History Commons^™

[Introduction To] Stalin's Master Narrative: A Critical Edition Of The History Of The Communist Party Of The Soviet Union (Bolsheviks): Short Course, David Brandenberger, M. V. Zelenov

Bookshelf

The Short Course on the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) defined Stalinist ideology both at home and abroad. It was quite literally the the master narrative of the USSR—a hegemonic statement on history, politics, and Marxism-Leninism that scripted Soviet society for a generation. This study exposes the enormous role that Stalin played in the development of this all-important text, as well as the unparalleled influence that he wielded over the Soviet historical imagination.

How The Nation’S Largest Minority Became White: Race Politics And The Disability Rights Movement, 1970–1980, Jennifer L. Erkulwater

Political Science Faculty Publications

Scholars point out a tension between racial justice and disability rights activism. Although racial minorities are more likely to become disabled than whites, both disability activism and the historiography of disability politics tends tend to focus on the experience and achievements of whites. This article examines how disability rights activists of the 1970s sought to build a united movement of all people with disabilities and explains why these efforts were unable to overcome cleavages predicated on race. Activists drew from New Left ideas of community and self-help as well as the New Right rhetoric of market freedoms to articulate a …

[Chapter 1 From] Realignment, Region And Race: Presidential Leadership And Social Identity, George R. Goethals

Bookshelf

The Trump presidency may well be the first phase of a new American political alignment deeply rooted in identity politics. Now more than ever, it seems especially important to understand how leaders compete to engage different human motivations—how presidents, presidential candidates, and other political leaders appeal to potential followers' needs for economic well-being, safety, self-esteem, and a sense of significance. It is time to come to terms with the roles of race and region in US political history.

In Realignment, Region, and Race, George R. Goethals addresses this challenge head-on, exploring the place of racial dynamics in American politics …

Singapore: Commemoration And Reconciliation, Tze M. Loo

History Faculty Publications

Commemorations are in general highly political acts; in East Asia, the period around the anniversary of Japan's surrender on August 15 has, for some time now, become highly politicized. It is a moment in which postwar Japan performs its attitude toward its war responsibility and aggressive acts-performances that are invariably evaluated for their sincerity, or lack thereof. At the same time, nation states who suffered Japan's wartime aggres­sions use the period to present their understanding of the history of Japan's wartime conduct and, as is often the case, to include a criticism of the per­ceived inadequacies of Japan's contrition. The …

Scandal And Mass Politics: Buganda's 1941 Nnamasole Crisis, Carol Summers

History Faculty Publications

Summers discusses Buganda's 1941 Nnamasole crisis following the Christian marriage of Irene Namaganda, Buganda's queen mother who was pregnant with her slightly older lover. Namaganda's Christian marriage was powerfully scandalous, profoundly violating expectations associated with marriage and royal office. The scandal produced a political crisis that toppled Buganda's prime minister, pushed his senior allies from power, deposed the queen mother, exiled her husband, and changed Buganda's political landscape. The scandal launched a new era of public mobilization and protest that took Buganda's politics beyond the realm of deals between the oligarchy and British elites, and into public gossip, newspapers and …

[Introduction To] The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights And The Politics Of Race In Richmond, Virginia, Julian Maxwell Hayter

Bookshelf

Once the capital of the Confederacy and the industrial hub of slave-based tobacco production, Richmond, Virginia has been largely overlooked in the context of twentieth century urban and political history. By the early 1960s, the city served as an important center for integrated politics, as African Americans fought for fair representation and mobilized voters in order to overcome discriminatory policies. Richmond’s African Americans struggled to serve their growing communities in the face of unyielding discrimination. Yet, due to their dedication to strengthening the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African American politicians held a city council majority by the late 1970s. …

Ugandan Politics World War Ii (1939-1949), Carol Summers

History Faculty Publications

World War II shaped Uganda's postwar politics through local understandings of global war.¹ Individually and collectively Ugandans saw the war as an opportunity rather than simply a crisis. During the War, the acquired wealth and demonstrated loyalty to a stressed British empire, inverting paternalistic imperial relations and investing loyalty and money in ways they expected would be reciprocated with political and economic rewards. For the 77,000 Ugandan enlisted soldiers and for the civilians who grew coffee and cotton, contributed money and organizational skills, and followed the war news, the war was not a desperate struggle for survival. Ideological aspects …

Spirits Of The Cold War: Contesting Worldviews In The Classical Age Of American Security Strategy. By Ned O’Gorman, Timothy Barney

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In February 1952, Congressman O. K. Armstrong of Missouri was invited to give a keynote speech at a convention called the Conference on Psychological Strategy in the Cold War, where he declared a maxim that, by that time, likely did not raise many eyebrows: “Our primary weapons will not be guns, but ideas . . . and truth itself.” Rep. Armstrong spoke from experience—a few months before, he had made national headlines at a peace treaty signing in San Francisco by blindsiding Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko with a map locating every secret Gulag prison camp. Calling the Soviet …

Mccarthy Hearings, Paul Achter

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

What have become known as the “McCarthy hearings” refer to 36 days of televised investigative hearings led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954. After first calling hearings to investigate possible espionage at the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the junior senator turned his communist-chasing committee’s attention to an altogether different matter, the question of whether the Army had promoted a dentist who had refused to answer questions for the Loyalty and Security Board. The hearings reached their climax when McCarthy suggested that the Army’s lawyer, Joseph Welch, had employed a man who at one time …

What Caused The Civil War?, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

The challenge of explaining the Civil War has led historians to seek clarity in two ways of thought. One school, the fundamentalists, emphasizes the intrinsic, inevitable conflict between slavery and free labor. The other, the revisionists, emphasizes discrete events and political structures rather than slavery itself. Both sides see crucial parts of the problem, but it has proved difficult to reconcile the perspectives because they approach the Civil War with different assumptions about what drives history.

Delaney Amendment, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In 1958, U.S. Representative James Delaney of New York added a proviso to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act declaring that the Food and Drug Administration cannot approve any food additive found to induce cancer in a person or animal.

Why Were Chemical Weapons Not Used In World War Ii?, Jeffrey W. Legro

Political Science Faculty Publications

Chemical warfare had played an important enough role in World War I that there was widespread expectation of its use in World War II. Certainly, Germany's army and its chemists had no qualms about adding poison gas to the Third Reich's arsenal. When war began, however, many of the latest chemical warfare agents were not available in deliverable form. The early successes of conventional-war making, combined with an increasing shortage of raw material, led Germany to deemphasize gas warfare even apart from the fear of Allied retaliation that significantly influenced at least the armed forces.

The Virginia Executive Budget, Charles William Wyatt Iii

Master's Theses

Virginia, like the other states in our union, was without any set form of budget during its first century of existence. This was partly because there was no definite need for any governmental reform in this area until the twentieth century brought about an expansion of the powers and responsibilities of governments. The states relied on the general property tax for the bulk of their revenue and its return was relatively certain and constant. It enabled a legislature to accurately judge its yield and match this yield to what was needed by an easy adaptation of the rate of taxation. …

An Analysis Of The Activities Under Public Law 480 : The Food For Peace Program, Charles Frederick Bateman

Master's Theses

It has been my purpose in this research to unveil a clear picture of the historical activities of our Food For Peace Program, commonly know as Public Law 480, with the hope of' being able to establish a basis for .future understanding. I have examined certain problems arising in both normal and abnormal situations in the activities under Public Law 480, and have presented views as to how they might be corrected or avoided.

A Study Of Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman On The Elections Of 1936 And 1940, Betty Sanford Molster

Honors Theses

Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman was the Virginia-born editor of The Richmond News Leader from 1915 to 1949. He is also widely known as the author of several historical works--notably a biography of R.E. Lee for which he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1934, and a biography of George Washington which he had not quite finished at the time of his death in 1953.

This thesis is an attempt to discuss the views held by Dr. Freeman on the Presidential elections of 1936 and 1940. The only source of information used was his editorials during those two years. I have attempted …

Administrative Reorganization Of The Government Of The State Of Virginia Under Governor Byrd, Robert Greg Barr

Honors Theses

Administrative reorganization is a tremendous subject. In the final analysis, it involves the history of administrative organization, proposals for its improvement, reforms in its structure, desirability of further changes, and the adequacy and beneficial effects of changes already instituted, as well as the broad ramifications of governmental theory inextricably related to any scheme of administrative structure. It is a study of the entire executive branch of a government in all its aspects. These subjects offer interesting fields of research for the student of government and history, as well as the student of economics in some instances. Exploitation of the opportunities …