History Commons^™

The Battle Of The Crater, William Mahone, And Civil War Memory, 1864-1937, Kevin Michael Levin

Master's Theses

The battle of the Crater, which took place outside Petersburg, Virginia on July 30, 1864, proved to be one of the bloodiest engagements in the final year of the Civil War. The attempt on the part of Union commanders to break the growing siege between the two armies by tunneling under a Confederate position and exploding 8,000 pounds of explosives created a battle environment unseen elsewhere. The novelty of the mine explosion, the close hand-to-hand fighting, extensive casualties, the decision to include United State Colored Troops in the attacking columns, and a decisive Confederate victory guaranteed that the battle would …

Blindsided By Catholicism : R. W. Seton-Watson And The Surprising Strength Behind Interwar Slovak Nationalism, Marty Elizabeth Manor

Master's Theses

Although many historians have studied the topic of nationalism--even interwar Czechoslovak nationalism--none has analyzed it as seen through the eyes of R. W. Seton-Watson, the foremost scholar on Central and Eastern Europe before, during, and after World War I. He possessed a unique relationship with the Slovak people, yet he underestimated the influence religiously-inspired nationalism had on the Slovak masses. This study proposes that it was diverging religious institutions, namely Protestantism and Catholicism, which determined the convictions of the Czech and Slovak intelligentsia and thus the direction of Slovak nationalism in interwar Czechoslovakia. Protestantism's Czechoslovakist national theory gave way to …

From Opposing Sides : The Duality Of Citizens' And Their Government's Views On Town Squares, Zachary Powell

Honors Theses

The purpose of my paper is to explore how the State's and the people's views concerning town squares come together. I will focus mainly on the duality between these two views: one the one hand, the State uses these spaces to display its power and for physical security. On the other side, the populace sees these spaces as theirs, as central to their community as citizens. Furthermore, they see it as a place to confront their government. Where else would be better than the place where the government seems to take on physical form?

I will explore this duality in …

Kieft's War And Tributary Politics In Eastern Woodland Colonial Society, Nicholas Klaiber

Honors Theses

From the earliest interactions between the Dutch and native groups in the New World, cultural differences regarding the ideas of property and governmental jurisdiction created societal conflict. When native tribes in the vicinity of New Netherland began to consolidate into traditional political alliances based on tribute and protection during the mid-1630s, thereby undercutting theoretical European dominance in New Netherland and New England, the English and Dutch both aggressively used the native system by forcing tributary status on local tribes through armed conflict, ritualized violence, and the use of tribal extermination as symbols of power. For the Dutch, this movement was …

American Prisoners Of War In Vietnam Tell Their Stories, Ryan Frost

Honors Theses

This paper seeks to examine the experiences of Vietnam POWs, both those held in thejungles of South Vietnam and those in the Hanoi prison camps of North Vietnam based on POW narratives consisting of memoirs, autobiographies, and interviews. Early POW history depicts great differences between the two groups of POWs, giving the impression that Pilot POWS, who comprised the majority of prisoners in Hanoi camps, acted more honorably while interned in comparison to enlisted army POWS, who spent the majority of their captivity in the jungles of South Vietnam. This paper demonstrates the similarities in their experiences through these narrative …

Richmond, Virginia's Every Monday Club, 1889-1919, Maureen Elizabeth Salmon

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the formation and growth of the Every Monday Club, a woman's literary club in Richmond, Virginia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Since the group has never been researched before, most of the study concentrates on untouched archives. The study uses the extensive Every Monday Club papers which include club meeting minutes, letters, papers, pictures, yearbooks, and newspaper clippings. This information is also supplemented with obituaries, census, and other primary data. The records disclose issues of class, race and education.

The Troubled Intersection Of The Interests Of Christ And Commerce : Appellate-Court Review Of Virginia Sunday Closing Laws In Historical Overview Through 1942, William Robert Vanderkloot

Master's Theses

Virginia's Supreme Court of Appeals, between 1900 and the conclusion of this thesis in 1942, consistently narrowed Virginia's Sunday closing law, enacted in 1786 to prevent Sunday labor. While paying lip service to the statute's purpose, the court almost unhesitatingly chose statutory interpretations encouraging more Sunday labor, particularly by expanding its ''necessity" and "charity" exceptions. The legislature also granted additional statutory closing law exceptions. This reflected the preferences of the public as well, which increasingly depended on the services of others laboring on Sunday. These results were also due, in part, to inherent confusions and contradictions in the law itself, …