Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Beachheads : A Historical Reconsideration Of The U.S. Landings At Anzio And Inchon, Travis James Hardy

Master's Theses

Traditional thinking in American military history holds that the amphibious Allied landing at Anzio, Italy, on 22 January 1944 was a complete failure and represents one of the biggest blunders of World War II. This is especially true when Anzio is compared to the American landing at Inchon, Korea, on 15 September 1950 during the Korean War, that has been widely hailed as being one of the unrivaled amphibious successes in American military history. This thesis addresses the issues of whether Anzio was truly a "failure" and whether Inchon was truly a "success." Relying upon the personal paper collections of …

"Enough Glory For Us All" : The "Negro Exhibit" At The Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, 1907, John Thomas Wilkes

Master's Theses

The Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition of 1907 invited the United States and the world to display their progress in a way befitting the dawn of a new century. Though this exposition fell short of matching the notoriety of other Victorian fairs, African- Americans successfully presented their advancement and historic contributions to American society, despite the shortcomings of the exposition itself and the dismal state of the nation's race relations. Black organizers at Jamestown underscored the rise of their people by maintaining firm control over the entire "Negro" exhibit, an achievement viewed as untenable at earlier fairs. Records of the United States …

The New Top Hats At Westminster : A Longitudinal Study Of The Effects Of The British General Election Of 1906 On The Liberal Party, Michael Rosenberger

Honors Theses

When the new Parliament first met on 13 February 1906 there were a lot of new black top hats at Westminster. The Liberal success in the election the previous month had not only brought the Liberals to power with a resounding majority, but it also brought in 310 new Members of Parliament, 220 of them Liberals, who had never before held national office. The new MPs roamed and mingled through the corridors of Westminster with their new tops hats perched lightly on their heads, the brims tilted down towards their noses. The black hats had been polished to a shine …

American Identity In The Illinois Territory, 1809-1818, Daniel Northrup Finucane

Honors Theses

Many histories have been writen about Illinois, both by early inhabitants and modern scholars. The histories are quite inclusive, yet none specifically address the topic that I am examining. Scarce material exists regarding the Americanism of the early settlers in Illinois. But, in fashioning my argument on the subject, I have taken from a variety of these cources bits and pieces of information about geography, demographics, economics, politics, and social life. My hope is that these facts and arguments will help to substantiate my suggestions regarding the mindsets of territorial Illinoisians. The work coming closest to my focus is an …

The Christian Century And The Fluidity Of American Ideologies, 1919-1932, Michael Levin

Honors Theses

The most fundamental belief echoed in the Christian Century during the '20s was a persistent optimism about human progress. Editors of the journal devoted such a great deal of energy to the task of diagnosing the ills of society because they held the improvement of the American system to be both beneficial and achievable. It is from this platform of optimism that the Century derived the various components of its complex worldview: its religious morality, pragamatic approach, and its egalitarian belief. All of these principles were dependent on the notion that tomorrow could and would be better than today. The …

Sozomen, Barbarians, And Early Byzantine Historiography, Walter Stevenson

Classical Studies Faculty Publications

Sozomen, writing in mid-fifth century Constantinople, stands out as an exception proving the rule in Byzantine historiography. He is the first and last Christian Byzantine historian to make a serious effort at ethnography.⁵ When we consider how quickly Christianity was spreading outside the boundaries of the eastern Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries it is striking how little mention barbarians and their evangelization earn in the early ecclesiastical histories.⁶ To illustrate this point I will begin by showing that Sozomen’s predecessors, Eusebius, Rufinus, and Socrates, de-emphasized the natural interest that the historical genre had expressed in ethnography, …

[Introduction To] In The Presence Of Mine Enemies: Civil War In The Heart Of America, 1859-1863, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Winner of the Bancroft Prize: Through a gripping narrative based on massive new research, a leading historian reshapes our understanding of the Civil War.

Our standard Civil War histories tell a reassuring story of the triumph, in an inevitable conflict, of the dynamic, free-labor North over the traditional, slave-based South, vindicating the freedom principles built into the nation's foundations.

But at the time, on the borderlands of Pennsylvania and Virginia, no one expected war, and no one knew how it would turn out. The one certainty was that any war between the states would be fought in their fields and …

Restoring The Light : Ministry To German Prisoners Of War In America During The Second World War, Melissa Weldon

Master's Theses

In 1942, the United States committed itself to the retention of German prisoners of war on American soil. Over 350,000 German soldiers lived and worked in several hundred camps throughout the contiguous United States. These prisoners required not only food and shelter, but spiritual care as well. The Geneva Convention of 1929 granted prisoners of war the right to worship according to their faith. The United States government not only permitted, but also encouraged, ministry to the prisoners in its care. Relying on the assistance of international relief organizations and national church bodies, the Office of the Provost Marshal General …

Delaney Amendment, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In 1958, U.S. Representative James Delaney of New York added a proviso to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act declaring that the Food and Drug Administration cannot approve any food additive found to induce cancer in a person or animal.

Columbine School Massacre, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

On 20 April 1999, in one of the deadliest school shootings in national history, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Jefferson County, Colorado, killed twelve fellow students and a teacher and injured twenty-three others before committing suicide. Eric Harris, age eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, age seventeen, used homemade bombs, two sawed-off twelve-gauge shotguns, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic rifle, and a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol in a siege that began shortly after 11 A.M.

Sacco & Vanzetti Case, Eric S. Yellin, Louis Foughin

History Faculty Publications

Nicola Sacco, a skilled shoeworker born in 1891, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler born in 1888, were arrested on 5 May 1920, for a payroll holdup and murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. A jury, sitting under Judge Webster Thayer, found the men guilty on 14 July 1921. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed on 23 August 1927 after several appeals and the recommendation of a special advisory commission serving the Massachusetts governor. The execution sparked worldwide protests against repression of Italian Americans, immigrants, labor militancy, and radical political beliefs.

Sabotage, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

A term borrowed from French syndicalists by American labor organizations at the turn of the century, sabotage means the hampering of productivity and efficiency of a factory, company, or organization by internal operatives. Often sabotage involves the destruction of property or machines by the workers who use them. In the United States, sabotage was seen first as a direct-action tactic for labor radicals against oppressive employers.

Teapot Dome Oil Scandal, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In October 1929, Albert B. Fall, the former Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding, was convicted of accepting bribes in the leasing of U.S. Naval Oil Reserves in Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming.

Tickets, Concerts And School Fees: Money And New Christian Communities In Colonial Zimbabwe, Carol Summers

History Faculty Publications

It is worth exploring how this new identity emerged. In standard mission history narratives, European missionaries emphasized their own role and that of God, appealing for more funds from Europe and America within a heroic evangelical narrative which characterized missionaries as pioneers harvesting African people, like ripe grain, for Jesus. This theme has been echoed by African church historians who have tended to focus on church leadership and the ways officials overcame challenges and built institutions.² More recently, anthropologists and historians have emphasized how communities under pressure from colonial contact, conquest, and institutionalization found in Christianity a way of …

The Effect Of Slavery On Southern Farmland Values In The Antebellum And Postbellum Era, Brandon Devlin

Honors Theses

In the past 30 years, the legacy of African-American slavery has experienced a transformation in historical perspective. Morality aside, several historians have suggested that the accepted views regarding slavery need revision, particularly in an economic sense. Utilizing cliometrics, census records, diaries, and first-hand accounts of slavery in the South, economic historians such as Robert Fogel and Stanley Engennan have made a compelling case for the viability and profitability of slavery by exposing the nuances of the system that historical generalities often ignore. Of course, words like "viable" and ''profitable" do not necessarily mean "virtuous"or even "preferable", but it does imply …