History Commons^™

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

Review Of The Duke’S Assassin: Exile And Death Of Lorenzino De’ Medici, By Stefano Dall'aglio, Trans. By Donald Weinstein., Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

New archival documentation that was previously unknown details a new understanding concerning the life and death of Lornezino de' Medici.

Beer And Brewing In German Culture: Bridging The Gaps Within Steam, John D. Sundquist

The STEAM Journal

A university-level course on science, history, and culture of beer and brewing offers students from a wide range of disciplines a unique opportunity to learn from each other. They gain an appreciation for STEAM and the interaction of a number of disciplines while examining a subject of growing interest. This paper provides a brief description of such a course and includes specific examples of ways in which students explore science, engineering, humanities and the arts, as these areas of research come together in the study of beer and brewing.

Mvst 4654 Medieval London: Omeka Report Instructions, 2015, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Omeka Medieval London

Instructions for the object and site assignments that will assist students in completing their object and site assignments for the 2015 offering of MV 4654 Medieval London at Fordham University

Wagner Contra Mundum: Wagner Versus The World, Caitlin A. Thom

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

An investigation of responses to Wagner in Nazi Germany and post-World War II Israel.

The Decline Of Christianity In Modern Europe, David C. Taylor Jr

David C Taylor Jr

Europe was once considered the epicenter of the Christian religion. For centuries Christianity was not only the main religion of Europe it was also a main political power. The Roman Catholic church, and in turn the Christian faith, enjoyed great power at various times throughout history in the European countries and influenced the culture in many ways. However, today there has been a moral and spiritual decline in Europe of staggering numbers. This short essay will explore possible reasons for Christianity’s decline in Europe in the last century and whether or not there is a possibility that the church could …

Fighting To Save A Nation: Volunteerism And London’S Auxiliary Fire Service In The Blitz, Michael Giso

Spring 2015, British Society and Culture

The London Blitz of 1940 is one of the most horrifying events of World War 2. For the first time, citizens were the primary target in an attempt to shock Britain into surrender. The Blitz opened a new chapter in the book of WWII. Hitler wanted to reduce London to a pile of ashes and rubble. To accomplish this feat, the Germans introduced an entirely new air-raid strategy. Guided by a new tracking system, that allowed them to locate London even during government imposed blackouts, the Germans dropped a barrage of incendiary bombs over London. These small, tubular objects would …

The Role Of The Government In The Abdication Crisis Of 1936, Meghan C. Lescault

Spring 2015, British Society and Culture

The death of King George V on 20 January 1936 propelled the British nation into a tumultuous predicament that would threaten the stability of the monarchy and its adherence to tradition. When King Edward VIII ascended the throne, his differences from his paternal predecessor were made manifest in his pursuit to marry a twice-divorced American woman, Wallis Simpson.

This paper examines the National Government’s role in preventing Mrs. Simpson from becoming queen and in facilitating the abdication of King Edward. The Government had been predisposed to disfavoring the king and viewed his marriage plan as an extension of his disregard …

Still A Rivalry: Contrasting Renaissance Sodomy Legislation In Florence And Venice, Nicolaus J. Hajek

Black & Gold

The article focuses on comparing the functions of two institutions that castigated sodomy in Renaissance Italy: Florence’s the Office of the Night, and Venice’s Council of Ten. The author analyzes court cases from both Renaissance institutions as well as other first hand accounts of the culture of male sodomy in the region, explaining that Florence’s persecution of homosexual behavior was a secular tool to check the power of any political threat, while Venitian persecution originated from a theological mandate to save sinners from relinquishing their eternal salvation.

France And The Community Of Six: The Schuman Declaration To The Treaties Of Rome, Daniel Gagnon

Undergraduate Craft of Research Prize Papers

This paper investigates France’s role during the first decade of European integration, and in particular the initiatives of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman which led to the creation of the European Communities. Monnet and Schuman began the modern process of uniting Europe with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, but the process of integration faced its strongest opposition within France itself and the movement had its first setback in 1954 when the French National Assembly rejected the proposed European Defense Community. Nevertheless, European integration continued, and after the subsequent French election, France rebuilt momentum for further European …

The Late Works Of Dame Ethel Smyth: A Musical Microcosm Of Interwar British Culture, Emily Morin

Spring 2015, British Society and Culture

This paper examines the late musical compositions of Dame Ethel Smyth in the context of British society and culture between the two World Wars. It focuses on Smyth's large-scale works, especially her operas The Boatswain's Mate (1914) and Entente Cordiale (1923-1924) and her oratorio The Prison (1930). Using these works as examples of the composer's mature style, I draw attention to a number of Smyth's original artistic choices as well as her sophisticated use of social commentary. Also considered in this research are certain anticipated roles for women as composers at the time, Smyth's other passions and pursuits, and her …

Les Entretiens De Fontenelle: The Rhetorical Strategies Of A Cosmological Dialogue, Mark R. Komanecky Jr.

Senior Theses and Projects

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle’s Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds is one of the first major works of the French Enlightenment. First published in 1686, the work is organized as a series of dialogues between a philosopher and a marquise who discuss scientific topics such as heliocentrism and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. Treating these subjects was a risky affair; less than a century earlier Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, and fifty years before Fontenelle, Galileo was arrested for “holding, teaching, and defending” heliocentrism. Fontenelle employed several rhetorical and stylistic strategies in the work: he wrote in …

Review Of The Cambridge Companion To The Italian Renaissance, Ed. By Michael Wyatt., Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

The reviewed book's organization around themes reflects the domination of cultural history in the field of Renaissance Studies today.

Review Of Living Well In Renaissance Italy: The Virtues Of Humanism And The Irony Of Leon Battista Alberti, By Timothy Kircher., Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

Leon Battista Alberti wrote with a sense of irony that separated his works from his humanist contemporaries and linked him to the tradition of fourteenth-century vernacular writers, particularly Petrarch and Boccaccio. His irony was characterized by his encouragement to look for virtue beneath appearances and his distrust of equating virtue with humanist learning.

Review Of The Early Modern Italian Domestic Interior, 1400-1700: Objects, Spaces, Domesticaries, Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

This reviewed book offers a fascinating series of inquiries into the objects, architecture, and spaces in home interiors in early modern Italy, particularly in Florence, Venice, and Bologna.

Review Of The Italian Renaissance And Cultural History Of The Rinascimento, Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

This book reviewed rejects recent scholarship that has minimized the significance of the Italian Renaissance. Instead, it argues that the cities of Florence, Venice, and Milan enjoyed a distinct period of precocity over the rest of Europe between roughly 130--1500.

Review Of Neo-Latin And The Humanities: Essays In Honour Of Charles E. Fantazzi, Ed. By Luc Deitz, Timothy Kircher, And Jonathan Reid., Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

This is a collection of essays that works to illustrate the cultural force of Neo-Latin and the humanists who wrote them.

Mvst 4654 Medieval London: Syllabus, 2015, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Omeka Medieval London

Course syllabus for the 2015 offering of MV 4654 Medieval London at Fordham University

Mvst 4654 Medieval London: Bibliography For Reports, 2015, Maryanne Kowaleski

Digital Pedagogy: Omeka Medieval London

Bibliography of resources that will assist students in completing their object and site assignments for the 2015 offering of MV 4654 Medieval London at Fordham University

Interrogating The "Collapse" Of The Roman Empire: Historiography And Instruction, Jon Pesner

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

No abstract provided.

Academic Library Core Collection For Celtic And Roman Religions In Roman Britain, Kim Woodring

ETSU Faculty Works

Presented here is a bibliography representing a core collection on the Celtic and Roman religion in Roman Britain. This religion, which was formed from the mixing of Celtic and Roman religions, was truly a new religion. It was formed from two powerful but different religions. The Celts believed in nature and the power it held within everything in their world. The Romans believed in the power of their pantheon of gods and goddesses. When these two factors merged it produced a religion unlike any other in the world during the Iron Age. This bibliography will list the resources to form …

A Concise History Of Modern Europe: Liberty, Equality, Solidarity, David Mason

David S. Mason

Changing Cities, Changing Roles: Municipal Developments And The Urban Social Contract In Nineteenth Century Vienna, J. Alexander Killion

J. Alexander Killion

Humans have congregated in urban areas for millennia, but the way in which people have viewed the cities they live in has varied greatly over time. The nineteenth century brought extremely rapid changes in the interactions between people and space, especially in urban areas such as the Austrian capital of Vienna. The experience of Viennese inhabitants during this period is typical of what historian Reinhart Koselleck described as a “denaturalization of historical temporalities,” in which “the relations of time and space have been transformed, at first quite slowly, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, quite decisively.” This rapid transformation …