History Commons^™

The Cult Of Salomé: Decapitation Imagery And Cultural Anxiety In Belle Époque Europe., Sean C. Hall

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

The Belle Époque in Europe marked a time of great change. Many of the old, yet longstanding traditions were being challenged and modernity really took hold of society at that time. The changes in the social fabric with issues such as the roles of women were common topics of conversation. Women demanded new rights and began to even question the role of masculinity in this new age. This was the emergence of the “New Woman,” and with all of these great changes came great anxiety. This cultural anxiety felt by many was expressed in the arts of the period which …

The Latin Readers Of Algazel, 1150-1600, Anthony H. Minnema

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how Arabic works found an audience in medieval Europe and became a part of the Latin canon of philosophy. It focuses on a Latin translation of an Arabic philosophical work, Maqasid al-falasifa, by the Muslim theologian al-Ghazali, known as Algazel in Latin. This work became popular because it served as a primer for Arab philosophy and helped Latins understand a tradition that had built upon Greek scholarship for centuries. To find the translation’s audience, this project looks at two sets of evidence. It studies the works of Latin scholars who drew from Algazel’s arguments and illustrates …

Actresses Redefining Theater And Femininity In Eighteenth-Century France, Rebecca Anne Bolen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Published in 1798 and 1800, the memoires of Hypolite Clairon and Marie-Françoise Marchand Dumesnil relate the experiences and values of individuals who lived through massive social and cultural, and eventually political, changes. How and when these two women felt the need to adhere to society's standards in comparison to those instances when they were confident enough to assert themselves illuminates the ways in which developing a public persona could open up a space for women to stretch the boundaries of feminine self-fashioning. This space was not unlimited and may have depended on actresses making concessions to societal expectations. It was …

Recovering The Saumurois: Lay Patronage To Saint-Florent Of Saumur, Ca. 950-1150, Adam C. Matthews

Masters Theses

In the mid-tenth century, the lay powers of the Loire valley established the abbey of Saint-Florent at Saumur with the local aristocracy welcoming the monks and forming spiritual and economic relationships through acts of patronage. The brothers remembered gifts of property, grants of rights, and exemptions in charters which were ultimately collected into the abbey's first cartulary, the Livre Noir. Despite this wealth of sources, historians have paid only cursory attention to Saint-Florent in recent scholarship. The present study incorporates the abbey's charter sources into broader debates concerning society in eleventh-century France. The use of case studies provides insight …

Rendez Donc A Cesar, Problemes Avec Les Mots De Dieu: Land And The Civil Constitution Of The Clergy Of 1790-1791, Jonathan Monroe

All Theses

This study investigates the state's sale of Church lands and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution. The Civil Constitution has been seen as a turning point in the era's progression; it created very sharp divisions in revolutionary ideals by forcing clergy members to take an oath to the state that was condemned by the pope. These divisions helped feed Jacobin extremism and an era of Christian suppression and the Terror eventually ensued. Despite these problems, the struggling country under the Old Regime was desperate for Church reform that the Civil Constitution provided. The prohibition of the …

Perceptions Of Poverty: The Evolution Of German Attitudes Towards Social Welfare From 1830 To World War I, Rebekah O'Zell Mcmillan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today's Western European countries have the world's most extensive government Social welfare systems, beginning with Germany as the forerunner. Prior to the eventual 20th century German welfare state, Germany was not devoid of distributing aid to combat the effects of poverty. Religious and public benevolent institutions, several centuries earlier, managed local poverty, resulting in an interesting relationship between the German citizens and these charities. The willingness of these institutions to address the poverty issue opened the door for the 20th century German welfare state to emerge.

This study examines the evolution of the attitudes towards poverty in nineteenth century Germany. …

British-Romanian Relations During The Cold War, Mihaela Sitariu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the aftermath of the Second World War British-Romanian relations were strained, marked by accusations of espionage directed towards Britain’s diplomats and requests for recalls. The British Government reacted moderately to these, acquiescing to recall their diplomats but refusing to concede to the Romanians when it came to their ‘flimsy’ accusations. Negotiation was preferred to reprisals especially when certain Britons had to be rescued from the Communists’ hands. In one respect Britain was not that indulgent: when money was involved, particularly the assets of oil companies nationalized in 1948.

Trade remained a priority for both the British and Romanian governments. …

Sisters, Objects Of Desire, Or Barbarians: German Nurses In The First World War, Jennifer Sue Montgomery

Masters Theses

This is a study of German nurses during the First World War that examines the differing perceptions and representations of them that appeared during the war, focusing on those of British and American nurses and German soldiers that were at odds with the ideal image of nurses. I trace British and American nurses’ opinions using nursing and medical journals and investigate the complex relationship between German nurses and soldiers using soldiers’ newspapers as a main source base. I argue that representations and perceptions of German nurses that contrasted with the ideal image of a nurse are crucial to understanding the …

Female Collaborators And Resisters In Vichy France: Individual Memory, Collective Image, Katherine Thurlow

HIM 1990-2015

Women in Vichy and Nazi Occupied France often found themselves facing situations in which their societal gender roles greatly influenced not only the choices that they made but also how their actions were perceived within society. Many women acted as either collaborators, resisters, or both to maintain their livelihood. How they were perceived was based in large part by how they fit into their prescribed social roles, in particular that of the self-sacrificing mother. Women who participated on both sides were often following their social expectations and obligations. Following the decline of Vichy and the end of the Occupation, however, …

The Grass-Roots Challenges With Administration: Conscription Evasion, Contraband, And Resistance In Napoleonic Europe, Julia A. Lyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The French model of the nineteenth century led the way to modernity in establishing centralized administrative governments throughout Continental Europe. Several Napoleonic policies that led to the establishment of a modern centralized state were not positive in their effects on the local communities. Research widely categorizes resistance to the Napoleonic program as either militarily or economically based. This study uses the French court cases from the Court of Cassation dated 1804 to 1820 to provide a different interpretation to the discussion of local resistance to Napoleonic authority on an international level. Conscription fraud, contraband, and resistance to government officials reveal …

Self-Presentation And Identity In The Roman Empire, Ca. 30 Bce To 225 Ce, Rhiannon Ysabel-Marie Orizaga

Dissertations and Theses

The presentation of the body in early imperial Rome can be viewed as the manipulation of a semiotic language of dress, in which various hierarchies that both defined and limited human experience were entrenched. The study of Roman self-presentation illuminates the intersections of categories of identity, as well as the individual's desire and ability to resist essentializing views of Romanness (Romanitas), and to transform destiny through transforming identity. These categories of identity include gender; sexuality or sexual behavior; social status; economic status; ethnicity or place of origin; religion; and age. Applying the model of a matrix of identity deepens our …

Truth And Memory In Two Works By Marguerite Duras, Rachel Deborah Hunter

Dissertations and Theses

Published in 1985, Marguerite Duras' La Douleur is a collection of six autobiographical and semi-autobiographical short stories written during and just after the German Occupation. Echoing the French national sentiment of the 1970s and 1980s, these stories examine Duras' own capacity for good and evil, for forgetting, repressing, and remembering. The first of these narratives, the eponymous "La douleur," is the only story in the collection to take the form of a diary, and it is this narrative, along with a posthumously published earlier draft of the same text, that will be the focus of this thesis. In both versions, …

Punishing Our Own Rascals: Great Britain, The United States, And The Right To Search During The Era Of Slave Trade Suppression, Mark T. Haggard

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between the United States and Great Britain during the era of slave trade suppression in the nineteenth century. Two ideals of international relations came into conflict when Great Britain’s humanitarian drive to rid the world of the international slave trade ran headlong into the United States’ claims to sovereignty under the Law of Nations. Under international maritime law a ship is the sovereign territory of the nation under whose flag it sails; the forcible boarding of a ship is tantamount to an invasion of the country itself. Britain sought to circumvent this rule in the …

More Catholic Than The Pope: An Analysis Of Polish Devotion To The Catholic Church Under Communism, Kathryn Burns

Honors Theses

Poland is home to arguably the most loyal and devout Catholics in Europe. A brief examination of the country’s history indicates that Polish society has been subjected to a variety of politically, religiously, and socially oppressive forces that have continually tested the strength of allegiance to the Catholic Church. Through the partition period, the Nazi and Soviet invasions during World War II, and the institution of communist power following the close of World War II, the Polish people met religious hostility that threatened to permanently sever Polish faith to the Catholic Church. However, despite attempts to break Polish allegiance to …

A House Divided: The Development Of The Ideological Divide Of American Jewry And Its Influence On The American Response To Nazi Germany 1933-1943, Daniel Gross

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the response from the different American Jewish groups during Hitler’s rise to power and the subsequent Holocaust, and how the ideological divide that formed between Zionists and non-Zionists ultimately shaped the ultimately limited their ability to exert political influence toward policies to aid European Jewry. The main groups that were analyzed were the American Jewish Committee, the Joint Distribution Committee, B’nai B’rith, the American Jewish Congress, the World Jewish Congress, and the Zionist Organization of America. For purposes of analysis and clarity, the groups can be divided along the lines of extreme Zionist, which included the two …

Irish Travellers And The Transformative Nature Of Media Representation, Aisling Kearns

Honors Theses

The Travellers, a nomadic group of people indigenous to Ireland, have long been marginalized in Irish society as a result of discrimination. The Travellers themselves have had a history of working to keep themselves separate from the settled Irish, essentially maintaining their own ethnic identity. Traveller culture has undergone a number of changes since the 1960s, a period of increasing urbanization and economic transformation in Ireland. With the changes in both Traveller culture and Irish society as a whole, there has been a corresponding shift to a more positive relationship between the media (newspapers, documentaries, and commercial films and television) …

Lessons From Florence: The Savonarolan Movement, Joseph Kiernan

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the life of Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), a Renaissance preacher from Ferrara, Italy. From his early beginnings as a student of theology, to his years spent preaching from the pulpit in the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral in Florence, this paper shows how his life transformed into one driven by the Will of God. The thesis is divided into three sections. The first section covers the early life of Savonarola and how hatred for the materialistic and sinful world, along with the teachings of his grandfather, drove him towards religion. The second section focuses on Savonarola executing the …

Mary Tudor And The Politics Of Gender, Melissa E. Procton

Honors Theses

Gender played a distinct role in Mary Tudor’s accession and reign as England’s first sole female monarch from 1553-1558. In order to understand how a female heir was molded for queenship and ultimately went forth to lead a nation, this study examines the following aspects of Mary Tudor’s life: her early education, Tudor political culture, affinity connections formed during her brother Edward VI’s reign, political training for queenship, and the fundamental issue of gender verses religion for Protestants during her reign. This thesis aims to examine how gender shaped Mary Tudor’s political training and ultimate role as England’s monarch. Along …

Automobiles Autarky And Authority: The Effects Of Nazi Centralized Economic Planning 1932-1942, Andrew Stinchfield

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the benefits and drawbacks of Nazi centralized economic planning. From an entirely political and economical standpoint, Hitler and the National Socialists’ highly regulated and restrictive policies were initially beneficial for Germany because they created a centralized economic vision and improved national morale. The liberal ideology of the Weimar Republic resulted in major class divisions within the nation, where laissez-faire economics left middle-citizens marginalized and at the mercy of profit-seeking big businesses. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 exposed the weaknesses of liberalism and resulted in a massive rise in political resentment. The regime accumulated power because their …

The Great European Empires: British And Roman Rule, Edward A. Tomlinson

Honors Theses

The greatest European imperial forces ever to exist were Rome and Britain. They controlled much of their known world and subjugated many foreign peoples to their rule. Rome ruled lands from India to the Atlantic Ocean, while Britain had colonies across the entire globe. The British Empire was at the height of its power in the Nineteenth Century, nearly 1200 years after the city of Rome was sacked by invading barbarian tribes. Even with more than a millennia passing between the fall of one empire and the rise of the other; they still shared many similarities in their manner of …

"Your Majesty's Friend": Foreign Alliances In The Reign Of Henri Christophe, Jennifer Yvonne Conerly

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In modern historiography, Henri Christophe, king of northern Haiti from 1816-1820, is generally given a negative persona due to his controlling nature and his absolutist regime, but in his correspondence, he engages in diplomatic collaborations with two British abolitionists, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, in order to improve his new policies and obtain international recognition. This paper argues that the Haitian king and the abolitionists engaged in a mutual collaboration in which each party benefitted from the correspondence. Christophe used the advice of the British abolitionists in order to increase the power of Haiti into a powerful black state, and …

An Unexpected Pair: The Nazis And The Environment, Kelsey Eggert

Senior Capstone Theses

Intentionally absent.

Crisis Of Legitimacy: Honorius, Galla Placidia, And The Struggles For Control Of The Western Roman Empire, 405-425 C.E., Thomas Christopher Lawrence

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation offers a new analytical narrative of the years from 405 to 425 C.E., a period which extends from the final phase of the general Stilicho’s control over the administration of the emperor Honorius, to the imperial accession of Honorius’ young nephew, the emperor Valentinian III, under the regency of his mother, Galla Placidia. The narrative places the many historical problems of this period, especially the rise of a whole series of usurpers and the influx of non-Roman, “barbarian” groups into the western empire, in the weakness of the western administration under the emperor Honorius. The imperial response to …

Conservative Revolutionary Intellectuals In The Weimar Republic And National Socialist Germany: Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger, And Ernst Jϋnger, Vincent S. Betts

History Theses

This thesis will examine the writings and career/life paths of three conservative revolutionary intellectuals during the Weimar Republic and National Socialist Germany. The purpose of this examination is not only to provide an overview of the development of conservative revolutionary thought in Germany after World War I, but also to investigate the influence these intellectuals had on the National Socialists' seizure and consolidation of power. The works and lives of three important intellectuals will be examined: Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger, and Ernst Jünger. In combination with scholarly secondary literature, this thesis will be based mostly on translated primary writings.

Political Consequences Of Cross-Border Labor Mobility In Luxembourg, Jessawynne A Parker

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Painting Lucretia: Fear And Desire : A Feminist Discourse On Representations By Artemisia Gentileschi And Tintoretto, Amy Lynne Endres

Theses and Dissertations

The myth of the Roman heroine, Lucretia, celebrates feminine ideals of virtue and chastity and is considered pivotal to the establishment of the Roman Republic. Yet, her rape and suicide is also the fulcrum of uncomfortable tension about notions of female sexuality, morality, patriotism and heroism.

My thesis is a comparative discussion of two intriguing and radically dissimilar paintings of Lucretia: Tarquin and Lucretia by Tintoretto and Lucretia by Artemisia Gentileschi. These paintings function as visual counterpoints that reflect the diverse literary and historical interpretations of her legend.

Tintoretto and Gentileschi depict two different, yet pivotal and dramatic moments in …

"Queen Of All Islands": The Imagined Cartography Of Matthew Paris's Britain, John Wyatt Greenlee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the middle decade of the thirteenth century, the Benedictine monk and historian Matthew Paris drew four regional maps of Britain. The monk's works stand as the earliest extant maps of the island and mark a distinct shift from the cartographic traditions of medieval Europe. Historians have long considered the version attached to the monk's Abbreviatio Chronicorum – the Claudius map – as the last and most thorough of Paris's images of Britain. However, scholars have focused on the document's limitations as an accurate geographic representation and have failed to consider critically Paris's representation of Britain with an eye towards …

The End Of The World Changes? The Fifth Monarchy Men's Millenarian Vision, Christina Ann Feiner

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project looks at the Fifth Monarchy Men, a radical religious and political group in early modern England. Two quotes from the historian Bernard Capp formed the foundation for this project. The quotes both stated that the Fifth Monarchy Men’s millenarian ideology changed based on the hopes and fears of the common people. Two components made up my analysis of the topic. The first was to find out what were the hopes and fears of the common people. The case studies used for this piece involved Nehemiah Wallington and the townspeople of Dorchester. Even though they were the hotter sort …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

A Problem Of Perception An Analysis Of The Formation, Reception, And Implementation Of National Socialist Ideology In Germany, 1919 To 1939, Derrick Angermeier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to dispel the notion that Nazi ideology was merely an afterthought to numerous actions taken by the Nazis. The first chapter discusses how Nazism’s earliest adherents internalized notions from World War I into an ideology that would motivate the early Nazi Movement to launch the Beer Hall Putsch. The second chapter focuses on the Nazi Party’s electoral tactics and how those actions correlated with entrenched Nazi ideological notions of recognition and community. Finally, the third chapter will seek to demonstrate that the numerous repressive measures implemented by the Third Reich were part of a general plan to …