European History Commons^™

Classical Literature And The Retroaction Of Socialist Ideology—The Sovietization Of A Medieval Georgian Epic Poem And Its Mysterious Author, Diego Benning Wang

Madison Historical Review

Shota Rustaveli, presumed author of the medieval Georgian epic poem vepkhistqaosani (The Knight in the Panther's Skin), was one of the most celebrated cultural and historical figures in Soviet Georgia. However, not much is known about Rustaveli apart from his work. In this essay, I argue that a series of policies under the Soviet government transformed Rustaveli into a national symbol of Georgia, but the celebration of Rustaveli and his poem scarcely deviated from the ideological guidelines of the Soviet state. In discussing the impact and legacy of the Soviet promotion of Rustaveli, I purport to highlight the "national in …

Interview With Danielle Dybbro, Danielle Dybbro

Madison Historical Review

Interview with Danielle Dybbro, Winner of the 2018 James Madison Award for Excellence in Historical Scholarship

Crossing No Man’S Land: Bridging The Gender Gap Of World War I Through The Works Of Vera Brittain, Danielle R. Dybbro

Madison Historical Review

Vera Brittain wrote in both her memoir and in a letter to her fiancé that, “women get all the dreariness of war and none of its exhilaration.” She was just beginning her life as a student at Oxford when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the summer of 1914, and at the time “the war at first seemed” to be “an infuriating personal interruption rather than [the] worldwide catastrophe” that it would eventually become. Brittain soon interrupted her studies at Oxford by becoming a nurse and eventually became a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment for the duration of the …

Digital History Profile, Angela Sutton

Madison Historical Review

This year at the Madison Historical Review, we chose to profile an exciting digital history project out of Vanderbilt University. We interviewed Angela Sutton who is a historian and Postdoctoral fellow in Digital Humanities at Vanderbilt University, where she helps manage projects with the Slave Societies Digital Archive (SSDA). Her publications about the archive and its contents can be found in sx archipelagos (Issue 2, September 2017) and the Afro-Hispanic Review (coming out later in 2018).

Single, Unwed, And Pregnant In Victorian London: Narratives Of Working Class Agency And Negotiation, Virginia L. Grimaldi

Madison Historical Review

Unmarried working women who got pregnant in Victorian London and were abandoned by the fathers were in a sticky situation. If a woman kept the baby, she would unlikely be able to provide for it, especially under the ‘Bastardly Act’ of the 1834 Poor Law, which deemed all illegitimate children under the sole responsibility of the mother. If she concealed her pregnancy and abandoned the child, or risked her life by having an illegal abortion, she would at best be held liable for infanticide, at worst, dead. One institutional option available to these vulnerable mothers was the London Foundling Hospital …

Hard Times; Hard Duties; Hard Hearts; The Volksgemeinschaft As An Indicator Of Identity Shift, Kaitlin Hampshire

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

How can one nation define an ideal community? The Reich’s Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany knew. No cultivation of community, or Volksgemeinschaft in the case of Nazi Germany, is complete without the use of propaganda. Nazi propaganda posters played several different roles in the formation of the community, such as maintaining the military, as well as labor forces not in the military, perpetuating anti-Soviet and anti-Jew feelings, creating the Führer myth, and gaining the support of Germany’s youth. All of the messages displayed in the posters identified the values of the members of the ‘National Community’ or Volksgemeinschaft.

Propaganda posters …

Inventing Saladin: The Role Of The Saladin Legend In European Culture And Identity, Brian C. David

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis seeks to uncover and understand the strange historical journey of the Muslim Sultan Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known to the West as Saladin. The historic Saladin was a ruler famous for his successful campaigns against the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, his victory at the Battle of Hattin, and his holding action against the Third Crusade. Upon Saladin’s death in 1193, he became the subject of numerous legends, most of which describe him as a merciful, chivalric, and ideal leader of men. The epitome of what a thirteenth century European noble was supposed to be. This thesis seek to explain …

The Shifting Dynamics Of Midwifery In Urban Seventeenth-Century England, Virginia E. Taylor

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Midwives have been unfairly represented in contemporary studies about the profession in urban Early Modern England. Midwives were actually quite intelligent and capable women beyond their skills in the environs of the birthing chamber. These women contributed significantly to their surrounding community in public and private spheres from the birthing chamber to the courts of law. Most urban midwives were highly skilled and knowledgeable in their craft based upon their many years of hands-on education in comparison to the university and book-learned preparation of male-midwives or physicians. These trained women were also literate and openly defended their profession against the …

Hitler's Inconsistent Jazz Policy And How It Weakened His Control, Emmy Freedman

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

In my paper, I discuss Hitler’s ironclad regime and how jazz music played a role in weakening it. Jazz music, with its democratic style and history, served as the antithesis to Hitler’s favored classical compositions. Although he tried to control the music and its supporters, Hitler never fully understood the genre and therefore was never able to stop its spread across Germany. In the paper, I also discuss how jazz music played into race relations and its distinctions among the social strata. Jazz music and Hitler’s opposition to it also had an impact on technology, the 1936 Olympics and propaganda.

A Dickensian Utilitarianism, Zachary Allentuck

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper argues that Charles Dickens' political and world views were in sympathy with Utilitarianism, as defined by Jeremy Bentham. The Utilitarianism Dickens attacked in A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, and Little Dorrit was not real utilitarianism; it was utilitarianism appropriated by England's middle-class.

The Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society: How Jehovah’S Witnesses Denounced And Resisted The Nazi Regime, Elena Sorchiotti

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The present thesis aims to reveal the stance of the religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, towards the oppression and persecution of its members - examined in the accompanying website - perpetrated by the Nazi regime in Germany, from 1933 to 1944. Unlike the majority of Christian denominations, Jehovah’s Witnesses from all around the world took a firm stand against Hitler’s political agenda and against the actions carried out by the Nazi authorities. Through the use of diplomatic means, publication of articles, special campaigns, and letters addressed to government officials, the world headquarters of …

Germany In Afghanistan: The German Domestic Dispute On Military Deployment Overseas, Nils Martin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis provides a study of the deployment of the German Bundeswehr to Afghanistan and highlights the clash between two conflicting visions of German foreign policy by explaining the different policies supported or opposed by an outspoken segment of the German public and German leaders since the Second World War in regards to the use of military force. While maintaining a focus on German military deployment to Afghanistan, this thesis consists of an analysis of German parliamentary debate, editorials, public opinion polls, speeches and other sources to determine arguments used by German government leaders to try and overcome strong anti-war …

Book Review: To End All Wars: A Story Of Loyalty And Rebellion 1914-1918, Kristen M. Vitale

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Imagining A Nation: Society, Regionalism, And National Identity In The Greek War Of Independence, Christopher Kinley

Madison Historical Review

ABSTRACT: Modern Greece has held a marginal existence in the study of nationalism, and yet there is a wealth of information that it provides, which can broaden our understanding of nationalism and state-building, especially in the Balkans. The purpose of this article is to examine the various facets of Greek identity during the outbreak of the independence movement, and how identity shaped and affected the movement itself. This article argues that Greek identity was too multifarious to create a strongly defined national identity. Furthermore, this lack of national identity led to several years of civil war during the independence …

Interview With Kristin V. Brig

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

"Torn From Their Mother's Breasts": The Battle For Impoverished Souls In Ireland, 1853-1885, Kristin V. Brig

Madison Historical Review

A world history analysis, this paper examines the struggle between Protestant governmental and Catholic private philanthropy in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, exploring how each side waged a war of political and religious misunderstanding in an effort to gain control over the Catholic Irish poor. Ireland’s philanthropic scene in this period became a battleground on which the British government fought for political control and Catholics for religious control; however, neither group understood what the other fought for, waging a war of cross-purposes. Through an examination of this battle for control, this paper depicts the emergence of modern Irish welfare from the famine era …

Establishing The Mandate: American Involvement Within The League Of Nations And The Creation Of The Palestine Mandate, Brendon Larimore

Department of History - Faculty Scholarship

ABSTRACT

Following World War I, leaders of the most important nations on the globe wondered how they were going to prevent a crisis like the war from happening again. United States President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points address, stated that an organization which was based on international diplomacy was necessary. What effects did the League of Nations have on the Palestine Mandate specifically and how did Wilson’s relationships affect the power structure of the Mandate? What impact did this have on the Arab population within Palestine?

Out of the Fourteen Points address came the idea for the League of …

The Model Of Masculinity: Youth, Gender, And Education In Fascist Italy, 1922-1939, Jennifer L. Nehrt

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Youth and masculinity are keys to understanding Italian Fascist culture. The Fascost regime used educational institutions to enforce binary gender roles to encourage boys grow into heroic soldiers and girls to become dutiful wives. However, by the mid-1930s, their was a frustrated awareness among the youth that the regime had not fulfilled its promise to deliver Italy to glory. Young citizens were denied a voice in the government and they became disillusioned with Fascism.

The Medical Response To The Black Death, Joseph A. Legan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper discusses the medical response to the Black Death in both Europe and the Middle East. The Black Death was caused by a series of bacterial strands collectively known as Yersinia pestis. The Plague originated in the Mongolian Steppes. It was spread westward by the east-west trading system. Once it arrived in the Crimea in 1346, Italian merchants helped spread it throughout the Mediterranean. Medicine in Europe and the Middle East were centered on Galen’s theory of humors. There were many religious explanations for the Plague, but the main medical explanation was the spread of bad air, or …

Interpretation Training Manual For The Frontier Culture Museum, Megan T. Sullivan

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia is an outdoor living history museum that uses costumed interpreters to tell visitors about their major themes. By understanding that the Museum seeks to talk about the daily lives of people from West Africa, England, Ireland, and Germany; their immigration experience to America; and how these people interacted with each other and Native American groups to form an American culture, interpreters can pass on this information to visitors. Interpretation, as a bridge between the historical information and the visitor, is a conversation between the interpreter and the visitor where the interpreter can use …

Her Majesty's Dignity: Secularization In The Age Of Reformation, Catherine Larson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis explores the growing secularization in English government policies between the years 1570-1598. By examining international politics and domestic treason trials, the reader can see a clear change in the language used to describe Catholics by the Protestant English. Beginning with the Papal Bull, Regnans in Exchelsis, the Catholic persecution reached its zenith under Elizabeth in the 1570s. The treason trials of Edmund Campion, William Parry, and Mary Queen of Scots show how the 1580s was a period of secularization in domestic politics. Internationally, the changing alliances between England, the Netherlands, and France show how England slowly begins …

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 Vehiculatio In Roman Imperial Regulation: Particular Solutions To A Systematic Problem, Russell S. Gentry

Madison Historical Review

Category: World History

As the Roman Empire pushed its frontiers beyond the Mediterranean world, imperial authorities from Augustus onward faced a serious challenge: information transfer. The government of the early Roman Empire was famously lean in its bureaucracy and relied on small teams of imperial specialists (hated as spies) and military officers selected by governors to carry official documents great distances. These individuals traveled using an ad hoc system designed to take advantage of whatever hospitality existed along the Roman roadways. Messengers commandeered food, buildings, animals, and even guides for most legs of their journey. Official travel passes issued with …

The Medieval Canon And The Renaissance Image Of The Turk: A Brief Historiography Of Pre-Modern European Conceptions Of The Muslim World, A. Blake Denton

Madison Historical Review

This historiographic essay examines the scholarly debate over pre-modern European “images,” or conceptions, of the Muslim World during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Adopting a thematic approach, this study is guided by four themes shared by two or more works. While this essay largely revolves around the image studies of Nancy Bisaha, Norman Daniel, and Robert Schwoebel, the interpretations of additional scholars are presented as well. Though points of convergence exists between the works presented here, far more telling is the fact that the sharp contrasts between these historians aptly illustrates the challenge of determining the precise nature of …

Living Within The Palestine Mandate: Examining Palestinian Reactions During The Palestine Mandate, Brendon Larimore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Administration Of The Mandate: An Examination Of A British Controlled Palestine And The Palestine Mandate Society, Brendon Larimore

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Incontinentia, Licentia Et Libido: The Juxtaposition Of Morality And Sexuality During The Roman Republic, Robert Sharp

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Sex and sexuality are important elements of the human experience but are surrounded by various taboos. Roman sexuality has traditionally been viewed in a modern context as being licentious and obscene in nature, and seemingly incongruous with the elements of propriety that are expected in an honor-shame culture. What would be considered to be moral, immoral, or obscene in a modern context would not apply to the Romans as we would understand it in a modern context. This paper examines Roman sexuality during the Republic period (509 - 27 BCE) and how they can seemingly exist alongside what can be …

Bridget Of Sweden (1303-1373) As Author, Mark E. Peterson

Libraries

No abstract provided.

Assur Is King Of Persia: Illustrations Of The Book Of Esther In Some Nineteenth-Century Sources, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

The marriage of archaeological referencing and picture Bibles in the nineteenth century resulted in an astonishing variety of guises worn by the court of Ahasuerus in Esther. Following the exhibition of Neo-Assyrian sculpture in the British Museum and the wide circulation of such images in various John Murray publications, British illustrators like Henry Anelay defaulted to Assyrian models for kings and rulers in the Old Testament, including the principal actors in Esther, even though authentic Achaemenid Persian art had been available for illustrative pastiche for decades. This curious adoptive choice echoed British national pride in its splendid British Museum collection …

New Wine In Old Kings: British Wine Bottle Names And The Old Testament, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.