History Commons^™

Lawyers And Sawyers: Venetian Forest Law And The Conquest Of Terraferma (1350-1476), Michael S. Beaudoin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Venice played a direct role in shaping the future of Northeastern Italy. The standing scholarship views Venetian involvement on the mainland as either an abandonment of the city’s maritime tradition or as a buffer zone against rival powers, like Milan. Venice’s western mainland empire, Terraferma, provided Venice with many commercial products that the Eastern Mediterranean did not. One mainland product, timber, was a central focus of Venetian expansion into Terraferma and has thus far been neglected by historians. This thesis argues that the Venetian Republic manipulated mainland legal traditions in order to obtain …

Mass Rape In Foča: The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia Vs. Dragoljub Kunarac, Mark William Iverson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Bosnian war witnessed the organized expulsion of Bosnian Muslims by Serbian and Bosnian Serb military forces from 1992 until 1995. As a tactic aimed at creating mono-ethnic towns from multicultural populations, rape was perpetrated against all women, but particularly Muslim women, as part of a larger plan to terrorize populations into permanently abandoning their homes. The Muslims of Foča, a township close to the border with Montenegro, were one of the first multiethnic populations to be attacked and terrorized by Bosnian Serb and Serbian forces. Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovač, and Zoran Vuković were three Bosnian Serb soldiers, among thousands, …

Lusitania: An Examination Of Captaincy And Seamanship In The Face Of Disaster, Robert J. Goulding

Graduate Masters Theses

The last voyage of the RMS Lusitania is examined. The Cunard liner left New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915 as the conflict in Europe began to escalate. The research separates the act of war from the actions of the ship's command and control infrastructure and the seamanship of its crew. This distinction is made under a thesis that more lives could have and should have been saved. The central question of the research was therefore: to what extent should the captain and crew of RMS Lusitania be held to account for the elevated loss of life in the …

Transnational Gestures: Rethinking Trauma In U.S. War Fiction, Ruth A.H. Lahti

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the need to "world" our literary histories of U.S. war fiction, arguing that a transnational approach to this genre remaps on an enlarged scale the ethical implications of 20th and 21st century war writing. This study turns to representations of the human body to differently apprehend the ethical struggles of war fiction, thereby rethinking psychological and nationalist models of war trauma and developing a new method of reading the literature of war. To lay the ground for this analysis, I argue that the dominance of trauma theory in critical work on U.S. war fiction privileges the "authentic" …

Engineering Victory: The Ingenuity, Proficiency, And Versatility Of Union Citizen Soldiers In Determining The Outcome Of The Civil War, Thomas F. Army Jr

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores the critical advantage the Union held over the Confederacy in military engineering. The skills Union soldiers displayed during the war at bridge building, railroad repair, and road making demonstrated mechanical ability and often revealed ingenuity and imagination. These skills were developed during the antebellum period when northerners invested in educational systems that served an industrializing economy. Before the war, northern states’ attempt at implementing basic educational reforms, the spread of informal educational practices directed at mechanics and artisans, and the exponential growth in manufacturing all generated a different work related ethos than that of the South. Plantation …

The British Women’S Land Army: Gender, Identity, And Landscapes, Hilary M.K. Anderson

Masters Theses

The land girls who comprised the Women’s Land Army in Great Britain during the Second World War challenged cultural assumptions regarding gender and femininity. Through their work in agriculture, social anxieties were provoked regarding proper notions of femininity and separate spheres, which left these women in conflicting positions as they carved a spot for themselves in a war torn society. In order to carry out their work in the Women’s Land Army, land girls operated at the convergence of private and public spheres in a conjoined space. Living and operating in this conjoined space enabled them to blur the ideological …

Spartacus The Liberator: Modern Reception Of An Ancient Narrative, Charlotte Lehman

Honors Theses

Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator who led the rebels of the Third Servile War, is one of the most widely known figures of Ancient Rome. Despite the lack of ancient sources describing him, Spartacus has become popular in modern society. After being held as a slave in a gladiator training school, Spartacus inspired a revolt in which almost 100,000 slaves stood before several Roman legions and won. Before being subdued by the praetor Marcus Licinius Crassus, the escaped slaves won many battles against the powerful Roman army. Spartacus’ story has been adapted in novels, films, and even ballets. This thesis examines …

Killing Time: An Analysis Of Civil War Soldiers' Discussion Of Free Time In Camp, Madeline Norton

Honors Theses

While most Civil War history deals with a glorified and romanticized version of a soldier’s experience of war, the time a soldier spent combating the idleness of camp proved to be a more consuming battle. Though lacking in grandeur, how a soldier ‘killed time’ provides an important yet often overlooked insight into the camaraderie and culture of Civil War soldiers. Historians that have looked into camp amusements and vices tend not to go beyond the soldiers psychological need to mentally manage the war. This thesis takes their theory a step further. Examining soldiers’ records of their experiences in camp activities …

Rape In World War Ii Memory, Sonia Tiemann

Honors Theses

This thesis examines why mass wartime rape occurred during World War II, as well as examining the reasons for the denial or elimination of rape from public memory. For purposes of analysis, the thesis has been broken down into four cases: rape by Japanese soldiers ⎯ the “comfort women,” rape by German soldiers, rape by the Russian Red Army, and rape by American soldiers in France. The study looks at different reasons that could help explain why soldiers rape during wartime and what provokes them to rape. Rape was quite prevalent during World War II, yet it is rarely acknowledged …

The History And Memory Of The Assassination Of Lord Moyne, Hannah Dailey

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the assassination of Lord Moyne, the British Resident Minister of the Middle East, in 1944 by the extremist Jewish group Lehi and the effect the incident has carried throughout the last sixty eight years in both Britain and Israel. The weight of the memory of the assassination as well as how terrorism is defined becomes poignant with the 1975 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel following the Yom Kippur War. With an eye to how Israel has continued to make the assassination part of its national identity and Britain’s reaction in 2012 with the death of Yitzhak …

Major League Baseball And World War Ii: Protecting The Monopoly By Selling Major League Baseball As Patriotic, Patrick A. Stephen

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Green Light letter from President Franklin Roosevelt to Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis gave MLB permission to continue throughout World War II. The team owners felt relief that MLB is the only professional sport to survive during the years of World War II (1941-1945). MLB became a primary contributor toward the war effort. While war-supporting efforts were conducted, team owners positioned themselves to benefit from the bond between baseball and the American people. MLB portrayed itself through the commissioner’s office policy as a patriotic partner by providing entertainment for American factory workers and contributing equipment to servicemen …

Lew Wallace: An Unsung Hoosier Hero, Jordan C. Lee

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The way in which the American Civil War is remembered varies from one region to another. People, places, and events bring moments of pride and sorrow for those who remember, and distinct figures rise and fade into memory over time. Some individuals, however, cling to their place in history through the words of those who remember them. For the state ofIndiana, I feel as if one individual in question is overlooked. We remember Benjamin Harrison, the future president, born in Ohio, serving as a colonel to the 70th Indiana, and eventually a general over an entire brigade. We remember Governor …

Letters Home: Change In Mental State Of Soldiers During The American Civil And Vietnam Wars Seen Through Their Letters Home, Austin W. Hill

Honors Theses

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, has only been studied since its diagnosis after the Vietnam War. However, soldiers have always felt the affects of the wars they fought. These affects are physical, mental and emotional. Currently, PTSD is one of the most common affects of war on a soldier. While PTSD has only been studied since its discovery after the Vietnam War, symptoms almost exactly like PTSD have been present in soldiers for decades. This thesis uses letters from soldiers in the Vietnam War to create a basis of trauma that could create PTSD in soldiers. Using this base of …

A Leatherneck In Congress: Melvin Maas's Fight For A Modern Marine Corps Reserve, Timothy A. Guill

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Melvin J. Maas was a Marine Corps officer, combat pilot, and member of Congress. Maas’s unique view of American defense in the Interwar Period led him to promote the modernization the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve, which resulted in the formation of a well trained pool of semi-professional personnel prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. This study first examines the evolution of the formation of the reserve system of the American Armed Forces during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in order to understand the state of the Marine Corps Reserve that Maas joined in 1925. …

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942, David Dubois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942 is a chronicle of the opening days of World War II in the Pacific and the demise of the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Fleet. Beginning with the background of Four Star Admiral Thomas Hart, this chronicle shows the history of the nearly obsolete ships that fought in the beginning of World War II. The reader will come to realize how and why this fleet ceased to exist within ninety days from the start of the war. Historical evidence will show that the damage inflicted on the Japanese …

After Thirty Years: The Falklands War Of 1982, Katelyn Tietzen

All Theses

By law, the British government seals all cabinet and other important government documents until after thirty years passes. In 2012, the 'thirty-year rule' expired for all documents pertaining to the Falklands War of 1982. There is already an enormous amount of material written about the war but these released documents provide new insight. Lasting only one hundred days, the war was kicked off when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, or known in Argentina as las Malvinas, on 2 April 1982. Located in the very South Atlantic and four hundred miles east of Argentina, the British launched their largest naval task …

Reconsidering Operation Condor: Cross-Border Military Cooperation And The Defeat Of The Transnational Left In Chile And Argentina During The 1970s, Georgia C. Whitaker

Honors Projects

In this study of the roots of Operation Condor, I track the development of this unusual military alliance forged by six Southern Cone governments (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay) during the 1970s, as well as the push-and-pull relationship between the transnational migration of political militants and the military’s impetus for collaboration. While most accounts of Condor focus on the United States as the operation’s primary orchestrator, I contend that initial motivation for the type of cooperation that Condor would later formalize was driven not by the U.S., but by the Southern Cone militaries’ perception that Marxism had to …

From Laredo To Matamoros: The Constitutionalist Battles Along The Rio Grande 1913-1914, Jesus Ramos

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis illustrates the deployment of the Constitutionalist Army after the Plan de Guadalupe. The battles fought to neutralize Huerta’s army from Laredo to Matamoros. The thesis includes American and Mexican sources, oral accounts, and archived documents.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to recount the Constitutionalist events based on journals, books, theses, dissertations, and newspapers in order to argue the effects of the Mexican Revolution. The concept of counter memory is exercised throughout historical fragments.

The study covers the years 1913 and 1914, the onset of the Constitutionalist movement up to Huerta’s exile. The thesis includes an introduction, …

"Yes, We Are Latino Women But Very Proud To Have Serve[D] Our Country": Ethnic Mexican Women's Contributions To World War Ii, Laura L. Oviedo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This theses highlights ethnic Mexican women from Texas who contributed to World War II through the military, wartime employment industries, and home front unconventional efforts. By utilizing twenty-eight oral histories, collected from the VOCES Oral History Project Archive at the Benson Latin American Collection, ten Texas newspapers, and military documents, this research presents the wartime efforts of ethnic Mexican women. Each chapter traces the women’s economic, racial, and gendered struggles in their private and social spaces before the war to better appreciate their participation during the war. An examination of the experiences of ethnic Mexican women during World War II …

Through Crimson Tides: Tarawa's Effect On Military Tactics And Public Perception Of War, Josh Hudak

All Theses

This study is on the battle of Tarawa, and how the battle altered military doctrine in amphibious warfare tactics and public perception of war. Tarawa was the first battle of its kind being the first amphibious assault against a fortified objective utilizing joint land, sea, and aerial attacks. It was also the first battle that was filmed from its beginning to its end and shown uncensored to the American public. This study will examine the historiography of the Battle for Tarawa, an overview of the fighting, and the aftermath of the battle. It will also examine the public's reaction to …

Debating Cannae: Delbrück, Schlieffen, And The Great War, Andrew Loren Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Debating Cannae: Delbrück, Schlieffen, and the Great War provides the reader a view of the historical struggle between Alfred von Schlieffen and Hans Delbrück. They argued fiercely about the foundation of the German Empire and the use of history. The first chapter provides the context of the foundation of the German empire. The second chapter explores the debates between Schlieffen and Delbrück by investigating their writings. The third chapter surveys the effect that the Delbrück and Schlieffen culture war had upon the First World War. This work expands the current view of Schlieffen by demonstrating his commitment to his interpretation …

“Thank God It’S Only Maneuvers!:” Tennessee And The Road To War, Joshua G. Savage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Thank God It’s Only Maneuvers!:” Tennessee and the Road to War offers the reader a comprehensive explanation of the importance of the Tennessee Maneuvers of June 1941 to American preparation for World War II. Beginning with pre-war changes in the infantry, followed by the inception of the Armored Force, and continuing through the testing of both during the 1941 Maneuvers, the reader will gain an appreciation of the significance of these actions to overall American preparation before and during the Second World War. This work also presents a look at how these extensive combat actions influenced the people of the …

“Soldiers First”: The Evolution Of Training For Peacekeeping In The Canadian Forces, 1956-2000, Trista L. Grant-Waddell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation aims to revise conventional wisdom regarding Canada’s contribution to international peacekeeping through an examination of peacekeeping-specific training in the Canadian Forces from 1945 to 2000. There is a need to study training to understand how Canada’s peacekeepers have been prepared for peacekeeping missions since the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force in 1956. Peacekeeping training was neglected in the historiography of Canadian participation in international peacekeeping and in the operations of the Department of National Defence and other government bodies. This topic deserves more attention given the important role that peacekeeping has played as a primary task …

A Framework For Understanding The Us Air Bombing Campaign In Korea, 1950-51, Yonsoo P. Kang

Undergraduate Honors Theses

By the end of the Second World War, America possessed a superior air force and integrated technology as part of its military strategy. US air power and the bombing of cities were developed, perfected, and utilized to bring Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to their knees. This success led to the creation of the US Air Force (USAF) as an independent branch from the Army, which suggested that military and political leaders acknowledged not only the advantages of air power but also the “American way of war”: a military strategy emphasizing on finesse, sophistication, and efficiency in the post-war world. …

From Bread And Jam To Woolton Pie: Food Rationing And Improved Nutrition In Wwii Great Britain, Jennifer G. Joyner

History Undergraduate Theses

The practice of controlling food supplies has existed since ancient times—driven by urbanization, the controls were of a protective nature, as the commercialization of food production and retailing led to opportunities for graft and corruption. Authorities, motivated by the belief in a “moral economy” that held the public good in higher esteem than market forces, attempted to curb these abuses with various controls. However, in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, rapid industrialization led to a new economic and political approach to governance: that the public was best served by free trade.

This premise meant that market demands now superseded …

The Changkufeng And Nomonhan Incidents - The Undeclared Border War And Its Impact On World War Ii, Tobias Block

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nomonhan and Changkufeng

Immediately following the Mukden Incident in 1931 and the founding of Manchukuo, the Japanese supported puppet state in northeastern China, the Imperial Japanese Army found itself again face to face with their old enemy Russia, now the Soviet Union. The border disputes between these two countries would soon become armed conflicts. The Japanese Korea Army as well as the Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchuria, would soon follow a policy of limited war against the Soviet Red Army, here in particular during the battles of Changkufeng, in 1938, and Nomonhan in 1939.

These two battles proved to be …

The Secret Weapons Of World War Ii: An Analysis Of Hitler's Chemical Weapons Policy, Reyn Sp Ono

CMC Senior Theses

Very little historical scholarship specifically analyzes or explores the absence of chemical weapons in World War II. This thesis seeks to fill the gaps in the historical narrative by providing insight into the personal and external factors that influenced Hitler’s chemical weapons policy. This thesis also touches upon the wartime violence perpetrated by both the Axis and the Allies, thereby offering a neutral, unbiased historical account. From 1939-1941, Hitler did not deploy chemical weapons because his blitzkrieg of Europe was progressing successfully – chemical warfare was unnecessary. With the failure of Operation Barbarossa from 1942-1943, Armaments Minister Albert Speer oversaw …

Allied Unshackling: British, Canadian, And American Prisoner Of War Diplomacy During The Shackling Reprisals, 1942-43, Kiera Bridley

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Prisoner of war studies have largely focused their research on the experiences of the men and women within their captor countries. Although some country-specific work has been done regarding prisoner of war policy, there has been a significant gap in research regarding prisoner of war policy during the Second World War. This research focuses on the convergence of prisoner of war policy and diplomatic relations between Great Britain, Canada, and the United States during the shackling reprisals with Germany from 1942-43. The shackling reprisals represented the first conjunction of the three nations in diplomatic relations with Germany over the issue …

John Bruce, Jr. : A Sixty-Nine Year Leadership Journey Throughout Change In The United States Army, Joseph Rakocy

Dissertations

Problem and Purpose

The U.S. Army has changed radically in the 68 years since World War II ended, from uniforms to vehicles, from weaponry to organizational changes. While still the Army, its workforce has changed greatly in gender, ethnic, and age composition. John Bruce, Jr. saw many of these changes during his 69-year career as both soldier and executive. How this leader responded to the changes in the U.S. Army over nearly seven decades was the problem I explored. The purpose of the study was to describe how 94-year-old John Bruce, senior executive at the U.S. Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments …

La Identidad De Los Carabineros De Chile: The Evolving Identity Of Chile's National Police Force And The 1973 Military Coup, Jeffrey O. Lamson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of Los Carabineros de Chile, Chile's national police force, from their origins under Carlos Ibáñez in 1927 until their involvement in the 1973 military coup against President Salvador Allende. Various presidencies primarily used this corps during this period as a weapon against popular mobilization and thus influenced the development of the Carabineros' institutional identity. To explore how this identity evolved, this thesis examines primary sources, mostly in the form of newspapers found in the National Archives in Santiago, Chile, that illuminate the Carabineros' relations with the public. The knowledge of the Carabineros' institutional identity contributes …