History Commons^™

Reconstructing Identity: Carlton Burgan, Patient Zero In The Development Of Plastic Surgery, Civil War Through World War I, Teresa M. George

Master's Theses

Plastic surgery has played an integral role in helping people achieve societal expectations of appropriate physical appearance since its inception. Through the story of Carlton Burgan, a Union soldier during the American Civil War, who suffered severe facial trauma by mercury poisoning, this thesis hopes to reconstruct the conversation around plastic surgery’s origins as it is influenced by societal standards of the day. Specifically, this thesis argues that the seminal moments leading to plastic surgery being seen as a worthwhile medical specialty was during the Civil War, not World War I as so many scholars have put forth. Violent acts …

Ars, Virtus, Impetus: Gladiatorial Training And Roman Legionaries, Daniel Porter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 105 BCE, the Roman consul Publius Rutilius Rufus employed gladiatorial training for his legionaries. This thesis examines the physiological and psychological consequences of this style of training on the human body in an effort to understand why these particular soldiers were so effective. I used experiential testing alongside primary and secondary source research to examine how this process better prepared Roman troops for engaging in actual combat.

Egyptian Etiquette: A Historical Rebuttal To The Genealogy Of Morals, Noah C. Evans

Honors College Theses

In his book Genealogy of Morals, German philologist and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche posits an understanding of the origin and development of morality that stood in stark contrast to the common understanding of his day. Rather than presuming the existence of some metaphysical, objective reality to morality, Nietzsche outlines a natural development and evolution to the concepts of "Good," "Bad," and "Evil" throughout a nebulously defined period of history, focusing primarily on the psychological conditions surrounding the advent of morality. Following this, he wrote The Antichrist, in which he provided a far more specific historical framework within which the …

Shell Shock In The First World War: An Analysis Of Psychological Impairment In Canadian Soldiers., Brigette A. Farrell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the question of standardization in the First World War Canadian Army Medical Corps ideologies and procedures through a case study of fifty soldiers discharged for being medically unfit. In analyzing their service records, this thesis demonstrates that there was generalized diagnosis, treatment, and common experiences for Canadian soldiers being treated for mental health afflictions in the First World War. However, because of different medical ideologies, scientific-based beliefs in how humanity was hierarchically organized, the influence of class and rank, the impact of the opposing fields of neurology and psychology, and the need for military efficiency over individual …

Similarities Between The Second Generation Of Female Psychologists And Female Students In Cal Poly’S Child Development Program, Jenny Delk

Cal Poly's History: Student Research Reports

This essay aims to uncover the similarities between female students in Cal Poly’s Psychology and Child Development Department and the second generation of female psychologists in American society. The department’s history will be examined in order to establish its importance at Cal Poly, a traditionally vocational institution. Additionally, this essay will consider how female students in the department argued its importance and validity through on campus advocacy and their senior projects. The essay will close with a section detailing faculty perspectives on the validity of psychology and child development as a true science amongst other disciplines at Cal Poly. The …

“The Cracked Pots Of Humanity”: Post-World War Ii American Literary Perspectives On Psychiatric Treatment/Containment Of Mental Disorders, Jennifer Chichester

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which characters in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Bird’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces grapple with the concept of “madness” on individual and societal levels. Each of these Post-World War II novels question whether “madness” is a social construct. Is the person mad, or is society? These three novels, written in an era when inpatient psychiatric care was losing its prominence as a method for treating those deemed insane, reflect the growing trend of deinstitutionalization in the 1950s …

The [E]Motionless Body No Longer: Tracing The Historical Intersections Of Mental Illness And Movement In The American Asylum, Holly Adele Herzfeld

Senior Projects Spring 2017

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

Alleged Insanity: Frank Johnson Sr., Racial Injustice, And The Failure Of The Mental Health Care System In South Carolina, Jonathon P. Johnson

Senior Theses

This thesis is about Frank Johnson Sr. and the circumstances that led to his downfall as a farmer and father of six, to his tragic death in the isolation of a racially segregated mental institution 18 miles away from his home. Using his life and incarceration at the South Carolina State Park mental health facility, I argue that racial injustice contributed to his tragic death and the woefully inadequate treatment thousands of African Americans in South Carolina received during Jim Crow. Additionally, I argue that the tragic circumstances around my great grandfather’s institutionalization and death were part of an enduring …

Let Him Be An Honor To The Country: Veteran Violence And Public Opinion After The Civil War, Laura Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the causes, perception, and treatment of violence and crime committed by veterans after America's Civil War. After an examination of the research problems plaguing the study of violence and crime among veterans, this study uses newspaper articles, tracts and sermons, the published journals and letters of Union and Confederate soldiers, and other contemporary sources to evaluate the presence and perception of violence and the hardships associated with the homecoming of veterans. Alcohol and drug addiction that began during the war followed veterans home. Discipline in the army was inconsistent, and violence abounded in camp as well as …

Hirohito's Role In Japanese Military Decision Making, Brian Junkermeier

Culminating Projects in History

No abstract provided.

A Psychological Analysis Of Stalin, Brian Junkermeier

Culminating Projects in History

No abstract provided.

Epideictic Rhetoric And The Formation Of Collective Identity: Nineteenth-Century Mormon Women In Praise Of Polygamy, Robbyn Thompson Scribner

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I will proceed as follows: my first chapter will be a general overview of epideictic rhetoric, focusing on the limitations of how it has traditionally been viewed and understood by theorists. At the end of that chapter I will establish a working definition of epideictic which extends traditional views about how epideictic can function in certain types of writings, focusing on the important role of the speaker in epideictic rhetoric and how it can work in enabling a community to create a collective identity. In the remainder of the thesis, I will analyze two texts in which …

Authoritarianism And Proposition 14, Herbert Henry Foster

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

In November of 1964, California voters approved by a very substantial margin the legislative measure known as Proposition 14, a hotly contested constitutional amendment which abolished all then-existing Fair Housing Legislation and prohibited local levels of government from acting in such matters in the future. This legislation was sponsored by the California Real Estate Association and essentially was a response to a recently passed Fair Housing Law known as the Rumford Act, which prohibited discrimination in the sale and rental of housing and assigned enforcement responsibilities to the State Fair Employment Practices Commission.

During the year preceding the election, the …