History Commons^™

International Student Orientations: Indian Students At American Universities Around The Turn Of The Twentieth Century, Param S. Ajmera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the writings and experiences of five Indian international students in the United States during late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By drawing attention to these students, I attend to the ways in which notions of freedom, progress, and inclusivity associated with American higher education, and liberalism more generally, are related to structures of racialized and colonial dispossession in India. I build these arguments by reading archival sources such as university administrative records, student publications, personal and official correspondence, as well as understudied aesthetic works, such as memoirs, travel narratives, essays, doctoral dissertations, and public lectures. These historical …

Was Ist (Nicht) Deutsch? Historische Und Aktuelle Versuche "Deutsch" Ex Negativo Zu Definieren, Mark Mckinney Smith

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

In this thesis I explore the question of how a xenophobic ideology could find a receptive audience in 21st Century Germany. Given extensive postwar efforts in Germany to address the Nazi Period, this question is of particular interest. I analyze and compare racist and xenophobic ideologies in four time periods: the Napoleonic Period, the Wilhelmine Period, the National Socialist Period and the contemporary period. Historically, xenophobic ideology is deeply tied to particular social and economic conditions which leads to the following questions: What are the similarities and differences between contemporary xenophobic messaging and that of the three other time periods …

Map, Census, Museum: Imagining The Malaysian Nation-State And The Malay Identity, Jackson Rockett

Honors Theses

Using historian Benedict Anderson's framework from his seminal text Imagined Communities of examining nation-building and identity construction through colonial artifacts, this thesis turns to maps, censuses, and museums to better understand the colonial and post-colonial imagining of the country that is now known as Malaysia. Reconciling with regional histories that predate the nation-state and defy the contemporary boundaries of territoriality, this thesis largely seeks to elucidate the contestation between colonially-imposed ideas of spatiality, categorization, and the reproduction of history with the modern Malaysian nation-state and the conflation of ethnicity with nationalism from which much of this contestation is derived from.

Badger State Nationalism: World War I, The Ku Klux Klan, And The Politics Of 'Americanism' In 1915-1930 Wisconsin, William Levi

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Ku Klux Klan is most synonymous with racism and religious bigotry, especially during the revival period of the 1920s. What is often less understood is the aggressively nationalist nature of the Klan, which in some locales proved to be its most potent symbol and recruiting tool, epitomized by the use of the American flag and the ‘100% Americanism’ slogan. In Wisconsin, where entry into World War I was least popular in 1917, the following months saw a series of ‘loyalty struggles’ develop; many Wisconsinites regretted their early lack of support and sought to prove their loyalty and patriotism to …

The Chosen One?: Reflections On Mid-Century Egyptian Nationalism, Gamal Abdel Nasser's Charismatic Leadership, And The Suez Crisis Of 1956, Owen P.S. Hobbs

Honors Theses

This thesis considers Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1956 nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent Suez Crisis in the broader context of the histories of nationalism and charismatic leadership in a decolonial setting. Chapter one synthesizes the works of notable scholars into a cohesive historiography of nationalism's emergence in Egypt and Nasser's unique role within mid-century Egyptian society. Chapter two examines the direct causes of the Suez Crisis within the previously established context of nationalism and charismatic leadership, drawing new conclusions from memos, telegrams, and the Egyptian Government's 'White Paper on the Nationalization of the Suez Canal Maritime Company' -- …

Shock And Awe, Sectarianism, And Violence In Iraq Post-2003, Sarim Al-Rawi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The violence systematically deployed upon the prosperous nation of Iraq in 2003 was directly influenced by the Shock and Awe doctrine set forth by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in their 1996 book Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance. The experimental methods of warfare and violence outlined in the text describe methods for the systematic destruction of every major aspect of a nation and society, militarily, economically, and socially. In the wake of the US Invasion of Iraq, we saw the direct implementation of these methods by the occupation forces, setting off a brutal cycle of violence that …

Trickle Down Nationalism: Interactions Between Liberal Nationalism And Colonialism In The Raj And Nigeria, Aaryaman Sheoran

CMC Senior Theses

The combination of nationalism and colonialism has remained understudied in academia, despite the important interaction between the two phenomena. European ideas bled over into their colonial empires and began to fill the power vacuum created by colonial enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of British colonialism on the development of national identity in British India and Nigeria.

British influences included large scale economic disruption, cultural reform through ‘westernizing’ the population and abolishing local customs, and creating a new set of institutions to replace traditional power centers. Inevitably, these factors created a nationalist surge across both the Raj and Nigeria, as …

Los Chinos De La Chinesca: Destabilizing National Narratives And Uncovering The Forgotten History Of The Chinese In Mexico, Mya Hansel Gelber

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Boys Of The Maple Leaf, Maggie Kontra Emmens

History Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the development of a distinctive Canadian national identity articulated in trench newspapers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) fighting during World War I on European soil. Three English Canadian sources, The Listening Post, The Dead Horse Corner Gazette, and The Iodine Chronicle, form the bases for analysis and the inquiry into the history of nascent Canadian-ness among English Canadian soldiers in the European trenches between 1914 and 1919. The trench journals reflect specifics of their units, their locality in the trenches, and the affects of British roots, American influence, geographic influence, news from and memories of the …

Identity To Be Determined: The Development Of The American Ideal In The Early Republic, Andrew S. Mills

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Late victories in the War of 1812, like General Andrew Jackson’s triumph in the Battle of New Orleans rekindled the growing sense of nationalistic fervor that had appeared after the American Revolution. Americans saw themselves as a people with a unique destiny granted by God. Between the 1780s and the 1820s, different political party visions of American identity competed. The Jeffersonians were agrarian-focused. They envisioned a nation based on the morality of citizens. Federalists saw a more hierarchical, European-like society as the best hope for the American cause. These competing visions of identity led to continued attacks by the leading …

(Re)Imagining Taiwan: Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism In Film And Literature, 1970-1990s, Keith Goodwin

History

The study of Taiwan's history is permeated by questions of identity. Since 1600, the island has been, among other things, a Dutch colonial outpost, a refuge for Ming loyalists, a provincial frontier of the Qing Dynasty, a Japanese colony, and, since the end of World War II, the home of the Republic of China (ROC). However, sixty years after Taiwan's "retrocession" to the government of Chiang Kai-shek, questions of Taiwan's cultural and national identity persist.

This paper takes the 1970s to be an important turning point in Taiwan's identity discourse. Beginning with a discussion of the various political and diplomatic …

Compartmentalizing The Other: Nineteenth-Century Englishwomen, Travel, And English Identity, Amanda E. Williams

History Theses & Dissertations

The nineteenth century was an age of travel. The English traveled the globe for a variety of reasons. When not traveling for military, political, religious, or scientific reasons, they also traveled a great deal simply for pleasure. Regardless of reason, travel brought the English into contact with the Other. As a construction, the Other became an important part of English identity.

Englishwomen were particularly famous for travel. Although they were disenfranchised Others themselves in English society, Englishwomen did not identify with the Other they encountered in travels, but rather chose enfranchisement in an elite "imagined" England. This community (or the …