History Commons^™

The Performance Of A Social Disease: Hysteria And Melancholia In Eighteenth-Century Britain Through William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress (C. 1732-5) And Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare (1781), Kayleigh Ross

Art & Art History

Throughout the eighteenth century, hysteria and melancholia were two of the most diagnosed nervous disorders in Europe. Ambiguities in diagnosis and language frame the development of hysteria as a primarily feminine disease, with its male counterpart as hypochondria or melancholia. However, medicine and society worked to inform and reflect each other, creating a visual culture of art, performance, and entertainment surrounding these nervous disorders. William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress (c. 1732-5) and Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare (1781) exemplify the fluidity between medicine and society in eighteenth-century Britain.

A Case Study: The Development Of Obstetrics In Eighteenth-Century Northern Europe Through Printed Medical Illustrations, Kayleigh Ross

Art & Art History

The eighteenth century in Europe was a time of intellectual and cultural advancement, with new systems of thought rooted in observation. Medically, observable evidence and experimentation served to advance the understanding of how the body operated. During an age of curiosity, the growing professionalization of medicine, increasingly literate population, and the expansion of print culture into scientific learning created a market for the popularization of medical texts. Medical manuals often included illustrated prints, as these images were integral modes for learning and teaching. As the reproductive female body became included in the study of anatomy and appeared in medical manuals, …

Line As Site And Material, Analise Minjarez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This paper recounts my artistic practice over the last three years. I will describe the places, artists, artworks, and processes that have been meaningful to me in this time as I pursued my MFA and worked to understand my relationship to the living world. In the thesis Line as Site and Material, I respond to materiality and site through installation, sculpture, drawing, and video. I work with clay harvested from my hometown of El Paso, TX to connect to the personal histories of the borderlands and geological time. In the Second River Series, I walk in the empty riverbed of …

Review Of The Reagan Era: A History Of The 1980s, Rhett Jordan

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Book review

Review Of Dreams In A Time Of War: A Childhood Memoir, Jahnyiah Davis

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Book review

United States V. Black Jack: Poverty And Welfare In The St. Louis Courts, Kyle Melles

Mendel Sato Research Award Projects

The 1974 United States v. City of Black Jack, Missouri case and the rhetoric around welfare, race, and “white flight” showed how racial attitudes contributed to poverty in St. Louis. Residents incorporated Black Jack, a small town in North St. Louis County, in 1970 with a demographic of 98.8% white and .2% black. The Citizens for the Incorporation of Black Jack pushed for township to block the Park View Heights plan for a federal Section 236 housing development cosponsored by St. Mark’s Methodist Church of Florissant and the United Methodist Ministry in St. Louis to provide low to middle-income residents …

Agency In Tourism: A Narrative Of Reclamation Found In The Public History Of The Eastern Band Of The Cherokee Indian, Caroline M. Ross

All Theses

This thesis covers the development of the tourism industry surrounding the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indian in Western North Carolina, specifically the evolution of the outdoor historical drama Unto These Hills written by Kermit Hunter. The chapters to follow examine the development of the production in conjunction with the broader historical context, analyze Kermit Hunter’s original script contextualizing the material and Hunter’s narrative choices, and elucidate the history and representation of one of the production’s protagonists. All of this to demonstrate not only the misrepresentation and inaccuracy of the original production, but to discuss the production’s role on the …

Paz Y Amor: The Making Of Mexican Hippie Culture, Allie R. Cobb

All Theses

Following the violent government massacre of students in October of 1968, Mexican youth turned away from organized protest and turned on to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Timothy Leary to challenge established society. This project focuses on Mexican hippie culture and Mexican hippie identity. It argues that hippie culture flourished in Mexico because of the development of consumer society and offered a way for Mexican youth to rebel against traditional authority while feeling a part of an international youth culture and at the same time reshaping what nationalism meant to them. In other words, hippie culture offered youth a …

"The Spirit Of The Old South Can Never Die": Postbellum Middle Florida And The Elite Struggle For Social Hegemony, 1850-1942, Alexander J. Bowen

All Theses

The Lost Cause is an ideology that falsely portrays the antebellum South as an idyllic, agrarian society, the Confederacy’s cause as a just defense of states’ rights, and slavery as a benevolent institution. Historians of the U.S. South rightly attribute much of the Lost Cause’s creation to the South's prewar elite, particularly women from the planter class who led Confederate memorialization efforts. As the Lost Cause celebrates an antebellum slave society and Confederacy controlled by elites, it is clear the ideology also celebrated the South's prewar elite. However, previous studies of the Lost Cause fail to seriously question what benefit …

In The Grip Of Grippe: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic Viewed Through A Cross-Section Of American Society, Carole C. Thomas

All Theses

In 1918, a virulent strain of influenza swept the world, infecting as many as 500 million people and killing at least 50 million, 675,000 of whom were in the United States. Despite the many advances that had been made in science and medicine, even the best medical professionals were helpless against the disease. Lawmakers, too, were limited in what they could do to respond to the emergency, especially as the demands of the First World War remained a priority. Through an examination of the response to the flu in a cross-section of American society– national, state, and local – this …

A Cross-Cultural Trek Of Nomadism Through Metaphoric Criticism, Gabrielle Wilkosz

All Theses

How has the worldwide phenomenon of nomadism—present day, recent past, and ancient past—been characterized through metaphor by writers, orators, and auteurs? Using metaphoric criticism, I show how the rhetoric of twenty-first-century "van-lifers" builds on a long global history of displacement that ranges from Central Asia to Malaysia to the Grand Canyon. This project’s three case studies span two decades each, comprising the Kitan people of Central Asia (1207-1227); Bukat people of Borneo in Malaysia (1930-1950), and contemporary "van-lifers" of the US (2001-21). This MA thesis parses a newfound connection between the language of nomadism and Burkean “truth”; the language of …

Cover Image: Leather Book Map, Paul Topazio

Of Life and History

This essay provides an artist's statement by the designer of the cover art used for Of Life and History, vol.3.

Of Life And History, Vol. 3 (May 2022)

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Ryan Wynn, Holly Tente

Of Life and History

No abstract provided.

Opportunity Calls: The Moral Economy During Existential Economic Transition In The Ural Mountains And Appalachia, 1991 - 2008, Nora Springer

Of Life and History

It is often assumed that economists and businessmen act outside of moral constraints, even in times of existential economic crisis. The econometrics of Chubais and Gaidar, as well as the accounting of Deloitte, have all been used to characterize engineers of transition as cold, academic, and removed from reality. However, in both Appalachia and the Urals, mathematics about what will make a profit is inextricable from moral questions of what should make a profit. The goals of economic transition, and ideology about what economic transition should mean, were baked into the calculations of both transitions. Further, the data used to …

A Quest For Dignity: Colored Women’S Anti-Slavery Resistance In The Eighteenth Century British Jamaica And The Reconceptualization Of Human Rights, Yuwei (Ada) Liu

Of Life and History

The public conception of the Human Rights struggle was a European originated post-WWII campaign, advocated by the white organization through the top-down executing system on the non-European country. Nonetheless, by historicized Human Rights struggle, I found that the concept of rights and the ways to reclaiming them evolved under the effects of time, culture, gender, class, and race. In the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, enslaved and fugitive black women of Jamaica continually asserted their humanities in the face of institutional exploitation through the day to day resistance, black communal and family solidarity, and organized revolts. This argument builds upon …

Bob Dylan And American Folk Music: The Pigeonhole Effect, Thomas J. Murray

Of Life and History

This article tracks Bob Dylan's early musical career and his relation to the American Folk music movement of the late 1950s into the early 1960s. The author grapples with the question of why Bob Dylan went electric and explores some of the stories around the seminal event in American Folk Music history. The author mainly uses Bob Dylan's personal interviews and songs to draw conclusions.

Indians In The Archives: A History Of Native Americans, Pakachoag Hill And Holy Cross, 1674-1973, Jack Hynick

Of Life and History

Native people are conspicuously absent from the official and popular history of the College of the Holy Cross. Extant records from the Holy Cross archives, the American Antiquarian Society, and digitized reports from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are filled with references to Native people at Holy Cross and the surrounding Worcester area. By addressing the history of the land, the experiences of Native people on Pakachoag Hill, the roles played by Holy Cross community members in settler colonialism, and the use of Native imagery, this paper hopes to correct a blinding omission in the story of the College.

The Significance Of Abolitionism And The Underground Railroad, In The Buffalo Area, 1840-1860, Timothy J. Nixon

History Theses

The movement to end slavery is commonly known as the abolitionist movement. As a city located next to the Canadian border, Buffalo was a major route on the Underground Railroad. Sadly, when researching abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, national research seems to gloss over Buffalo. If Buffalo makes an appearance in national history books on this topic it is usually only a mention of being an Underground Railroad route into Canada. If historians mention Upstate New York, they usually focus on Frederick Douglass’s home of Rochester. Using the accounts of abolitionists, fugitive slaves, newspapers, community activists, and guest speakers, it …

Historical Underpinnings And Consequent Effects Of Labor Exploitation Of Mexican And Central Americans In The United States, Andrew Elkins

World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Undergraduate Honors Theses

The experience immigrants have today working and living in the southern United States is defined by systems that have developed out of lingering racist attitudes and reactions toward these individuals. The flow of people across the U.S.-Mexico border has a long history, and it is characterized by patterns that have continued from early guest worker programs to the present-day flow of migrants, both legal and undocumented. Also continually present is the racialization of these migrants, which has often forced them to work and live as marginalized members of American society. This project will explore the establishment of Mexican American citizen …

As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States is one of the last western nations still practicing capital punishment. A history of and commitment to vigilantism and its ideals offers an explanation of America’s retention of capital punishment. Employing scholarship on law and popular culture and vigilantism, this thesis finds that pro-death penalty frames are prevalent in vigilante films while anti-death penalty frames are prevalent in films that focus specifically upon capital punishment. Since the 1960’s however, there has been a gradual shift towards anti-death penalty frames and away from pro-death penalty frames as well as changes in the themes presented in the two genres …

“The Mount Atlas Of Independence”: Forgotten Founder Roger Sherman, Kaitlyn Kenney

Masters Theses

Roger Sherman is perhaps the most important forgotten founder of the United States. Best known for creating the Connecticut compromise which reconciled the VA and NJ plans by having the House of Representatives be based on population and having each state have one vote in the Senate, he also was instrumental throughout the founding. He was the only man to sign and help draft every major founding document of the United States, one of a select group of self-taught founders and a man who served in practically every civil service position imaginable. Born in Massachusetts, Sherman would move to Connecticut …

A True American Citizen: The Intellectual History Of U.S. Indigenous Policy From 1890-1968, Ariel Kate Norris

Masters Theses

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Indigenous Americans witnessed a significant national change in both their political and social status. Despite the persisting belief that Native Americans belonged to a “race destined to fade into the inevitability of progress” and the ongoing categorization of Indigenous individuals as wards of the federal government, by the end of the 1900s, tribes across the nation were deemed to be sovereign entities and were allowed to determine the paths of their own people. This autonomy did not happen overnight, but instead was a direct result of pivotal legislative decisions; struggles such as the assimilation …

Law Library Blog (May 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Ramming Capitalism: Protest And Dissent At The University Of Rhode Island, 1961-72, Kevin Hart

Senior Honors Projects

The University of Rhode Island, like many other universities, is a fertile ground for the reproduction of human capital. It houses strong engineering, computer science, and pharmaceutical programs, all highly profitable fields. Though protest and resistance are not the norms on the URI campus today, this was not always the case. Wherever capital is reproduced, so is class struggle.

The 1960s saw a new wave of dissent and protest spread throughout the globe. One of the largest movements during this period was the student movement. University students became the vanguard of a “new left.” One that dissented from the old …

What China’S Infrastructure Development Abroad Reveals About Its International Goals, Gillian Hodge

Senior Honors Projects

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has resulted in a variety of investment and infrastructure projects around the world, especially in developing countries. This initiative is unique in its implementation strategy, particularly the hands-on approach China takes to each infrastructure development project. Projects are financed by Chinese national banks and built by Chinese corporations utilizing majority-Chinese labor. These projects are seen by many countries as mutually beneficial; China is able to provide gainful employment and business to its national corporations in exchange for lucrative infrastructure for the host countries in the form of advanced roads, rails, ports, etc. Other countries, especially …

Love And Romance In Early Modern British Literature, Sophia Szeneitas

Senior Honors Projects

This paper seeks to describe and analyze the way in which themes of love and romance were presented in literature in early modern Britain, and how those may differ from or be similar to romantic themes in the media of today. The works being analyzed include plays by William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, as well as some of Shakespeare’s sonnets. A few different lenses will be explored, including the interaction that love could have with the societal power structure and hierarchy present within the literature (such as the ways in which someone being the lover of a powerful person might …

The Met Costume Institute: Evolution, Metamorphosis, And Cultural Phenomenon, Shelby Kanski

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Stepping Into A Moment: A Historical Reconstruction Of Lord Dunmore's Portrait, Slade Nakoff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The study of material culture study has long been estranged from mainstream academic discourse often dismissed as the examination of pots and pans. Historians are beginning to realize that material culture and cultural reconstruction offer vital insights into the past. Building upon new developments, my project reconstructs the items painted by Joshua Reynolds in his famous painting of Lord Dunmore. This reconstruction allows for the efforts of unnamed tradesmen to be retraced, making a few people and their efforts which were lost to history known once again. By employing written documentation in tandem with extant artifacts, the project recreates every …

American Fears: H.P. Lovecraft And The Paranoid Style, Bailey Marvel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Why is H.P. Lovecraft still relevant? That is the one the questions put forward by this thesis. Lovecraft is known for his creation of Lovecraftian horror, also known as cosmic horror. However, his bigoted view on race and class muddies this legacy. What this thesis seeks to explore is how Lovecraft’s work demonstrates the fears and anxieties central to the America psyche. The paranoid style can be found in American discourse throughout history but it can also be found in the works of Lovecraft himself. Lovecraft was a prejudiced and paranoid man, and his prejudices and paranoia are a major …