European History Commons^™

Mussolini's Gladius: The Double-Edged Sword Of Antiquity In Fascist Italy, Kyle W. Schrader

Student Publications

Mussolini and the Fascist Party used a plethora of propaganda techniques in order to suggest the renewal of the old Roman Empire with the rise of the Italian Fascist Party. Through the use of ideology, race issues, religion, educational control, posters, theatre, architecture, and archeology, the Fascists used the Roman past to glorify modern Italy and the Fascist party. The Fascists’ use of these Roman allusions made their own deficiencies more apparent and led to a general failure of their propaganda program in terms of creating a new Italian identity focused upon the Ancient Roman past.

The Berlin Olympics: Sports, Anti-Semitism, And Propaganda In Nazi Germany, Nathan W. Cody

Student Publications

The Nazis utilized the Berlin Olympics of 1936 as anti-Semitic propaganda within their racial ideology. When the Nazis took power in 1933 they immediately sought to coordinate all aspects of German life, including sports. The process of coordination was designed to Aryanize sport by excluding non-Aryans and promoting sport as a means to prepare for military training. The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin became the ideal platform for Hitler and the Nazis to display the physical superiority of the Aryan race. However, the exclusion of non-Aryans prompted a boycott debate that threatened Berlin’s position as host. A fierce debate in …

Battle For The People: Ideological Conflict Between Soviet Partisans, The German Military, And Ukrainian Nationalists In Nazi-Occupied Ukraine, David L. Heim

Student Publications

Soviet historiography discusses the People’s War during the Second World War, the idea that all of the Soviet people rallied to the cause and fought off the Nazi invaders, but this is far from the truth. Within the western borderlands of the Soviet Union multiple conflicting groups fought for control of and support from the people. This was especially true in Ukraine where the German Army, Soviet Partisans and Ukrainian nationalists all fought ‘for the people’ and for their own ideologies. This paper is an attempt to discuss the ideological conflict between the Nazis, the Soviets, and the Ukrainian nationalists, …

A Coercive Courtship: German Awareness Of And Responses To The Sudeten Germans, 1929-1934, Jesse E. Siegel

Student Publications

Following the end of World War I and the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic, the Sudeten Germans sought to raise the awareness of Germans in Germany and Austria of their situation under Czechoslovak rule. In the period between 1929 and 1934, the public discourse in Germany altered, as Nazi control began to direct further concentration on the Sudeten Germans, away from broader discussion of their minority status to a German nationalistic perspective. The Nazis, however, were both manipulative and ambivalent in their awareness of the Sudeten Germans, treating them as an extension of the Nazi Party while also beyond …

Geopolitics Of The 2015 British Defense White Paper And Its Historical Predecessors, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

On November 23, 2015 the United Kingdom (UK) released a defense white paper detailing its national security strategic objectives. This work examines the geopolitical, economic, and strategic implications of this document and compares it with recent and historical defense white paper documents issued by the British government. It scrutinizes the text of these documents and relevant scholarly literature analyzing them while also examining the national security threats facing the UK at the time of their issuance and assesses whether the 2015 document will be supported with requisite political will, military personnel, and financial support to carry out its objectives

Export / Import: The Promotion Of Contemporary Italian Art In The United States, 1935–1969, Raffaele Bedarida

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Export / Import examines the exportation of contemporary Italian art to the United States from 1935 to 1969 and how it refashioned Italian national identity in the process. I do not concentrate on the Italian art scene per se, or on the American reception of Italian shows. Through a transnational perspective, instead, I examine the role of art exhibitions, publications, and critical discourse aimed at American audiences. Inaugurated by the Fascist regime as a form of political propaganda, this form of cultural outreach to the United States continued after WWII as Italian museums, dealers, and critics aimed to vaunt the …

The Habsburg Problem, Doug Bruno

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

The Student Researcher 2016 (Title Page, Preface, Table Of Contents), Selena Sanderfer Faculty Advisor

The Student Researcher: A Phi Alpha Theta Publication

No abstract provided.

Creating A Statesman: The Early Life Of Prince Clemens Von Metternich And Its Effect On His Political Philosophy, Ryan M. Nadeau

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

As one of the most prolific and influential statesmen of the nineteenth century, Prince Clemens von Metternich is a man whose politics, policies, and political philosophy has received a good amount of attention from historians. Owing to the focus on his career rather than his personal story, the details of his early life have often gone unanalyzed in the context of his later views, despite the formative influence of these years on his political philosophy. An upbringing culturally influenced by France, an education focused on natural sciences and history, and a first-hand experience with the worst side of the French …

Flight Of The White Feather: The Expansion Of The White Feather Movement Throughout The World War One British Commonwealth, Kimberly Elisa Stevens

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The historiography of the First World War in Great Britain has focused mainly on military matters, leaving home front experiences temporarily unexplored. While the soldier’s experience remains invaluable to historians, studies of women and the home front are significant. The White Feather Campaign, which called for women to give white feathers denoting cowardice to men in civilian dress, who allegedly had not enlisted, remains vivid in British historical memory, but few scholarly works have examined it thoroughly. Historians such as Nicoletta F. Gullace and Susan R. Grayzel have shed light on British women in the war, but there remains further …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2016

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ethnic Identity And Redefinition Of The Galatians In The Hellenistic World, Qizhen Xie

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Britain's Failed Attempt At Fascism : The British Union Of Fascists, Years 1933-1934, Katherine L. Collier

Honors Theses

This honors thesis examines how and why Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) tried to present itself as a viable political entity to mainstream British society in the years 1933- 1934. Though the BUF admired Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, this thesis argues that they sought to create their own distinctly British version of these Fascist movements. The BUF promised that Britain would again thrive, but only under strong fascist leadership which would provide an economic restructuring of government and a cohesive society, free from selfish individualism, decadence, and foreigners. The BUF promised to …

Kay's "The Glorious Revolution And The Continuity Of Law" (Book Review), John E. Shaffett

The Christian Librarian

A review of Kay, R.S. (2014). The Glorious Revolution and the continuity of law. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press. 304 pp. $59.95 ISBN 9780813226873

From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma Plotnik

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Imagine an intimate room filled with people playing cards and casually chatting, while one of Chopin’s piano sonatas plays elegantly in the background. This scenario is characteristic of the atmosphere surrounding Classical and Romantic European salons. Salons served as havens of musical discourse from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. However, with the advancement of technology from the mid-twentieth century to the present, there has been a decline, or, arguably, even a cessation of salon life.

The aim of this project was to recreate the salon environment through the generation of the online discussion forum, "Music Soirée." To …

The Anglo-American Reception Of Carl Schmitt From The 1930s To The Early 2000s, Benjamin T. Watkins

History Theses

This thesis examines the Anglo-American reception, from the 1930s to the early 2000s, of the ideas of the German political theorist Carl Schmitt. The introduction provides an overview the key concepts in Schmitt’s writings in the 1920s. Chapter one examines Schmitt’s influence on the German-Jewish émigré political theorists Leo Strauss and Hans Morgenthau, in an attempt to explain how Schmitt’s ideas were initially transported from Germany to the U.S. The second chapter is a more detailed case study of the American leftist journal, Telos, which played a key role in introducing Schmitt’s writings to a broader, English language audience in …

Friends Of Musselman Library Newsletter Fall 2015, Musselman Library

Friends of Musselman Library Newsletter

From the Dean (Robin Wagner)

Avian Flew! (Peter Morgan)

First-Year Book Group

Library News

Students Help Make History Public (Steven Semmel '16, Andrew Dalton '19)

Student Exhibit Exemplifies Liberal Arts (Rebecca Duffy '16)

Report Cards Reveal More Than Grades

Interview with Lawrence Taylor: Case Map Collection

Research Reflections: Eisenhower's Correspondence (Michael J. Birkner '72)

Musselman Likes Ike

Eisenhower in Focus

Hammann Honored (Louis Hammann '51)

Rare Document on Holocaust

GettDigital: The Beauty of a Book (Rachel Hammer '15)

Focus on Philanthropy: Kimberly Rae Connor '79

Gifts to Musselman Library

Research Help Desk: Different Name, Same Great Service!

Swedish Intervention And Conduct In The Thirty Years’ War, Marc C. Dubuis

Grand Valley Journal of History

This paper presents a theoretical explanation for Sweden’s intervention and behavior in the Thirty Years’ War. It echoes the contributions of scholars like Barkin (2003) by applying both realism and constructivism to achieve a more accurate depiction of empirical reality. Given Sweden’s disadvantageous strategic position, its decision to intervene in this conflict is an important subject for empirical and theoretical investigation. Realism provides an accurate explanation of Sweden’s national interests and its decision to intervene to reinstate the status quo. Constructivism also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of this conflict, since Sweden clearly recognized the existence of a broader …

'We Are All Greeks:' Sympathy And Proximity In Shelley‘S Hellas, Kyle J. Klausing

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The outbreak of the Greek Revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire animated the radical European intelligentsia in a way unseen since the French Revolution 30 years before. The British Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley joined the chorus of philhellenes (meaning one who loves Greece) by extolling the Greek cause in his epic poem, Hellas. Scholarship has traditionally seen Shelley’s representation of the revolution either as an overly classicized literary indulgence or as a purely polemical defense of a political event. By identifying ways in which Shelley uses the classical past to engage the reader with the subject, I will …

Leo The Great On The Supremacy Of The Bishop Of Rome, Denis Kaiser

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

Pope Leo the Great built his rationale for the supreme authority of the bishop of Rome on an existing tradition, yet with his additions he developed a theoretical rationale for later papal claims to absolute and supreme power in the ecclesiastical and secular realms. Previous bishops and church leaders had laid increasing stress on the unique role of the Apostle Peter as the founder of the Roman churches and episcopacy, the significance of the Roman bishop as Peter’s successor, and the apostolic significance of the city and episcopacy of Rome. Yet Leo’s rationale for the absolute control and power of …

The Bosnian Muslims And The Irish Perspective, Gabriel C. Kelly

Student Publications

The conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina can be understood in multiple ways, however, the focus of this paper is to examine the perspective of Ireland on the Bosnian Muslims at different levels of society--ranging from the population to international level--from June 01, 1992 to January 31, 1996. Through an analysis of letters to the editor in "The Irish Times," parliamentary debate transcripts, and the Barbara Sloan European Union Document Collection located at the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library, I have been able to reveal how complex perspectives within a state on a particular issue can be, and how they can vary between …

Book Review: Between Two Worlds: How The English Became Americans. By Malcolm Gaskill. New York: Basic Books, 2014. 512pp., George Patrick O'Brien

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

The Irish Hunger And Its Alignments With The 1948 Genocide Convention, Larissa M. Banitt

Young Historians Conference

The Irish Hunger of the mid nineteenth century began when a potato blight ruined most of Ireland's crop. While this was indeed a natural crisis, Britain's ineffective response exacerbated the sugaring the Irish endured. Widespread discrimination of the Irish, economic and moral ideologies all contributed to the British government's reaction to the famine. This paper evaluates how British adherence to these ideologies increased Irish suffering and aligns with the definition of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention

The Cold War: Over, Renewed, Or Never Ended?, Matt Phipps

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The Cold War has been studied repeatedly since the war supposedly ended in 1991. However recent events are starting to cause some concern and make many question whether or not the Cold War actually ended, if it took a different shape or perhaps has just been on pause. I argue that the Cold War has been a conflict that has been going on since 1947 and although the conflict has looked differently in recent decades the conflict was never properly put to an end. The research analyzes US decision making with respect to Russian and Asian relations over the last …

Chinese, Russian, And U.S. Space Warfare And Defense Developments, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

Provides information on the historical development and evolution of Chinese, Russian, and U.S. military space programs from 1985-2015. Places particular emphasis on the multiple U.S. Government agencies involved in military space programs.

The Role Of The Government In The Abdication Crisis Of 1936, Meghan C. Lescault

Spring 2015, British Society and Culture

The death of King George V on 20 January 1936 propelled the British nation into a tumultuous predicament that would threaten the stability of the monarchy and its adherence to tradition. When King Edward VIII ascended the throne, his differences from his paternal predecessor were made manifest in his pursuit to marry a twice-divorced American woman, Wallis Simpson.

This paper examines the National Government’s role in preventing Mrs. Simpson from becoming queen and in facilitating the abdication of King Edward. The Government had been predisposed to disfavoring the king and viewed his marriage plan as an extension of his disregard …

France And The Community Of Six: The Schuman Declaration To The Treaties Of Rome, Daniel Gagnon

Undergraduate Craft of Research Prize Papers

This paper investigates France’s role during the first decade of European integration, and in particular the initiatives of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman which led to the creation of the European Communities. Monnet and Schuman began the modern process of uniting Europe with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, but the process of integration faced its strongest opposition within France itself and the movement had its first setback in 1954 when the French National Assembly rejected the proposed European Defense Community. Nevertheless, European integration continued, and after the subsequent French election, France rebuilt momentum for further European …

The Long Road: Eisenhower’S Inter-American Highway: The Path To Economic Investment, Political Stability, And Collective Security In Central America, Jacob A. Ross

Student Publications

This paper explores the anti-communist Cold War tactics of public diplomacy as undertaken by the Eisenhower Administration. The focus of this paper is the Inter-American Highway: a program which the U.S. government funded and constructed to develop Central America economically, politically, and beyond. Funding for this program was increased and supported by the president because it fit the axiom of spending as little money as possible in the Cold War, but spending it in a way to be effective in the battle against Soviet communism. The stance of the U.S. government was to provide Central America with increased infrastructure development …

Seato Stumbles: The Failure Of The Nato Model In The Third World, Louis T. Gentilucci

Student Publications

NATO as an alliance has stood the test of time since the early post-war years. Yet similar alliances such as SEATO passed into history long ago. The problem with the NATO model of alliance was its inability to be applied to the Third World. The particular circumstances of Southeast Asia prevented SEATO from becoming a true successor to the NATO alliance system. In addition, the approach of Eisenhower and his administration to Southeast Asia and anti-communist alliances was undermined by their own political needs and personal experiences. Southeast Asia was fit into the mold of the post-war period and the …

The Art Of Censorship, Mark Sieber

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This work seeks to show a similarity between censorship of Art in Nazi Germany and the censorship of John Adam’s The Death of Klinghoffer. By analyzing historical facts surrounding Nazi policy and comparing them against criticisms of Klinghoffer, a connection is found. Censoring a work of art, regardless of its message, is detrimental not only to the art itself, but also to the culture, voice, and ideas it represents.