History Commons^™

From Serbia To Xinjiang; A Comparative Analysis Of Genocidal Regimes, Drake Mitchell Olson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Rather than seeking to give a causal explanation of genocide and ethnic cleansing, I ask the more pointed question “are there patterns present at the societal level that signal the potentiality of genocide in a given cultural context?” Through examination of two socially and temporally distinct instances of genocide, the Bosnian genocide and the Uyghur genocide, I argue that there exist certain patterns which precede historical instances of genocide and that these antecedent phenomena contribute to the potential for genocide in those societies. I identify three broad trends that contribute to the potential of genocide: the cultivation of ethnic nationalism …

From Madness To Medicine: How Nazi Medical Experimentation Morphed Into Today’S Medical Field, Alexandria Daughn Kerby

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

It is no secret that many of our current scientific and medical advancements stem from a long history of research, trials, and experimentation, but not enough is known about the origins of our routine practices. The Holocaust enabled Nazi doctors to explore countless victims in search of the ultimate answer to the Jewish question. The answer: to alleviate the burden that those deemed “unworthy of life” placed on the greater society. The mass extermination practices which highlight the atrocities of the Holocaust are the end result of constant scientific developments disguised as medicine. Tiergarten 4 (T4) serves as the beginning …

“Idol”: Examining The Intersection Of Race, Gender, And Sexuality In Boybands, Grace Maynard

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In response to the socio-political climate of recent years, there has been a growing category of socially-engaged pop music. These works can be explicitly connected to their ideas about gender, race, and age. While boybands may not be perceived to create activist works of art, they do often have large public platforms with potential to reach out to a mass population of dedicated fans. They are given the power and privilege of a life in the limelight. As such, their messages may carry deeper meanings than at first glance. This thesis explores the impact of successful boybands by examining The …

The Dark Side Of The Moon: Unpacking Civil Rights And Student Antiwar Criticism Of The Apollo Program, Victoria R. Combs

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

July 20, 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of man landing on the moon. To commemorate this historic anniversary, NASA held festivals, and people published books and released movies that reflected the triumph of the Apollo 11 mission. However, this celebratory media fails to illustrate the dissent against the program that existed during the 1960s. This era marked a contentious decade in American history, and the world at large, with a rise in protests and civil unrest fueled by the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. At this same time, the United States was engaged in the space race …

Gary, Indiana And The Us Steel Corporation: An Examination Of Race, Class, And Environmental Injustice In Early Twentieth Century Urban Planning, Laura Rose Allaben

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Gary, Indiana was widely regarded as one of the most successful and promising industrial American cities of its time. Gary was founded by the United States Steel Corporation to be a "model" industrial city created by a private corporation. Gary is unique in that the city was conceptualized, planned, and constructed by a private entity, with little public or governmental input, for the purpose of serving the US Steel industry. As "groundbreaking" and "innovative" as the urban planning of Gary was supposed to be, conditions of segregation in the city caused by a divide between the premiere steel mills and …

The Student Experience In A Covid-19 World: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into The Experience Of Butler University Students During A Pandemic, Ben Christopher Martella

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

With the abrupt closing of colleges across the United States in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent reopening in the fall of 2020, students in higher education were among some of the most affected group of individuals. In this ethnographic study, data was collected and analyzed based on student experience with COVID-19 at Butler University. The study aims to answer the research questions: How are students at a small midwestern university experiencing COVID-19? What impact are the university’s mitigation efforts having on students? How do students understand and describe University public health measures? Participant observation, …

"An Advocate And Exponent Of The Common And Equal Rights Of Humanity": Defining And Assessing The Values Of North Western Christian University, 1855-1880, Allison Lindsay Griffin

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

“An Advocate and Exponent of the Common and Equal Rights of Humanity”: Defining and Assessing the Values of North Western Christian University, 1855-1880.

Reitz Or Wrong: An Industrial, Environmental, And Political Analysis Of Evansville’S “Lumber Baron”, Jarrod Koester

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

For nearly two centuries, the history of Evansville, Indiana has remained incomplete as historians and the general public have not recognized some of the key factors responsible for the city’s famed past. The generally accepted history of Evansville, the state’s third-largest city, conveys valiant tales of industrialization, transportation, and successful entrepreneurs who overcame insurmountable odds and left everlasting impressions on the people of the region. While the once-prosperous city was a significant national port and participated heavily in transatlantic and transcontinental trade, Evansville’s historical significance has diminished over the course of the twentieth century. What were once bustling factories, streams …

Women’S Rights As Human Rights: A Study Of Muslim Women’S Reproductive Justice In Contemporary Saudi Arabia And Egypt, Sophia Harris

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Muslim women’s reproductive justice has been formulated through strict applications and interpretations of religious and spiritual texts as well as the legal opinions of Islamic jurists and other trusted members of the Islamic community. I examine a conservative nation’s interpretation of these texts (Saudi Arabia) in comparison to a more liberal nation’s interpretations (Egypt), which are utilized to form policy on Muslim women’s reproductive justice. I also discuss research provided by the United Nations and other international organizations on the subject in each country. The question of justice has been an ongoing and controversial one, especially so for women. When …

The Battle Of Representation: Analyzing The Role Of The Senate In The Late Republic Of Rome And The United States, Gracie Munroe

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The Late Roman Republic was divided into two political factions, the Populares and the Optimates, who quarreled on whether the voice of the people through votes in popular assemblies should have greater weight in government than the opinions and wisdom of the Roman Senate who, being composed of elite Roman aristocrats, believed were more qualified than the average Roman citizens to govern. A parallel idea of representation exists in the United States, in which two schools of thought emerge, the Trustee Model of Representation versus the Delegate model. In this project, I analyzed the language and rhetoric utilized by ancient …

An “Often Formidable Sting”: Chinese American Female Aviators In The Wasp During World War Ii, Claudia Vinci

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Pearl Harbor was one of the most shocking, devastating events in American military history. However, upon the entry of the United States into World War II, opportunities arose for Chinese American men and women. For Chinese American women, Pearl Harbor marked a pivotal transition as they were finally recruited by the United States military. More generally, American women expanded their noncombat roles and Asian Americans served in a number of capacities. I explore the related experiences of Hazel Ying Lee and Maggie Gee, the only two Chinese American Women Airforce Service Pilots. Lee and Gee dealt with and observed the …

“The Policy Of Intimidation Had Been So Successfully Managed That Many Colored Men Kept Away From The Polls”: Violence In The Reconstruction Era South, Marykatherine Klaybor

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the United States entered an era known as Reconstruction, which lasted until 1877. In this postwar period the federal government faced pressure to reincorporate the former Confederate States back into the Union. In addition, Southern political, economic, and social systems needed to be transformed in the wake of emancipation and the country grappled with the question of political rights for newly freed people. Throughout the era, the Republican Party favored policies that secured the rights of black Southerners while facing opposition from many Southern white Democrats. This opposition often manifested in unchecked …

How Crime Dramas Influence Perception Of Crime, Abby Hogan

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Television crime dramas are becoming more and more popular, introducing new shows and spin-offs every year. With their growing popularity, it is important to study the possible impacts that they could have on society, and people’s views of crime and criminality. This study looks at how much college students watch and enjoy these shows, and whether they affect their perception on the criminal justice system and procedures shown in the crime dramas. Questionnaires given to Butler University students inquire about their crime drama watching habits as well of their opinions and views on different aspects of the justice system, including …

The Survival Of Irish Gaelic In The Gaeltacht Of County Galway, 1880-1920, Eileen Hogan

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In the 1850s in post-famine Ireland, the Irish-Gaelic language was neglected in favor of English which equipped speakers to be members of the United Kingdom. But, the agrarian society of the County Galway Gaeltacht (designated Irish-speaking region) remained a stronghold of the Irish language despite British imperialists. The Survival of Irish-Gaelic addresses the survival of the native language in the Galway Gaeltacht. While my work has identified several reasons for the survival in this one specific region, this thesis focuses upon interrelated explanations. First, the Catholic schools in the Gaeltacht continued to teach in Irish despite the attempts of the …

Absurdity And Metaphysical Rebellion In The Philosophies Of Albert Camus And Omar Khayyam, Lynn Alsatie

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The first time Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyiat were brought to the Western world, it was through a translation from their original Persian to English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Over the next century, Khayyam’s verses saw extraordinary popular success among intellectuals both in England and beyond. This paper, however, explores what these verses meant to Persians in Omar Khayyam’s context, long before the quatrains reached the West. Although whether the meaning of his poetry is esoteric or hedonistic in nature is debated, his quatrains express an existential longing and grieving that can be compared to parallel feelings described by Albert Camus …

Archival Of The Fittest: The Role Of Archives In Constructing Gay Dutch Historical Memory, Brooks Hosfeld

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Truth, particularly in history, is subjective and constructed through memory. Memory, in turn, is created by archivists, as they actively choose and preserve the narratives made available to researchers and the public; they hold a key position in deciding what is widely understood about what happened in the past. In the same way archivist bias leads to historical erasure, archivists establish historical remembering when they actively make space for individuals and groups who are traditionally omitted from past narratives. Community archives stand distinct from state counterparts, as they restructure what is deemed valuable enough to be preserved within historical memory, …

More Than A Game: Baseball And Southern Textile Communities 1880-1935, Aaron Perch

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

While labor unrest itself is no stranger to American history, the strikes across the Piedmont textile industry in 1934 present a curious case. Throughout the conflict, a sizeable portion of the workers remained loyal to their companies and those who protested returned to the factories within a short period, often to the same management and conditions. Historians Daniel Singal and Trent Watts – in attempting to explain the workers’ willingness to return to work – have offered that the textile industry deliberately recreated the South’s traditional master-slave labor relationship. They suggest that mill management’s paternalistic efforts and persistent attempts to …

Women At The Helm: Rewriting Maritime History Through Female Pirate Identity And Agency, Wendy Vencel

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The subject of Atlantic-based Golden Age (1650-1720) piracy has long been an area of historical and mythical fascination. The sea has historically been a realm outside the reaches of mainland society, where women could express any aspect of their personal identity. Women at the Helm: Rewriting Maritime History through Female Pirate Identity and Agency queers the history of Golden Age piracy while placing the colonial period’s seafaring women within a longer historical tradition of female maritime crime and power.

Notable female pirates of this era, including Ireland’s Grace O’Malley and the Caribbean’s Anne Bonny and Mary Read, through the act …

A Cakewalk Through History: The Evolution Of Cake And Its Identity In America, Rachel Overby

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This thesis is a historical timeline of American cake and its evolution between the late 1700s and now. This timeline addresses the resource availability, cultural and historical changes, and innovations that have influenced its evolution. Cakes are a reflection upon the time they were popularized, and this paper will reveal several perspectives on the interplay between cake and the relevant cultural and historical climates. Supplementing this timeline, cake’s identity and how it has changed over the centuries is discussed. The cake of 1780s America holds a much different meaning than the cake of the 21st century. Cake has now become …

Our Nuclear Quandary: Deliberating U.S. Nuclear Armament & Its Alternatives For Execution 1946-1961, Andrew Ross

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Sitting amongst his National Security Councilors in 1958, President Eisenhower quipped of how he “could remember well when the military used to have no more than 70 targets in the Soviet Union and believed that destruction of these 70 targets would be sufficient.” Yet moments later, Eisenhower would grant his approval of a nuclear targeting plan which would strike all Soviet cities over the population of 25,000—a plan requiring thousands, not dozens, of nuclear weapons. The potential consequences of this dramatic surge in nuclear armament has led scholars to dispute how to characterize operational planning during the Nuclear Arms Race. …

The Aggravating Alloy: Mercury Amalgam’S Role In The Relationship Between The Educated And Non-Educated Dental Professional In The Nineteenth Century, Gracen Dunn

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In the early 1830’s, a pair of European ‘dentists’ brought a novel material for filling teeth into the United States. It was far less expensive and far easier to use than competing materials. This new potential ease at which some could practice dentistry put pressure on a situation of conflict between the educated dental professional, and the uneducated dentist. Quacks were the bane of the existence of an educated, gentleman dentist. They were openly condemned in private circles and in the press but the dental ‘charlatan’ was not the only person in the line of fire. Those who used mercury …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: A Historical Fiction Detailing The Trauma Of Mental Institutions In The Mid 1940’S, Jessica Klingensmith

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Out of Sight, Out of Mind is a historical fiction that details the trauma of one character, Francie, when she is admitted to a mental institution against her will in mid-1940’s America. Francie suffers from severe bipolar depression, which was poorly understood and had little treatments during this time. Different characters take turns narrating this piece, demonstrating how different perspectives can provide insight into the same circumstance. Francie’s family must cope with complicated family relationships and mental illness throughout this narrative, which serves as the first segment of a future novel.

Imprisoning Sexuality: The Abuses Of The State In Homosexual Male Incarceration At Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (1934-1957), Vic Overdorf

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Between 1934 and 1957, J. Edgar Hoover - the presiding director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation – signed documents approving the transfer of over twenty military men with a charge of “Sodomy” to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Through the first half of the twentieth century, Alcatraz was notorious for it’s incredibly violent and high profile criminals. Since the island was isolated and conditions were severe, Alcatraz was the designated site for the United States to imprison undesirable people: violent and influential men who they did not want to rejoin society. When considering the legal term “Sodomy”– which in 1934 …

Living The Lake Life: Indiana’S Lake James In The 1950s And 1960s, Warren Travis

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

At over a thousand acres, Lake James has been a staple for entertainment in northern Indiana for years. Lake James has changed significantly over the more than one hundred years of human interaction. This paper captures the scene of Lake James in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Social Construction Of Winston Churchill: How Life Experiences Shaped The Identity Of A Wartime Legend, Molly Elisabeth Smith

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

While the theory of social constructivism in international relations may not be the most common, it has appeared in different forms throughout the twentieth century and has gained popularity in recent years. Focusing on the formation of - and potential for change in - identities and interests, constructivism allows for the consideration of both ideational and behavioral factors in studying actors of the international community. Pairing these concepts with principles from both social identity theory and political psychology, one can observe the constructivist development of identities and interests of a political individual, such as Winston Churchill. Churchill's unique life experience …

The Crisis At Fort Sumter: The Symbolic Monument That Transformed Northern And Southern Opinions During The Start Of The Civil War, Olivia C. Cabanban

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Understanding the complexity of the Battle at Fort Sumter and the changing opinions of Northerners and Southerners acts as means of delving into the deeper roots of slavery, secession, and national discourse that laced our nation’s undeniable history. The first firings at Fort Sumter were the flashpoint of the entirety of the Civil War, triggering the four years of battle, death, destruction, and competing nationalisms that ensued between the North and South. Because the histories of the war—more specifically the battle of Fort Sumter—are biased because they are written from points of views laced with Confederate and Unionist undertones, comprehending …

Perceiving Dance: Examining The Foundations Of American Ballet And Influence Of The Press In Establishing Today's Perception Of Dance, Robyn Jutsum

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The 20th century for dance brought forth some of the most iconic names and choreographic pieces to date. This time period also introduced the U.S. to the potential for the arts, with attention from the press guiding dance’s way into the public eye. A major focus was the idea of being American and discovering what being part of America meant and could mean in the future. Establishing a uniquely American identity became a goal of early pioneers of dance in the U.S., and the emergence of the Ballets Russes spurred development of American ballet. As American ballet found its footing, …

Manifest Imperialism: Race And American Imperial Aspirations In The Pacific, Bryan Richter

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The Pacific Ocean has long been held by the United States as an outlet to project power and to forge and international fiefdom for themselves. The historical precedence of military intervention in this portion of the globe can be traced back to the colonial conflicts in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. This conflict began a century of heavy American military involvement which saw the United States become entrenched in four major wars from the Philippines in the south to its northern most point in the Korea. However, in each of these wars there were more at …

"Are You With Us?": A Study Of The Hoosier Suffrage Movement, 1844-1920, Sarah Bowman

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"Are You With Us?" challenges longstanding assumptions about Hoosier women's political activism by examining participation within the state suffrage movement. Indiana women's history- and especially this topic- is largely overlooked by historians. Existing scholarship on this subject is limited and out-dated; moreover, such research concludes that Hoosier women were "ladylike reformers." That is, they were respectable, conservative, and did not desire too much public attention. Because of this, one might think that Hoosier women avoided the campaign for suffrage; yet, my archival research has shown that many women in Indiana were active and dedicated participants. In addition, there were numerous …

Pacific Horizons: The Transformation Of European Perceptions Of Paradise, 1880-1900, Luke Scalone

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Since the publication of Bernard Smith’s European Vision in the South Pacific in the 1960s, an immense amount of literature has been produced about how European exploration in the Pacific Ocean affected explorers, national governments, elite classes, and indigenous peoples. However, there is little scholarship about how the interactions between Europeans and Pacific Islanders in the 19th century influenced the perceptions of readers on the continent. This project will fill in this gap by showing how colonial and imperial literature affected European readers’ perception of what constitutes an ideal society between 1880 and 1900. To explore these changes, I will …