History Commons^™

Collige Et Impera: The United States Reengagement In Libya, Marco Schinella

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

President Biden's "America is back" pledge holds the potential to be put to the test with the ongoing crisis in Libya. The internationalization of the post-Ghaddafi Libyan breakdown, strained by great-power competition (GPC) dynamics, poses nonnegligible threats to the United States (US) national security that extends beyond Libya per se. Reframing the conflict from yet another Middle East and North Africa (MENA) conflict to an urgent multilateral Mediterranean security challenge will help elevate the country's profile on the global stage. This thesis outlines a qualitative, within-case study analysis of the ongoing Libyan crisis from the perspective of US national security …

Mi Feria Es Su Feria: How Mexican Americans Created The 1968 San Antonio Hemisfair, Gene Thomas Morales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 1968, HemisFair became the first world's fair to be held in San Antonio, the United States Southwest, and to be recognized by the Bureau of International Expositions. Countries from around the globe were brought together by a shared commitment to democratic unity, Pan-American friendship, and to celebrate San Antonio's 250th anniversary. San Antonio Fair Inc., the group in charge of the fairâ??s construction and production, worked closely with community leaders, the Texas state government, and the U.S. federal government to create the exposition. The fair's theme would be called Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas. Confluence for the fair …

The Scramble For Texas: European Diplomacy And Imperial Contest In The Republic Of Texas, 1835-1846, Penelope Lea Jacobus

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The story that this Dissertation analyses is the attempted European penetration of the North American borderlands during the independence of the Texas Republic. It will analyse how the independence of Texas ties into new forms of imperialism exercised by Europeans and U.S.-Americans during the first half of the nineteenth century, a time when shifting ideas about freedom and coercion, international law and rights, civilisation, nationhood, and trade redefined imperial possibilities. Imperialism in the nineteenth century had to be increasingly compatible with ideas of freedom and justice, such as free trade, free labour and the use of fair legal tenets in …

Targeting Minorities: An Inductive Exploration Of The Fbi's Impact On Social Movements (19602-1970s), Crystal Jewel Bustillos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work undertakes the daunting task of examining the role of the FBI in targeting social movements which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It further explores the impact this targeting had on the Chicano movement by drawing comparisons between what transpired with the Chicano movement and comparing it to the African American movement. To this end, various archival data was gathered as well as primary sources and expert interviews.

The Rhetoric Of Construction: A Comparative Case Study Of The Language Of The U.S. - Mexico And Israel - Palestine Border Walls, Jesse Adam Kapenga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research examines the language and rhetoric of fear used to justify the walls and fences built by the American government along the U.S. - Mexico border, and by the Israeli government around the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It focuses specifically on the rhetoric used by the head of government of each country (the American president and the Israeli prime minister) during the years 2001-2011 to explain and justify the construction of a physical barrier as a measure of national defense and self-preservation.

Natural Rights And Equality: The Case Of Injustice In The Senate, Adrian Acosta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the Senate, as it is composed, goes against America's basic ideas of equality. First it examines the foundation of America's ideas of justice and natural rights. This is done by examining both Hobbes and Locke and how they helped influence America's ideals and, more specifically, how equality became a natural right. After that, it takes on whether or not these ideas are still valid to this very day. The thesis proceeds by examining the documents that helped form America and the system of government that got instituted after the second constitutional convention. Subsequently, it …

El Paso, Texas, And Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, 1880-1930: A Material Culture Study Of Borderlands Interdependency, Gladys Arlene Hodges

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Material culture theory informs this study of urban history and borderlands interdependency at El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, from 1880-1930. Features incised into and structures built onto the natural environment by the first arriving colonists after the mid-seventeenth century endured for more than two centuries. Over that period, the humanly-created material environment, a social product, fed back into the development of social forms--institutions, rituals, practices, modes of interaction, activities, and beliefs. A significant number of these social forms endured into the late nineteenth century and beyond, even after mechanization and industrialization arrived in the region known …