Arts and Humanities Commons^™

[Introduction To] I And You, J. David Stevens

Bookshelf

The four stories in J. David Stevens’s I and You focus on immigrants and their families, characters trying to find the merge point between the China of a previous generation and America today. A teenage son puzzles over his father’s obsession with American football. A Texas lesbian falls for an international graduate student. A divorced middle-aged woman tries to right an old wrong in the life of a man for whom she serves as caregiver. Through episodes where intimacy falters in the face of palpable distance, characters must confront unknowable details in the lives of even those closest to them: …

[Introduction To] Soda Goes Pop: Pepsi-Cola Advertising And Popular Music, Joanna K. Love

Bookshelf

From its 1939 “Nickel, Nickel” jingle to pathbreaking collaborations with Michael Jackson and Madonna to its pair of X Factor commercials in 2011 and 2012, Pepsi-Cola has played a leading role in drawing the American pop music industry into a synergetic relationship with advertising. This idea has been copied successfully by countless other brands over the years, and such commercial collaboration is commonplace today—but how did we get here? How and why have pop music aesthetics been co-opted to benefit corporate branding? What effect have Pepsi’s music marketing practices in particular had on other brands, the advertising industry, and popular …

La Vie En Périphérie : Une Comparaison Critique De La Représentation Des Populations Marginalisées Et Le Racisme Systématique Aux Etats-Unis Et À La Banlieue Du Paris, Milan Essex

Honors Theses

Les populations marginalisées sont toujours examinées à la loupe : les médias, les nouvelles, les films et la littérature. D’une part, elles sont utilisées en tant d’artistes, d’innovateurs, de modèles. D’autre part, elles sont stigmatisées comme des criminels, des paresseux, des instigateurs. La violence est toujours attachée à la figure où la peau est enrichie avec de la mélanine, et les droits humains sont menacés pour les personnes avec la peau de plus en plus brune, et les yeux de plus en plus «exotiques». Les épreuves de la peau noire se fixent dans la manière dont elles ne sont pas …

Case Study Of The Eastern State Hospital As Evidence Of English Influence On American Ideas About Mental Illness, Grace Devries

James W. Jackson Award for Excellence in Library Research in the Social Sciences

Grace DeVries, Class of 2016 at the University of Richmond, received the James W. Jackson Award for Excellence in the Social Sciences. Her research paper is entitled, Case Study of the Eastern State Hospital as Evidence of English Influence on American Ideas about Mental Illness.

Racial Justice, Hegemony, And Bias Incidents In U.S. Higher Education, Glyn Hughes

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Formal administrative protocols for responding to bias incidents are now the norm in higher education. This article considers these developments by posing critical questions about racial justice work on campus, identifying key features of an under-acknowledged institutional racism, and contributing to discussions about ways that diversity and social justice efforts often reproduce rather than challenge systemic inequities.

Networks Of Resistance : Black Virginians Remember Civil War Loyalties, Amanda Kleintop

Honors Theses

On June 22, 1877, William Charity explained his neighborhood’s Civil War loyalties to special commissioner Isaac Baldwin of the Southern Claims Commission (SCC): “The colored people were mostly all for the union.” Charity, a free black Virginian, recognized that “mostly” did not mean all. He went on to suggest: “some of them were blind.” As a self-identified Unionist, Charity had difficulty envisioning a black man who was not loyal to the Union cause and emancipation during the Civil War. Current debates, however, have seized on those black Virginians Charity called “blind,” taking the “mostly” Unionist majority for granted. Like Charity, …

[Introduction To] America's War: Talking About The Civil War And Emancipation On Their 150th Anniversaries, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Edited by Edward L. Ayers, America’s War is an anthology of Civil War writing originally published between 1852 and 2008. Co-published by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, America’s War was created in support of a national reading and discussion program for libraries called “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War.”

The selections in America’s War include works of historical fiction and interpretation, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biographies, and short stories. Together, these readings provide a glimpse of the vast sweep and profound breadth of Americans’ war among and against themselves, adding …

[Introduction To] America On The Eve Of The Civil War, Edward L. Ayers, Carolyn R. Martin

Bookshelf

The scholarship and public history the sixteen historians had created over their careers made this plan seem at least feasible. Their collective body of work embraces everything from politics to literature, from industrial slavery to African American art, from women's reform efforts to racial ideologies, from military history to the history of memory. Some of them worked at museums and libraries while others taught at universities and colleges across the nations. They belonged to no particular school of interpretation, and quite a few had never met one another.

The historians, whatever their backgrounds, shared a sense of responsibility for opening …

"A Change Has Swept Over Our Land": American Moravians And The Civil War, Adrienne E. Robertson

Master's Theses

When they first came to North America, the Moravians—a pietistic, Germanic Christian sect—settled in isolated communities where only a few people ventured out to do missionary work for the community. They separated themselves from their non-Moravian neighbors, one missionary community serving the North from its seat in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the other serving the South from Salem, North Carolina, and neither participating in civic or military life. Then, over the course of a few decades, economic and civic circumstances forced the Moravians in North America to adapt their ways to be more like those of their non-Moravian neighbors, adopting styles …

The Inheritance Of Lawless Passion : An Examination Of Interracial Relationships Through Slave Narratives, Genna K. Murray

Honors Theses

WPA narratives uphold that during the institution of slavery there was a wide variety of interracial relationships that ranged from the most brutal rapes to the most loving relationships. While some white slave owners took sadistic pleasure in torturing their slave women, others jeopardized their social standing and career to be with the woman they loved. Therefore, it is difficult to make vast generalizations about interracial relationships during slavery and they should really be examined on a case‐ specific level. However, it can be argued that most interracial relationships fell somewhere in the middle of the two previously stated extremes. …

Enslaved Revolutionaries : Constitutional Rhetoric Of Eighteenth-Century Irish And American Patriots, Jacob Keith Johnson

Honors Theses

Following years of escalating tension, the thirteen American colonies crossed the threshold over to armed revolt, declaring a war for independence from the British in 1776. Restrictions placed upon the colonies and failed attempts at a compromise drove American patriots to initiate and execute a republican revolution that redefined their status from subsidiary colonies to independent nation. During this time, Ireland found itself in a unique situation, in an ambiguous status stuck between colony and nation. Desires for greater participation in Britain’s mercantilist economy and demand for Ireland’s legislative independence led to a revolutionary period orchestrated by an opposition group …

The Politics Of Sectional Servitude : The Construction Of American Abolitionist Discourse In Black And White, 1837-1847, Christopher M. Florio

Honors Theses

I argue that American political discourse surrounding abolition and slavery, sectional politics and violent insurrection, coalesced in the 1840s. The merger of such ostensibly disconnected streams of thought began with the perception of a new political need, as abolitionists came to believe that southern plantation elites had constructed a hegemonic proslavery order. Their interpretation of northern consent to southern domination impelled a proliferation of abolitionist possibilities, possibilities that were intended to sever the connection between national politics and the peculiar institution. Initially disseminated by freed blacks but subsequently appropriated by northern whites, these possibilities crossed the color line and challenged …

Deporting "Red Emma" : The Political And Legal Battles For Citizenship, 1917-1921, Kara D. Schultz

Honors Theses

As Americans worked to construct a national creed in the early nineteenth century, xenophobia and cultural exceptionalism were in constant tension with conceptions of free speech and personal liberty. The emergence of deportation as the solution to America's "radical problem" was built upon representations of the political subversive that had little grounding in reality. The differing ideologies and organizations of the anarchist and communist movements in America were constantly being reshaped, yet ... the press and political rhetoric blurred distinctions between parties, assuming that both philosophies were elements of the same menace that sought violent overthrow of the government. Reducing …

Self-Righteous Beneficence : American Diplomats And Missionary Perceptions Of The Ottoman Empire, 1908-1914, Ella M. Frantantuono

Honors Theses

At first glance, President Taft's praise of the Ottoman Empire's transformation seems to reflect optimism about the state of the Turkish Empire and America's role in the world. Still, the very source of this optimism, Turkey's evolution from "retrograde" to "constitutional," reveals Taft's assumption that progress for Turkey was based on adopting the "modem policies" of what he believed to be a superior culture. Taft was not alone in thinking that the event he described, the inauguration of the second Constitutional era of the Ottoman Empire, signified a tremendous improvement in the world or in linking that change to the …

Dead Reckoning (Book Review), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Long before she became the first female president of Harvard University in July 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust showed herself to be an inventive, energetic, and restless historian. Her first book, in 1977, focused on a subject many people had doubted was a subject, "the intellectual in the Old South." Five years later, she produced what is still the fullest — and most disturbing — portrayal of a white Southern planter, a man who sought complete mastery over the white women in his charge as well as over the enslaved people he claimed as property.

Soon after that, in a series …

An Unlikely Alliance : The Generals Who Won The American Revolution, Patrick Michael Elgin

Master's Theses

Seventy-seven men were asked to serve as Generals during the Revolutionary War by the Continental Congress. These men came from such disparate backgrounds that it may seem surprising that they could unite in such a dangerous venture as a rebellion against Great Britain. This thesis explores the military history of the Revolutionary War through the framework of these seventy-seven men by providing biographical sketches of each and drawing from these sketches to create a list of factors which affected their service in the war. Specifically, the thesis focuses on where these men came from, how they earned a livelihood, and …

Incarceration : A Rising Population Dilemma, Lessie Smith Jr.

Master's Theses

The nation's incarceration growth continues to soar, having negative economic and societal effects. This research explores continued growth causes and possible answers to prevent, intervene, and slow down incarceration. Hampton Roads institutions' offenders and professional staff were surveyed. The survey focuses on preventive and intervention programs and their effectiveness, sociological and economical factors leading to imprisonment, and statistics supporting incarceration growth. The research goal is to validate program contents and components factoring into imprisonment. The study of others and information generated through this study are used to determine program needs and current effectiveness. This study explores reasons offenders frequent the …

Deficit Reduction In The U.S. Senate : The Search For Moral Leadership In The Budget Process, David Kendall Roberts

Honors Theses

Contemporary deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility are central to the economic wellbeing of future generations as well as their ability to freely decide their own policy priorities. Many scholarly publications and popular commentary on budget policy describe the obstacles to deficit reduction and political leaders' unwillingness to address the nation's long-term fiscal problems. However, current discussions of budget deficits and the national debt have not been informed by a comprehensive empirical analysis of attempts to reduce the deficit. This thesis examines all deficit-affecting floor amendments to budget legislation from 1975 to 2005 in order to assess whether the bleak account …

The Rise And Fall Of America's Education President : George W. Bush's Political Leadership And The Passage Of The No Child Left Behind Act, Ethan L. Mcwilliams

Honors Theses

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush proudly signed the "No Child Left Behind Act," thus ensuring that H.R. 1 became Public Law 107-110. During the signing ceremony, the President triumphantly proclaimed that, "as of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results."1 The legislation, which totaled more than six hundred pages, was intended to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and expand its aim according to four central principles: accountability for results; state and local flexibility; focusing resources on successful methods; and expanding choice? Although substantively notable …

"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" : Rural Populist Imagery In Roots Rock Music, 1967-1973, Christopher Lee Witte

Master's Theses

Through a detailed focus on these five groups and their music, with an added emphasis on their lyrics, this thesis attempts to create a meaningful tie between Slotkin' s study of American myth-making and story creation with a key area of popular culture - music - that he did not focus on. The thesis itself is separated into three key chapters - the first reveals how nature and landscape are presented in these songs and how they viewed modern twentieth century America with idealized notions of a rural past. The second discusses their presentations of heroes and anti-heroes as musical …

[Introduction To] What Caused The Civil War? Reflections On The South And Southern History, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

The Southern past has proven to be fertile ground for great works of history. Peculiarities of tragic proportions—a system of slavery flourishing in a land of freedom, secession and Civil War tearing at a federal Union, deep poverty persisting in a nation of fast-paced development—have fed the imaginations of some of our most accomplished historians.

Foremost in their ranks today is Edward L. Ayers, author of the award-winning and ongoing study of the Civil War in the heart of America, the Valley of the Shadow Project. In wide-ranging essays on the Civil War, the New South, and the twentieth-century South, …

[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 …

Nationalism And The Public Sphere : Debating The Limits Of Patriotism In Popular Music Since September 11th, Mark Melvin

Honors Theses

At various historical moments, music has been a part of change and movement within social dynamics. From minstrels entertaining the courts of kings to plantation slaves singing spirituals of emancipation, the localities of music are diverse and ever shifting. Music is, and always has been, forming and reforming dynamic relationships with culture, art, and politics. With the emergence of mass media and mass distribution in the 20th century, music has become more than an art form that can only be experienced by a live audience; consequently, music has formed even more unique relationships within the cultural, artistic and political spheres. …

Slavery, Economics And Constitutional Ideals, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

As we think about endings, however, it is also useful to think about beginnings. That is what President Abraham Lincoln did in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered just five weeks before the surrender at Appomattox and his own assassination soon thereafter. All knew, he said reflecting sadly and thoughtfully on how the Civil War came about, that slavery was, "somehow," the cause. In fact, "somehow," however, lay puzzles, contradictions, and questions. The connections between slavery and the Civil War have concerned Americans ever since the events at Appomattox.

Music Collections In American Public Libraries, Linda B. Fairtile, Karen M. Burke

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This article presents a broad survey of music collections in public libraries in the United States. Characteristics common to the majority of American public libraries are discussed, including origin, funding, and mission as an educational institution. Using a 1949 survey compiled by Otto Luening, Music Materials and the Public Library, as a basis for comparison, the authors surveyed seven libraries representing one or more of the following communities: small towns, school districts with nationally recognized music education programs, large cities, and locations associated recognizably "American" musical styles (e.g., New Orleans and jazz). The results this informal web survey demonstrate …

White Savages In Hunting Shirts : The Rifleman's Costume Of National Identity And Rebellion In The American Revolution, Byron C. Smith

Master's Theses

This thesis relies on primary sources to address the significance of clothing and accoutrements worn by backwoods riflemen during the era of the American Revolution. As North America's rebellious colonies became a nation, they struggled to find cultural symbols that distinguished them from their European cousins. As Europeans often identified America symbolically as the "noble savage," in turn some Americans looked to the Indian for inspiration in their new search for national identity. During the Revolution many Americans from backwoods regions of the middle and southern colonies, wearing uniquely American garments called hunting shirts, openly rebelled against their European heritage …

[Introduction To] Valley Of The Shadow: Two Communities In The American Civil War, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Two communities in America's Great Valley--Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Augusta County, Virginia--separated by only a few hundred miles, share much in their politics and ways of life. Yet they emerge on opposing sides of a war in which they zealously send their sons to fight and die. Here we see a Civil War that is not the inevitable conflict of rival societies, but a human drama, immediate, particular, engrossing.

Rethinking Slavery And Freedom (Book Reviews), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Review essay of the following books:

Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America by Ira Berlin.

Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War edited by Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy, Leslie S. Rowland.

The Interstate Highway Act Of 1956, Edward H. Bogle

Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development and passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the Interstate Highway Act. It begins by examining the background of federal aid highway legislation in the United States in the twentieth century, and the state of US roads in the mid 1950s. The paper then turns to focus on the development of governmental interest in an integrated, limited-access, national system of modem interstate highways. It further tracks the failure of several highway bills to pass in 1955, and then the successful passage of the 1956 bill: through the legislative …

United States - Indonesian Relations, 1945-1949: Negative Consequences Of Early American Cold War Policy, Robert Earl Patterson

Master's Theses

From 1945 to 1949, Indonesian nationalists struggled for independence against their Dutch colonial rulers. For most of the period, American foreign policy favored the Netherlands in its desire to reign once again over the archipelago. American foreign policy strategy advocated a "Europe first" position, and possessed finite resources to contain Soviet expansion in the developing cold war. State Department policy planners sided with European powers as they attempted to resume the status quo ante in Southeast Asia following World War II. Colonies were considered essential to the recoveries of Western European powers economically, politically, and psychologically.