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From Dred Scott To Barbara: Birthright Citizenship, Racial Exclusion, And The Enduring Promise Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Jenna A. Milbrodt

CMC Senior Theses

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause has guaranteed birthright citizenship to all children born in the United States for hundreds of years. Yet, President Trump’s January 20, 2025, executive order threatens to strip that right from children born to parents unlawfully in the country and temporary visitors. This order, if permitted to stand, would change the definition of US citizenship and render countless children stateless persons without citizenship rights. This paper examines whether birthright citizenship in the US, properly understood, extends to children of unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors. To answer this question, three time periods of change in citizenship rights …

Opera Houses In Aberdeen, Huron, And Watertown, Sd: 1880-1910s, Janet M. Meyer

Dissertations and Theses

In the 1880s, many newcomers arrived in Dakota Territory for a new start in Aberdeen, Huron, and Watertown. Their arrival coincided with the popularity of opera houses, so it was not surprising that entrepreneurs built opera houses in these new towns. The early opera houses included several benefits. They provided important gathering places for growing communities to hold meetings and social functions. The settler-colonial society included people from foreign countries and eastern states. Opera houses were also beneficial by providing familiar shows and concerts, perhaps some shows the residents previously enjoyed in their homes back east. Knowing that an entertainment …

“Which Side Are You On?”: The Historical Creation And Political Implications Of An Appalachian White Other, Zoe Davin

History Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

The Postmodern Frontier: Richard Prince And The Neoliberal Spectacle Of The American Dream, Taïs Khassanova

MA Theses

This thesis examines the oeuvre of Richard Prince’s as a sustained allegory of contemporary American visual culture, beginning with his Cowboys series as the point of origin from which his later appropriations, including Girlfriends, Spiritual America, and New Portraits, unfold. Through the recursive gesture of appropriation, Prince’s Cowboys expose the myth of rugged independence as a corporate fiction, revealing how the frontier ethos was redeployed under the Reagan presidency to naturalize neoliberal ideology. Building on this premise, the thesis traces how such logic extends throughout Prince’s subsequent body of work, as his Girlfriends refigure the cowboy’s masculine autonomy as the …

Shared Words, Divided Worlds: Moral Language And The Struggle For Meaning At The Claremont Colleges During The Vietnam War, 1965-1969, Haley Freeth

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the Vietnam War-era campus conflicts at the Claremont Colleges as a profound struggle over the meaning and ownership of moral and political language. Rather than interpreting antiwar and prowar activism as expressions of fundamentally opposed value systems, this study argues that students and administrators alike engaged in an ongoing contest to define ideals such as democracy, responsibility, and conscience. Through a micro-historical lens, the project analyzes how these contested vocabularies were invoked, reinterpreted, and performed in protests, counter-protests, and administrative policies. Drawing from a wide array of archival sources—including student newspapers, protest ephemera, administrative records, and visual …

0897: William A. “Red” Dawson Collection, 1915-2023, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

William Alfred “Red” Dawson, a native of Valdosta, Georgia, led his high school football team to a state championship and played for four years at Florida State University. Dawson briefly played professional football for the Boston Patriots in the AFL and the Orlando Panthers. He was serving as an assistant football coach at Marshall University when a fatal plane crash killed seventy-five players, coaches, staff, and prominent citizens of Huntington. Dawson was essential in restarting the Marshall University football program, serving as acting head coach and coached through the 1971 season. He then began working in the construction industry and …

A Wound Upon The Union: John Quincy Adams And The Treaty Of Indian Springs, Spencer Peacock

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis examines the crisis that developed after US president John Quincy Adams signed, then disavowed (allegedly over moral concerns), the fraudulent 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs with the Creek Indian Nation. The thesis probes Adams' motives during the Treaty of Indian Springs crisis, and seeks to connect the crisis to the evolution of US federal Indian policy in the 1820s, prior to the mass Indian removal of the 1830s.

Bitcoin And The American Conflict Over Money And Property, Jacob Smagula

CMC Senior Theses

I argue that Bitcoin is the latest expression of the recurring American conflict over who controls the terms of money and property, and that the political coalition formed around Bitcoin shares the same characteristics as earlier coalitions formed around this struggle. I review three historical cases that each produced a coalition opposing the existing monetary order: the Bank War of the 1830s, the Free Silver movement of the 1890s, and the populist backlash against the Federal Reserve during the 1979 Farm Crisis and the 2008 Great Recession. I find that Bitcoin’s architecture, which allows for self-custody, permissionless access, and an …

Blood And Belonging: Remembering Massacres Of The American West In The Twentieth Century, Mountain Meadows And Sand Creek, Kenzie Burns

Honors Theses

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries marked a turning point in mainstream America’s sense of national identity. A wave of nostalgia for the American Frontier enshrined the region’s idealized nineteenth-century past as myth. A key part of the story is romanticized violence—often depicted through cultural imagery of cowboys, gunfights, and battles with American Indians. This project seeks to understand more about how violence is represented in the cultural memory of the American Western past. Within the past twenty years, scholars of the American West have begun to incorporate the study of memory into their scholarship, frequently with how cultural …

Finding Aid For The Mississippi Politics Collection (Mum00316)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Artificially created collection on individual Mississippi politicians and the state’s politics in general.

The Southern Roots Of Populist Rhetoric And The Growth Of Fundamentalism, Ethan Teems

Theses

The religious fundamentalism of the 1920s was a direct evolution of the Southern Populist movement of the 1890s. While populism began as a political crusade against economic exploitation, industrialization, and urbanization, it evolved into a movement that attacked modernity. The southern United States was rooted in a predominantly religiously homogeneous society. The Protestant religions that encompassed the region were unwilling to adapt to a changing society, allowing religious fundamentalism to expand.

Beginning with the cultural conflicts of the 1920s, such as the Scopes Trial and William Jennings Bryan’s activism, the study explains how fundamentalists framed their struggles against modernism as …

Creating A Modern American Piano: Antecedent, Launch, And Reinvention Of Mason & Hamlin's Piano Line Through 1905, Arian Sheets

Dissertations and Theses

The American piano industry was in a significant period of technical innovation, increased production, and standardization during the second half of the nineteenth century. This resulted in the American form of the instrument dominating the design and sound ideals still expected of the modern piano. Mason & Hamlin, a major reed organ company, entered the piano market in the early 1880s, relatively late compared to the largest, and most market-dominant companies, such as Steinway and Chickering. This thesis examines the origin and early implementation of the designs and innovations that have become standard for the modern American piano, and how …

Bloody Sunday: A Comparative Analysis Of Nonviolent Marches In Selma And Derry, Samantha J. Romero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines two different nonviolent civil rights marches: Selma’s march for voting rights in 1965 in the United States and Derry’s march to end internment without trial in 1972 in Northern Ireland. The two marches yielded drastically different outcomes despite employing the shared tactic of nonviolence. This research addresses the vital role that the political opportunity structure, rather than tactical repertoire alone, plays in determining whether state repression leads to reform or further conflict. Through a controlled comparative analysis, the research positions the march itself as a constant across the two cases. Subsequently, governmental allies, institutional openness, and regime …

[Intorduction To] Shakers At The Center : Manifesting Spirits & Spectacles In Nineteenth-Century America, Douglas L. Winiarski

Bookshelf

Edited by Douglas WIniarski.

"Exploring the theological, social, and cultural dimensions of one of America’s most ambitious prophetic movements

The Shakers’ Era of Manifestations ranks among the most astounding events in American religious history. During the 1840s, members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing embarked on an audacious project of receiving visions, revelations, and other manifestations from the spirit world and convincing both themselves and the world’s people of their reality. Gifted Shakers known as “instruments” surrendered their bodies to possessing spirits and celestial beings who, in turn, provided the Believers with an unimaginable number of …

Sun Valley’S 2025 World Cup Downhill Course Improves Dick Durrance’S 1939 Course, And Recaptures The Excitement Of The Classic Harriman Cup Races, John W. Lundin

Works by Local Authors

In early October 2024, the Sun Valley Resort received final approval to host the Audi

F.I.S. Ski World Cup Finals between March 22-27, 2025. Twenty five men and 25 women from

30 countries will compete in all four Alpine skiing disciplines - slalom, giant slalom, downhill

and super-G.

Tuberculosis In Jim Crow Virginia, 1900-1972, Elizabeth Dooley

Theses and Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB) was a major public health concern in the United States, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. Transmission and treatment of the disease, which is spread between humans through close contact, was complicated by racial segregation laws in the South known as Jim Crow laws. Virginia subscribed to these laws, which played a role in how and where Black Virginians with TB could be treated. Segregated treatment facilities with an inadequate number of beds for the number of infected people and deaths in the state added to these complications of disease control and plan for eradication. …

Finding Aid Of The James Z. George Autograph Album Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The James Z. George Autograph Album contains signatures of members of the U.S. House of Representatives circa 1886 and a collection of signatures of delegates at the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890.

Finding Aid For The Deavours Family Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The Deavours Family Collection contains genealogical information about the Deavours and related families.  It also holds material related to Stone Deavours, a lawyer, who served as University of Mississippi Law School Dean from 1930 to 1932.  The collection also includes two nineteenth-century ledgers regarding Garlandsville, Mississippi and the journal of an unidentified Alabama dating from 1860 to 1874.

Presidential Slaves: The Story Of Black People In The Lives Of Antebellum U.S. Presidents, Nika Davis

History Dissertations

The historical narrative about American slavery included many topics such as the African slave trade, the Middle Passage, slave culture, rebellions, religion, and abolition.  This study revealed more information to be examined in the record of American slavery relating to the presidents of the United States and their enslaved laborers.  This oversight proved prevalent during the years leading to the American Civil War from 1820-1860.  Therefore, this dissertation focused upon the enslaved and free Black people who intersected with the presidents and their friends, political acquaintances, and family.  By studying their lives, this dissertation revealed that the slaves associated with …

Women's Work And Wealth: Measuring The Impact Of Incremental Liberations, 1850-1870, Hannah Kelly

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Using a two-way fixed effects difference-in-difference model, this project analyzes data from the IPUMS Full Count census for 1850, 1860, and 1870 at a state level for 48 states. Four models assess the impact of property laws on women's real property holdings, labor force participation, household types, and real property values.

By quantifying the impact of various legal reforms on women's economic empowerment, this project fills a gap in the understanding of the intersection between law, society, and women's economic agency during a transformative period in pre-industrial American history. These impacts can implicate the effectiveness of legislative measures in advancing …

Beyond Judicial Intent: The Agency Of The Defense Counsel In Ozawa’S And Thind’S Supreme Court Cases, Bret K. Luchs

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

This thesis seeks to examine how specific legal strategies by the defense counsel in Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 (1922), and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923), compelled the Supreme Court of the United States into a reactive and contradictory position. A re-examination of Ozawa and Thind delves deeper into the legal briefs and arguments made by Takao Ozawa and Bhagat Singh Thind, alongside their legal teams. These briefs, opinions of the court, past lower court cases, and personal statements by Ozawa and Thind demonstrate how they did not surrender to the confines of …

Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature, Elaina A. Frulla

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

“Models of Emulation: Representations of Foreign, Indigenous, and Accented Speech in Early American Literature” explores how American writers used depictions of “nonstandard” English and accented English language speech, traditionally described as “literary dialect,” as a way to negotiate identity, power, and political belonging in the formative years of nation building after the American Revolution. Beginning with Noah Webster’s mission to establish a standardized pronunciation of the English language that would simplify and purify spoken American-English and definitively differentiate it from what he saw as the corrupted, cosmopolitan British-English model, each of the three chapters examines literary representations of nonstandard emulated …

Stopping The Buck: What Made The Truman Committee Uniquely Successful In Its Oversight Of World War Two Military Contracts, Victoria Kelley-Chiarelli

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

During World War Two, Harry S. Truman led the Senate Select Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, also known as the Truman Committee, in its oversight of military contracts and the war effort. The Truman Committee saved the U.S. government billions by identifying and discouraging waste, fraud, and abuse, and saved many armed forces personnel’s lives through identifying defective products. Truman’s background in World War One service and his time as a local official in Missouri show signs of the integrity and commitment to good governance that made the Truman Committee so successful. The Truman Committee’s membership, staff, principles, …

“A Loving And Faithful Wife”: A Study Of Dakota Territory Divorce Law And Marital Expectations In The Late Nineteenth Century, Cassidy Amanda Abfalter-Dial

Dissertations and Theses

“A Loving and Faithful Wife” provides a procedural and gender-based analysis of twenty-five Dakota Territory divorce cases, from Clay County, ranging from 1867-1884. This analysis is based on an understanding of the procedural aspects of the territorial divorce court system, as well as nineteenth century gender ideologies, include the ideals of True Womanhood, and Separate Spheres. By employing a close reading method, this research analyzes the language in court filings, allegations used in complaints, and the outcome of the cases. This analysis reveals men and women used unspoken gender scripts to present their marriages to the court and attempt to …

“None In Velvet Gowns”: Camp Followers And White Womanhood In Eighteenth-Century Anglo-American Warfare, Angelica Labren Torres

History Theses

For over two hundred years, women who followed American and European armies during the long eighteenth century were popularly stereotyped and denigrated as prostitutes, burdens, and generally individuals of ill repute by both contemporaries and subsequent generations of historians. While recent scholarship has largely debunked this long-standing characterization as simplistic and inaccurate, the question remains: why exactly were these women so mischaracterized in their own time, particularly by commissioned officers and other members of Anglo-American middling and elite classes, when ample evidence existed of their material usefulness and comparative marital fidelity? This thesis seeks to address the ideological and cultural …

Divided Loyalties: Military Recruitment And Emancipation In Kentucky, Jacob Joseph Klinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how Unionist Kentuckians leveraged their military recruitment to negotiate the scope of federal emancipation during the American Civil War. By 1863, the War Department’s need for troops superseded the racial sensitivities of inhabitants in loyal slave states like Kentucky by promising to free and enlist Black men if white recruits failed to fill the quota. Kentucky’s proslavery Unionists responded and white volunteerism surged by 23 percent, 10 percent more than the national average, to fill the quota and negate military emancipation. Kentucky leaders heralded the recruiting effort but struggled to sustain it alongside an uncredited militia which …

Continental Violence And The "Oregon Question": George Frederick Ruxton And The Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest, Rory Orion Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper builds on recent efforts to depict Indigenous polities across North America in their international relations with European and Euro-American colonists and their centralized governments. It examines George Frederick Ruxton, a private English citizen and former army lieutenant, as he developed his response to the U.S.-British Oregon dispute while living in London in early 1846. He concluded that continental warfare was imminent and took overt steps to influence British policy, which he believed could halt U.S. expansion and definitively resolve the “Oregon Question.”

Lifting The Political Fog: People, Power, And Antislavery Politics In Upstate New York, 1848-1861, Nicholas Thony

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This work details the ascendance of the political antislavery movement in upstate New York, focusing on the roles a diverse array of actors played in constructing an unlikely Republican coalition of conservatives, reformers, black New Yorkers, nativists, prohibitionists, and abolitionists in the years preceding the Civil War. In weaving together the parallel and inextricable stories of powerful newspaperman Thurlow Weed, female reformers like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and black communities across the state, I argue the success of the political antislavery movement resulted from their combined efforts. Thurlow Weed was one of the most important politicians of …

Civil War Memory In New York City, 1861-1902, Kevin J. Sugrue

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines how New York City experienced, understood, and later remembered the American Civil War, from the outbreak of war (1861) through the dedication of major monuments at the turn of the twentieth century (1902). Although New York was the Union’s largest city and its most significant source of troops, casualties, industrial output, financial capital, and press coverage, the city’s wartime experience was deeply conflicted. As a Democratic stronghold and home to large populations of recent immigrants and working-class laborers, New York’s support for the Union was broad but conditional, fractured by class, ethnicity, race, and political allegiance. These …

From Ship To Shore: The Impact Of Sailor Resistance On The Anti-Vietnam War Movement, Trent Chamberlain

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the often-overlooked role of United States Navy personnel in the broader anti-Vietnam War movement. While civilian protests dominate historical narratives of the era, the impact of active-duty sailor resistance remains underexplored. To address this gap, this thesis examines shipboard and shore-based dissent to determine how Naval resistance influenced both military operations and domestic anti-war efforts. By conducting a historical analysis of primary source materials, including military records, underground press publications, and personal accounts, this research traces the evolution of sailor organizing and its intersections with civilian peace movements. The thesis shows that Naval dissent not only posed …