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Leaders On The Ground: Command Influence On War Crimes In The Armies Of France And The United States, Hayward Hood

All Theses

Utilizing torture during the Battle of Algiers, the My Lai Massacre, and torture at Abu Ghraib as specific case studies, this thesis contends that negligence or dereliction of duty by the brigade, battalion, and company commanders were the primary factors. Additional factors included commanders stressing rapid results, and external stressors in the soldiers’ immediate environment. War crimes are defined as violations of the 1907 Hague Convention which was supported by the 1949 Geneva Protocols, and negligence is defined in the legal sense.

Contrary to the existing narrative, this thesis contends that lower-level commanders did more to create the conditions required …

“Why I Sing The Blues”: The Blues And The Individuals Who Played Them, Daniel Byrd

All Theses

Blues music is profoundly important to not only Black history but also to American history as a whole. While the blues has been examined by several scholars and writers throughout the years such as Samuel Charters, Paul Oliver, and Elijah Wald, much of the work done seems to be geared toward biographical information on these artists or defining what exactly the blues is. In my thesis, I argue that blues is important for another reason: it speaks to the individualism that was found within the African American community following Emancipation and this can be found primarily through a robust examination …

The Moral Hygiene Movement In The United States, 1840s—1920s, Marissa Seib

History Theses

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the mental health care system in the United States underwent a series of reforms in an effort to better care for some of the country’s frailest citizens. This period, called the moral hygiene era of mental health care, emerged from a further understanding of psychiatry and psychology which led to structural changes in the mental health care system.

This thesis examines the beginnings of the Kirkbride system, which sought to reform the whole of American mental health care through landscaping and architecture as well as the specific treatment plan for each individual. Using case …

Lars Gustaf Sellstedt: Art In Buffalo And The Buffalo Fine Art Academy, Shannon N. Gilmartin

History Theses

This Master’s Thesis Project researches the life of a forgotten Buffalo artist, Lars Gustaf Sellstedt. He was born in Sundsvall, Sweden and started his life as a sailor when he became a cabin boy as an early teenager. For most of his young life until his mid-twenties, Sellstedt was a sailor traveling to all corners of the world. He started his journey as an artist while in between sailing jobs. Over many decades he portraits locally and abroad mainly in the Caribbean Islands. Sellstedt was one of the few artists in 19th century Buffalo, sharing the profession with William J. …

Radical Routes: The Formation Of The Boston School Bus Drivers Union Local 8751, Maci Mark

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis is both a history and an examination of the formation of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, situating their formation in both the labor movement of the 1970s and desegregation. Thrown into the midst of the storm of desegregation the drivers are set up for failure by the Boston School Committee. Forced to unionize due to unsafe working conditions and pay cuts, the unique make-up of the drivers allow for the success. Filled with community organizers, feminists, anti-war protestors, anti-racists, members of the LGBTQ+ community, leftists, and socialists, they use new tactics, willing to challenge established union leadership …

The Lost Cause And The Commonwealth: The United Daughters Of The Confederacy And Forging Civil War Memory In Kentucky., Emma Donaghy

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

For over a century, the Kentucky division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has worked to instill the Lost Cause myth of the Confederacy in the state’s public schools, libraries, and places where a white child could learn about the past. Few scholars have studied the activities of the Kentucky division of the UDC, although some of the organization’s most influential work took place in the state, and the organization’s national founder, Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, was born in Todd County, Kentucky. This honors thesis offers an in-depth examination of the work of the Kentucky division, drawing from the rich …

Full Court Press: The Influence Of Midnight Basketball, Talk Radio, And Racial Coding On The Violent Crime Control And Law Enforcement Act Of 1994, George “Matt” Patino

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

During the latter half of the twentieth century, “dog whistle” rhetoric increasingly entered the common vernacular, normalized by politicians and media personalities. Initially, the terminology was ambiguous, but it became racially charged when the media started broadcasting images of African Americans alongside the “thug” label. This research explores how “dog whistles” were, in part, a neoconservative response to the liberal policies of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his “Great Society.”

This study explores how “Great Society” policies aimed to balance the liberal expansion of Civil Rights with neoconservative “law and order” policing strategies. This research also investigates how right-wing talk …

U.S History: The Constant Reliance On Immigrant Labor From Asian Immigrants In The 19th And Early 20th Century To Mexican Immigrants In The Bracero Program, Moises Gonzalez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

During the late 19th and early 20th century, as the United States implemented stricter immigration laws, there was a gradual shift from Asian migrant labor to Mexican migrant Labor. The Bracero Program, which was established in 1942 at the request of U.S agribusinesses, best exemplified this development in the U.S. Throughout the duration of this guest work program, it demonstrated the discriminatory and exploitative nature of U.S agribusinesses. Yet, few studies have emphasized the thoughts of former braceros. Therefore, this proposed thesis will shed light on a more positive outlook of the Bracero Program where former braceros would persevere through …

It Happened Here: The Civil Rights Movement In Utah, Jace Jones

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This plan B project is a series of lesson plans focusing on the Civil Rights Movement in Utah. These lessons are designed to give students a broad understanding of the Civil Rights Movement as well as the tools and knowledge to understand how the Civil Rights Movement manifested in Utah. To fulfill this goal these lesson plans focus on local and lesser-known history. This will allow students to gain an understanding of how the movement operated in Utah and how it relates to their own lives.

These lessons use the Stanford: Reading Like a Historian framework by the Stanford History …

Wives, Warriors, And Womanhood: A Study Of Women’S War Roles, Megan Lee

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Since starting the War, Diplomacy, and Society program, my interests have included a focus on the soldier’s experience in war, women’s changing roles in war, and the study of war journalism, ranging from World War II, the Cold War, to the Vietnam War. This thesis project is a culmination of these themes.

The first article examines the crucial nature of a soldier’s connection to the Home Front by analyzing a collection of letters between a soldier and his fiancé during World War II. Filled with declarations of love and occasional expressions of insecurity, these letters reveal the importance of a …

From Hellfighters To Tuskegee Airmen, Austin Teague

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The First and Second World Wars were enormous facilitators for drawing people from all over to enlist. Nowhere was this more the case than in the United States after it entered the war in 1916, and later in 1941. Although a vast majority of those who joined were white, a smaller percentage were African Americans. Due to the racial relations of the time, they were separated into their own black only regiments. The 369th Infantry Regiment would come to be known as the Harlem Hellfighters and were sanctioned to work in the French Army. The 99th Pursuit Squadron, also known …

Black Joining The Ranks Of White: Black Slaveowning In 1800s South Carolina, Zachary M. Saddow

Graduate Theses

Exploring the lives and impact of the Black slaveholders in Antebellum South Carolina is a highly overlooked subject in a sensitive area. The idea of a Black slaveholder stands contrary to the widely held belief of slavery held by a majority in the United States. This realization is also startling as most slaveholders were White, with those in bondage being Black. These Black slaveholders actively took part in the system of slavery including the buying and selling of slaves, the production of cash crops, and even support for the eventual Confederacy. Although many began their life in chains, Black future …

Community In The Cell: Queer Women’S Space And Place In New Orleans, Jordan Hammon, Jordan Hammon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines queer women’s history and space/places of community in New Orleans using spatial analysis and feminist theory to fill the silences. The Special Citizens Committee for the Vieux Carré laid the foundation for regulating queer women and transmasculine people starting in the 1950s. Even after the committee ended, New Orleans Police Department and the Vice Squad had the power to invade and harass places of community for queer women and transmasculine people. Despite this hostility, queer women and transmasculine people resisted and made a place for themselves in New Orleans. As a result of their persistence through visibility …

Crafting Journalism: The Pseudonyms Of American Reform, Sierra Fishman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States saw the rise of "Stunt Girls" and "Sob Sisters" in journalism. These pioneering women defied traditional societal expectations of housewives and pursued careers in reporting, gaining recognition for their accomplishments through the dangerous nature of their work. While many may know the name Nellie Bly, the pseudonym for Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, other reporters played a vital role in the transformation of journalism, including Caloipe, Nellie Bly, Lola, Annie Laurie, Dorothy Dix, Enid, Eva Gay, Nora Marks, Girl Reporter, Nell Nelson, Grace Ermine, Meb, and Olivia. It is important to …

An Exhibition Of Women's United States Air Force Uniforms, Michelle Robinson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The new Women in the Air Force exhibit under development at the Hill Aerospace Museum, located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is long overdue. The exhibit is set to replace the existing display in order to more accurately and comprehensively represent women’s continuing legacy of service to our nation. The uniforms in the Hill Aerospace Museum collection constitute the focal point of the new exhibit. Material culture methodologies form the foundation of this exhibit work; seeking to provide greater understanding of women’s military experience and history through the analysis of their uniforms. This approach therefore utilizes uniforms, the museum’s …

The Gray Area: Sexuality And Gender In Wartime Reevaluated, Natalie Pendergraft

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

These three works, two academic papers and one screenplay, challenge traditional notions of gender and sexuality during wartime. Queer Vietnam service members did not all experience oppression, all the time, but rather carved out a space for themselves amongst their peers. Female nurses in the early cold war could keep their careers in the medical field due to its unique gendered history despite demobilization efforts across the country in different industries. Finally, through the medium of historical fiction, a Civil War soldier’s fears and desires are questioned as he experiences the phenomenon of the Angel’s Glow, a blue light that …

The Silence In America’S Classrooms: The Portrayal Of Women And Gender In United States High School History Textbooks, Allie Elizabeth Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the twenty-first century, the process of adopting statewide history textbooks has become a political battleground surrounding concepts of race, gender, and identity in American history. By contextualizing the current discussion surrounding content in American history textbooks, I examine the portrayal of women in secondary United States social studies textbooks from the 1960s to the 2010s. In doing so, I show how portrayals of women's history evolve in the most widely adopted high school post-Civil War American history textbooks in each decade from the 1960s through to the 2000s. By comparing the evolution of the women’s and gender historiography to …

Leaders On The Ground: Command Influence On War Crimes In The Armies Of France And The United States, Hayward Hood

All Theses

Utilizing torture during the Battle of Algiers, the My Lai Massacre, and torture at Abu Ghraib as specific case studies, this thesis contends that negligence or dereliction of duty by the brigade, battalion, and company commanders were the primary factors. Additional factors included commanders stressing rapid results, and external stressors in the soldiers’ immediate environment. War crimes are defined as violations of the 1907 Hague Convention which was supported by the 1949 Geneva Protocols, and negligence is defined in the legal sense.1 Contrary to the existing narrative, this thesis contends that lower-level commanders did more to create the conditions required …

Pedestal Foods Ends Contract With Lindenwood Aftermany Years, Sofiya Melnychuk

Lindenlink (2012- )

No abstract provided.

From Enslaver To White Savior: The Blackford Family And The Memory Of The American Colonization Society, Helen Dhue

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Part of the same family but with a generation dividing them, Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford and her grandson, Launcelot Minor Blackford Junior, shared much of the same sentiment toward the American Colonization Society (ACS). Mary, active in the ACS before the Civil War, supported the organization despite criticisms wielded by abolitionists of the period. Mary looked to the ACS for salvation from discussions about the morality of enslavement while enjoying the comforts that the thought of an all-white America brought her. Launcelot, writing fifty years after Mary’s passing at the beginning of an emerging national conversation about Black civil rights, …

The Media Intervenes: Tulsa's 1921 Massacre And The Destruction Of The Greenwood District, Maclain M. Wheeler

ATU Scholars Symposium

This scholarly presentation and research paper focuses on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, specifically the ways in which the media progressed and intensified the events the Greenwood community faced. A vibrant community filled with opportunity and promise, Greenwood welcomed any African American who accepted its warm embrace. Ransacked and burned to the ground within two days, Greenwood residents were forced to reckon with the destruction. Greenwood became unrecognizable. Properties and possessions that had taken people many years to acquire were gone within a matter of hours. The framing put forth by the Tulsa Tribune provoked much of the white public …

Lindenwood Responds To Students’ Concerns About Mold, Eva Laurens

Lindenlink (2012- )

No abstract provided.

The Instability Of Fortunes: American Expansion Westward By The Conquering Of The Trans-Appalachian Frontier, Steven Sullivan

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

The Grizzly, April 20, 2023, Layla Halterman, Georgia Gardner, Kate Horan, Marie Sykes, Erin Corcoran, Jenna Smith, Quadai Brown, Ava Compagnoni, Gavin Range, Samantha Kiessling

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Images of Spring Fever • New Photo Editor for Next Year! • Bears Helping Bears: UCREW's "No-Shame Pledge" • One Last Letter From Our Editor • Meet Layla M. Halterman, EIC • Farewell for the Summer • Good Luck to Our Graduating Senior Editors • Opinions: That's All, Folks!; No Crew Team? Why? • That's the Game! • Let Them Place Bets • Ursinus Baseball: Stealing the Odds

Thomas Calhoun Walker (1862-1953): The "Black Governor Of Virginia", Madelyn Junker

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Lindenwood Student Hit By Car, Transported To Hospital, Eva Laurens

Lindenlink (2012- )

No abstract provided.

America’S New Industry?: How Guidebooks Motivated Sericulture In The 19th Century, Caroline Smith

Student Scholarship

In 1840, George C. Sibley, a Missouri resident best known for his time as an Indian agent and one of the founders of what is now Lindenwood University, received a letter from his cousin Origen Sibley the contents of which discussed family matters, politics, and lastly a peek into what Origen believed was a budding industry in America1. The industry in question, silk production. In the letter, Origen opens a hooking discussion about the requirements of silk production, primarily regarding the food supply of the silkworm and the profitability that he estimates will come from it. This is the kind …

"Between Too Much & Not Enough," A Meta-Analysis Of The 1619 Project, Nathan Pipes

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

When the New York Times released the 1619 Project in August 2019 it was met with enthusiasm and critical review. The outcome of the public debate, as of now, is mixed. Research is also mixed. Education findings suggests the project has the power to heal. Case study evidence indicates culturally centered approaches positively impact academic outcomes and mental health of historically oppressed peoples. By emphasizing and affirming African American experiences 1619 has potential to narrow the achievement gap and disrupt rising suicide rates. However, philosophy and psychology warn against overemphasizing culture. Excessive affirmation can cause groupthink. Continual praise aggrandizes the …

Demons In The City Of Angeles: Gay Neo-Nazis In Southern California, Emma Bianco

Madison Historical Review

This article explores the perplexing history of self-proclaimed “Aryan homophiles:” the National Socialist League of Los Angeles. A neo-Nazi group made up of exclusively gay men, this organization’s reign from the 1970s to mid-1980s offers an atypical perspective into Southern California’s racial and political settings. Garnered from the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, this story showcases how far from utilizing a “paranoid style,” the NSL’s brand of hate did not stray too far from that already clearly established in the mainstream environment. The NSL forces us to challenge our preconceptions about what makes up the “typical” racial extremist.

"'Joo Wa Dare?' Who Is The Queen?" Queen Contests During The Wartime Incarceration Of Japanese Americans, Bailey Irene Midori Hoy

Madison Historical Review

This paper examines beauty pageants held at incarceration centers during the Japanese-American internment. Although there has been literature created on beauty pageants before and after WWII, there is very little information on these war-era pageants, despite their prolific nature. Using mostly primary sources and material culture, the paper examines the coverage of the contestants, clothing, and presentation within the Center’s newspapers and in coverage by the Wartime Relocation Authority, whilst also problematizing uncritical readings of these documents. This paper highlights the difficulty in determining agency within spaces of incarceration, and calls for further research on the subject.