History Commons^™

The Truth About Partisan Affiliation: Fear, Trust, And Media, Hailey Merin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

As the father of Western logic, Aristotle's research of the scientific method of analysis, biology, and psychology has been adopted by present-day America. If America has openly accepted an array of Aristotle's teachings, why have they ignored his observations that political parties are non-Democratic?

This research explores the relationship between political party affiliation, sentiment toward the government, and media influence on fear of corrupt government officials. Firstly, this paper examines the idea that sentiments toward the government are influenced by partisan affiliation. Secondly, it determines that after the 2020 election, Republicans fear corrupt government officials more than any other major …

The Internal Debate: How National Identity Created The Russo-Ukrainian Conflict, Logan James Weisenfels

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The longstanding conflict in Ukraine has prompted more attention, discussion, and research into the relationship between Ukraine and Russia. This relationship dates back to medieval times, but its importance to contemporary issues begins in the 19-20th Centuries and come to a head after the fall of the Soviet Union. This analysis seeks to understand how and why Ukrainian national identity gradually became a solidified civic identity after the Maiden Revolution and annexation of Crimea in 2014. This starts with providing a short history between Russia and Ukraine, that looks at certain events and regions in their shared history, and are …

Desperate Democrats In The Reagan Revolution: A Party Determined To Win The White House, Matthew Maxwell Akins

Senior Independent Study Theses

Bill Clinton’s 1992 election to the presidency as a Democrat ended a series of defeats for that party on the presidential level. Clinton may have won the White House, but he did not do it alone. In the decade before his victory, the “New Democrats” worked to moderate the Democratic Party from within, responding to the presidential losses of 1980, 1984, and 1988. Scholars have explored this topic from many angles, but none have explored it from the perspective of these “New Democrats” in a way that traces their story from Al From and Gillis Long to the DLC and …

Sovereignty, Statehood, And Subjugation: Native Hawaiian And Japanese American Discourse Over Hawaiian Statehood, Nicole Saito

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Although discourse over Hawaiian statehood has increasingly been described by scholars as a racial conflict between Japanese Americans and Native Hawaiians, there existed a broad spectrum of interactions between the two groups. Both communities were forced to confront the prejudices they had against each other while recognizing their shared experiences with discrimination, creating a paradoxical political culture of competition and solidarity up until the conclusion of World War Two. From 1946 to 1950, however, the country’s collective understanding of Japanese American citizenship began to shift with recognition of the community’s military service record and an increased proportion of veterans elected …

The Longest Sin And Deepest Silence, Cierra White

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

The focus for this project will be analyzing the relevance of the civil rights movement today. Such as how the foundations and scarifies of the civil rights movement let to the social climate of the Black Live Matter movement. This project will explore topics of racism, discrimination, inequality, suburbanization, and the divide of racial lines. Also, this project will focus on Civil Resistance and civil disobedience. This project will compare the ideas of Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and other prominent civil rights leaders during this time. I believe that by exploring and analyzing the causes of the Civil …

A Historical Analysis Of The Causes Of The French And Indian War, Jake Althouse

Honors Theses

The current study attempted to answer the following research question: what were the causes of the French and Indian War between Great Britain and France in 1754? To do so, the current study researched secondary sources from a historical perspective, political theories regarding the causes of war, and primary sources from individuals involved in the build-up to conflict. Previous research by historians and political scientists have mainly attributed the causes of the French and Indian War to a security dilemma and the spiral theory of war. The current study does not support this assertion. Instead, the current study asserts that …

The Nana Yaa Asantewaa War: Analysis Of The Political Institutions Of The Asante During The War Of The Golden Stool And The Existing Narratives, Angela Danso Gyane

Senior Independent Study Theses

The War of the Golden Stool was the last in the Anglo-Asante Wars, where the Asante fought against the British colonial agenda. According to the Asante oral history, Nana Yaa Asantewaa was at the forefront of this war. She was the commander, but most of the literature to not reflect this oral history. Therefore, this study seeks to address two essential questions: how did gender dynamics in the Asante Kingdom's political system shape their Resistance against the British in 1900- 01? Moreover, how does the analysis of oral histories from the matrilineal culture of the Asante decenter Western narratives of …

U.S. Government And Politics In Principle And Practice: Democracy, Rights, Freedoms And Empire, Samuel Finesurrey, Gary Greaves

Open Educational Resources

This book is written for students early in college to provide a guide to the founding documents and structures of governance that form the United States political system. This book is called American Government and Politics in Principle and Practice because you will notice that what has been inscribed in law has not always been applied in practice-particularly for indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, those formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the working class within U.S. society. In designing this book, we have two goals. First, we want you to know what the founding documents …

Human Rights? What A Good Idea! From Universal Jurisdiction To Crime Prevention, Daniel Feierstein

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Over the last decades, Genocide Studies has entered in a “comfort zone.” With fellowships and support from governments or NGOs, we have developed a very comfortable environment in which the knowledge we produce about genocide prevention is neither critical nor useful. We have become trapped by assumptions we have never checked against reality and many of us have chosen to work inside the circle of those assumptions: genocide and mass violence are horrible acts committed by horrible people; we cannot stand by and do nothing; we have the responsibility to protect civilian populations and that responsibility takes the form, as …

The Effect Of Tribalism On Political Parties, Cyrus Lloyd

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Tribalism has been the fundamental organizational unit of Middle Eastern Society for thousands of years. Recently however, modern scholars have questioned the viability of tribalism in the burgeoning democratic systems of the region. This study weighs in on this debate, focusing specifically on how tribal loyalties influence the effectiveness of political parties, considered by political science researchers to be the most effective way for the people to impose their will on the government. Focusing specifically on Jordan, this research takes into account information collected from interviews with several prominent members of Jordanian political, social, and intellectual life, including the heads …

Public Financing Of Elections In The States, Nicholas Meixsell

Honors Theses

In the US, there is a history of the courts striking down campaign finance reform measures as unconstitutional. As such, there are few avenues remaining for someone who is interested in 'clean government' reforms. One such avenue is publicly financed elections, where the state actually provides funding for campaigns. These systems can be quite varied in the restrictions and contingencies they attach to the money, and for examples one has to look no further than the states There are many states that have some form of public financing for elections, and by looking at the different states' systems we are …

Interview Of Fred J. Foley, Jr., Ph.D., Fred J. Foley Ph.D., Jeanmarie Turner

All Oral Histories

Dr. Fred Foley, Jr. was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in December of 1946. His parents were Fred Joseph Foley and Doris Nelson Foley. He moved to the Philadelphia area with his family when he was four years old. He is married, has three children and four grandchildren. He lived in Delaware County growing up. Dr. Foley attended St. Andrew's Grade School and Monsignor Bonner High School for Boys. He attended St. Joseph’s College as an undergrad majoring in Politics. He graduated with a B.A. in Politics in 1968. He attended Princeton University for his Master’s and Ph.D. programs. He graduated …

Charisma's Triumph Over Organization: Peronism Throughout The Decades, Alyssa Dipadova

Student Symposium

“A party’s organization characteristics depend more upon its history, i.e. on how the organization orientated and how it consolidated…[e]very organization bears the mark of its formation, of the crucial political-administrative decision made by its founders, the decision which ‘molded’ the organization." The validity (or maybe the potency/breadth) of this idea when applied to Peronism is the main topic for this paper. The importance of this topic cannot be understated as the Partido Justicialista (PJ), the largest component of the Peronist movement, continues to be one of the most prevalent parties in Argentina’s two-party system--the other being the UCR. How did …

Coming And Going: Identity, Institutions, And The United Kingdom's Resistance To The European Union, Lauren Bruning

Honors Theses

In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, a decision widely known as ‘Brexit’. This analysis compares two competing theories – institution and identity – to explain why. Four historical events, chronologically ordered from 1945 to 2016, are examined with both identity and institution analysis to explain British integration and its subsequent withdrawal from the European Union. Through this analysis, one can conclude the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw in 2016 stemmed from a variety of reasons, but each of these can be explained by identity (a sense of nationalism), or institution (EU relationships).

Nationalism around …

Department Of History And Political Science Registration Newsletter Fall 2018, Department Of History And Political Science, University Of Southern Maine

Department of History and Political Science Registration Newsletter

In this issue:

• Political Science majors Shaman Kirkland and Hamdia Ahmed help organize March for Our Lives
• New World Languages Options
• Screening of the film “Of Many: Then and Now” and moderated discussion with Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Imam Khalid Latif
• (De)Constructing Race, Equality, and Power at SPACE Gallery
• Registration information
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Fall 2018
• HTY/POS Internship Fall 2018
• Ron Schmidt's forthcoming book Reading Politics with Machiavelli

Department Of History And Political Science Registration Newsletter Fall 2017, Department Of History And Political Science, University Of Southern Maine

Department of History and Political Science Registration Newsletter

In this issue:

• New Faculty: Lacey Sparks
• Exhibition: "Letters Home: Harriet Sweetser and the Gorham Normal School at the Turn-of-the-Century"
• Student appreciation
• USM Special Collections
• Exhibition: "The Forgotten Heroines of the Easter Rising by Irish Sculptor Betty Newman-Maguire"
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Fall 2017
• HTY/POS Internships Offered Fall 2017
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Summer 2017

Department Of History And Political Science Registration Newsletter Spring 2017, Department Of History And Political Science, University Of Southern Maine

Department of History and Political Science Registration Newsletter

In this issue:

• Maine Model United Nations Conference
• The Arctic: Challenges and Opportunities Program
• W.E.B. Du Bois: Becoming an American Program
• Registration information
• Ron Schmidt's column in Maine Beacon
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Spring 2017
• HTY/POS Internships Spring 2017
• Abraham Peck received a DLitt (Doctor of letters) degree from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England
• USM History on Instagram: @usmhistory
• HTY spring trip to New York City
• Libby Bischof's class visit to Abbe Museum
• "Judeo-Christian and Islamic Values" an opinion article written by Abraham Peck

Department Of History And Political Science Registration Newsletter Fall 2016, Department Of History And Political Science, University Of Southern Maine

Department of History and Political Science Registration Newsletter

In this issue:

• New Race and Ethnic Studies Minor
• Ron Schmidt in the news
• Robert Klotz and Dmitry Bam lecture
• Maine Model United Nations Conference
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Fall 2016
• HTY/POS Internships Offered Fall 2016
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Summer 2016
• Student appreciation
• Libby Bischof presenting at the Third Annual Historians forum at the Maine Historical Society
• Eileen Eagan at the annual national Council on Public History conference in Baltimore, Maryland

Department Of History And Political Science Registration Newsletter Spring 2016, Department Of History And Political Science, University Of Southern Maine

Department of History and Political Science Registration Newsletter

In this issue:

• Exhibition co-curated by Libby Bischof, "Picturing Maine
• History Student Named UNUM Scholar
• Exhibit: "Visualizing Uncle Tom’s Cabin"
• Adam Tuchinsky named interim Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
• New faculty: Timothy Ruback
• Maine Model United Nations Conference (MeMUNC)
• Leroy Rowe class visit to Augusta
• “Social Media and Revolutions,” talk by Adeline Koh, Director of the Center for Digital Humani-ties at Stockton College
• HTY/POS Courses Offered Spring 2016
• HTY/POS Internships Offered Spring 2016

A New Introduction To American Constitutionalism, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism is the first text to study the entirety of American constitutionalism, not just the traces that appear in Supreme Court decisions. Mark A. Graber both explores and offers original answers to such central questions as: What is a Constitution? What are fundamental constitutional purposes? How are constitutions interpreted? How is constitutional authority allocated? How do constitutions change? How is the Constitution of the United States influenced by international and comparative law? and, most important, How does the Constitution work? Relying on an historical/institutional perspective, the book illustrates how American constitutionalism is a distinct form …

Interview Of Michael R. Dillon, Ph.D., J.D., Michael R. Dillon, Ph.D., J.D., John A. Prendergast

All Oral Histories

Dr. Michael Richard Dillon (1942-2020) was a Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at La Salle University in Philadelphia. He grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb just outside of Chicago, where he spent many years before opting to attend the University of Notre Dame for his undergraduate and, later, his graduate and doctoral degrees. Dr. Dillon first came to La Salle in 1968, where he spent 17 years as a member of the Political Science Department under the Chair at the time, Robert Courtney. After obtaining a J.D. from Temple University, Dr. Dillon left La Salle in …

The Black Metropolis In The Twenty-First Century: Race, Power And The Politics Of Place, Robert Bullard

Robert D Bullard

This book brings together key essays that seek to make visible and expand our understanding of the role of government (policies, programs, and investments) in shaping cities and metropolitan regions; the costs and consequences of uneven urban and regional growth patterns; suburban sprawl and public health, transportation, and economic development; and the enduring connection of place, space, and race in the era of increased globalization. Whether intended or unintended, many government policies (housing, transportation, land use, environmental, economic development, education, etc.) have aided and in some cases subsidized suburban sprawl, job flight, and spatial mismatch; concentrated urban poverty; and heightened …

Verboden: The Private Letters Of Ed Edson: An American Pioneer In A Dutch Community 1880-1944, Mollie Edson

All Graduate Projects

This is a senior project in History, English, and Political Science about the letters and correspondence of Ed Edson from 1880-1944. It includes letters, photos and scans of correspondence.

Polish Settlement At Yalta: An Act Of Betrayal Or An Act Of Realism?, Harold R. Mogg

Graduate Student Research Papers

With all of this apparent concern by the Big Three regarding Poland, why has there been so much criticism of the Polish settlement at Yalta? Did Roosevelt and Churchill actually appease Stalin in regard to the Polish settlement? What was this settlement at Yalta--an act of betrayal or an act of realism? This is the confusing question that the writer of this paper will attempt to answer.

3. The Science Of Man, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section X: The Eighteenth Century Enlightenment

Perhaps the chief achievement of the Enlightenment was the creation of the social sciences and the application of these sciences to the problems of human existence. The selections which follow offer a first-hand glimpse of the type of work that Enlightenment thinkers accomplished in the fields of psychology, economics, political science, and ethics. The selections are but fragments of thorough, systematic analyses of the foregoing subjects. However, our primary interest here is to understand some of the important assumptions and conclusions rather than to acquire a detailed knowledge of each of the sciences. The ideas presented may seem oversimplified and …