Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Daughters Of The Fronde: French Aristocratic Women And The Subversion Of Bourbon Absolutist Culture, 1661-1727, Jordan David Hallmark

Dissertations and Theses

The turbulent events of the Fronde des Princes (Fronde of the Princes), which saw the French nobility stage a failed rebellion against the monarchical administration of France's chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, between 1650 and 1652, have been portrayed in the existing historiography as the swan song of a pre-absolutist nobility seeking to preserve its feudal identity as the king's partner in governance and military affairs. Indeed, as many historians of early modern France have observed, the policies pursued by Cardinal Mazarin following the monarchy's victory over the rebel princes of the Fronde, and subsequently expanded upon by Louis XIV after …

Wealth And Peace: The History And Political Economy Of Montesquieu's Doux Commerce, Adam W. Saltzman

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this work is to trace the genesis of doux commerce from its origins as a social phenomenon, to its employment as a political theory in the Spirit of the Laws by the Enlightenment philosophe Montesquieu, to its implementation by entities globally in the aftermath. The study will seek to determine the importance of doux commerce to the evolutionary progression of societies and their economies during the eighteenth century, its role in the dissolution of mercantilism, and its position in the rise of free trade and industrial capitalism during the nineteenth century. The concept has only recently been …

Interwar Weimar Film And Masculinity: Challenging The Presumed Crisis Of Interwar German Gender Discourse From Selected Films From 1925-1931, Brandon Metcalf

Dissertations and Theses

The First World War altered the view of masculinity held by many in Germany and shredded what many regarded as unchangeable fixtures of German life. For German men, much of the interwar period meant dealing with the losses from the war, reconfiguring what it meant to be a man. This reconfiguration of gender took place in a context of change in Germany. Many women entered the workforce to replace the lost men. The economic downturn and reliance on funding from the United States motivated many within Germany to examine gender roles and to reassemble masculinity to meet changing circumstances.

This …

Words Matter: A Linguistic Analysis Of Cluniac Views On The Use And Abuse Of Violent Force, Amanda K. Swinford

Dissertations and Theses

The goal of this project is to isolate Cluniac attitudes towards violence and the use of martial force in the tenth through twelfth centuries, first by determining in what situations Cluniac authors deemed the shedding of human blood was permissible, and second by tracking the evolution of these attitudes from the abbey's foundation to the height of its influence. Given Cluny's role in European society, there is a rich and longstanding body of scholarship which examines Cluny's support or rejection of force as a means of conflict resolution. This study demonstrates a consistency over time in Cluniac attitudes on the …

The Night Of The Long Knives: Reconsidered, Edward G. Gunning Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

The "Night of the Long Knives"—June 30, 1934, and the murderous days that followed is one of the more fascinating episodes in the history of the Third Reich. A year after taking power, multiple circles of influence challenged Nazi control. The National Socialists perceived enemies everywhere. At times the internal challenges were as significant as the external.

Much of the conflict centered on a myriad of perspectives on the nature and direction of the Nazi revolution. For Hitler, the revolution was complete, at least for now. His real revolution was a racial one, whose full dimensions only became manifest later. …

Serfs, Excluded Or Governed By The State? Serfdom In Russia, An Historiographical Analysis, Jason Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

Serfdom in Russia has often been viewed in Anglo-U.S. historiography as an exceptional institution in that it emerged in the early-modern age, after serfdom in Western Europe had ended, and that it persisted for well over two centuries, spanning the Muscovite and the Imperial eras. Many historians have thus compared serfdom in Russia unfavorably to labor systems that developed in Western European nations at that time, considered to be "modern" and "free," in contrast to the "unfree" labor obtained through Russian serfdom. This thesis presents the scholars who take this view, and refers to them as "Consensus Historians," as their …

Rebranding Empire: Consumers, Commodities, And The Empire Marketing Board, 1926-1933, Ashley Kristen Bower

Dissertations and Theses

The Empire Marketing Board (EMB) was a British government organization established in 1926 by the Conservative Party, under the authority of Colonial Secretary Leopold Amery. Its goal was to encourage Britons to "Buy Empire," namely, to buy products from the Dominions and colonies of the British Empire. To encourage consumption, the EMB funded scientific research and economic analyses, as well as publicity for Empire trade in the form of posters, films, educational materials, and government-sponsored events. The Empire Marketing Board attempted to sell the concept of "Empire" to the masses as a new cooperative project which stressed the value of …

Revolutionärinnen Am Fließband: A Comparative Gendered Analysis Of The 1973 Pierburg And Ford Migrant Labor Strikes, Jordan Faith Norquist

Dissertations and Theses

In the years following the end of the Second World War, the Federal Republic of Germany experienced a "golden age" of economic upturn. Due to the labor shortage in the aftermath of war and the division of Germany, West Germany initially looked to its eastern counterpart, the German Democratic Republic, to meet its labor needs in the immediate postwar years. Once East Germany tightened its border control, the Federal Republic of Germany extended bilateral agreements to Southern Mediterranean countries to meet the nation's labor needs. Italy was the first official nation to have a bilateral work agreement with West Germany …

Helene Stöcker, Weimar Germany And Prophylactics: An Investigation Into The Context And Effects Of The Reichsgesestz Zur Bekämpfung Geschlechtskrankheiten, Joshua Stern

Dissertations and Theses

This paper investigates German gender studies in the Weimar Era. It looks at a specific law, passed regarding contraceptive devices. It seeks to show how women were presented with a guise of freedom, while living in a truly paternalistic society.

Expressionist Art And Drama Before, During, And After The Weimar Republic, Shane Michael Kennedy

Dissertations and Theses

Expressionism was the major literary and art form in Germany beginning in the early 20th century. It flourished before and during World War I and continued to be the dominant art for of the Early Weimar Republic. By 1924, Neue Sachlichkeit replaced Expressionism as the dominant art form in Germany. Many Expressionists claimed they were never truly apart of Expressionism. However, in the periodization and canonization many of these young artists are labeled as Expressionist.

This thesis examines the periodization and canonization of Expression in art, drama, and film and proves that Expressionism began much earlier than scholars believe and …

"Children Need Protection Not Perversion": The Rise Of The New Right And The Politicization Of Morality In Sex Education In Great Britain, 1968-1989, Miriam Corinne Morehart

Dissertations and Theses

Two competing forms of sex education and the groups supporting them came to head in the 1970s and 1980s. Traditional sex education retained an emphasis on maintaining Christian-based morality through marriage and parenthood preparation that sex education originally held since the beginning of the twentieth century. Liberal sex education developed to openly discuss issues that reflected recent legal and social changes. This form reviewed controversial subjects including abortion, contraception and homosexuality. Though liberal sex education found support from national family planning organizations and Labour politicians, traditional sex education found a more vocal and powerful ally in the New Right.

This …

Some Neglected Aspects Of The Rococo: Berkeley, Vico, And Rococo Style, Bennett Gilbert

Dissertations and Theses

The Rococo period in the arts, flourishing mainly from about 1710 to about 1750, was stylistically unified, but nevertheless its tremendous productivity and appeal throughout Occidental culture has proven difficult to explain. Having no contemporary theoretical literature, the Rococo is commonly taken to have been a final and degenerate form of the Baroque era or an extravagance arising from the supposed careless frivolity of the elites, including the intellectuals of the Enlightenment. Neither approach adequately accounts for Rococo style.

Naming the Rococo raises profound issues for understanding the relations between conception and production in historical terms. Against the many difficulties …

Self-Presentation And Identity In The Roman Empire, Ca. 30 Bce To 225 Ce, Rhiannon Ysabel-Marie Orizaga

Dissertations and Theses

The presentation of the body in early imperial Rome can be viewed as the manipulation of a semiotic language of dress, in which various hierarchies that both defined and limited human experience were entrenched. The study of Roman self-presentation illuminates the intersections of categories of identity, as well as the individual's desire and ability to resist essentializing views of Romanness (Romanitas), and to transform destiny through transforming identity. These categories of identity include gender; sexuality or sexual behavior; social status; economic status; ethnicity or place of origin; religion; and age. Applying the model of a matrix of identity deepens our …

Truth And Memory In Two Works By Marguerite Duras, Rachel Deborah Hunter

Dissertations and Theses

Published in 1985, Marguerite Duras' La Douleur is a collection of six autobiographical and semi-autobiographical short stories written during and just after the German Occupation. Echoing the French national sentiment of the 1970s and 1980s, these stories examine Duras' own capacity for good and evil, for forgetting, repressing, and remembering. The first of these narratives, the eponymous "La douleur," is the only story in the collection to take the form of a diary, and it is this narrative, along with a posthumously published earlier draft of the same text, that will be the focus of this thesis. In both versions, …

Local Reception Of Religious Change Under Henry Viii And Edward Vi: Evidence From Four Suffolk Parishes, William Keene Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

From the second half of Henry VIII's reign through that of his son Edward VI, roughly 1530 through 1553, England was in turmoil. Traditional (Catholic) religion was methodically undermined, and sometimes violently swept away, in favor of a biblically based evangelical faith imported and adapted from European dissenters/reformers (Protestants). This thesis elucidates the process of parish-level religious change in England during the tumultuous mid sixteenth century. It does so through examining the unique dynamics and complexities of its local reception in a previously unstudied corner of the realm, the Suffolk parishes of Boxford, Cratfield, Long Melford, and Mildenhall. This thesis …

Anna Of Denmark: Expressions Of Autonomy And Agency As A Royal Wife And Mother, Anastasia Christine Baker

Dissertations and Theses

Anna of Denmark (12 December 1574 - 2 March 1619), the wife of King James VI/I of Scotland, England, and Ireland, was an intelligent and interesting woman who has, up until recently, been largely ignored by history. It has only been within the past two decades that any in-depth analysis of Anna has been done, and most of that analysis has focused on Anna's work with the Stuart court masque. The intent of this thesis has been to expand upon current scholarship regarding Anna, as well as to synthesize the various facets of Anna's life in order to put together …

Essex Under Cromwell: Security And Local Governance In The Interregnum, James Robert Mcconnell

Dissertations and Theses

In 1655, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell's Council of State commissioned a group of army officers for the purpose of "securing the peace of the commonwealth." Under the authority of the Instrument of Government, a written constitution not sanctioned by Parliament, the Council sent army major-generals into the counties to raise new horse militias and to support them financially with a tax on Royalists which the army officers would also collect. In counties such as Essex--the focus of this study--the major-generals were assisted in their work by small groups of commissioners, mostly local men "well-affected" to the Interregnum government. In addition …

Memory And Hypnotism In Wagner's Musical Discourse, Jonathan C. Gentry

Dissertations and Theses

A rich relationship unites the composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and the history of psychology, especially if one considers his attempt to make music speak with the clarity of verbal language. Wagner's musical discourse participated in the development of psychology in the nineteenth century in three distinct areas. First, Wagner shared in the non-reductive materialist discourse on mind that characterized many of the thinkers who made psychology into an autonomous intellectual pursuit. Second, Wagner's theories and theatrical productions directly influenced two important psychologists - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932). Finally, the experiences of music achieved by Wagner at …

A Nun's Life : Barking Abbey In The Late-Medieval And Early Modern Periods, Teresa L. Barnes

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project is to gain an understanding of the daily lives of nuns in an English nunnery by examining a particular prominent abbey. This study also attempts to update the history of the abbey by incorporating methods and theories used by recent historians of women's monasticism, as well as recent archaeological evidence found at the abbey site. By including specific examinations of Barking Abbey's last nuns, as well as the nuns' artistic and cultural pursuits, this thesis expands the scholarship of the abbey's history into areas previously unexplored. This thesis begins with a look at the nuns …

What A Saint Am I! : The Self-Canonization Of Madame Jeanne-Marie Guyon In The Quietist Controversy Of Seventeenth-Century France, Jennifer Marie Lior Blacke

Dissertations and Theses

At the center of the heated Quietist Controversy in late seventeenthcentury France was Jeanne-Marie Guyon, whose writings and teachings on inner prayer were similar to those of recognized Catholic mystics. Unlike celebrated mystics, however, Mme Guyon expounded a doctrine which seemed to concentrate not only on holy indifference, but on herself as the sole mechanism by which others could attain union with God. A careful reading of the writings of Mme Guyon reveals a woman obsessed with herself --her salvation, her martyrdom, her popularity, and her superiority. Such a description corresponds perfectly with the suggestions of her foremost persecutor, the …

Vormärz Of Germany And The Critique Of Heinrich Heine, Andrew Dean Henley

Dissertations and Theses

The conclusion of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars marked the beginning of the modem world. In western Europe new ideals about the position of the individual and the future of society flourished in the early nineteenth century--prior to the revolutions of 1848. However, the forward move into the modem world was stymied in the multitude of states which composed Germany after 1815. Due to a combination of factors- political repression, conservative/romantic trends, social lethargy, and liberal immaturity--German society in the period 1815-1848--the Vormärz (pre-March 1848) clung to traditional ways. The most famous German writer of this period, Heinrich …

From The Printing Press To The Guillotine: Gracchus Babeuf And The Revolutionary Language Of Thermidor, David Brian Audley

Dissertations and Theses

The traditional history of Franc̦ois-Noel 'Gracchus' Babeuf has been centered on politics and socialism. Since his death in 1 797 historians have attempted to show the foundations of nineteenth and twentieth-century social revolution and communism in the polemical works of Babeuf. One result of this method of research has been an assumption of contradiction within Babeuf's writings in the months immediately following the fall of Maxmilien Robespierre. Historians have assumed that the seemingly anti-Robespierrist rhetoric found from September 1794 to February 1795 was both a product and an evidence of the 'Thermidorization' of Babeuf. However, a close textual analysis of …

The English Crown's Foreign Debt, 1544-1557, Wayne M. Kline

Dissertations and Theses

As background to an investigation of the crown's foreign borrowing from 1544 though 1557, this thesis examines the general fiscal situation of the mid-Tudor Commonwealth with special emphasis on the great inflation of the 16th century, the role of Antwerp in European finance, and the relationship between war and English fiscal policy. It then examines in detail the creation of the debt under Henry VIII, its development into a standard feature of state finance under Edward VI, and its liquidation under Mary. Information on England and English crown finance was drawn principally from published primary sources while information on the …

English Housewives In Theory And Practice, 1500-1640, Lynn Ann Botelho

Dissertations and Theses

Women in early modem England were expected to marry, and then to become housewives. Despite the fact that nearly fifty percent of the population was in this position, little is known of the expectations and realities of these English housewives. This thesis examines both the expectations and actual lives of middling sort and gentry women in England between 1500 and 1640.

The Collapse Of The German Army In The East In The Summer Of 1944 (Volume 2), Stephen Ariel Veal

Dissertations and Theses

The collapse of the German Army in the East in the Summer of 1944 is analyzed and determined to be the result of the following specific factors: German intelligence failures; German defensive doctrine; loss of German air superiority; Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union; German mobile reserves committed in the West; Soviet numerical superiority; and Soviet offensive doctrine and tactics. The collapse of Army Group Center, the destruction of the XIII Army Corps, and the collapse of Army Group South Ukraine in Romania during the Summer of 1944 are examined in detail. The significance of the collapse of the German …

The Collapse Of The German Army In The East In The Summer Of 1944 (Volume 1), Stephen Ariel Veal

Dissertations and Theses

The collapse of the German Army in the East in the Summer of 1944 is analyzed and determined to be the result of the following specific factors: German intelligence failures; German defensive doctrine; loss of German air superiority; Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union; German mobile reserves committed in the West; Soviet numerical superiority; and Soviet offensive doctrine and tactics. The collapse of Army Group Center, the destruction of the XIII Army Corps, and the collapse of Army Group South Ukraine in Romania during the Summer of 1944 are examined in detail. The significance of the collapse of the German …

Every Man Crying Out: Elizabethan Anti-Catholic Pamphlets And The Birth Of English Anti-Papism, Carol Ellen Wheeler

Dissertations and Theses

To the Englishmen of the sixteenth century the structure of the universe seemed clear and logical. God had created and ordered it in such a way that everyone and everything had a specific, permanent place which carried with it appropriate duties and responsibilities. Primary among these requirements was obedience to one's betters, up the Chain of Being, to God. Unity demanded uniformity; obedience held the universe together. Within this context, the excommunication of Elizabeth Tudor in 1570 both redefined and intensified the strain between the crown and the various religious groups in the realm. Catholics had become traitors, or at …

The Congress Of Berlin Of 1878: Its Origins And Consequences, Kenneth Allen Shafer

Dissertations and Theses

Historians have expressed a variety of opinions concerning the true significance of the Congress of Berlin. While the 1878 meeting did not have to deal with questions as comprehensive as those discussed in Vienna in 1814-1815 or at Paris in 1856, the Congress of Berlin had great impact in its own right. While the Berlin meeting made decisions in order to reorganize the Balkans after years of instability and war, it also created a split in relations between the German Empire and Imperial Russia which would eventually drive the two powers towards conflict in "The Great War" in 1914.

The European Neutrals In World War Ii, Jerrold Michael Packard

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis begins with a short section on the nature of neutrality in Europe in the 1930s, and briefly introduces the political circumstances of the six nations that remained neutral throughout the war. The primary subject of the paper deals with the relationship between the belligerents and the neutral states, especially the extent to which military strength and preparedness was responsible for the latter maintaining their neutrality.

Women Of The Tudor Court, 1501-1568, Carol De Witte Bowles

Dissertations and Theses

Writing the history of Tudor women is a difficult task. "Women's lives from the 16th century can rarely be constructed except when these women have had influential connections with notable men.This is no less true for the court women of Tudor England than for other women of the time.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss some of the more memorable court women of Tudor England who served the queens of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, 2 and to determine what impact, if any, they had on their contemporary times and to evaluate their roles in Tudor …