Digital Commons Network^™

Featured Piece, Timothy J. Shannon, Ian A. Isherwood, Jill Ogline Titus, Scott Hancock

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This year the General Editors decided to create a feature piece to show our appreciation for the History Department. We selected four professors from the faculty to answer a question about history: what figure/event/idea inspires your interest in history? Reading their responses helped give us insight into the thoughts of these brilliant minds and further help us understand their passion for the subject we all share a common love and interest in. We hope that you enjoy reading their responses as much as we did.

The four members of the faculty we spoke with are Dr. Timothy Shannon, Dr. Ian …

The Anxiety Of Automation: Attending To The Deep History Of Automated Entities, Krista Kennedy

Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition - All Scholarship

This article is intended to bring awareness of the deep history of automation and artificial intelligence. There are various tales mentioned in the article that celebrate automated entities as perfect laborers and objects of wonder. There were ancient development of automation like the water clocks that were built during the sixteenth century for marking or keeping track of information.Its important for us to shift our starting point for developing ethical guidelines to another standpoint, one that functions from hopefulness rather than fear and from a goal of providing equitable benefits that are accessible to as many humans as possible.

A Turn To Realism And Humanism From Propaganda: Chinese Photojournalism Practices Between 1976 And 1988, Shi Li

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

China’s photojournalistic field undertook great transformations in the 1980s. While the conservatives continued to cling to the propagandistic doctrine, a more progressive trend was emerging. The tension between these two forces had its historical roots and would go on to shape the way Chinese photojournalism developed. Based on archival research and in-depth interviews, this paper revisits the history of Chinese photojournalism practices between 1937 and 1988 and identifies the key features of these three periods: the wartime propaganda of 1937—1949, the intensification of propaganda of 1949 —1976, and the transformation to realism and humanism in 1976—1988.

Britain's Green Fascists: Understanding The Relationship Between Fascism, Farming, And Ecological Concerns In Britain, 1919-1951, Alec J. Warren

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between fascism, fascist ideas, and environmental consciousness in Britain during the pre- and post-World War II decades. In examining this topic, two main questions arise. First, why did fascist intellectuals support environmentally conscious ideas, and how did they relate these positions to their political ideologies? Second, why were many environmentally conscious thinkers during this period attracted to fascism? This thesis will also address several related issues regarding fascism and environmental consciousness. These issues include what role environmental concerns played in the British Union of Fascist’s platforms and in fascism’s public appeal, and how that role …

The Russian Mission: Seventh-Day Adventism, Bolshevism, And The Imminent Apocalypse, 1881 - 1946, Garett B. Tree

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The first Adventist missionaries made their way into Russia in the late 1880’s, where they experienced imprisonment, exile, and sometimes both. The scope of my thesis concerns the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and how Adventist missionaries and leaders endeavored on the Russian Mission. Using the writings, letters, and correspondence of these missionaries, as well as the myriad Adventist periodicals, I explain and analyze the evolution of the Mission from its inception to the end of the Second World War. In what ways did Adventist missionaries or Adventist media outlets abroad understand, explain, or justify the Russian Mission and its hardships? What …

Considering Clausewitz Across Contexts, Laura Salter

Tenor of Our Times

Carl von Clausewitz’s On War has been heralded as one of the most influential theories of war. It has influenced statesmen as diverse as Dwight Eisenhower, Vladimir Lenin, and Adolf Hitler. After having been incorporated into various schools of thought, taught to soldiers and studied extensively, it begs the question: what explains the continuous relevance of Clausewitz’s theory, despite changing contexts and technology? This paper posits that Clausewitz presented war as an extension of politics composed of a trinity of forces, used methodology that would transcend eras, and wrote about war’s very nature. In doing so, On War gained its …

How The Willowbrook Consent Decree Has Influenced Contemporary Advocacy Of Individuals With Disabilities, Kristen S. Addessi

Student Theses

The existence of the Willowbrook State School was a culmination, of over a one-hundred-year history of Western society’s attempts to provide adequate care, and treatment for individuals with disabilities. The residents housed there, suffered violations of their human and civil rights in various forms of severe abuse, neglect, and violence. Following a three-year legal battle in 1975, as a result of the travesties that occurred, the legal doctrine known as the Willowbrook Consent Decree was written. The Consent Decree was implemented to ensure that the residents’ human and civil rights are met and protected. The Willowbrook State School and the …

Brandishing Our Air, Space, And Cyber Swords: Recommendations For Deterrence And Beyond, Mark Reith

Faculty Publications

This article examines how the nation could better prepare to deter aggressive action in space and cyberspace, and if necessary, prevail should deterrence fail. The key themes throughout this article include a strong need for space and cyber situational awareness, the need for an international attribution and escalation framework, and a national investment in space and cyber education, along with an updated national strategy and military doctrine. Although related, this article focuses on deterrence and avoids the topic of cyber coercion.

Grave Breaches: American Military Intervention In The Late Twentieth- Century And The Consequences For International Law, Calla Cameron

CMC Senior Theses

The duality of the United States’ relationship with international criminal law and human rights atrocities is a fascinating theme that weaves through all of American history, but most distinctly demonstrates the contradictory nature of American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century. America is both protector of human rights and perpetrator of human rights atrocities, global police force and aggressor. The Cold War exacerbated the tensions caused by American military dominance. The international political and physical power of the American military allowed the United States to do as it pleased in the 20th century with few consequences, …

Televising The American Nightmare: The Twilight Zone And Postwar Social Criticism, David Brokaw

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone (1959-1964) emerged during a period of American history which has since become something of myth, legend, and lore. Popularly portrayed as a kind of golden age when middle class aspirations were within reach, suburban housing affordable, and the nuclear family perfectly contented, postwar America was more accurately characterized by profound cognitive dissonances. At a time when the Cold War was understood to be first and foremost a battle of ideas, psychological marketing promoted many different facets of the American Dream. While market researchers plumbed the depths of American minds and explored their subconscious desires and insecurities …

Viking Nobility In Anglo-Saxon England: The Expansion Of Royal Authority Through The Use Of Scandinavian Accommodation And Integration, Lauren Marie Doughty

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project seeks to understand the transformative period in Anglo-Saxon England between the ninth to eleventh centuries. During these centuries, Anglo-Saxon kings extended their royal power through the manipulation of Scandinavian ethnicity by using the mechanisms of accommodation, integration and appeasement as well as the incorporation of female royal power. Anglo-Saxon kings such as Alfred the Great, Æthelræd the Unræd, and Cnut were challenged by various hindrances from expressing their full royal authority, including the rise of an independent nobility, economic difficulties and invasions. Despite intrinsic limitations on their rule, kings such as Alfred, Æthelræd and Cnut sought to expand …

The 1973 Oil Embargo And Us-Saudi Relations: An Episode In New Imperialism, Nathaniel David Sher

Honors Papers

This thesis examines the impact of the 1973 oil embargo on US-Saudi relations. It asks how and why the US and Saudi Arabia remained long-term allies after a five-month period of economic warfare. Most prior research focuses on the factors that influenced the embargo's implementation, failing to fully explain its resolution. This thesis explores the latter issue by appealing to US government memos, OAPEC meeting transcripts, and US-Saudi telegrams. It argues that, after five months of rhetorical and material distance, the US and KSA realigned over symbiotic trade dynamics-- “arms for oil"--and mutual opposition to communism. This subject remains important …

Life And Seoul Of The Party: South Korea’S Brief Occupation Under Communist North Korea, Catherine Rose Graham

All Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the North Korean occupation of Seoul through the oral histories of the men and women who experienced the event. At the beginning of the Korean War, North Korean forces successfully captured and held the South Korean capital for three months. Despite the occupation’s interesting premise, it has received little attention from Korean War scholars. Interviews with the people who lived through the Korean War though, demonstrate that from their point of view, the occupation was a particularly significant part of their war experience.

From The Disarmament Proposition Of 1898 To The Willy-Nicky Telegrams: Looking At Nicholas Ii As Peacemaker Of Europe, Grace Larkin

Vulcan Historical Review

pp. 72-83

Supplementary Studies In Rio Grande Valley History, Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta, Thomas Daniel Knight

Studies in Rio Grande Valley Regional History Series

Corrupted, a poem / Tom Emrick -- Primal Matamoros : ancient refuge among the Estuaries of the Rio Bravo / Craig H. Roell -- U.S.-Mexico relations during the establishment of the American Consulate in Matamoros : 1826-1842 / Melisa C. Galvan -- Captain King’s Cotton : the Civil War blockade-running adventures of Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy / Walter E. Wilson -- The sad saga of John V. Singer / Norman Rozeff -- Ulster and the Texas-Mexico Border : John McAllen and his family / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Joseph Kleiber and his letter press book / Anthony K. Knopp …

A Multi-Causal Approach To The Thirty Years’ War, Ethan Haan

Grand Valley Journal of History

The Thirty Years’ War was arguably the most consequential war of the Wars of Religion and of the wider European conflicts in the 17th century. The historiography on the causes of the war has been present ever since literature on the conflict became available shortly after its cessation. Since 1900, the debate over the underlying motivations has intensified and has become muddied in some areas. This study aims to summarize and clarify the previous positions that historians have taken on what caused the war, from religious urges to socio-economic and political factors. This study also attempts to clearly define where …

The Central Intelligence Agency And Cuba: How The Trap Of Success Led To The Bay Of Pigs, Yandy Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at how covert operations in Iran and Guatemala shaped the decision to launch the Bay of Pigs invasion, and why the United States government embarked on an operation that had little chance of success. Key areas of discussion are the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its role in the removal of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq (Iran) and President Jacobo Arbenz (Guatemala), the Dulles faction, the anti-Castro program, and President Kennedy’s relationship with the CIA. Upon examining these areas, the study shows that the covert action success in Iran and Guatemala fueled American hubris and obviated the recognition …

A Portrait Of Paul Henriksen, Thomas H. Henriksen

The Bridge

Paul Henriksen, my father, was one of those people whose life could have been a Hollywood film. It unreeled from the hardscrabble streets of turn-of-the-century Copenhagen, to five years spent before the mast in saltwater seas, to the battlefields of Flanders in World War I, and finally to the freshwaters of the Great Lakes, where he became a prominent sports figure in mid-twentieth-century Detroit. Hard work, persistence, and photogenic looks helped propel him toward the fulfillment of his own American dream.

Soil And Salvation: Danes In Montana, 1906-10. Part I: Soil, Jakob Jakobsen

The Bridge

When I discovered that my great grandfather and his fiancée had participated in the founding of the Dagmar colony in Montana in 1906, I did not expect my initial interest in this to lead to a research grant from DAHS that would enable me to dive even deeper into their adventure, for which I am very grateful. My fascination with their story follows from its connection to the collective history of Danish America. In this sense, my ancestors acted as individuals, but their “navigation” took place in a “landscape” that changed due to larger developments. As a result, they can …

Bombs, Bikinis, And Godzilla: America's Fear And Fascination Of The Atomic Bomb As Evidenced Through Popular Media, 1946-1962., Joshua Samuel Scott Cornett

Online Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to illustrate the change in emotions white, middle class Americans experienced towards the atomic bomb during the nineteen forties to early nineteen sixties by examining the popular culture that they produced and consumed. These Americans described the bomb as being an object of beauty, a powerful savior, an object of prosperity, and a weapon of fear. Each of these depictions are examined in their own separate chapter with various popular culture items examined as evidence. A wide range of popular media were inspected for this study, including films, magazines, comic books, cartoons, novels, and even video games.

Toward A History Of The Democratic State, William J. Novak, Stephen W. Sawyer, James T. Sparrow

Articles

Over the past generation, the history of the state has been experiencing a much-noted renaissance, especially in France and the United States. In the United States as late as 1986, Morton Keller complained to William Leuchtenburg in the Journal of American History: “To say that ‘there is much still to be learned about the nature of the State in America’ is … a major understatement. There is close to everything to be learned about the State.” In France as late as 1990, Pierre Rosanvallon’s powerful introduction to L’État en France suggested that an ambitious history of the state could not …

The Science Of Defence: Security, Research, And The North In Cold War Canada, Matthew Shane Wiseman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the development and implementation of federally funded scientific defence research in Canada during the earliest decades of the Cold War. With a particular focus on the creation and subsequent activities of the Defence Research Board (DRB), Canada’s first peacetime military science organization, the history covered here crosses political, social, and environmental themes pertinent to a detailed analysis of defence-related government activity in the Canadian North. Three contextual chapters on the history of federal defence research in Canada provide the foundation for a close study of defence research projects pursued and supported by the Canadian government. The dissertation …

Cold War By “Other Means”: Canada’S Foreign Relations With Communist Eastern Europe, 1957-1963, Cory Scurr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Following Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union and ushered in a liberalization campaign that reverberated outward to certain Eastern European nations. Canadian officials recognized that limited freedom of maneuver was conceded to certain Eastern European nations, in addition to Yugoslavia’s existing independent position. This proved important, as Communist Eastern Europe became a deliberate and considered factor in Canada’s foreign policy. Canadian Soviet policy thus evolved into a Canadian policy towards Communist Eastern Europe, equipped with various nuances. Specifically, this project examines Canadian policy with Yugoslavia, Poland, and the Soviet Union.

By the mid …

A Dialogue On Disaster: Antichrists In Jewish And Christian Apocalypses And Their Medieval Recensions, Natalie E. Latteri

Quidditas

This paper examines textual and iconographic representations of antichrist personae in medieval Christian and Jewish manuscripts. Through a common language of polemics, Christians and Jews conflated antichrist personae to represent a more generalized category of apocalyptic antagonist that reflected the most significant temptations and threats to each respective religious community. As will be argued here, the greatest temptation and threat for Christians and Jews alike were those posed by members of the other religious group

Milton And The Middle Ages: Poetic Analogues And Visual Representations Of The War In Heaven, Expulsion Of The Rebel Angels, And Michael And The Dragon, Steven Hrdlicka

Quidditas

Milton is not typically connected to the Middle Ages as much as to the later Enlightenment and the Romantic periods. Yet many distinctively medieval ideas can be seen in Paradise Lost, especially in the scenes that are related to the War in Heaven. Milton’s account of the war displays a medieval understanding of history in terms of typology in the drama of salvation. Particular details about the war itself such as St. Michael and Lucifer’s sword fight, Jesus’ eventual ending of the war, and the human characteristics of the fallen angels all have clear parallels in longstanding Christian poetic and …

The Power Of The Periphery: Aid, Mutuality And Cold War U.S-Ghana Relations, 1957-1966, Moses Allor Awinsong

Masters Theses

This project interrogates how economic self interest motivated periphery states such as Ghana to use foreign policy as a vehicle to attract improved development assistance from superpowers, in this case the United States. While the United States viewed its aid program in Ghana in stringently Cold War terms, Kwame Nkrumah and his advisors were less inclined to get deeply concerned about Cold War ideology. This project shows that Ghanaian agency was manifested in the Cold War through the new state's construction of a foreign policy image that made it a prominent African voice globally. It then examines how that image …

Remote Sensing Of World War Ii Era Unexploded Bombs Using Object-Based Image Analysis And Multi-Temporal Datasets: A Case Study Of The Fort Myers Bombing And Gunnery Range, Bryan Byholm

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

During World War II, United States Army and Navy pilots trained on several hundred bombing ranges encompassing more than 12 million acres of land, leaving behind crater-scarred landscapes across the country. Post-war estimates suggest that 10-15% of aerial bombs used failed to detonate as intended, so these areas today are contaminated by a large number of dangerous unexploded bombs (UXB) which remain under the surface. Until recently, detecting UXB has been a tedious and expensive process done in three stages: (1) identifying and mapping general areas of concentrated bomb craters using historical air photos and records; (2) intensely searching these …

Evaluating The Success Of Russian Hybrid Warfare In Ukraine, Gage Adam

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates Russia's use of hybrid warfare in Ukraine, and whether the endeavor was successful. In order for Russian hybrid warfare to have been successful, the costs and repercussions of their actions must not outweigh their achieved goals. For this thesis, it was assumed that Russia's goals are: locking NATO and the EU out of Russia's remaining sphere of influence, demonstrating Russian solidarity, gaining territory, and boosting popularity for the current administration. Russia was able to achieve all of these goals with the annexation of Crimea and use of military force in the Donbass region. The costs of these …

For Country, Liberty, And Money: Privateering And The Ideologies Of The American Revolution, Scott D. Wagner

Senior Independent Study Theses

Along with service in the Continental Army and Navy and the various state militias, American patriots during the Revolutionary War had the option of sailing aboard privateers, private ships authorized to attack British commerce during the war. Where studies analyzing other military forces during the Revolution have been more nuanced, scholars that have looked at privateering have either focused on its strategic effectiveness during the conflict or merely written it off as a profit-driven phenomenon of maritime plunder. Privateering played a role in the course of the Revolution to a degree, but more importantly the practice was influenced by the …

ความสัมพันธ์เวียดนาม-สยามในเอกสารยุคต้นราชวงศ์เหงวียน ปลายคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 18 ถึงต้นคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 19, สุเจน กรรพฤทธิ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์เรื่องนี้วิเคราะห์และนำเสนอประวัติศาสตร์ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างสยามกับเวียดนามในช่วงปลายคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 18 จนถึงช่วงต้นคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 19 โดย นำหลักฐานชั้นต้นของเวียดนาม หลักฐานหลักฐานไทย และหลักฐานที่เกี่ยวข้องมาวิเคราะห์สังเคราะห์กิจกรรมระหว่างรัฐในระยะเวลาดังกล่าว โดยที่ผ่านมา การศึกษาประเด็นดังกล่าวนี้มักอิงอยู่บนหลักฐานฝ่ายใดฝ่ายหนึ่งเป็นสำคัญแต่ยังไม่มีการนำหลักฐานชั้นต้นของทั้งสองฝ่ายเข้ามาศึกษา โดยเฉพาะหลักฐานเวียดนามที่เข้าถึงได้ยากอันเนื่องมาจากกำแพงภาษาและจำนวนเอกสารที่มีจำกัด ทั้งนี้ ในทางประวัติศาสตร์ ห้วงเวลาระหว่างปลายคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 18 จนถึงช่วงต้นคริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 19 ยังถือว่ามีความสำคัญยิ่ง เนื่องจากแผ่นดินใหญ่เอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้มีความเปลี่ยนแปลงขนานใหญ่ รัฐเก่าแก่อย่างอังวะ อยุธยา ล่มสลายลงจากสงครามและการจลาจล ในเวียดนามเกิดสงครามระหว่างอ๋องสองตระกูลใหญ่ในขณะที่จักรพรรดิราชวงศ์เลนั้นกลายเป็นเพียงจักรพรรดิแต่ในนาม การกำเนิดรัฐใหม่โดยราชวงศ์อลองพญา ราชวงศ์กรุงธนบุรี/จักรี ราชวงศ์เหงวียน ในเวลาต่อมา ทำให้เกิดกิจกรรมระหว่างรัฐเหล่านี้มากมายไม่ว่าจะเป็นการค้า การสงคราม การขับเคี่ยวอิทธิพล ฯลฯ อย่างต่อเนื่อง โดยที่ผ่านมา กิจกรรมเหล่านี้มิได้ถูกเน้นย้ำและนำมาวิเคราะห์อย่างจริงจังในประวัติศาสตร์ไทย ทั้งที่มีหลักฐานชัดเจนถึงการมีอยู่ของกิจกรรมเหล่านั้น โดยเฉพาะการขับเคี่ยวอิทธิพลระหว่างสยามกับเวียดนาม (อ๋องตระกูลเหงวียน) ที่มีมาตั้งแต่ช่วงปลายสมัยกรุงศรีอยุธยา มีการปะทะทางทหารอย่าหนักในสมัยกรุงธนบุรี ก่อนจะพลิกกลับมาเป็นมิตรในช่วงรัชกาลที่ 1 และรัชกาลที่ 2 ความสัมพันธ์เช่นนี้ เกิดขึ้นอันเนื่องมาจากปัจจัยต่างๆ มากมาย อีกทั้งความสัมพันธ์สยาม-เวียดนามในยุคนี้ ยังส่งผลกับความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างสยามกับรัฐทางทิศตะวันออกในระยะต่อมาอย่างมีนัยยะสำคัญอีกด้วย