Digital Commons Network^™

Cunning Commies, Dumb Democrats, And Exiled Germans: A Holistic Postmortem Of The 1948 Czechoslovak Coup D'État, Douglas Joys

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

The role played by the post-WWII expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia in catalyzing the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état has been underexplored in favor of the traditional narrative of an East-West clash between Czechoslovak democratic and communist parties backed by the United States and Soviet Union, respectively. Scholarship on the expulsion and the coup has on occasion brought up connections between the two events, albeit briefly and only as a small part of larger examinations of one of the two. The Eastern and Western forces at play in Czechoslovakia were undoubtedly key factors in the coup’s outcome: the end of …

Can't Women Kill?: Women, Violence, And Power In Nazi Germany, Kelly Ornelas

History Theses

This thesis examines the role of women as perpetrators of violence within the Nazi apparatus, challenging traditional narratives that depict them as passive supporters or victims of their circumstances. Through a Foucauldian analysis, it explores how ordinary German women were conditioned by Nazi propaganda, manipulated discourses, and social expectations to engage in acts of brutality, often without direct orders. Case studies, including Erna Petri and Ilse Koch illustrate how women actively participated in the mechanisms of state violence without rank or official status, raising critical questions about complicity and moral responsibility. This study interrogates the bounds of guilt, arguing that …

Rewriting The Frontier: The Impact Of Collective Memory On The Mythos Of Western Settlement, Kelly E. Kooper

Theses and Dissertations

Using Paul Cohen’s methodological approach in History in Three Keys, this thesis examines the construction and debunking of the myths of manifest destiny, the rugged individual frontiersman, and the “noble savage” Native American in the writing about, experience of, and representation of the settlement American West. First, it analyzes the evolution of the historiography from Frederick Jackson Turner to William Cronon. Then it examines the experiences of four families (the Grices, Grahams, Deems, and McCormicks) who settled in Iowa and Nebraska from 1850 to 1880. Lastly, it surveys various popular cultural celebrations of the West. Through this triple lens, this …

"Troublesome Medicine Man": Representations Of The Sword Bearer Incident In Newspaper Coverage, Cara Sue Swaim

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

Newspaper coverage of Native Americans during the nineteenth century had an “artistic bias,” or a tendency to emphasize action, danger, and treachery as a part of the “Indian formula.” This meant that vast amounts of journalistic zeal was spent on instances of conflict and tension between tribes, within tribes, between tribes and white settlers, or between tribes and the U.S. military, while times of peace and instances of cooperation received miniscule amounts of attention. This was largely motivated by a desire to justify American western expansion and the need to “civilize” Native groups. This “Indian formula” was also applied in …

The Adirondack Frontier: Reclaiming A Vital Role In Shaping The Nation, Peter Nelson

Master's Theses

The traditional version of Adirondack history from the revolutionary period to the middle of the nineteenth century, which portrays the region as unexplored primeval wilderness, is nineteenth-century romantic mythology. It ignores thousands of years of Indigenous habitation and misrepresents early Euro-American activity in the region as well. In fact, from the earliest days of colonial exploration of North America until the middle of the 19th-Century, New York's Adirondack region was a dynamic American frontier, as important in shaping the destiny of the nation as the Northwest Territory or, later, the West. Activities in the Adirondack frontier contributed to the decimation …

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1860-1862 The Effects Of Military Occupation On Unionist And Secessionist Convictions, Riley P. Bogema

GLI MA in American History Student Works

Local histories of Civil War occupation provide a human face to the larger history of the American Civil War. The interactions between citizens and outside occupiers furnishes greater clarity and revelations on the human cost of conflict. It also presents greater evidence, either supportive or not, on broader arguments expressed in scholarly works on the Civil War. This work examines how prior attitudes towards the Unionism and secessionism were provoked during the process of military occupation. It argues that in the town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the citizens’ allegiances and relationships were challenged by the occupation of both Union and Confederate …

Frenemies? Fascists And Conservatives In Interwar Britain, Dylan R. Cameron

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the attitudes, beliefs, and arguments of British Conservatives (Tories) in discussions about British fascism through the lens of two mainstream Conservative newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, focused primarily on the buildup and aftermath of the infamous Olympia rally in June 1934. This thesis identifies two key factions within the conservative movement which arose in reaction to the rise of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF): (1) the staunchly anti-fascist “mainline Tories” who detested the BUF’s “foreign” character, propensity for violence, and antithesis to traditional liberal democratic principles, and (2) the fascist-sympathizing “reactionary Tories” …

The March Of The Naples Soldier: A Look Into The Spanish Flu Pandemic 1918-1920, Javier Pena Reyes

HS 390 Primary Research Papers

This paper dives into the memory of Spanish Influenza from 1918 to 1920. It will analyze and deconstruct the fear caused or absent during that time and later in the records and literature. The comparison of the time of the Spanish Flu will be contrasted with the memory of the time period with the including of Pale Horse, Pale Rider, which was written in 1939. It will compare these two times and conclude with the recent COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 to 2021.

It was November 2019, and reports of a new respiratory disease from Wuhan, China, began to trickle …

Culture Of Disease: A Historiographical Review Of The Black Death, Jack Bamford

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay ………………………………2

II. Document Selection ………………………. 22

III. Textbook Critique…………………………...32

IV. Original Textbook Entry…………………... 36

“A True And Broad Sympathy:” Thomas Hughes, Medievalism, And Social Justice In The Nineteenth Century, Sarah E. Stapleton

Theses and Dissertations--History

Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), used medievalism to help solve social problems of the Nineteenth Century. This contravenes the traditional view of medievalism, especially Anglo-Saxonism, since others have used it to justify the subjugation of people of lower social status, namely the poor in England, enslaved African Americans in the United States, and Indians under British rule.

While the use of medievalism is veiled in Hughes’ work, the subtext of Tom Brown’s Schooldays demonstrated Hughes’ Anglo-Saxonism. Tom Brown and the intertextual material surrounding his narrative exhibit the characteristics of Anglo-Saxonism through cultural primitivism, the concept of allodial, …

Love Is Dead In The Restless West: Hippies, Manson, And California Culture, 1966-1970, Rebecca Allen

Scripps Senior Theses

Though an extreme aberration from most of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s, Charles Manson’s ultimately murderous cult arguably represents something particular about American culture in the late sixties, in which youthful hostility towards the status quo sometimes grew radical, and in the case of the Manson Family cult, extremely violent. By the mid-sixties, more and more young people began to feel alienated by a culture they felt no longer embodied their larger aspirations, and as a result, were drawn to the emerging counterculture that embraced alternative lifestyles that frequently clashed with the traditional sensibilities of their parents’ generation. After …

Infinite Finite: A View On Human Progression Through Emergent Generative Systems, Fatima Abbas

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary crises reveal an imbalance in human progression, prioritizing material advancement while neglecting ethical, compassionate, and spiritual dimensions. This thesis examines natural progression through the lens of emergence, where simple interactions produce complex outcomes. Analyzing natural patterns across different scales, from cosmic formations to neural interactions, underscores emergence's universal nature.

Within this context, Infinite Finite introduces a generative digital tool simulating emergence through iterative cycles of construction and deconstruction. Depicting a century of human progression informed by historical behaviors via simulated cellular interactions, the tool visually differentiates ethical from unethical progression. This is represented through ten data visualization tiles composed …

Re-Indigenizing And Collaboratively Tending Urban Greenspaces, Divinity Nnenne Adewale

University Honors Theses

This work details the active process of land tending with the intention of re-Indigenization in the Pacific Northwest at several Portland sites; The Native American Student Community Center, PSU Oak Savanna, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Land tending is an intuitive process, one rooted in love and respect for life of all forms as well as becoming the perpetual student; land tending is not a skill to be mastered, only practiced. Unlike environmental management, tending cannot be done separate from the earth, in a classroom or otherwise. Connections are what tending is built on top of: the foundation; effort …

Codifying Domesticity: The Story Of The Recommended Minimum Requirements For Small Dwelling Construction Of 1923, The Housing Policy Of The Hoover Secretariat, And The Impact On American Residential Architecture, Noah Morris

Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design Theses & Dissertations

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fire disasters and health-safety issues led to the widespread adoption of building codes. While the National Board of Fire Underwriters published the National Building Code in 1905, the code did not maintain regulatory consistency across the nation. This lack of consistency across the nation and socio-economic factors contributed to a nation-wide housing shortage of a million units by 1919. During World War I, the government addressed the housing crisis through the United States Housing Corporation and Emergency Fleet Corporation, building public housing based on the ideals of the Garden City Movement.[1] Following the …

Liberty To The Captive: The Two Definitions Of Equality In The Abolitionist Movement, Justin Searls

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The matter of the debate on equality’s definition between black Christian ministers and white Christian ministers is an understudied topic of discourse that merits attention in the historical profession. In recent years, there has been discussion surrounding the general racial divide within abolitionism. However, the religious perspective on this matter has received little to no attention. How did black ministers and white ministers address the question of emancipation and enfranchisement for African Americans in the abolitionist movement from the 1830s through the Civil War and beyond? There is a significant disparity in the discussion of equal rights for African Americans …

The Rise And Fall Of Caribbean Piracy: A Socio-Technical Analysis Of The War Of Spanish Succession, Maritime Innovation, And Edward Randolf’S Policy, Dominique M. Salinski

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

This paper argues that the mode and historical context in which piracy ascended in the Caribbean after the War of the Spanish Succession, as well as the historical interrelation between maritime technology and pirate tactics, coalesced into a diachronic Damocles Sword that resulted in the downfall of piracy in the Golden Age. Sanctioning piratical enterprises as a subconventional maritime strategy displayed a geopolitical reliance on piracy by great powers. However, the depraved treatment conventional sailors received across all major European navies generated a social stratum that eventually bore the Golden Age of Piracy, while simultaneously contributing significantly to British naval …

2024 O'Callahan Society Newsletter, O'Callahan Society, College Of The Holy Cross

O'Callahan Society Newsletters

This annual newsletter of the O'Callahan Society includes articles about the 2023 Annual Dinner. Admiral James G. Stavridis, United States Navy (Retired) was guest speaker. President of the College of the Holy Cross, Vincent D. Rougeau, made introductory remarks. VADM Peter Daly, US Navy (Ret) was 2024 Annual Meeting Speaker.

Korean Newspapers And The “Irish Problem”: Japanese Censorship In Colonial Korea, 1920-1930, Jaehyun Kim

Student Work

Jaehyun Kim’s thesis, “Korean Newspapers and the ‘Irish Problem’: Japanese Censorship in Colonial Korea, 1920-1930,” touches upon a subject that scholars of colonial Korea have given insufficient attention to. Kim asks why there featured so many colonial Korean run newspaper articles on the Irish Independent movement in the 1920s and 1930s when the Japanese colonial government actively censored Korean newspapers. Indeed, in the wake of the March First Independent Movement, the colonial authorities shifted its harsh military rule to a more conciliatory cultural policy, allowing Koreans to vent their nationalistic sentiments within the confines of state control. However, the level …

The One-And-A-Half Chinas’ Problem: Taiwan And The Origins Of Peaceful Reunification, 1978–1988, Lucas Miner

Student Work

Lucas Miner’s thesis, “The One-and-a-Half Chinas’ Problem, Taiwan and the Origins of Peaceful Reunification, 1978–1988,” deals with attempts by the Chinese Communist Party and the Guomindang to achieve unification between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan during the early phase of China’s reform era. The thesis seeks to update our interpretation of Cross-Strait relations by exploring the origins of peaceful reunification, tracing its early evolution from 1978 to 1985. Primary sources from both sides of the strait—especially from the rich repository at the Academia Historica in Taipei—allows Miner to construct a nuanced and significant narrative that uniquely incorporates …

Abusive Abbots And Malevolent Monks: Monasteries And Violence In The Early Anglo-Norman Period, Timothy B. Smart Jr.

University Honors Theses

This investigation examines the conduct of abbots and monasteries from 1066 to 1087 in the context of violence and monasteries. It analyzes monastic chronicles and Anglo-Norman histories. The two historiographical lineages that emerge: the Norman Conquest and religious warfare. After the initial conquest in 1066, four native abbots offer insight into a range of local monastic behaviors during the early years of Norman rule. The Normans, in their combat against rebellious monasteries, developed procedures to remove local abbots in 1070. This connection between rebellions and monasteries drove the militarization of monasteries by both the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons. The militarization …

“My Kingdom For A Horse!” The Development Of Equestrian Influence In Early Modern Europe, Jane Goode

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Humanity has always had a close relationship with horses, from using them for work to warfare to recreation. The era of early modern Europe is especially telling because of the transition of horsemanship underwent during that period. The horse has been used as a symbol of status and power that can be seen strongly throughout the culture of the 17th and 18th centuries with the development in breeding, the impact on different courts throughout Europe, and their elevation in art.

The Artful Voyeur: Seamus Heaney As Parrhesiastes, Olivia Ransbottom

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Critics Edna Longley and Ciaran Carson have examined the complicated relationship between Seamus Heaney's poetry and the Northern Irish conflict, arguing that, in general, he refrained from clear political commentary. Despite this, Seamus Heaney was a revolutionary poet celebrated for his vivid imagery and commentary on ordinary life in Northern Ireland. While these critics say he held back on stating his political opinion or mystified the violence, this paper argues that he was a parrhesiastes (one who speaks truth to the rest of society for the sake of truth itself) of his time, choosing to practice the ancient Greek idea …

The Dry Bloodletting: A History Of The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorders In Military Service Members, Kevin Johnson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This work is a close look at how veterans of war have been treated medically for ailents of the mind. This work looks closely at the many therapies and pharmaceutical remedies that have been perscribed to veterans with the advent of the field of psycology at the trun of the century. Sources included the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), multiple clinical trials and white papers, records from the VA, etc. The reader should walk away with a better understanding of how the path towards healing invisble wounds has been mired with revictimization and controversy.

Children Of The Grave: The Rise, Fall, And Experience Of Heavy Metal Music During The Latter Cold War From 1969-1991, Shelby Sibert

All Theses

The Cold War era saw the emergence of many different pop culture phenomena. Some were political, such as the Punk Rock and Hippie movements. Others were fashionable trends like Disco. However, Heavy Metal music is unique due to its opaque origins, skyrocketing popularity, and final disappearance after the end of the Cold War. Heavy Metal had a direct relationship with reflecting the fears and anxieties of the late Cold War period. It was a direct response to the Hippie activist counterculture rock n' roll of the 1960s, and it charters a new path of rock n' roll in the process. …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

Republican Manhood And The Disabled Revolutionary War Veteran In The Early American Republic, 1789 – 1797, Virgil Clark

Madison Historical Review

In the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War, several Disabled Continental Army soldiers scattered across the burgeoning Republic were driven by desperation to write letters, pleading with General George Washington for his support. The soldiers’ decision to draft these letters stemmed from their profound frustration and disillusionment with the post-Revolution American state. The soldiers' discontent resulted from the sense of neglect they experienced after the state rejected their petitions for a Disabled Veteran’s pension. As time passed and rent went unpaid, medical bills piled up, and the threat of vagrancy loomed over these men like a malevolent specter. Unable to …

Color On Canvas In Black Britain And Black Germany, Marisa J. Pickett

History ETDs

Using the artwork and poetry of Black artist-activists Lubaina Himid, Keith Piper, May Ayim, and Raja Lubinetzki, a connection was found between the increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric of conservative politicians of the 1980s and the self-identification and belonging of non-white communities within the countries of Great Britain and Germany. By linking the produced artwork with the direct political initiatives of the time, we are able to draw parallels between the experiences of two diasporic communities, Black Britain and Black Germany, through artists and their work. Artwork can be seen as a medium through which to engage with the audience on a …

Interview No. 1792, Osvaldo Velez

Combined Interviews

Mr Velez grew up in Segundo Barrio during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He associates those times with gang warfare because of the introduction of guns. He also remembers that in Segundo Barrio, many families lived in tenements. With the number of people living in the tenements, there were a lot of activities in the community, including social gatherings, parties, and family parties. In the absence of technology, most time was spent outside, whether it was hearing local gossip, visiting family and friends, or socializing; that was life in a small community. He lived in a tenement on the corner …

Revisioning The Shawnee Prophet: Revitalization Movements, Religious Studies, And The Ontological Turn, Douglas L. Winiarski

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Historians invariably frame the early life of Laloeshiga, more commonly known as Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet, as one of unmitigated chaos and disorder. He emerges in scholarly literature as a ne'er-do-well: failed hunter and warrior, adulterer and wife beater, penurious healer, and dissolute alcoholic. A near-death experience during the winter of 1805 triggered visions that led to his rapid rise to religious authority in the revitalization movement he led with his brother, the famed Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Newly discovered sources and systematic review of older ones reveal a vastly different origin story. None of the supposed facts of the Prophet's …

Heroes, Victims, And Future Citizens: Representations Of French Children During World War I, Megan R. Outtrim

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The effects of total war society in France during WWI dramatically altered the daily lives of both adults and children, witnessing increasing levels of patriotic rhetoric, wartime propaganda, and anti-German sentiment. Children were often made the focal point of this propaganda, as they represented the future of the nation. As such, three specific representations of children emerge from WWI propaganda in France: the heroic child, the victimized child, and the malleable future citizen. Some of these representations were depicted in propaganda meant for children specifically, while others were depicted in propaganda meant to mobilize adults in the name of children. …