: the interpersonal relationship between the United States military commanders and political leaders, the rapid deployment of military forces to the Middle East, and the use of airpower to strike at enemy centers …

Review Of "The Secret History Of Rdx: The Super-Explosive That Helped Win World War Ii" By Colin F. Baxter, Alex Souchen

Canadian Military History

Review of The Secret History of RDX: The Super-Explosive that Helped Win World War II by Colin F. Baxter

Review Of "The Empire On The Western Front: The British 62nd And Canadian 4th Divisions In Battle" By Geoffrey Jackson, Bradley Shoebottom

Canadian Military History

Review of The Empire on the Western Front: The British 62nd and Canadian 4th Divisions in Battle by Geoffrey Jackson.

Review Of "Dying To Learn: Wartime Lessons From The Western Front" By Michael A. Hunzeker, Tim Cook

Canadian Military History

Review of Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front by Michael A. Hunzeker.

Pursuit To Valenciennes 1918: The Fate Of Soldiers At The Point Of Capture, Brian Pascas

Canadian Military History

This article tracks the Canadian Corps’ pursuit of the retreating German army in the last weeks of the First World War. As French hamlets, villages and towns were liberated, the war-weary troops—nursing grudges after almost four years of war—encountered civilians who had endured poor and sometimes brutal treatment under the yoke of the cruel invader. During the Battle of Valenciennes hundreds of German soldiers were killed; the vast majority perished under immense artillery barrages. But a number who survived the onslaught of shells and bullets succumbed to Canadians’ rifles while or after surrendering. Motives are identified that drove frontline soldiers …

A Shattered General: The Impact Of Defeat On James Longstreet In East Tennessee, 1863-1864, Logan E. Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Confederate General James Longstreet watched his dawn attack on Fort Sanders in Knoxville, Tennessee, fail through the frigid morning air on November 29, 1863. Fort Sanders would only be the beginning of Longstreet's personal descent from confidence he would be a perfect independent army commander to an individual mired in depression and regret. For the previous two years of the war, Longstreet’s star was on the rise, and he certainly gained supreme confidence in his abilities to lead the Confederacy to victory. After being separated from his favorite commander, Joseph Johnston, early in the war, Longstreet often thought he had …

Carlton J. H. Hayes: Historian, Professor, And America's Forgotten Ambassador, Adam Prescott Manuel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Carlton Joseph Huntley Hayes was born in Afton, New York, in 1882. His father was the town physician, and his mother was a music teacher. From his parents, he gained a love and appreciation for learning. Upon entering Columbia University at eighteen, young Carlton J.H. Hayes quickly found a niche in history. He was mentored for success by such historical titans as William R. Shepherd, Charles A. Beard, and James Harvey Robinson. Hayes quickly became a strong supporter of the New History School, and his A Political and Social History of Modern Europe is a prime example of that ideology. …

Fire And Fury: The German Tiger Battalions On The Eastern And Western Fronts, 1942-1945, Daniel L. Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

After finding their tanks outclassed in terms of firepower and armor in 1941, Germany opted to design and field a tank that could defeat any enemy tank on the battlefield while remaining nearly impervious to enemy anti-tank rounds. The Tiger I and II were more than capable of serving in this role, but by the time of their introduction, Germany was on the verge of fighting a defensive war that would require large numbers of tanks that could rapidly relocate across a vast front line. The Tiger tank family has been the subject of hundreds, if not thousands, of publications, …

Losing Longleaf: Forestry And Conservation In The Southern Coastal Plain, Fraser Livingston

Theses and Dissertations

From the end of Reconstruction to the beginning of World War II, no other ecological change affected as great a part of the southern landscape as the loss of the longleaf pine from the southeastern coastal plain. This dissertation examines the causes and consequences of the species’ disappearance. In the span of just decades, lumber operations and naval stores producers descended upon longleaf pine woodlands with a voracious appetite that greatly contributed to the demise of the pine. However, as this dissertation argues, exploitation by the hands of the timber and turpentine industries was not the only agent that transformed …

A United Failure: The Failure Of The United Nations, United States, And Global Community In Preventing And Responding To The 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Josh Ratsch

Honors College Theses

The Rwandan Genocide represents a glaring failure of the global community to provide humanitarian protection to targets of ethnic violence and slaughter. The complete indifference displayed by the United Nations provided extremist Hutu leaders with an environment for killing without a threat of foreign intervention. Calls by the leader of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), Roméo Dallaire to reinforce the mission both before and during the slaughter fell upon deaf ears as UN leaders attempted to justify their inaction. Accounts from Rwandan representatives, who at the start of the genocide held a position on the UN Security …

“We Fought For The Right Reasons And God Was On Our Side”: Combat, Faith, And Perseverance During The 28th Infantry Division's Engagement At The Battle Of The Bulge, Walter S. Zapotoczny Jr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In December 1944, Hitler’s Germany was besieged on every front. Germany was working on super weapons and needed to buy some time to fight off the Red Army and the Allies. Until his super weapons could turn the tide, Hitler opted for a major counteroffensive in the west to split the Allies. Hitler would launch his last military reserves in a desperate gamble aimed at driving to the port of Antwerp through Luxembourg and Belgium. Such a blow, Hitler believed, would wreck the Allied Coalition. One of the divisions facing the main German offensive was the American 28th Infantry Division, …

How A Book Changed A Nation [2022], Teodora Buzea

Master's Theses

“We don’t believe in vampires.”

I didn’t bother to turn away from the TV to look at my parents. On screen, a crew of young men were interviewing an old woman. She spoke only Romanian, and a too-perfect female voice spoke for her in English. I could see the confident fear in her expression as she exclaimed that vampires were indeed real and that she was always scared of them. She wasn’t alone. All of Transylvania were aware of the existence of vampires. Truly, these young men— ghost hunters and cryptologists—were right to come here to this haunted nation. The …

Philosophers Of Catastrophe: Early 20th Century Jewish Proponents And Opponents Of Objectivity In Science, Steven Gimbel, Stephen J. Stern

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The Second World War ended with the exposure of the Nazi death camps and the threat of global nuclear annihilation. The former disclosed the depths of human depravity and the latter warned us about the severity of the consequences that could await us as a result. The grimness of each, much less both, had the effect of shielding from our collective consciousness the equally dire warnings from the First World War that had occurred only a couple of decades earlier. [excerpt]

Landed: The Pursuit Of An Army Flight School For The City Of Wichita Falls, Texas, 1917-1919, Lee Howell

History Theses - Archive

This thesis examines the acquisition of a flight training facility by the city of Wichita Falls, Texas during the early years of the twentieth century. During a period when progressive reform was addressing societal problems, members of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce were diligently working to develop their community. At the time, aviation remained a relatively new technology. Chamber members, Joseph Kemp and Frank Kell, took the lead in the city's attempt to establish aviation as a developmental industry in its local commerce. The legacy left by both men is that of pioneer builders, whose focus for their city …

Thither The Russian Navy? Putin’S Navalization In A Historical Context, William Emerson Bunn

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The Syrian operation of 2012 was the first successful employment by Russia of expeditionary warfare, narrowly defined as naval support to Russian (or Soviet) ground forces in a war away from their periphery (i.e., in a country that does not border them), from the sea. This was brought about in part by the development of two types of cruise missiles: advanced anti-ship missiles (which protects their expeditionary force from NATO naval units, enabling local sea control) and new land attack cruise missiles (similar in design and capability to the U.S. Tomahawk). In the past geographical, technological and political constraints …

U.S. Hegemonic Control In Latin America: The 1973 Coup In Chile, Seth Wilbur

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

On September 11, 1973, the Chilean armed forces staged a coup d’état against their democratically elected and first socialist president, Salvador Allende. The coup ended in Allende’s death and seventeen years of military dictatorship under the auspices of General Augusto Pinochet. Although seemingly a domestic affair, the United States executive branch under the leadership of President Richard Nixon played a significant role in facilitating the coup and it is unlikely the coup would have occurred without U.S. support. While contemporary sources still point to American fears over communist incursion in the western hemisphere as the principal reason for U.S. involvement …