History Commons^™

Life And Local Administration On Fifteenth Century Genoese Chios, Brian Nathaniel Becker

Dissertations

This dissertation combines a comparative analysis of the colonial administrations of Genoese Chios (1346-1566) and Venetian Crete (1211-1669) with an examination of the internal dynamics of Chian society under Genoese rule. It asks how society functioned on Chios and what role the ruling Genoese Mahona, or association of ship owners involved in the conquest, played in its construction. This study demonstrates, on the one hand, how often a colonial administration lacking strong direction from its home state, as was the case with the Mahona, crossed various constructed boundaries to establish mixed relationships with other states and also the island's indigenous …

Can The "Peasant" Speak? Forging Dialogues In A Nineteenth-Century Legend Collection, William Pooley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The folklore collections amassed by Jean-François Bladé in nineteenth-century southwestern France are problematic for modern readers. Bladé's legacy includes a confusing combination of poorly received historical works and unimportant short stories as well as the large collections of proverbs, songs, and narratives that he collected in his native Gascony. No writer has ever attempted to study any of Bladé's informants in detail, not even his most famous narrator, the illiterate and "defiant" Guillaume Cazaux.

Rather than dismissing Bladé as a poor ethnographer whose transcripts do not reflect what his informant Cazaux said, I propose taking Bladé's own confusion about authenticity …

Orange Alba: The Civil Religion Of Loyalism In The Southwestern Lowlands Of Scotland Since 1798, Ronnie Michael Booker Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

This study introduces the idea that, taken together, the major institutional frameworks of the ultra-Protestant culture of loyalism in the southwestern lowlands of Scotland can be conceived as a civil religion. I argue that loyalist civil religion in lowland Scotland was comprised of a distinct set of institutions including the Orange Order, Glasgow Rangers Football Club, loyalist street gangs and paramilitaries and loyalist flute bands. The elements that informed each of these loyalist groups were not unrelated, but part of a multidimensional and interactive civil religious movement. Each institution appealed to a wide range of viewpoints within the loyalist community …

Shattered Communities: Soldiers, Rabbis, And The Ostjuden Under German Occupation: 1915-1918, Tracey Hayes Norrell

Doctoral Dissertations

“Shattered Communities: Soldiers, Rabbis, and the Ostjuden during Occupation: 1915-1918" addresses the interethnic experience in Poland during the German occupation of 1915-1918. This dissertation demonstrates that the German design for 'modernization' of the East began with the First World War, which envisioned the Jews as a critically vital component, rather than an obstacle to their success. The German military made its connection to the peoples in the East via its own army rabbis and Jewish administrators. This work examines the role of the German Army rabbis, in 1915, in establishing a Jewish press and Jewish schools, along with Jewish relief …

Spuren Visionärer Multikulturalität: Fantasie Und Wirklichkeit In Campes "Robinson Der Jüngere": Auf Dem Weg Vom Kolonialismus Zum Kosmopolitismus., Claus Huxdorff

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to investigate the traces of multicultural implications in Joachim Heinrich Campe’s Robinson der Jüngere 1779/80. On one level, Campe’s adaptation of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe appears to awaken or sustain potential colonial fantasies among its German readers. However, Campe’s Robinson der Jüngere does not follow colonial conventions, such as exhibited in Defoe, but instead depicts a society based much more on the concept of a common humanity shared by Europeans and Caribbean natives alike. It conceives of cooperation and exchange as a mutual gain for both parties. Robinson’s island functions as a kind of social testing ground offering …

Gìärard De Lacaze-Duthiers, Charles Pìäguy, And Edward Carpenter: An Examination Of Neo-Romantic Radicalism Before The Great War, Joseph Peterson

All Theses

The fin-de-sicle in Europe was a time in which, perhaps more than any other, thinkers framed social questions in religious, mystical, and particularly Christian, forms. The persistence, in the late 19th century, of Romantic narratives of sin and salvation coincided with the growth of organized social movements, with the result that many socialist thinkers saw the movement of history as one of redemption from some primal loss of unity. The three social thinkers which comprise this examination--GŽrard de Lacaze-Duthiers, Charles PŽguy, and Edward Carpenter--demonstrated an ambiguity between religious antecedents and engagement with contemporary problems, very like the more self-conscious fusions …

Modernity, Capitalism, And War: Toward A Sociology Of War In The Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914, Eric Royal Lybeck

Masters Theses

The academic discipline of Sociology has rarely broached the subject of war and its recursive relationship with society. This paper addresses three major approaches in several disciplines that can be deemed ‘economically deterministic’: Marxist, Liberal, and Realist. These approaches can be useful for certain questions, but also leave out, or cloud other non-economic variables in understanding war – notably culture and military variables themselves. By using Karl Polanyi’s thesis regarding the “Myth of the Hundred Years’ Peace” (1815-1914) as a foil, the historical case of war in the nineteenth century is used to highlight the nature of war in European …

Filid, Fairies And Faith: The Effects Of Gaelic Culture, Religious Conflict And The Dynamics Of Dual Confessionalisation On The Suppression Of Witchcraft Accusations And Witch-Hunts In Early Modern Ireland, 1533 – 1670, William Kramer

Master's Theses

The European Witch-Hunts reached their peak in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Betweeen 1590 and 1661, approximately 1500 women and men were accused of, and executed for, the crime of witchcraft in Scotland. England suffered the largest witch-hunt in its history during the Civil Wars of the 1640s, which produced the majority of the 500 women and men executed in England for witchcraft. Evidence indicates, however, that only three women were executed in Ireland between 1533 and 1670. Given the presence of both English and Scottish settlers in Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the dramatic discrepancy of these …

Gender In Italian Films During The Transition From The Fascist Regime To The Republic: 1943-1946, Ashley Lena Poulin

Honors Capstone Projects - All

How was film initially used by Mussolini and the Fascist regime? With the fall of Fascism in 1943, how did filmmakers, who worked under and were sympathetic to the regime, transition? How did Italian filmmakers grapple with the memory of the legacy of Fascism and WWII, while also looking to the future, during the transition from German occupation, which was followed by liberation via American occupation? And of the greatest concern in this essay, how was gender used as the tool for projecting this brand new idea ofItaly? In other words, in what ways do gender roles in Italian Cinema …

The Italian Emigration Of Modern Times: Relations Between Italy And The United States Concerning Emigration Policy, Diplomacy, And Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, 1870-1927, Patrizia Fama Stahle

Dissertations

In the late 1800s, the United States was the great destination of Italian emigrants. In North America, employers considered Italians industrious individuals, but held them in low esteem. Italian immigrants were seen as dangerous subversives, anarchists, cheap laborers who were always ready to accept jobs for lower wages. Indeed, numerous episodes of violence and even lynching of Italians occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. In most cases, the violence went unpunished by the local authorities. Such episodes of violence provoked a diplomatic controversy between Italy and the United States concerning treaty-guaranteed protection of …

The Catastrophic Position Of The Judenräte: Self-Serving Collaborators Or Honorable Martyrs?, Meghan Kerry Waldow

Master's Theses

During the Holocaust, the Nazis appointed a select group of Jewish leaders to carry out their demands and orders throughout the ghettos of Eastern Europe. These influential men made up the Judenrate. From the beginning of the ghettos until their tragic demise, these Jewish leaders were responsible for executing difficult, and at times immoral, orders from the Nazis. With little time, money, and resources, somehow these Jews were to establish a system of government within the small boundaries of their quarantine. Put in an unfathomable position, these specially chosen men received power and influence during a time that removed both …

Smoldering Embers: Czech-German Cultural Competition, 1848-1948, C. Brandon Hone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

After World War II, state-sponsored deportations amounting to ethnic cleansing occurred and showed that the roots of the Czech-German cultural competition are important. In Bohemia, Czechs and Germans share a long history of contact, both mutually beneficial and antagonistic. Bohemia became one of the most important constituent realms of the Holy Roman Empire, bringing Czechs into close contact with Germans.

During the reign of Václav IV, a theologian at the University of Prague named Jan Hus began to cause controversy. Hus began to preach the doctrines outlined by the Englishman John Wycliffe. At the Council of Constance church officials sought …

Defining Socialism Through The Familiar: East German Representation Of Hungary In The 1950s And 1960s, Kathryn Campbell Julian

Masters Theses

This study analyzes East German representations of Hungary in cultural texts to investigate the emergence of a German socialist identity in the 1950s and 1960s. I further contend that post-1945 self- and collective identity in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was complex and formulated by official, intellectual, and mass perceptions. By examining East German iconography of Hungary it becomes clear that socialist identity in the early years of the dictatorship relied on traditional expressions of society as well as ideology. Hungary provided East Germans with a practical model for socialist friendship. Though the GDR was a state that ostensibly celebrated …

"Irish Blood, English Heart": Gender, Modernity, And "Third Way" Republicanism In The Formation Of The Irish Republic, Kenneth Lee Shonk, Jr.

Dissertations (1934 -)

Led by noted Irish statesman Eamon de Valera, a cadre of former members of the militaristic republican organization Sinn Féin split to form Fianna Fáil with the intent to reconstitute Irish republicanism so as to fit within the democratic frameworks of the Irish Free State. Beginning with its formation in 1926, up through the passage of a republican constitution in 1937 that was recognized by Great Britain the following year, Fianna Fáil had successfully rescued the seemingly moribund republican movement from complete marginalization. Using gendered language to forge a nexus between primordial cultural nationalism and modernity, Fianna Fáil's nationalist project …

Changing Magic : Evolving Conception Of Witchcraft In Essex County, Elizabeth Kiel Boone

Honors Theses

In 1579, a court in Essex, England arraigned thirteen-year-old Thomas Lever for acting as an assistant to William Randall, a conjurer suspected of leading a group of male witches. The court claimed young Thomas “mixed potions and was familiar with all [of Randall’s] workings.”1 Yet for Raphael Holinshed, the commentator on the trial, the case was unique only in the age of the defendant. Holinshed gives a stark example of a common view of the witch trials by noting “That her Majesty is sore oppressed by these witches and devil- mongers is now common knowledge, but that a child should …

Defender Of The Faith? : Anti-Heresy Policy And The Consolidation Of Ecclesiastical Authority Under Henry Viii On The Eve Of The English Reformation, Daniel James Rudary

Honors Theses

In March 1521, Catholic Europe was on the brink of rupture. It had been more than three years since Martin Luther had posted his Ninety-Five Theses in the university town of Wittenburg, and what had been a mere invitation to a public disputation concerning the power and efficacy of ind ulgences had gone on to embroil Christian Europe in an unprecedented doctrinal conflict. The political and religious significance of Luther's revolt was certainly not lost on Rome, which had by this point responded to Luther's December 1520 bonfire fueled by copies of Leo X's excommunication bull and books of canon …

Comparison And Contrast Of Eastern And Western Christian Civilizations, 325-1669, Through An Examination Of Two Contemporary Fourteenth Century Representations In The Mariological Cycle, James L. Whittle

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

This paper will examine the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western Christian civilizations, 325-1669, through the examination of two contemporary early fourteenth century interpretations of an episode in the infancy and betrothal narratives of the Mariological cycle. It will use the whole images and details of Giotto's The Betrothal of the Virgin in the Arena Chapel and The Virgin is Entrusted to Joseph in the narthex of Chora Church as lenses to reveal certain characteristics of Eastern and Western societies and the differences between them.

The Experience Of The 756th Tank Battalion In World War Two: A Microcosm, Scott Millenbach

Senior Theses

December 7, 1941, "a day which will live in infamy," was the moment that the United States was plunged into the largest conflict that the world had ever seen. The sovereignty of the United States was being threatened at two ends of the globe by tyrannical leaders on the continent of Europe and the islands of the Pacific. In the years to come, the U.S. would have to fight to stop the spread of Emperor Hirohito's army in the Pacific and Hitler's Nazi Wermacht in Europe. It would take all the resources our mighty country could muster and the fighting …

A Land Fit For Heroes?: The Great War, Memory, Popular Culture, And Politics In Ireland Since 1914, Jason Robert Myers

Dissertations

Despite the fact that over 200,000 Irish men fought in the British Army during the First World War, Ireland's sizeable contribution to the war remained in the shadows of history for most of the twentieth century. This dissertation examines the cultural components of the memory of the Great War in Ireland and argues that, taken together, they constitute an alternative Irish national identity that threatened and challenged republican nationalism. These cultural components existed in the realm of vernacular memory, which lay beyond the reach of the Irish government. By examining commemorative rituals, war memorials, and popular culture, this project breathes …

The Cultural Memory Of German Victimhood In Post-1990 Popular German Literature And Television, Pauline Ebert

Wayne State University Dissertations

My dissertation analyzes the representation of Germans as victims of the Third Reich and the Second World War in post-1990 German memory. After unification, there no longer were two states that could each blame the other as the heir of National Socialism and this past had to be renegotiated. The claim that many Germans had been victims became central as evidenced by the vast number of popular literature, commercial cinema and television programs of this subject. I argue with Wulf Kansteiner (2006) that to understand collective memory, we should explore mass media representations. As the majority of highbrow artifacts do …

The Evolution Of The Swastika : From Symbol Of Peace To Tool Of Hate, Lindsey L. Turnbull

HIM 1990-2015

Few figures in the history of the Americas are surrounded with more colorful lore and acclamation than the Cuban politician, teacher, patriot, and poet Jose Marti. Among Marti's literary contributions, his Ismaelillo, a collection of fifteen poems published in 1882, claims prominence as both Marti's first book of poems and as a seminal Latin American text. Celebrated for its sincere communication of paternal love and lauded as the genesis of Hispanic literary modernism, Ismaelillo captures the longing of an exiled father separated from his son and homeland. Its language is at once evocative of classical Spanish literature and innovative, incorporating …

Creativity With Purest Energy: How Sir Thomas Wyatt Introduced Modern English Poetics, Jeffery R. Moser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The court poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) asserts a special confidence and boldness of the individual and his poetics that stand at the forefront of an ambitious, sure and powerful England which eventually came into place during his life and afterwards. Wyatt marks the start of a new literary period when humanity and art gradually diverged from religious rites and instruction, dramatic impulses for romantic love and mere desires for adventure, allegory and narrative to favor instead modern demands and conscious intellectualism. Wyatt's poetry best represents this distinct literary break from his native medieval predecessors and from writers who …

The Wayward Priest Of Atondo: Violence, Vocation, And Religious Reform In A Navarrese Parish, Amanda Lynn Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Culture And Exchange: The Jews Of Königsberg, 1700-1820, Jill Storm

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation traces the history of the Jewish community in Königsberg, East Prussia, from its founding in 1700 to the aftermath of the Prussian Emancipation Edict of 1812, as well as the early stages of Jewish embourgeoisement and political integration. My project combines aspects of a traditional communal history with newer trends in Jewish history, including an integrated discussion of economic and cultural life. I argue that the commercial successes of the Jewish mercantile elite in Königsberg, in particular of the Friedländer family, set the stage for the publication of ha-Measef and the local flowering of the haskalah. Moreover, I …

Beyond The Text: Finding Anne Askew, Lindsay Watkins Zurawski

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Honor, Gender And The Law: Defense Strategies During The Spanish Inquisition, 1526-1532, Katy Iverson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

A Disappearing Boundary?: The Changing Distinction Between Combatants And Civilians From The First World War To The Present Day, Aimee Kidder

Honors Theses

The issue of terrorism has stimulated intellectual debate regarding the rights and protections that should be afforded to civilians. However, the practice of targeting noncombatants in warfare extends far beyond terrorism and has roots deep in the historical past. This study looks at violence against civilians over a series of case studies from the First and Second World Wars as well as the French-Algerian War of the 1950s and 1960s. By looking at the changing legal distinctions between combatants and noncombatants, the study first establishes a trend in international law toward increasing protection of civilians. Yet, these legal advances are …

Soviet Education: Communism In The Classroom, Alison W. Berryman

Honors Theses

My thesis examines the Soviet Union’s educational system during Stalin’s rule. It proves that the goal of the Soviet educational system in the 1920s and 1930s was to instill strong Communist loyalty from a very early age and to expedite the process of industrialization by educating future workers in “socially useful” labor.

Promiscuous Pioneers Of Morality : The Code Of Ethics Of A Secret Service Functionary In Communist Poland As Set By Law And Practice, 1944-1989, Leszek Murat

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In recent years the historical literature on the communist system has grown to significant proportions, yet it has not made a comprehensive attempt to answer the empirical question of how successful communist regimes were in inculcating their moral principles into societies. But the empirical conflict between ethics and realityb is crucial to understanding why communism eventually failed. My dissertation makes the first attempt to juxtapose the communist code of ethics, the morality it preached, and the ideal it championed, with ethical dilemmas, moral transgressions, and legal violations of the "purest of the pure" - communist security functionaries.

Dueling, Honor And Sensibility In Eighteenth-Century Spanish Sentimental Comedies, Kristie Bulleit Niemeier

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the representation of dueling and honor in five theatrical works in order to answer one central question: How does the Golden Age concept of honor transform in the age of Enlightenment? This question may be broken down into specific inquiries, such as: 1) How is honor filtered through sentiment? 2) How did eighteenth-century ilustrados use theater to attempt to resolve the conflict between using violence to defend one’s honor and the Enlightenment ideal of avoiding excess? and 3) How did honor affect the private citizen and his relationship to the state in plays?

During the eighteenth century, …