Digital Commons Network^™

Wade Hampton Speech - Accession 623 - M267 (317), Wade Hampton

Manuscript Collection

"Address on the Life and Character of Gen. Robert E. Lee" is a speech by Wade Hampton, III Governor of South Carolina (1876-1878) and U.S. Senator for South Carolina (1879-1891), on the life and character of American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee, given to the Society of Confederate Soldiers and sailors in Maryland on October 12, 1871.

Broken Promises: Rape, Race, And The Union Army, Kellie J. Hedgers

All Master's Theses

Through the use of Union courts-martial records, this paper will examine the ways in which black women who had been assaulted by white men were denied justice in military courts. Although the Union Army was often perceived of as an army representing freedom and higher moral purpose, the court martial records reveal a darker side. They reveal that sometimes black women found no safety behind Union lines; rather, they found themselves victims of sexual violence by white men and had little recourse to justice. Although outwardly the Union Army was devoted to abolishing slavery, the inner workings of its courts …

The Rise And Fall Of The Minnesota Middle Ground: Henry Hastings Sibley And The Ethnic Cleansing Of Minnesota, Jordan Scott Bergstrom

All Master's Theses

Henry Hastings Sibley (1811-1891), fur trader and eventual first governor of Minnesota, worked closely among the sub-division of “Sioux” Indians known as the Dakota. Sibley first aided in the development of what historian Richard White called a “Middle Ground,” a racially mixed and symbiotic society. Later in his life, however, he assisted in negotiating treaties that transformed that frontier society into a racially divided and oppressive one. The result was the outbreak of hostilities between Indians, Whites, and mixed-race people in the Great Sioux Uprising, and ultimately the ethnic cleansing of Minnesota. This study approaches Sibley’s involvement on a microhistorical …

U.S. History, P. Scott Corbett, Jay Precht, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, Sylvie Waskiewicz

Open Educational Resources Collection

U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: Making The Past Present, Rebecca Hoevenaar

Honors Projects

Art has the unique ability to create new meaning from past events. As a work of literature, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five has succeeded in doing this. Vonnegut took the bombing of Dresden and make it present and relevant in the minds of young Americans during the Vietnam War. Readers made connections between the two horrific events. In our contemporary world, Slaughterhouse-Five still remains an important work of literature. Violent conflicts and horrors continue to happen as with the recent Iraq War.

Walt Whitman's Vision Of The Inferno, Or Dante In Drum-Taps, Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Close On The Wind: An Environmental Military History Examining Wind’S Influence On The Early United States Navy, Scott J. Beehler

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Utilizing General Carl von Clausewitz’s theory of friction in combat, Close on the Wind examines wind’s historical influence on early United States naval warfare, specifically small scale engagements fought during the Quasi War, First Barbary War, and the War of 1812. To accomplish this, the thesis first engages in a scientific discussion of wind, concentrating on how it occurs and what forces dictate its velocity and direction. The examination goes on to also present the types of wind that period sailing vessels encountered, including global, regional, and local patterns, as well as how wind influenced the practice of sailing and …

Henry Wirz And The Tragedy Of Andersonville: A Question Of Responsibility, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Henry Wirz was the most controversial Swiss American. Born in Zurich, Wirz migrated to the United States and joined the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was assigned to oversee the military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, which had a very high death rate. Following the war, Wirz was arrested and tried for war crimes. The trial was a travesty of justice. Many of his supposed crimes were milder punishments than the Union inflicted on its own soldiers. The court allowed hearsay evidence, Wirz was no allowed to call key witnesses for his defense, and many leaders of …

Panama Canal - 100th Anniversary (Sc 2869), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text of blog entries (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2869. WKU Libraries blog entries relating to the 100^th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal. Entries concentrate on materials held by WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections and are illustrated with items from the collection.

Mcdaniel, Paul William, 1916-2004 (Mss 515), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 515. Writings and awards of Paul William McDaniel, nuclear physicist and graduate of Western Kentucky University. Includes typescripts of lectures delivered at Queensland University, a journal he kept while serving in World War II, and a copy of his Arthur F. Fleming Award. Also includes many letters of congratulations to him and a copy of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.

Soldiers Past And Future: The Civil War And Great War Meet In Gettysburg, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Gettysburg, a town already so intimately acquainted with war, was the scene of particularly interesting historical encounters. The still too present memory of the Civil War impacted the way Gettysburgians viewed the Great War. Many veterans of the Civil War were still alive, although very old, and it was not uncommon for The Gettysburg Times to run headlines about the death of a prominent Civil War veteran right alongside coverage of the war raging in Europe. [excerpt]

The Grizzly, October 9, 2014, Rachel Brown, Mark Branca, Deana Harley, Kristen Costello, Caitlin Tillson, Evan Hill, Sydney A. Dodson-Nease, Rayleen Rivera-Harbach, Olivia Z. Schultz, Steve Valverde, Charles Brodsky, Jordan Breslow, Dana Feigenbaum, Matthew Maldonado

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Jewish Holiday Sukkot Begins • "Life Chain" on Main Street • Reimert Courtyard Program Becomes Permanent • UC Partners with Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy • Students Plant on Green Roof • Students Respond to Yik Yak • Students' Campus Jobs • Dorian Gray Comes to Ursinus • History of Bomberger Memorial Hall • Opinion: Islamic State in Syria Conflict Heats Up; Military Strategies for U.S. Foreign Affairs • Local HS Star Running Well for Bears • Far-Away Runner Excelling for XC

Revolutionary Decade: Reflections On The 1960s, Booth Library

Booth Library Programs

Photo galleries and supporting exhibits can be found on the REVOLUTIONARY DECADE exhibit page.

Exhibit Dates

This exhibit was displayed at Booth Library September 9 - November 20, 2014

Spartans In Vietnam: Michigan State University's Experience In South Vietnam, Jake T. Alster

Grand Valley Journal of History

In this article, the relations between various colleges (with special attention to Michigan State University) and the United States Government are explored in relation to America’s effort in nation building in South Vietnam in the late 1950s. During America’s efforts in Vietnam more reliance was put upon collegiate institutions to help negotiate foreign policy. One of the major issues regarding South Vietnam was technical assistance, and how we should implement assistance into the third world. Michigan State University, under the presidency of John Hannah, became the most important university in the technical assistance program. John Ernst argues that this was …

“All Inferiors Are Required To Obey Strictly…” Disciplinary Issues In The Army Of The Potomac Under Grant During The Overland Campaign, Robert W. Novak

Student Publications

Between May and June 1864, the Army of the Potomac conducted yet another push toward Richmond. The intense weather, extended time under fire, and unprecedented slaughter took its toll on the rank and file. For many of the army’s best and most hardened veterans, this would be their last campaign. As their anticipation for home grew, however, their disdain for the new style of warfare grew with it. Fresh troops arrived almost daily from the cities across the north. Many of whom were conscripts or bounty men. Even the soldiers who chose not to reenlist expressed their low expectations for …

Dwight Eisenhower, The Warrior, & John Kennedy, The Cold Warrior: Foreign Policy Under Two Presidents, Andrew C. Nosti

Student Publications

This paper presents a comparison between President Eisenhower and President Kennedy's foreign affairs policies, specifically regarding the Cold War, by examining the presidents' interactions with four distinct Cold War regions.

The New Deal In Puerto Rico: Public Works, Public Health, And The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, 1935-1955, Geoff G. Burrows

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the 1930s, Puerto Rico experienced acute infrastructural and public health crises caused by the economic contraction of the Great Depression, the devastating San Felipe and San Ciprián hurricanes of 1928 and 1932, and the limitations of the local political structure. Signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) replaced all other New Deal activity on the island. As a locally-run federal agency, the PRRA was very unique and yet very representative of the "Second" New Deal in the United States--which attempted to move beyond finding immediate solutions to the most critical problems …

Where Was The Outrage? The Lack Of Public Concern For The Increasing Sensationalism In Marvel Comics In A Conservative Era 1978-1993, Robert Joshua Howard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explains the connection between comics and public reactions in two separate eras of conservatism. Comic books were targeted by critics in the 1950s because their content challenged conservative norms. In 1954, a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Juvenile Delinquency tried to determine if comic books were having a harmful impact on children. The senators were concerned that comic books objectified women, taught children to engage in violence, promoted bigotry, and perhaps even encouraged homosexuality. The concerns caused outrage that was encouraged by the press. As a result, comic books adopted a form of self-censorship through the Comic Code …

Framing Identity: Repudiating The Ideal In Chicana Literature, Michael A. Flores

All NMU Master's Theses

In the 1960s Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez penned his now canonical, epic poem “I Am Joaquin.” The poem chronicles the historic oppression of a transnational, Mexican people as well as revolutionary acts of their forefathers in resisting tyranny. Coinciding with a series of renewed, sociopolitical campaigns, collectively known as the Chicano Movement, Gonzales’ poem uses vivid imagery to present an idealized representation of Chicanos and encouraged his reader to engage in revolutionary action. Though the poem encourages strong leadership, upward mobility, and political engagement the representations of women in his text are misogynistic and limiting.

His presentation of the “black-shawled …

Parallel Identities: Southern Appalachia And The Southern Concepts Of Gender During The American Civil War, Maegan K. Harrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Southern concepts of gender influenced Appalachian society throughout the antebellum and Civil War eras. Concepts of masculinity and femininity, including “the cult of true womanhood” and Southern manhood, shifted and broaden throughout the South due to wartime stressors. Appalachians adjusted these gender roles in order to survive chaos and turmoil in their region. The brutal political and community divisions, high rates of desertion, guerilla warfare, and threats of invasion in the mountain regions intensified these concepts of gender. Southern constructions of gender molded the Appalachian experience of war but the high level of conflict strengthened these new roles as a …

One Year On: Preparing A Somber Holiday, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

Newspapers are built by bits and pieces. Type is set all throughout the week, long before the paper in Gettysburg goes to press. July's first edition in 1864 was cobbled together in the last few days of June and the first few days of July. Dropping sorts into the frames must have been agonizing work. It was labor intensive, requiring the meticulous placing of each letter and every space into the plate for every single word. [excerpt]

Ten Miles From Richmond, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

At the tiny crossroads town of Cold Harbor, Ulysses S. Grant hoped to crush Robert E. Lee's army and hasten the war's end. What happened instead would become one of his greatest regrets.

When Harvard Said No To Eugenics: The J. Ewing Mears Bequest, 1927, Paul A. Lombardo

Faculty Publications By Year

James Ewing Mears (1838-1919) was a founding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. His 1910 book, The Problem of Race Betterment, laid the groundwork for later authors to explore the uses of surgical sterilization as a eugenic measure. Mears left $60,000 in his will to Harvard University to support the teaching of eugenics. Although numerous eugenic activists were on the Harvard faculty, and who of its Presidents were also associated with the eugenics movement, Harvard refused the Mears gift. The bequest was eventually awarded to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This article explains why Harvard turned its back …

French And Indian Cruelty? The Fate Of The Oswego Prisoners Of War, 1756-1758, Timothy J. Shannon

History Faculty Publications

This article examines what happened to approximately 1,200 prisoners of war taken by the French and their Indian allies at the British post Fort Oswego in August 1756. Their experiences illuminated the contrast between traditional methods of warfare in colonial America and the new rules of war being introduced by European armies fighting in the French and Indian War. Although European armies claimed to treat POWs more humanely than Native Americans, their supposedly civilized rules of warfare actually increased the suffering of the Oswego prisoners.

Morality And Nonviolent Protest: The Birmingham Campaign, Lindsey A. Mahn

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Birmingham, Alabama was a racially segregated city up until 1963 when members of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began a movement to stop discrimination against the African American population. Though the movement itself was conducted in a peaceful nonviolent manner, opposition from the white civic authorities was often cruel and bloody. Images of protesters both young and old were projected across the news and made the American people think deeply about the problems within their country. Eventually, the protests paid off and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, facilities, transportation and the workplace. …

Battling The Separate Spheres: New Woman Writers And British Women Writers Of World War I, Christine Haskill

Dissertations

In “Battling the Separate Spheres,” I argue that New Woman writers’ interventions into gender discourse at the end of the nineteenth century shaped the feminist pacifist protests of World War I. This analysis illustrates that the discourses of gender and war are intertwined: the rise of the women’s movement in the nineteenth century was positioned as a sex war, and the gender ideology of the separate spheres helped to justify World War I. I examine two New Woman interventions into the separate spheres debates—the “sex war” of the fin de siècle. Olive Schreiner propels women into the public sphere, encouraging …

"It's Always Been Home To Me": Obligation And Sacrifice On The World War Home Front In Arkansas, Eric Robert Mills

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the ideology of obligation on the American home front in Central Arkansas during World War I and the World War II national defense period from November 1940--February 1941. Fundamental to the research is historian Robert Westbrook's contention that America, as a liberal democracy, relied on alternate means to encourage the discharge of obligations and commitments during the Second World War. The state appealed to private responsibilities, such as the family, in order to promote service when unable to rely upon the thicker sense of citizenship emblematic of republican ideology. In order to test Westbrook's theories of obligation, …

Measuring "Problems Of Human Behavior": The Eugenic Origins Of Yale's Institute Of Psychology, 1921-1929, John Doyle

Kaplan Senior Essay Prize for Use of Library Special Collections

The Institute of Psychology at Yale was established in 1924 to study what its founders perceived as “problems of human behavior.” The Institute was Yale President James Angell’s first major step towards making the University a pre-eminent center for psychological research in the 1920s and 1930s. Endowed for a five-year term by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund, the Institute brought three distinguished faculty to Yale: comparative psychologist Robert M. Yerkes, anthropologist Clark D. Wissler, and psychologist Raymond Dodge. While the Institute has been briefly cited in the historical literature as a precursor to the larger Institute of Human Relations …

‘Liberty Is The Word With Me’ The Ideologies And Allegiances Of Civil War Soldiers In Hamilton County, James J. W. Scott

Honors Theses

This case study of Hamilton County, Tennessee investigates Civil War soldiers to determine how the county was divided and why men chose to fight for the Union or the Confederacy. Using descriptive statistics and Grounded Theory Method, this study analyzes census data, military records, and personal correspondence to show that Confederate soldiers were concentrated in urban areas as wealthy businessmen or poor laborers, while Unionists dominated rural areas mostly as middleclass small farm owners. This research reveals that Confederates adopted an identity and ideology similar to other states in the Confederacy through railroad and business connections, and Unionists resented a …

Virginia's Pursuit Of Self-Government : The Effects Of The Civil War And Interregnum On England's First Successful Colony In North America, 1652-1660., Lloyd Franklin Fowler

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.