American Studies Commons^™

Review Of Bird Cloud: A Memoir By Annie Proulx, Alex Hunt

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Annie Proulx's latest is nonfiction, recounting her attempt to inhabit a section of land in south-central Wyoming. While tough winters and unmaintained roads make year-round residence too difficult, Proulx glories in the wild isolation of a place that inspires her to research and write as well as to build fence and monitor eagles. Bird Cloud is a book that Proulx's regulars will find both enjoyable and revealing; however, its self-indulgence and lack of polish leave us with a feeling akin to Proulx's own house high in the mountain valley-it remains raw and isolated.

This is not entirely a negative. Proulx's …

Review Of Llano Estacada: An Island In The Sky Edited By Stephen Bogener And William Tydeman, George Lubick

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

"Island in the Sky" aptly describes the Llano Estacado, the southern extension of the Great Plains that rises some 800 feet above the surrounding terrain in northwestern Texas and northeastern New Mexico. It is this expansive landscape that William Tydeman and Stephen Bogener have placed in the forefront of an excellent collection of essays and photographs that explore the connections between the region's geography and culture. The plateau's flat terrain-"horizontal yellow," as historian Dan Flores has described it-invariably defines the Llano, but Stephen Bogener reminds us also that "85 percent of what the human eye registers on the Llano Estacado …

Review Of Great Sioux War Orders Of Battle: How The United States Army Waged War On The Northern Plains, 1876-1877 By Paul L. Hedren, Charles M. Robinson Iii

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The Great Sioux War of 1876-77 was the greatest Indian war ever fought by the United States government. That, together with the continued fascination of the Little Bighorn, has generated enough books and articles to fill a small library. Most follow a common thread of narration or analysis, but Paul L. Hedren's Great Sioux War Orders of Battle takes a different approach. Divided into three parts, it covers the 1876 army, its mission and strategy in the Plains, deployment and tactics, and analysis.

On the surface, this would seem like a book for the specialist. However, the body of text …

Review Of Valentine T. Mcgillycuddy: Army Surgeon, Agent To The Sioux By Candy Moulton, Jason Pierce

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Valentine T. McGillycuddy is not famous, but he should be. His presence at many critical events in the 1870s and '80s compelled Candy Moulton to write this engaging biography. McGillycuddy worked as a doctor and surveyor on the Northern Boundary Survey and the 1875 Newton-Jenney Expedition into the Black Hills. He tended wounded soldiers as an army surgeon during the war with the Lakotas and Cheyennes in 1876 and served as an Indian agent on the Pine Ridge Reservation from 1879-86. He brushed shoulders with such iconic western figures as Calamity Jane, William F. Cody, Marcus Reno, Red Cloud, and …

Review Of William Clark's World: Describing America In An Age Of Unknowns By Peter J. Kastor, Thomas P. Slaughter

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This book, though not a biography, is biographical. It considers William Clark's attempts to describe the American West within the context of other descriptions during his lifetime (1770-1838). Peter J. Kastor explores the conscious agendas of writers and mapmakers that supported their particular political and cultural goals. He addresses problems that grew from describing the unknown and the ambivalence that inspired many of the attempts. He aims for a subtle and less valedictory analysis than is traditional, while avoiding a flip of that view into a simple indictment of empire-building and ethnic cleansing on the American frontier.

Review Of The Philosophy Of The Western Edited By Jennifer L. Mcmahon And B. Steve Csaki, Robert B. Pippin

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The topic of this collection immediately raises a number of questions. In what sense do artworks have, or express, a "philosophy"? If they can be said to imply or assert propositional claims, why not just make the claims and argue for them? Do the films just serve as examples of philosophical ideas? (The majority of these essays seem to take this approach.) If so, how important is it that the examples are artworks? Would complex and imaginative thought experiments do? Are commercial Hollywood films and television shows artworks at all, and if so, in what sense? Is an artwork a …

Review Of Montana Moments: History On The Go By Ellen Baumler, Amy L. Mckinney

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Ellen Baumler, interpretive historian and coordinator of Montana's National Register Sign Program at the Montana Historical Society, once again delights readers with her excellent Montana Moments: History on the Go. The book is the result of years of research she conducted while writing sign texts for the National Register of Historic Places and her popular History Half-Note radio vignettes for KCAP in Helena. She selected about 250 of her favorite snippets for this collection.

Baumler does a fine job offering readers short, well-researched, and entertaining stories on a variety of topics including animals, buildings, people, events, and nature that …

Review Of America's School For War: Fort Leavenworth, Officer Education, And Victory In World War Ii By Peter J. Schifferle, Donald J. Mrozek

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In America's School for War, Peter J. Schifferle examines the role of professional military education at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, notably through the Command and General Staff College (CGSC), in preparing officers for likely responsibilities as staff officers and leaders in future wars. Focusing on the period between the two world wars, he emphasizes continuity in thinking and doctrine and, related to both, in the rationale for the curriculum at CGSc. Whatever the number of students (which expanded as U.S. involvement in World War II loomed) or the structure of the curriculum (which went from two years to one in …

Review Of Shot In Oklahoma: A Century Of Sooner State Cinema By John Wooley, Joseph A. Kestner

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

John Wooley's Shot in Oklahoma is pioneering in every sense of the word. Not only is it the first book to engage the entirety of cinema in the state of Oklahoma; it will also serve as an archive for future researchers in the field. Wooley has used massive amounts of materials, including interviews with principal figures, but he has especially researched the files of the Tulsa World, the now-defunct Tulsa Tribune, and the Daily Oklahoman for newspaper reactions to all the cinematic activity in the state.

Small though the state of Oklahoma may be, its engagement with cinema began almost …

Review Of Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine Of Discovery In The English Colonies By Robert J. Miller, Jacinta Ruru, Larissa Behrendt, And Tracey Lindberg, Blake A. Watson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The Doctrine of Discovery provides that colonizing European nations automatically acquired certain property, governmental, and commercial rights over Indigenous inhabitants. In recent years, Indigenous peoples, legal scholars, religious institutions, and nongovernmental organizations have pressed for official repudiation of the Doctrine. In 2007, the United Nations voted (over the initial opposition of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States) to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which contains several provisions that acknowledge the rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands. In 2012, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples will devote its Eleventh Session to a …

Converting The Rosebud Sicangu Lakota Catholicism In The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Harvey Markowitz

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Following the Civil War, the United States government undertook a massive reform of its Indian policy, replacing the antebellum goal of permanently segregating Indian and white populations with that of "civilizing and Christianizing" (i.e., assimilating) Native peoples. To aid in this reform, the federal Indian Bureau successfully petitioned leaders of mainline denominations, including members of America's Catholic Church hierarchy, to enlist personnel to educate Indians in the manners and customs of "Christian citizenship."

In 1886 priests and brothers belonging to the Jesuit's Buffalo Mission and Franciscan sisters of Penance and Christian Charity from Stella-Niagara, New York, arrived on the Rosebud …

"A Little Place Getting Smaller" Perceptions Of Place And The Depopulation Of Gove County, Kansas, Aaron Gilbreath

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Go west on Interstate 70, past Salina and Highway 81, the unofficial line of demarcation between eastern and western Kansas. Beyond Bob Dole's childhood home of Russell and the regional center of Hays you will come to Gove County. Though the highway is littered with advertisements for Colby and Goodland, towns that lie farther west, nothing signals the unsuspecting driver that Gove County is approaching. Nothing sings the praises of Gove County's industries, historic figures, or the local quality of life. You simply pass from Trego County into Gove County, your arrival marked by a single sign reading "Gove County …

The Black Gum Well, Carolyn Ruth Pennington

Online Theses and Dissertations

The writing of the novel as a creative thesis in American literature was a special project approved by the English department of Eastern Kentucky University. Beyond the university's departmental requirements in the course of study for a a Master of English in American literature, I did an independent study of creative writing texts recommended by the creative writing department at Easter Kentucky University. I attended three summer workshops at the Hindman Settlement School Writer's Workshop, Hindman, Kentucky, with classes under professors/authors Robert Morgan, Gurney Norman, Lee Smith and other noted others. My undergraduate study of the English novel and my …

Deconstructing The "Power And Control Motive": Developing And Assessing The Measurability Of Internal Power, Shelly Marie Wagers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the increased social recognition, law and policy changes within the criminal justice system, and the widespread use of court mandated batterer intervention programs (BIPs) domestic violence continues to be a persistent problem. The lack of significant decline in incidence rates along with a growing body of empirical evidence that indicates BIPs are, at best, only moderately effective raises serious concern. Effective policies and programs are based upon empirically tested theory. The assertion "the batterer's motive is power and control" has become fundamental to almost all of our currently used and accepted mainstream theoretical explanations regarding domestic violence. However, the …

The Effects Of Informational Prompts And Performance Feedback On Recyclign Behavior, Erin Marie Zandecki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recycling behavior was examined by the implementation of Informational Prompts and Performance Feedback. Prompts containing facts on recycling and waste along with group performance feedback were studied at The Florida Mental Health Institute at The University of South Florida (Tampa campus). Informational Prompts were introduced by placing informational facts about recycling and waste by 26 bins throughout the building. Performance feedback signs were placed by the same bins and included the frequency of recycled material and trash discarded in the recycling bins on a daily basis when the campus was open. The results showed that both interventions increased recycling. Informational …

Optimization Of Bio-Impedance Sensor For Enhanced Detection And Characterization Of Adherent Cells, Dorielle T. Price

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the detection and characterization of cells using

impedance-based techniques to understand the behavior and response of cells to internal/environmental changes. In combination with impedimetric sensing techniques, the biosensors in this work allow rapid, label-free, quantitative measurements and are very sensitive to changes in environment and cell morphology. The biosensor design and measurement setup is optimized to detect and differentiate cancer cells and healthy (normal) cells. The outcome of this work will provide a foundation for enhanced 3-dimensional tumor analysis and characterization; thus creating an avenue for earlier cancer detection and reduced healthcare costs.

The magnitude of …

An Evaluation Of Reactivity To Observer Presence While Self-Monitoring To Improve Swimming Performance, Sara Wendi Schonwetter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study evaluated the effects of self-monitoring by swimmers to improve their performance at practice and assessed the effects of reactivity to observer presence on their performance. Additionally, it investigated the accuracy of the swimmers' self-reports. Seven public high school swim team members used program boards to self-monitor in order to increase the number of assigned laps completed at practice. Reactivity to observer presence was assessed by having a confederate record the number of laps completed during observer absent conditions. A series of AB replications and an ABAB reversal design were used. The percentage of assigned laps completed increased …

Caregiver Training: Increasing Generalization Of Parenting Skills Through Teaching Caregivers To Recognize Child Behavior, Mary Rachel Sawyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of a behavioral parent training program for increasing the accuracy of trained skills; however, few studies have examined the extent to which those skills generalize to the natural environment (i.e., the home) and are used with the target individual (i.e., the child). In addition, little is known about the direct effect that caregiver implementation of the skills has on child behavior. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to (a) assess caregiver accuracy with implementation of three parenting skills, and (b) assess subsequent effects of the parenting skills on child behavior. Results demonstrated …

Evaluation Of Video Modeling And In Situ Training To Teach Gun Safety Skills To Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kelsey Lynn Morgan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, there is no known research on teaching gun safety skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Research has shown that children typically engage in gunplay behaviors if they find a firearm. These behaviors can lead to unintentional firearm injuries and even death, especially for young children. Previous research has shown the success of video modeling for teaching various skills to individuals with autism. This study examined the effectiveness of video modeling for teaching gun safety skills to three children with autism spectrum disorder, and found that video modeling was effective for one participant, but in situ training was needed to …

Uncoverings: The Research Papers Of The American Quilt Study Group, Volume 33 (2012), Lynne Zacek Bassett, Nancy C. Bavor, Gloria Craft Comstock, Mary Ellen Ducey, Kathryn "Kitty" Ledbetter, Joan Laughlin

Uncoverings Journal

Preface by Lynne Zacek Bassett

Common Threads: Nine California Art Quilt Pioneers by Nancy Bavor

Hortense Horton Beck Tells Her Story: "I wanted to do something important" by Gloria Craft Comstock

The Palladian Quilt: Exploring the Possibilities by Mary Ellen Ducey and Joan Laughlin

Textiles, Print Culture and Nation Building in the 1840s by Kathryn Ledbetter

Contributors

Index

From Periodical To Book In Her Early Career: E. D. E. N. Southworth’S Letters To Abraham Hart, Melissa J. Homestead

Department of English: Faculty Publications

E.D.E.N. Southworth's correspondence with Henry Peterson of the Saturday Evening Post and Robert Bonner of the New York Ledger, both of whom serialized her novels in their weekly story papers, is sometimes dramatic and emotional. In September 1849 Peterson chided Southworth for a “capital literary error” in an installment of her novel The Deserted Wife, in which the Reverend Withers uses his patriarchal authority to maneuver the young, unwilling Sophie Churchill into marriage. The incident would make readers “thro[w] down the tale in disgust,” he warns, and he omitted it from the serialization. In December 1854 he raised …

Introduction To E. D. E. N. Southworth: Recovering A Nineteenth-Century Popular Novelist, Melissa J. Homestead, Pamela T. Washington

Department of English: Faculty Publications

In early 1901, Willa Cather visited Prospect Cottage in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the longtime home of the recently deceased novelist Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevirte (E. D. E. N.) Southworth. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1819 to southern parents (her father from Virginia, her mother from Maryland), Southworth lived in Washington with her family until she married Frederick Hamilton Southworth and moved with him to Wisconsin in 1841. When he deserted her and their two children,' she returned to Washington and taught school to support herself, running to writing to supplement her income from teaching. Within a few …

A Chronological Bibliography Of E. D. E. N. Southworth's Works Privileging Periodical Publication, Melissa J. Homestead, Vicki L. Martin

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Previous attempts at a comprehensive bibliography of E. D. E. N. Southworth's fiction have organized her works alphabetically by book title or chronologically by book publication date. Serialization information--if included at all--is subordinated to book entries or listed separately. These bibliographic conventions better suit authors who published fewer novels than Southworth did and/or did \ not routinely serialize their works. As a result, earlier bibliographies have caused confusion about the size and chronology of Southworth's body of work. Adding to the confusion, her book publisher T. B. Peterson arbitrarily broke many of her novels that appeared in serial form under …

Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, And Practices, Anol Bhattacherjee

Textbooks Collection

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any course on research methods.

The contents and examples are designed for anyone interested in behavioral research (not just information systems people), and so, the book should appeal to most business programs, social sciences, education, public health, and related disciplines.

Edible Activism: Food And The Counterculture Of The 1960s And 1970s, Sandra Johnson

Honors Theses

Food is an essential part of every person’s life. Not only does it provide sustenance, but it also holds cultural value. Throughout American history, food has played a significant role in activism because of its ability to form and express identity, build community, demonstrate allegiance with certain beliefs, and reject the status quo. In 1773, American colonists boycotted the controlling British Monarchy and the monopolistic East India Company by throwing tea into the Boston harbor in what later became known as the Boston Tea Party. During the Jacksonian era of the 1830s, radical vegetarians led by the ideologies of …

“Called Her Women Together” Home Birth In Maine, Margaret Kruithoff

Honors Theses

Nine months ago, I set out to write a thesis on childbirth: hippies having their babies in the woods, hospital politics, and women’s rights. The final product is very different than what I had intended. Instead of finding crazy hippies in the woods, I found a community of kind and skilled midwives and loving, openhearted mothers. I am deeply indebted to these inspiring women for their stories and wisdom, which fill the pages of this thesis. Interviewing these mothers, midwives, and home birth advocates was a tremendously empowering experience for me, a young woman.

Language As Microaggression: The New Lexicon Of American Racism, Juan Thurmond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are countless occasions where marginalized groups bear witness to language-based discriminatory practices. Language, as defined here, is a species of symbolism. After reviewing the sociological literature, the term "microaggressions" appears to best describe the phenomena in its everyday occurrences. Microaggressions are "the brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual-orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group" (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007; Sue, 2010). Sue classifies microaggressions into three forms: microassaults, microinsults, microinvalidations. The purpose of the project was tri-fold. By …

A Living Citizenship Model For The Public Schools: The Philosophical Foundations Of Friendship In The Works Of Epicurus And Ralph Waldo Emerson, Debra Sherblom

Educational Studies Dissertations

In an interdisciplinary, hermeneutical study using primary and secondary documents from history, philosophy, political theory, and critical pedagogy, the dissertation focuses on dialogue, friendship, and citizenship. The philosophical foundations of friendship in the works of Epicurus and Ralph Waldo Emerson are discussed. Included in the study is the history of citizenship and analysis of works on dialogue and community. A critical consciousness is significant for real dialogue to precipitate friendship. The philosophical foundations of friendship in the works of Epicurus and Ralph Waldo Emerson are echoed in the Peaceable Schools Model for secondary schools. Based on social justice and the …

A Kitchen Of One's Own: The Paradox Of Dione Lucas, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

First appearing on the air in 1947, Dione Lucas was one of the earliest television cooking-show hosts. As a business owner, single mother, influential salesperson, and highly respected professional in her field (Julia Child referred to Lucas as “the mother of French cooking in America”), Lucas was a pioneer and potentially powerful role model. Given this profile, however, she was an anachronism and out of sync with the majority of contemporary women and home cooks. She was likewise out of sync with her television peers, as most homemaking programs were hosted by home economists and were contexts wherein thrift and …

Murrow And Friendly’S Small World: Television Conversation At The Crossroads, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Small World

(1958–60), an Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly television production, brought together political and entertainment figures from around the world, boasting technological innovation and a high level of public affairs discourse. The author discusses critical reception, producers’ ideals, cultural and historical context, and relation-ships to evolving notions of public service broadcasting.