History Commons^™

"Don't Read This!": Lemony Snicket And The Control Of Youth Reading Autonomy In Late-Nineteenth-Century Britain, Brittany A. Previte

Senior Independent Study Theses

This independent study investigates adult authority in youth literature in late-nineteenth-century Britain. Examining both sensational literature known as “penny dreadfuls” and the didactic magazines The Boy’s Own Paper and The Girl’s Own Paper, this project analyzes how rhetoric enforced middle class ideology outside of the classroom and shaped the youth reading experience. In an urbanizing, industrializing Britain, anxiety about social mobility ran high, and youth consumption of penny dreadfuls received suspicion due to their supposedly subversive content. This study argues that penny dreadfuls actually reinforced the social order, mirroring didactic literature in their construction of conservative adult authority. In …

It’S A Bird! It’S A Plane! No, It’S Just My I.S.: An Historical Exploration Of Superheroes And American Identity, Caroline G. Breul

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study traces the changing notions of what makes a superhero “super” throughout periods in American history. By doing three case studies on popular heroes in distinct eras, this study reveals that superhero comics have been growing steadily more overtly political, in ways that are increasingly subversive. I approach Wonder Woman in the 60s, Batman in the late 80s, and Captain America in the early 2000s, and tackle each moment individually. 60s Wonder Woman is not as stale as comic book enthusiasts suggest, and in fact reveals a progressive view of womanhood that contrasted sharply with the reigning view …

Reseña: La Idea De Progreso Como Lastre En Las Filosofías De La Historia Por Juan Robert Muro Abad., Miguel A. Albújar Escuredo

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

La idea de “progreso” gira en torno a dos conceptos claves: “una dirección general, un concurso global por el que la humanidad se encamina hacia una determinada meta, y una valoración simpática, un juicio positivo hacia esa meta propuesta”. La idea de progreso puede asociarse con la fe, establecida mediante significantes tales como “Destino” o “Providencia”, o bien entenderse como un proceso por alcanzar el “poder”. Otra idea que Muro recoge en su artículo retrae ideas de Le Goff: “—en lo que coincide con Maravall— al establecer un doble paralelismo entre progreso y evolución o continuidad, frente a revolución y …

What A Waste: Segregation And Sanitation In Brooklyn, New York In The Post-Wwii Era, Amanda T. Chang

Pitzer Senior Theses

Through studying the intersections of sanitation and segregation in Brooklyn, New York in the post-WWII era, this thesis reveals a web of willful white negligence that constructed a narrative that supports continued environmental injustices towards black Americans. As a result of housing discrimination, the lack of sanitation, and the political and social climate of the 1950s, black neighborhoods in Brooklyn became dirtier with abandoned garbage. Institutional anti-black racism not only permitted and supported the degradation of black neighborhoods, but also created an association between black Americans and trash. In the present day, this narrative not only leads to the increased …

Building The Patent Knowledgebase With Life-Size Patent Models, Barbara J. Hampton

Librarian Publications

Teasing out the evidence from inventors’ drawings, descriptions, and claims in patent records is something librarians at Patent and Trademark Resource Centers do with expertise and pride. Another important source for our understanding of inventions, the patent models illustrating the function of an invention, were created and submitted with patents between 1790 and 1880.1 The models show the invention in three dimensions (maximum size allowed: 12” x 12” x 12”) and even include some working parts.

Feminism In Revolution: Women Of The 19th Century Anti-Tsarist Movements, Kayley Delong

Undergraduate Research Awards

The climate of political upheaval in Russia over the course of the 19th century reached a violent climax in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in March of 1881. His death was the result of decades of civil unrest amongst Russian citizens who had taken hold of enlightenment ideas and sought justice for economic and social inequality. In a complex equation of issues and policies, the ways in which the women question combined with the surge of new ideas produced a unique and perfect storm. Russia was the epicenter of a collision between an underdeveloped infrastructure and changing philosophies about …

Nasser Of Egypt And The Egypt Of Nasser, Pria G. Jackson

Undergraduate Research Awards

In the Egyptian consciousness, there is a date that resonates in the nation’s memory as the official catalyst that led to the rise of modern Egypt: July 23, 1952. On this day, a military group called the Free Officers rose up and seized control of Egypt from the monarchs and British colonizers in a near bloodless coup d’état. The face of the Free Officers at the time of the coup was General Muhammad Naguib (1901 – 1984), but the brain and heart of the movement was the then colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 – 1970). During the first three years …

The Last Indian War: Reassessing The Legacy Of American Indian Boarding Schools And The Emergence Of Pan-Indian Identity, Abigail M. Gibson

Global Tides

The purpose of this research is to reexamine the legacy of federally-maintained boarding schools for American Indian children, particularly in regards to its strong connections to the emergence of Pan-Indian identity during the latter half of the twentieth century. The schools have long retained a reputation of one of the most poignant examples of cultural imperialism in history of the United States. The goal of this paper is not to deny the horrors associated with the American Indian boarding school system, but to emphasize the important and ultimately positive outcome of the development of an American Indian identity that transcends …

Ada News Convention Daily - 2016 Day 2, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

The ADA News Daily (also called the ADA News Convention Daily) is a special edition of the ADA News published each day during American Dental Association Annual Sessions.

Full Issue

Tenor of Our Times

No abstract provided.

Disraeli And The Eastern Question: Defending British Interests, Caroline A. Reed

Tenor of Our Times

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of The Norman Conquest On The English Language, Curt Baker

Tenor of Our Times

No abstract provided.

Book Review - Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice In Appalachia, Rebecca Rose

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Duae M. A. Mureti Orationes In Platonis Rem Publicam Commentariis Instructae, Robert Stephen Hill

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

Marcus Antonius Muretus, qui inde ab anno 1526o usque ad 1585m vixit, modo Latine scribendi optimo insignis et apud aequales et apud posteriores, annis 1573o et 1574o duas in Platonis Rem Publicam habuit orationes. Quarum contextus in hoc opusculo editur commentariisque instruitur, quo facilius a lectoribus hodiernis sententiae Mureti legantur ac intellegantur. In praefatione quam huic opusculo adiunximus tractantur etiam res nonnullae quae ad Muretum et ad has orationes de Platone habitas pertinent: videlicet Mureti vita, sententiae eius ad artem rhetoricam pertinentes, controversiae Ciceronianae, studia Graeca, philosophia Platonica, denique ratio quam ad hanc editionem perficiendam adhibuimus.

Marc-Antoine Muret (1526-1585), known …

Carthago Indiarum Obsessa, Sed Non Expugnata: Praefatio, Editio Critica, Commentarius, Paraphrasis Versuum Quibus Celebratur Victoria Hispanorum A Britannis Anno 1741 Reportata, Dennis Toscano

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

Opus cui titulus est "Carthago Indiarum obsessa sed non expugnata" est carmen divulgatum sine nomine auctoris saeculo duodevicesimo ad celebrandam vic- toriam quam Hispani a Britannis Carthagenae Indiarum anno 1741 in bello auris illius Ienkins (vulgo, the War of Jenkins’ Ear) reportaverunt. In hac thesi tractantur modo satis compendiario res gestae huius proelii quo melius lectores carmen ipsum possint intellegere. Necnon hic inveniuntur ea quae spectant ad huius opusculi genus, indolem et momentum litterarium. Postremo, praebetur hic editio critica, paraphra- sis Latina, commentarius in hoc carmen scriptus. Ex hoc carmine potest conspici quomodo litterarum Latinarum patrimonium pertineat ad omnes …

Minding The Gap: Uncovering The Underground's Role In The Formation Of Modern London, 1855-1945, Danielle K. Dodson

Theses and Dissertations--History

My research examines how the London Underground – the first subway in the world - provided new public spaces and forms of mobility that redefined how Londoners interacted in, moved through, and imaged the city.

Perhaps nothing embodies the Underground’s iconic status in London quite as completely as the phrase, “Mind the Gap.” This phrase, which originally referred to the gap between the train and the platform at Embankment station on the Northern line, has since become an enduringly popular symbol of London in the minds of travelers and visitors. The fact that a behavioral command about how to move …

Patient-Prisoners: Venereal Disease Control And The Policing Of Female Sexuality In The United States, 1890-1945, Evelyn A. Sorrell

Theses and Dissertations--History

Sexual politics were central in the United States’ venereal disease control movement in the early decades of the twentieth century. This dissertation analyzes the evolution of the venereal disease control movement from the Progressive Era reformers focus on creating a single standard of morality to the Public Health Service’s (PHS) concern over maternal and economic health during the Great Depression. I examine the intersections of public health, gender, sexuality, and citizenship through reactions and policies addressing venereal disease. In particular, the United States’ entry into World War I heightened fears of moral and health crises, as military physicals uncovered a …

Epidemic And Opportunity: American Perceptions Of The Spanish Influenza Epidemic, Jonathan Chilcote

Theses and Dissertations--History

During the final months of the Great War, the loss of human life was not confined to the battlefields of Western Europe. The Spanish influenza virus was rapidly spreading around the globe¸ and would ultimately leave millions dead in its wake. Some American groups, both public and private, saw the pandemic as a blessing in disguise. They interpreted the pandemic as a sign that their work, whether religious, political, commercial, or health, was more vital to the world than ever before. Influenza reinforced their existing beliefs in the rightness and necessity of their causes, and used the pandemic as a …

Transforming Emergencies: The Rise Of A Humanitarian Ideology In The United States, 1959-1987, Bethany A. Sharpe

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation is situated within the historiography of humanitarianism in U.S. Foreign Relations and seeks to make better sense of when and how Americans choose to act in humanitarian encounters. To fully explore the dynamism of modern humanitarianism, this work traces its meteoric rise between the years 1959 and 1987 and analyzes key ideas that propelled forward the movement. It argues that conceptions and perceptions of children were the central ideas that spurred emotional, financial, and security investment in emergencies abroad from the American public. A variety of actors, including large and small NGOs, government agencies, and the media, grappled …

"An Everlasting Service": The American And Canadian Legions Remember The First World War, 1919-1941, Mary E. Osborne

Theses and Dissertations--History

The public tends to think of war memorials as fixed monuments, but I argue that the American and Canadian Legions served as living memorials that acknowledged veterans’ war-time service by providing service to veterans and to the public. This dissertation focuses on how Legionnaires interacted with one another and with their local communities during the interwar years to construct memories of the First World War. By analyzing local chapter records from Michigan, New York, and Ontario, Canada, this case study highlights the contrast between the organizations’ national and local activities. The local posts’ and branches’ wide range of activities complicated …

The Language Of Race In Revolutionary France And Saint-Domingue, 1789-1792, Jeffery L. Stanley

Theses and Dissertations--History

This project studies the historical development of racialist language during the French Revolution as politicians, free people of color, and colonial whites debated the political status of France’s free people of color population. It examines the negotiation of a racialist language that bolstered colonial racial hierarchies with an egalitarian language that sought to level the corporate structures of the Old Regime. I look especially at the ways that language served as a management device to articulate and legitimize new relationships of power in the political culture of the French Revolution. I connect developments in France to the colonies by showing …

Run Of The Mine: Miners, Farmers, And The Non-Union Spirit Of The Gilded Age, 1886-1896, Dana M. Caldemeyer

Theses and Dissertations--History

“Run of the Mine” examines why workers refused to join unions in the late nineteenth century. Through a focus on the men and women involved in the southern Midwest coal industry who quit or did not join unions, this dissertation analyzes the economic, geographic, and racial factors that contributed to workers’ attitudes toward national unions like the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). It argues that the fluidity between rural industries that allowed residents to work in multiple occupations throughout the year dramatically shaped worker expectations for their unions. This occupational fluidity that allowed miners to farm and farmers to …

An Internal Dilemma: Different Approaches To Handling Melancholia In Early Modern Spanish Religious Orders, Jesse T. Nau

Theses and Dissertations--History

This study argues that religious orders in early modern Spain developed informal sets of procedures to handle the consequences of melancholia in their communities. It also argues that three influential members of these orders, San Ignacio de Loyola of the Jesuits, and San Teresa de Avila and San Juan de la Cruz of the Discalced Carmelites, tailored these protocols according to their own private concerns and experience with the disease. The changing discourse surrounding melancholia and similar diseases during the early modern period, alongside the unique environmental concerns of these newly founded orders, created a need for new methods of …

Utopian Dreams, National Realities: Intellectual Cooperation And The League Of Nations, Juli Gatling Book

Theses and Dissertations--History

Utopian Dreams, National Realities: Intellectual Cooperation and the League of Nations chronicles the work of the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (CICI). This dissertation demonstrates how the CICI’s utopian vision of international peace was actively challenged by national tensions and agendas in the interwar period. It examines the idealistic goals of the movement by focusing on the narratives and motivations of key committee members as they worked toward their own ideas of peace. The challenge of nationalism is illustrated through an analysis of major disagreements between CICI members as well as through biographical case studies of lesser-known …

Freedom From Want: Famine Relief In The Horn Of Africa, Christian T. Ruth

Theses and Dissertations--History

The United States, during both the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan administrations, pursued humanitarian relief in the Horn of Africa and East Africa with an eye towards Cold War politics. During the Carter administration the focus was on Ethiopia and the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, while during the Reagan administration the United States’ efforts were mainly targeted towards Sudan and the regime of Gaffar Nimeiry. In both instances, the United States was concerned with the politics of the Cold War, trying to create a more positive image of the U.S. abroad by relieving world hunger, while also propping up …

Negotiating An Electorate: Gender, Class, And The British Reform Acts, Jill Marie Abney

Theses and Dissertations--History

Five Reform Acts passed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries gradually increased the size of the British electorate. Negotiations over lowering property, rent, and lodging restrictions led to new Acts that slowly increased the number of Britons deemed worthy to vote. This dissertation examines the extent class and gender were relevant to those negotiations of British citizenship over the course of those five Acts. The project scrutinizes the language used in Parliamentary debates, political pamphlets, and political correspondence to reconstruct the constantly-changing conceptualization of the ideal citizen’s gendered identity in Britain and Europe. This project illuminates the …

The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, And The First World War, Theresa B. Crocker

Theses and Dissertations--History

The 1914 Christmas truce, when enemy soldiers met, fraternized and even played football in No-Man’s-Land, is frequently used to support the popular view of the First World War as a “stupid, tragic and futile” conflict, the ultimate “bad” war. The truce, which one historian describes as “a candle lit in the darkness of Flanders,” is commonly perceived as a manifestation of the anger that soldiers felt towards the meaningless war which they had been tricked into fighting. However, contemporaneous sources show that the impromptu cease-fire was not an act of defiance, but rather arose from the professionalism of the soldiers …

Blancura Situacional E Imperio Español En Su Historia, Cine Y Literatura (S.Xix-Xx), Jose Maria Perez Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

This dissertation studies identity formation and race informed by the discipline Whiteness Studies. As such this dissertation conceptualizes Spanish Whiteness historically and analyzes its representation in Spanish narrative in prose and film. This research responds to two questions: 1) How has Spanish culture historically instrumentalized Blackness thus contributing to the creation of the Western’s conceptualization of Whiteness? 2) What does Spanish representation of Empire say about its Whiteness? In an effort to answer these questions, this study is divided into two parts that correspond to the conceptualization and representation of what are termed ‘Situational Whiteness’ and ‘Imperial Spanish Orientalism.’ I …

"Send Forward Some Who Would Fight": How John T.Wilder And His "Lightning Brigade" Of Mounted Infantry Changed Warfare, Eric Maurice

Graduate Thesis Collection

The 17th Indiana Volunteer Regiment was part of “Wilder’s Lightning Brigade”, a mounted infantry brigade under Col. John T. Wilder. Through his efforts he mounted his infantry on horseback and equipped them with Spencer Repeating Rifles. This paper argues that these changes were deliberate on the part of John T. Wilder rather than emulating others, led to a conscious and noticeable change in tactics, that these changes were effective, and examines the Brigade’s influences on future military tactics. Through the use a various Primary and Secondary sources, with heavy emphasis placed on diaries, letters, unit histories, and drill manuals, I …

Ursinus Magazine, Winter 2016, Brock Blomberg, Wendy Greenberg, Elizabeth Shimer Bowers, Beth Rubino, Hugh R. Clark, Meredith Goldsmith, Jennifer Cohen

Ursinus Magazine, 1995–Present

What winter break? • It's an honor for alumnus DeSimone '86 • Finding founders • Three times a champion • Pomp and circumstance • It's an honor for wrestling's Racich • First course for restaurateur • Best in financial analysis • Community collaboration • Bear pride • Quarterbacks • NBC cites alumnus as innovator, game changer • Lost and found • She gives fitness studio a one-two punch • My morning with Tom Dixon '07 (One memory at a time) • Ganging up on cyberbullies • Building your brand • Burning question: Why did China recently change its one-child policy …