Classics Commons^™

Civil War In Ancient Egypt? A Case Study Of The First Intermediate Period (Ca. 2120-1970 Bc), Marco Pinfari

Theses and Dissertations

The First Intermediate Period (FIP – ca. 2120-1970 BCE) is often described by Egyptologists as a period of “civil war.” In the Egyptological literature, however, little attention is paid to defining this notion (which was first introduced only in the Late Roman Republic, almost 2,000 years later) and to explaining how it could be applicable to ancient Egyptian history.

This thesis contributes to this debate by analyzing the FIP through the lenses of contemporary approaches to civil war, drawn from political science and other cognate disciplines. It first discusses how if the events of the FIP comply with contemporary definitions …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Faithful In Friendship: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Self-Perception As Portrayed By His Relationship With Eberhard Bethge, Greer Bates

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Shortly before Christmas 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat at the desk in his cell at Berlin's Tegel Prison to pen letters to the loved ones he left behind when the Gestapo arrested him on charges of conspiracy against the Fuhrer. Bonhoeffer recently passed the eight-month mark since his arrest, and he had given up hope of being released to his family in time for the holiday. "There's probably nothing for it but to write you a Christmas letter now to meet all eventualities," he opened a note to his parents, explaining that he had accepted the fate of not spending Christmas …

"Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again": The Joseph Smith Papers Internship, M. Jordan Kezele

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Despited his prophetic Calling, it is doubtful that Joseph Smith knew when he established the Church in 1830 that it would take twenty-four large folio volumes of records to document his fourteenyear ministry. Nor did he foresee the dozens of historians, millions of dollars, and impressive research library that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would devote to the history's assembly. The Joseph Smith Papers Project, commenced in 2001, will publish every known and available document composed or dictated by Joseph Smith from 1828 to his martyrdom in 1844. Magnificent in scope, chis mountain of work encompasses a …

Book Review: Manchester, William, And Paul Reid. Ihe Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill· Defender Of The Realm, Carson Teuscher

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the darkest days of World War II, when Germnay had conquered most of mainland Europe and the future looked bleak for those who opposed Hider and his armies, the world relied upon the decisive leadership and action of men like Winston Spencer Churchill. After painful defeats at the war's outset, Churchill's spirited rhetoric inspired Britons to rally together like a lion to resist the Axis Powers. Churchill, of course, believed that his people had "the lion heart"; but as Paul Reid wrote, Churchill "supplied the roar."

Immortality Through Obliteration: Buddhist Influences On Juche Thought, Christian Curriden

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

North Korean Juche philosophy has come to be considered a quasi-state religion. Since its inception in the mid-192os as a slogan encouraging selfsufficiency and anti-Japanese struggle, it has undergone a series of changes. First, the focus of animosity changed from the Japanese to the Americans during the Korean War. During the 1960s, it morphed into a more comprehensive nationalist ideology emphasizing political independence, economic autarky, and military self-defense. With the addition of the "political-social body" concept in 1986, it evolved yet again into a quasi-religious metaphysical worldview, asserting that the leader, party, and people were all organs of an immortal …

A Tale Of Two Conferences, Sierra Smith

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In April 1945, the United States was in the thick of the Second World War. In Europe, Allied powers were on the offensive, slowly gaining back ground lost to the Axis while the war in the Pacific raged on. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, representing the "Big Three" countries of the Allied powers, were in the midst of postwar reorganization negotiations and discussions. It was a crucial time for determining the balance of world power, including relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. At this critical moment, Roosevelt …

The Tree Of "Bitter Fruit": Why Anarchism Failed In Transylvania, Richard Bruner

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Today, the word "anarchy" conjures images of bombs, anti-government protests, and chaos. Achough that may be the modern perception of anarchy, the image did not begin like that. The term has existed for ages, only evolving toward its modern connotation during the nineteenth century. The Greek meaning of the term is "contrary to authority or without a ruler." Anarchy existed as a loose term for the lack of government, or to describe chose who opposed government-often with a derogatory meaning attached to it. Then, in the 1840s Jean-Pierre Proudhon adopted the term to describe his political and social philosophies. Simply …

Frozen In Hell The Prisoner: Exchange Program's Influence On The Civil War, Carson Teuscher

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The Confederacy was on the edge, and union forces knew it. In the early months of 1865, General William T. Sherman had rippled through a crippled South on his way to Virginia, following his decisive "March to the Sea." Destroying supply lines and debilitating Confederate morale, Sherman arrived in Bentonville, North Carolina, in March. There, the war's fate hung in the balance: Union morale was at a peak, and soldiers were anxious for an end to the long, bloody conflict. After three long days of fighting, a private from Wisconsin's 31st Regiment, Johann Frenckmann, lay wounded among 4,738 other casualties. …

The Smallpox Revolution, Sierra Marchand

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Samllpx was one of the most feared diseases in colonial North America during the eighteenth century. This fear was caused by "the suddenness and unpredictability of its attack, the grotesque torture of its victims, the brutality of its lethal or disfiguring outcome, and the terror that it inspired, which [made] Smallpox unique among human diseases." People who contracted the disease had a thirty to fifty percent chance of survival, and if they survived the painful illness, many victims lost their eyelashes, had permanent facial scaring and pitting, or even sometimes went blind. This made smallpox survivors the subjects of social …

Obrajes, Andean Workers, And The Spanish Elite: Hegemony And Hierarchy In Peru's Late-Colonial Era, Taylor Cozzens

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In colonial Peru, Spanish-Indian relations revolved around taxes and tribute labor. Regarding the latter, the Spanish elite required the conquered Andean communities to provide workers for colonial industries. Though the Spanish-whether born in Spain (Peninsular) or in the New World ( Criollo or Creole)- had the upper hand in this arrangement, they did not have total control. The relationship was, rather, one of hegemony. Historian Florencia Mallon described hegemony as a "dynamic or precarious balance, a contract or agreement [that] is reached among contesting forces." In Peru, tribute labor facilitated this kind of balance. Specifically, the Indians respected Spanish rule …

Defending Megalopolis, Joshua Mackay

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE was a seminal moment in Greek history. The battle marked the end of the Spartan domination of Greece begun in 404 BCE at the end of the Peloponnesian War. At Leuctra, Sparta and her allies confronted Thebes and the Boeotian League and were decisively defeated. In the wake of this battle, Thebes enforced a synoikismos of the surrounding villages and small poleis and founded a unique polis, Megalopolis, whose purpose is heavily debated today. Because the lhebans constructed Megalopolis soon after the Battle of Leuctra in an attempt to contain Sparta within the …

Preface, Elise Petersen Lipps

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

One year ago, Cameron Nielsen approched me at the History Department Banquet with an interesting inquiry. We had seldom crossed paths, so his question surprised me: was I interested in replacing him as the Thetean's editor in chief? Flattered, but preoccupied with an upcoming presentation in Philadelphia and a summer internship in the English Lakes, I agreed to consider his offer with little ambition to follow through. How appreciative I am that Cameron persisted and passed my name to Dr. Jeff Hardy, who extended me a second invitation shortly thereafter. I write this prologue one year later with a grateful …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Gut-Brain Axis On Alzheimer’S Disease, Elissa Wakim

Best Integrated Writing

Elissa’s review for the Graduate Biomedical Review focuses on the links between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain; the gut-brain axis and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. As a student in the Microbiology and Immunology Masters Program Elissa was particularly interested in the gut microbiota and their connection to neurodegenerative disease. She tidily reviewed the literature and wrote a fascinating and compelling piece of work.

Best Integrated Writing Spring 2024 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Kristie Mckiernan, Tracy Smith

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. This is the first issue after a 5 year hiatus.

The Myths Of Plato: Socratic Kenosis And The Call Of Beauty, Daniel Edward Shirley

Master of Arts in Classical Studies

The myths of Plato have been inordinately subordinated to the “intellect” of Plato since the eighteen-thirties. The ancient Christian tradition of interpreting stories and scriptures with symbolic understanding serves as a potentially primary hermeneutical pattern that could correct the modern tendency of subconscious materialism. To restore the Platonic myths, there are two foundational arguments to be made about the myths. The first is that these myths are kenotic in function. Observing the Socratic call to self-emptying, especially in the cosmological image of the World Axis, challenges modern assumptions concerning the second goodness of Platonic myth. The second argument is the …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Slim Winnings For Tubby Taft: Utah And The Presidential Election Of 1912, Natalie Larsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Traveling on a special passenger train from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, Utah governor William Spry waxed uncharacteristically eloquent with the reporters who hounded him for his insights on the 1914 congressional elections. Sent by the roundly Republican newspaper the Los Angeles Times, the reporters were looking to see how the dust had settled after the humiliating Republican losses two years earlier in 1912. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won a resounding victory that year, while Theodore Roosevelc's Progressive Parry won eighry-eight electoral votes, and the incumbent president William Howard Taft limped away with a meager eight electoral votes. Considering …

Angles And Angels: Political Unity And Spiritual Identity In Anglo-Saxon England, Susannah Morrison

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The development of nationalism in Europe is a contested process, and most historians conclude that nationalist sentiments did not arise in the shattered remnants of the Western Roman Empire until the twelfth century. However, a national consciousness developed in England long before this date. Although it was a fundamentally abstract concept, largely limited to the intellectual domain of the highly educated elite, English national identity in the Anglo-Saxon period was a vibrant and powerful cultural force. Memorably articulated by the Venerable Bede in the eighth century, this proto-national sentiment identified the Angles-the Germanic tribes who had invaded and occupied Britain …

Non-Chinese In Chinese History The Enduring Influence Of "Foreign Barbarians" In Ancient China, Caleb Darger

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The modern concept of Chinese Nationality is a rather recent construct. During China's early Republican (1912-27) and Nationalist (1928-49) periods, leaders like Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai embraced the idea of Zhonghua minzu, translated as "Chinese nation" or "Chinese races." The inclusive term helped unify the Han Chinese people and four other major non-Han ethnic groups that comprised most of the Chinese population: The Man (Manchus), the Meng (Mongolians), the Hui (Uighurs and groups of Muslims in northwestern China), and the Zang (Tibetans). The term was later expanded in 1978 after the death of Mao Zedong to include fifty-one …

The Effect Of The Destruction Of The Jerusalem Temple On The Jewish Perception Of The Sacrificial Cult: A Look At Pseudepigraphical, Deuterocanonical, And Rabbinic Texts, Allen Kendall

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Though many of us are somewhat familiar with today's modern world religions and with ancient religion inasmuch as it is portrayed in our own religious literature, we often do not understand how we got from the ancient world to the modern. For the most part we understand how ancient Jews worshipped in Jerusalem according to the Law of Moses and chat certain biblical practices have changed, but we are not aware of how this happened. This paper attempts to bridge that gap of knowledge by tracing the development of Jewish religious thought and practice vis-a-vis the sacrificial cult. Over the …

Limitations Of The Index In Philip Ll's Spain, Courtney Cook

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On 19 December 1592, Philip II of Spain composed a letter to Diego de Orellana de Chaves, a royal governor of Spain's northern coast. At war with England and France, Philip's concern in this instance was neither strategy nor war logistics, but rather books. Orellana de Chaves notified Philip previously in two letters chat Spanish privateers had captured a French ship carrying books. The king expressed concern chat the books be turned over to the proper authorities, the Inquisition, reminding his governor chat not all books contain proper messages for Spanish readers. Eager to maintain the religious purity of his …

Rebirth And Renewal In Maya Ritual From The Precolonial Period To The Present, Madeline Duffy

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The concepts of rebirth and renewal were paramount in pre-Columbian Maya culture. Traditionally, the Maya believe chat everything passes through a never-ending cycle of birch, maturation, decay, death, and rebirth. This cycle encompasses the elements of everyday life which the Maya could perceive: the human life cycle, the life cycle of crops, the seasons, and even the rise and fall of the sun. They noticed chat all of these day-today happenings "have their beginnings in a creative ace and ultimately weaken and die in an orderly succession of days chat is both comforting in its predictability and terrifying in its …

"The Voice Of The People, And Not The Voice Of This House": Legislative Instructions In The Atlantic World And The Irish Struggle For Free Trade, 1779-1780, Ian Mclaughlin

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1771, on his way to London to lobby for the American cause, Benjamin Franklin visited the city of Dublin. While there, he visited with several members of che Irish Parliament, especially chose who had their own gripes with British imperialism. "I found [the Irish Patriot Party] disposed to be friends of America," he wrote of che experience to a friend, "in which disposition I endeavored to confirm chem, with the expectation chat our growing weight might in time be thrown into their scale, and, by joining our interest with theirs, might be obtained for chem as well as for …

"Always Leading Out In That Which Is Great And Good": Mormon Women's Perspective Of Women's Rights Fifty Years After Suffrage, Ashley Anderson Webb

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On a cold Thursday in eartly February 1920, newly enfranchised women from across che nation huddled together in Chicago for a seven-day-long Golden Jubilee. The anticipated passage of the Nineteenth Amendment lay only three scares' ratification and half a year away. That same Thursday, women in Utah looked back half a century co 12 February 1870, when che Utah Territory granted its women the right co vote. While reflecting on their own history, Utah's women also case their eyes outward, joining their sisters throughout the US who looked forward co the future of nationwide suffrage. Many prominent female leaders of …

"No Nation More Tenacious Of Its Past" National Historical Memory In Lnterwar Scotland, 1920-1934, Susannah Morrison

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Looking back over the last claendar year at the end of 1929, one Glasgow newspaper concluded, "Certainly no year within the memory of any living Scot has witnessed so much heart-searching. Never before has there been so much airing of the question: what is wrong with Scotland?" The question might as well have been posed about the entire decade of the 1920s. Scotland emerged from the Great War essentially demoralized, with a devastated industrial sector, an influx of Irish immigration, and a flood of mass Scottish emigration to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Facing this onslaught of postwar domestic problems, …

Jazz And Music Diplomacy In The Cold War, Mitch Rogers

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the Soviet Union in the 1950s, everyone jammed. While High Soviet officials worked their hardest to jam the incoming Voice of America and Music U.S.A. radio broadcasts, Soviet musicians and youth jammed underground to the hot swing .and blue harmonies of American jazz. Jazz, with its rebellious syncopations, rogue tunings, and egalitarian arrangements, connected with the Soviet people. Amicable cultural exchange between the two superpowers began only in 1958, and even then it only took place in small, mitigated steps. Knowing the Soviet proclivity for American music, American statesmen saw the opportunity to replace the stodgy, pedantic propaganda …

Foreword, Tyler Balli

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The world we live in is far from perfect. Prejudice, misunderstanding, and fear of the "other"-whoever that other might be-still abound. Perhaps some of these characteristics are simply human and will never be eradicated entirely. But I truly believe that one remedy for these feelings is the study of history. After all, history takes us to times and places completely foreign to us. It requires us to cry to understand people's thoughts, fears, motivations, and reasoning even though they are completely different from our own. Well-researched and well-written history helps us remove labels and discard oversimplifications and generalizations, helping us …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.