History Commons^™

A Tale Of Two Nations’ Histories The Application Of Literary Fairy Tales As A Firsthand Account Of History, Nicholas Gottlob

Honors College Theses

Fairy tales are often thought to be solely for children as a means of education and entertainment. The literary fairy tale provided a medium that allowed authors to express their opinions under the guise of a story. This has not always been the case as literary fairy tales have been utilized as political instruments by authors and intended for a highly educated audience. Using fairy tales as a facade provided protection for authors, as outright criticisms against those in power usually resulted in dire consequences such as imprisonment or even death for the objector. The literary fairy tale provided a …

The Englishwoman’S Domestic Magazine’S Influence On Nineteenth-Century Middle-Class Women, Amber Cook

History Undergraduate Theses

Depictions and study of women’s fashion from mid-nineteenth-century England have largely focused on upper-class women and suffragettes. The purpose of this research is to highlight another group, middle-class women, and their fashion choices through analysis of the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. This magazine not only gave fashion advice and instruction but guided middle-class women’s choices on what materials to purchase and where to purchase them. The fashion columns steered women into building a new middle-class identity that was unique and set them apart from the extravagant upper class.

By examining the articles printed in the magazine I was able to …

From The Womb To The Word: Pregnancy And Pregnancy Metaphors In 16th And 17th Century English Literature, Kelly S. Westeen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employs a feminist theoretical lens in exploring the gendered uses of pregnancy and pregnancy metaphors in the production and dissemination of literary works in early modern England. By also examining the history of the printing press and the role it played in gendered textual production, early modern constructs of family and the role of mothers, as well as obstetric medicine and childbirth, I aim to demonstrate that mothering and authorship were congruent activities for female writers. Conversely, I argue that male writers of the period who employed metaphors of gestation did so not to try to claim biological …

Kind King Or Tyrannical Ruler? An Analysis Of Hilary Mantel’S Henry Viii In Wolf Hall And Bringing Up The Bodies, Amanda S. Nicholson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) served as King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. A melancholic character, Henry was known for his many marriages, his temper, his bouts of tyranny, and his break with the Catholic Church. Most authors, even those writing contemporary accounts, portray Henry as a villain. Hilary Mantel paints Henry differently. In Wolf Hall and Bringing up the Bodies, the King is as he has always been; argumentative, sardonic, and excessive. However, Mantel chooses to augment these parts of his character with some of his better traits, giving the …

Abelard And Heloise: A Marriage Of Minds, Abby Brook Hieber

Graduate Theses

The scandal surrounding Peter Abelard and Heloise’s love story has eclipsed the depth of their individual intellects resulting in many scholars devoting their writings to the couple’s overly eroticized narrative. After the condemnation of Peter Abelard and after Heloise commissioned herself into a convent, the relationship between tutor and tutee remained alive through written correspondence. Through an examination of their personal writings, this is paper will suggest that though their story has been adopted under the genre of a romance, this categorization falls short in conveying the highbrow substance of Abelard and Heloise, whose promiscuous beginnings have distracted historians from …

Being Careful : Progressive Era Women And The Movements For Better Reproductive Health Care, Sarah Patterson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACTFor American and British women, the definition of being healthy changed in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Previously, there had been a resigned acceptance of the fact that a woman’s reproductive capacity often relegated her to a lifetime of suffering and ill health. Certainly, individual women sometimes sought out solutions to their health problems, but there was no concerted social movement to help all women. Then in the Progressive Era that changed. The professionalization of medicine, combined with scientific breakthroughs, such as using Salvarsan to treat syphilis and urine testing to identify eclampsia meant that women could …

Liminal Liberation: Courtesans And Embodied Anxieties In Sixteenth-Century Venice, Mandonesia Carter

LSU Master's Theses

Invectives against the courtesan—a more educated, erudite, and socially elite version of the ordinary prostitute—were commonplace in early modern Venice. A metropolitan center by the sixteenth century, Venice had become one of the most tolerant cities in Europe, allowing the courtesan to rapidly rise far past her social standing. The courtesan, through strategic self-fashioning and self-promotion, blurred the boundaries of gender roles, class roles, and the conventional social hierarchy. This precipitated attacks from critics seeking to provide clarity of the courtesan’s place and protect the interests of their patriarchal society. This thesis examines representations of the sixteenth-century Venetian courtesan in …

Searching For Answers: Examining Historical Christianity In Nineteenth Century Europe Through Kierkegaard & Nietzsche, Robert Jones

Theses

The Europe of the 1800s saw remarkable change. Previously unthinkable ideas and 'isms' made their way to the forefront of exploration in European society, forcing Christianity to a crossroads it had never before experienced. This thesis examines the fusion of politics and religion into a sort of surrogate religion for the Post-Enlightenment world. Above all, it examines historical Christianity through precedent-setting writers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Given the unique process of secularization in the nineteenth century, both writers offer something often overlooked; the inevitable progress or decline of the Lutheran tradition depends, in true existentialist fashion, on the individual.

"Second Sight": Acknowledging W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" As A Step Towards Dissolution, Alexandra M. Hudecki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project examines American scholar W.E.B.’s DuBois’ idea of “double consciousness”, from his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903). The idea of “double consciousness” has and continues to be utilized by Black scholars and artists in literary, theoretical, and psychological contexts, some of which I hope my paper will adequately survey. I begin by examining “double consciousness” from the perspective of particulars by understanding Du Bois’s original idea and the specificities of the American context he himself was a part, considering the legacy of slavery. Then, by focusing primarily on writers such as Frantz Fanon, Richard Wright and Paul …

Disaster Response And Ecclesiastical Privilege In The Late Middle Ages: The Liberty Of Durham After The Black Death, John K. Mennell

Major Papers

This paper examines the estate incomes of three large ecclesiastical corporations in medieval England to analyse the impact local autonomy has upon economic recovery following a medieval disaster scenario. It utilizes manorial records, assessments, and tax farms for the bishop of Durham, Durham Priory, and the archbishop of York to pursue this goal. Data is complied and presented, building off the methodology of a series of articles in the twentieth century on the changing distribution of wealth in medieval England to allow additional comparison with the wider kingdom. The character of the four truly autonomous bishops of Durham is analysed …

Postkoloniale Solidarität: Alltagsleben Von Ddr-Bürgern In Mosambik, 1979-1990, Katrin Bahr

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation examines the everyday life and work of development workers[1] and their families sent by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to Mozambique between 1979 and 1990. I investigate the issues of state and individual solidarity and the interactions of Germans and Mozambicans within the development projects. Since the GDR did not see itself as a colonial power or an heir to Germany's colonial past, it acquitted itself of the charge of being an exploitative imperialist in its foreign policy. From its perspective, it stood side by side in “solidarity” (Solidarität) with its “brother states” (Bruderstaaten) …

An Empire Among Empires: America's Relationship To "The Other" In The Historiography Of Empire, Lynne C. Goldhammer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper outlines two different threads in the historiography of empires regarding their treatment of “the other.” The first thread begins with the early Chinese empires, the Qin and Han, which used diplomacy and tributes as well as repression to incorporate “others” under their imperial umbrellas. This thread was then picked up and modified later by the Mongols and Mughals, both of which showed a fair amount of flexibility and openness towards cultural difference. The second thread begins with the Romans (the Republic and Empire), who were largely flexible and inclusive towards “others” until the late Empire, when Christianity took …

The Political Aesthetic Of Hannah Arendt: Modernity, Judgment, And Culture, Quixote R. Vassilakis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The plan of this thesis is, first, to interpret Arendt’s critique of the modern age. Next, this paper outlines Arendt’s reconceptualization of Kant’s theory of judgment as the basis for a novel model of the public sphere in light of the conditions of modernity. Finally, this paper explores Arendt’s poetics as a means of activating the faculty of judgment in order to reconcile with the modern world. In order to address the political crises of modernity, Arendt develops a political aesthetic alive to the role of narrative and culture in reconstituting political communities. I argue that Hannah Arendt develops a …

The Dialectic Of Naturgeist In Hegel’S Anthropology: Soul, World, And Bodiliness, Jiho Oh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary concern of the “Anthropology” section in Hegel’s Encyclopedia of 1830 is the relationship between soul and body: how the soul gains an immediate, bodily existence through embodiment, why and how this immediate mode of the soul’s bodily existence is precarious, and how the soul becomes second nature by overcoming the immediate, bodily existence through habit, more precisely. Importantly, the “Anthropology” is the place in Hegel’s Encyclopedia system where the Philosophy of Nature ends, and the Philosophy of Spirit begins. The thematization of the soul-body relationship in the “Anthropology” is thus essentially framed by a broader, systematic problem concerning …

Yaupon Drink: A Medicine Bundle In The Atlantic World, Steven P. Carriger Jr

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines yaupon drink, a tea made from yaupon holly along with other ingredients, as a medicine bundle in the Atlantic World. Originally a medicinal drink used by Native Americans across the what is today the American South, over time the tea became a trade good demanded by the Spanish and a medicinal herb sought by European botanists and medical practitioners. Chapter One traces yaupon’s origins across the southeast and bundles the drink into the many cosmic and social connections it held. Chapter Two shows how the Spanish colonial presence offered an alternative to yaupon in Florida, through Christianity …

So Others May Live: The Price Of Healthcare In Combat, Robert Del Toro

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

“Medics carried more responsibilities than dry feet, salt tablets, syphilis, and puncture wounds,” U.S. Army Medic Ben Sherman stated after reflecting on his tour in Vietnam. On the battlefields of North Africa, Italy, France, and Vietnam, the medics of the U.S. Army Medical Department faced the difficult duty of preserving life while death surrounded them. Their patients were not strangers but, men they had grown close to, they were comrades and family. Analyzing the memoirs and letters of forward medical personnel from the Second World War and the Vietnam War, this thesis analyzes how a medic’s care went beyond the …

A Study Of The United States Influence On German Eugenics., Cameron Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the influence and effects that the United States had upon Germany from the rise of eugenics to its fall following the end of World War II. There are three stages to this study. First, I examine the rise of eugenics in the United States from its inception to the end of World War I and the influence it had upon Germany. Then I examine the interwar era along with the popularization of eugenics within both countries before concluding with the Second World War and post war era.

My thesis focuses on both the active …

Orange Riots, Party Processions Acts, And The Control Of Public Space In Ireland And British North America, 1796-1851, Annie E. Tock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the state’s effort to control public space by passing legislation to suppress Orange Order processions in Ireland and British North America between 1814 and 1851. By the early nineteenth century, annual July Twelfth parades commemorating William III’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 became occasions for violent sectarian clashes in the streets of Ireland, New Brunswick, and Canada as celebratory Protestant Orangemen clashed with resentful Catholic opponents. In 1832 the British Parliament sought to put an end to these riots by passing the Party Processions Act, which prohibited Orange processions in Ireland. The Legislative …

The Art Of Not Seeing: The Immigration And Naturalization Service’S Failed Search For Nazi Collaborators In The United States, 1945-1979, Jeffrey Davis

Masters Theses

From 1945 to 1979, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was responsible for identifying and prosecuting Nazi collaborators and potential war criminals in the United States. It failed in this task for a number of reasons. The first of these was that the agency was severely disorganized and mismanaged. Reliance on interagency cooperation, lack of manpower and resources, and lack of institutional support for “Nazi hunters” posed further problems. Morale crises among employees and the legal difficulties of actually prosecuting Nazi collaborators also hampered the agency’s effectiveness. Most importantly, the agency was overwhelmingly focused on policing the southern border and preventing …

Our Souls Are Already Cared For: Indigenous Reactions To Religious Colonialism In Seventeenth-Century New England, New France, And New Mexico, Gail Coughlin

Masters Theses

This thesis takes a comparative approach in examining the reactions of residents of three seventeenth-century Christian missions: Natick in New England, Kahnawake in New France, and Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico in New Spain, to religious colonialism. Particular attention is paid to their religious beliefs and participation in colonial warfare. This thesis argues that missions in New England, New France, and New Mexico were spaces of Indigenous culture and autonomy, not due to differing colonial practices of colonizing empires, but due to the actions, beliefs, and worldviews of Indigenous residents of missions. Indigenous peoples, no matter which European powers they interacted …

The Defense Of Principates: The English Appropriation Of Marsilius Of Padua's 'Defensor Pacis', Nathan Harkey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marsilius of Padua’s Defensor pacis is widely thought to be one of the most important texts to emerge in late medieval Europe. Initially purposed as a defense of Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV’s rights against the claim of the papacy’s claim to possess a ‘plenitude of power’, Defensor pacis is one of the most sophisticated arguments against the centuries of abuse of papal authority. Marsilius, though condemned as a heretic during his lifetime, remains a pivotal figure for medieval and early modern European historians, and is perhaps best remembered by the ways that his ideology influenced subsequent generations of political …

Reshaping An Earthly Paradise: Land Enclosure And Bavarian State Centralization (1779-1835), Gregory Devoe Tomlinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The Electoral state of Bavaria was reformed through a comprehensive project of land-based allodification (the creation of a distinction between privileged titles and property designations) through the process of “redemption” beginning in 1799. This process was previously impeded by the strength of landholding estates that included notables and the Catholic Church. In addition, Electoral Bavarian leaders lacked centralized control. Civil servants, known as cameralists, mediated political and economic interactions between these estates. The economy was based on subsistence and the productive capacity of Gutsherrschaft, a manorial system based on regional jurisdiction and rent collection by notables who largely did …

‘Phantom Limb’: Russian Settler Colonialism In The Post-Soviet Crimea (1991-1997), Maksym Dmytrovych Sviezhentsev

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Where does the myth that ‘Crimea has always been Russia’ come from? How did the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union ‘make’ Crimea Russian? This dissertation shows how the they applied settler colonial practices to Crimea, displacing the indigenous population and repopulating the peninsula with loyal settlers and how Crimean settler colonial structures survived the fall of the Soviet Union. It argues that this process defines post-Soviet history of the peninsula.

For centuries Crimean existed within the discourse of Russian imperial control. This dissertation challenges the dominant view by applying settler colonial theory to Crimea’s past and present for the …

The Aftermath Of The Black Death In England: Edward Iii's Economic Policies To Repress The Peasantry, Leah Diciesare

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

The Black Death caused a mass mortality in England, drastically affecting society. However, it was the aftermath of the plague that had the greatest impacts. The loss of life removed pressure on the economy due to population density, which gave the peasants opportunities to improve their lives. But that was a short-lived phenomenon; the peasantry ultimately remained repressed, as they had been prior to the plague. Edward III meddled in the English economy in the wake of the Black Death by introducing price and wage regulations. These efforts were to maintain the status quo in English society so that the …

“The Speechmaking Of A Girl-Orator”: Reason, Gender, And Authority In Dorothy Hunter’S Free Trade Oratory, Erinn Elizabeth Campbell

Honors Projects

Dorothy M. Hunter (1881-1977) rose to prominence during the 1906 United Kingdom general election as a markedly “girlish” yet widely respected free trade orator. While men on the Edwardian public political platform typically built a reputation for oratorical prowess through theatrical displays of “heroic” masculinity, Hunter established her authority as a speaker through two very different (and apparently contradictory) strategies. Her performance of “charming” middle-class femininity helped demonstrate her right to speak on free trade as a “women’s question,” extending women’s traditional authority over matters of domestic consumption to include questions of political economy. Trusting in the power of education …

Bernard Palissy: Early Career - Securing Patronage And Mimicking Nature In A Moment Of Crisis, Karissa Bailey

LSU Master's Theses

Early in 1562, France was experiencing a state of high religious tension between Protestants and Catholics that would precipitate the outbreak of the Religious Wars on March 1. A week before, Bernard Palissy, a Huguenot potter, wrote a letter to his Catholic patron from prison inBordeaux where he was being held on charges associated with an iconoclastic incident in his home city of Saintes. This letter would later be published as a dedication letter for the pamphlet Architecture et Ordonnance, which featured the description of a grotto commissioned by Anne de Montmorency, Palissy’s patron, seven years earlier. This thesis analyzes …

"Obstinate, Impertinent, Ill-Conditioned": Child Labor, Exploitation And Xenophobia In The British Home Children Movement, Hannah Lauren Palma

History

An examination of the British Home Children program as a movement rooted in child labor, misguided philanthropy, and the exploitation of poor child immigrants.

The Holocaust And Human Experimentation: The Nazi Approach To Medicine, Samantha Miller

History

The beginning months of 1945 marked the commencement of the swift downfall of the Nazi regime and the end of the tyrannical, oppressive ruling power it held over most of Europe for close to a decade. As Allied Forces invaded Nazi Germany and the remaining Nazi-occupied territories, they undoubtedly expected to encounter the incredible devastation that World War II had left upon most of the Western European continent, from toppled cities, to separated families, to the rising death toll. However, Allied soldiers would soon have to come face to face with another side-effect of the war, something unforeseen and unimaginable, …

Women At War: Soviet And American Airwomen In Combat During World War Ii, Hayden Woodyatt

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the combat roles of Soviet and American airwomen during World War II. Both the Soviet Union and the United States utilized women in the war effort between 1943-1945 in different capacities. The United States and the USSR were in very different geographical locations when it came to Germany; the US was across the Atlantic Ocean and not in a vulnerable position while the USSR was fighting a war on its home turf. The need for soldiers was very different. In addition, the cultures of the two countries were very different in their attitudes towards the equality between …

Fuitina: Love, Sex, And Rape In Modern Italy, 1945–Present, Antonella Vitale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The term fuitina in Sicilian dialect is a word used to describe a form of abduction, and is a variation of the more formal Italian term fuga, meaning a flight or escape. Fuitina, was essentially a sanctioned bride theft. Often, after the abduction of a woman, the abductor would seek a reparatory or rehabilitating marriage that would restore the woman’s “honor” and absolve the man of bride theft. Until 1981, the Italian legal system supported the practice of fuitina and rarely prosecuted men who kidnapped and raped women under the guise of this tradition. The practice of fuitina and …