European History Commons^™

The Paradox Of The Castrato, Sonja Breda

Young Historians Conference

Baroque opera cannot be studied without acknowledging the castrated male singers, or castrati, who drew wild critical acclaim throughout the 17th and 18th centuries in Italy. Even the most impoverished Italians were known to forego their daily bread to witness the arias of the castrati. But what made these singers so incredibly popular? This paper argues that the popularity of the castrato in 18th century Italy was due to the castrato's uniquely paradoxical nature, viewed by the public both as sexual and spiritual. While the prominence of the castrato highlighted a desire for the unusual, the eventual extinction of the …

The Italian Reconstruction And Post-War Fashions, Emily Garrison

Young Historians Conference

Following World War II, Italy's production outputs lagged significantly compared to its pre-war rates. However, America's European reconstruction initiative, Marshall Plan, allowed Italy's floundering industries to rebuild themselves into independent and stable companies. This paper focuses specifically on America's aid to the Italian textile industry and how the contributions of America raised Italian couture to an internationally recognized style.

Cologne Cathedral As A Symbol Of Unity, Olivia Cantwell

Young Historians Conference

The cathedral in Cologne, Germany, serves as a monumental symbol of unity because of the thousands of people who have helped with its design, planning, and construction. Begun as a Gothic masterpiece in 1248, abandoned half-finished for several hundred years, and finally restored and completed in the 1800s, the cathedral has remained a stalwart icon of the unity of the city. From the 19th century to the present, the Cologne cathedral remains a source of national pride.

Essex Under Cromwell: Security And Local Governance In The Interregnum, James Robert Mcconnell

Dissertations and Theses

In 1655, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell's Council of State commissioned a group of army officers for the purpose of "securing the peace of the commonwealth." Under the authority of the Instrument of Government, a written constitution not sanctioned by Parliament, the Council sent army major-generals into the counties to raise new horse militias and to support them financially with a tax on Royalists which the army officers would also collect. In counties such as Essex--the focus of this study--the major-generals were assisted in their work by small groups of commissioners, mostly local men "well-affected" to the Interregnum government. In addition …

Local Reception Of Religious Change Under Henry Viii And Edward Vi: Evidence From Four Suffolk Parishes, William Keene Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

From the second half of Henry VIII's reign through that of his son Edward VI, roughly 1530 through 1553, England was in turmoil. Traditional (Catholic) religion was methodically undermined, and sometimes violently swept away, in favor of a biblically based evangelical faith imported and adapted from European dissenters/reformers (Protestants). This thesis elucidates the process of parish-level religious change in England during the tumultuous mid sixteenth century. It does so through examining the unique dynamics and complexities of its local reception in a previously unstudied corner of the realm, the Suffolk parishes of Boxford, Cratfield, Long Melford, and Mildenhall. This thesis …

Anna Of Denmark: Expressions Of Autonomy And Agency As A Royal Wife And Mother, Anastasia Christine Baker

Dissertations and Theses

Anna of Denmark (12 December 1574 - 2 March 1619), the wife of King James VI/I of Scotland, England, and Ireland, was an intelligent and interesting woman who has, up until recently, been largely ignored by history. It has only been within the past two decades that any in-depth analysis of Anna has been done, and most of that analysis has focused on Anna's work with the Stuart court masque. The intent of this thesis has been to expand upon current scholarship regarding Anna, as well as to synthesize the various facets of Anna's life in order to put together …

Re-Interpreting The Past: Shifting Perspectives From A Commercial Archival Fond In The Bulgarian Historical Archive, Evguenia Davidova

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article offers a historiographical interpretation of an exceptionally rich personal archive; namely, fond Number 6: “Tŭrgovska kŭshta [Commercial Company] ‘Khristo P. Tŭpchileshtov’”, kept in Bŭlgarski istoricheski arkhiv (Bulgarian Historical Archive), Narodna Biblioteka (National Library) “Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodiĭ” in Sofia. The analysis is organized around three issues: the biography of the archive’s founder; the acquisition of the archive by the National Library; and the ways the archival material has been interpreted in the Bulgarian historiography. More specifically, I am discussing the ideological motivation behind the arrangement of the documents and their multiple uses in the historical studies during …

From Pork To Kapores: Transformations In Religious Practice Among The Jews Of Late Imperial Kiev, Natan Meir

Judaic Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Until recently, studies of Jewish religious practices in Imperial Russia have focused on major movements such as Hasidism and mitnagdism as well as the challenges that Haskalah presented to traditional Judaism. Few scholars have scrutinized transformations in everyday religious practices such as the observance of Sabbath and other holidays, synagogue attendance, and liturgical practices. However, new political, social, and economic realities had generated subtle changes in religious practices even in earlier periods and it comes as no surprise, therefore, that religious practices among Jews during the tsarist period, especially in Kiev, were neither monolithic nor static. This article provides a …

Memory And Hypnotism In Wagner's Musical Discourse, Jonathan C. Gentry

Dissertations and Theses

A rich relationship unites the composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and the history of psychology, especially if one considers his attempt to make music speak with the clarity of verbal language. Wagner's musical discourse participated in the development of psychology in the nineteenth century in three distinct areas. First, Wagner shared in the non-reductive materialist discourse on mind that characterized many of the thinkers who made psychology into an autonomous intellectual pursuit. Second, Wagner's theories and theatrical productions directly influenced two important psychologists - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932). Finally, the experiences of music achieved by Wagner at …

A Nun's Life : Barking Abbey In The Late-Medieval And Early Modern Periods, Teresa L. Barnes

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project is to gain an understanding of the daily lives of nuns in an English nunnery by examining a particular prominent abbey. This study also attempts to update the history of the abbey by incorporating methods and theories used by recent historians of women's monasticism, as well as recent archaeological evidence found at the abbey site. By including specific examinations of Barking Abbey's last nuns, as well as the nuns' artistic and cultural pursuits, this thesis expands the scholarship of the abbey's history into areas previously unexplored. This thesis begins with a look at the nuns …

A Centre In The Periphery: Merchants During The Ottoman Period In Modern Bulgarian Historiography (1890s - 1990s), Evguenia Davidova

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the last 100 years Bulgarian history has endured many political changes, some of them very abrupt, which inevitably influenced the dominant ideological and methodological paradigms of Bulgarian historical writings. Being for five centuries (XVth - XIXth) under Ottoman rule, after the Berlin Congress (1878), the Bulgarian state was restored. Passing through the agitated period of the Balkan Wars (1912- 1913) and World War I, Bulgarian history of the interwar period continued to witness much political and social tension. World War II brought about another radical change, namely the establishment of a totalitarian political regime. After 45 years, in 1989, …

Harrowing Heroines And Communist Plots: Krest'ianka And Rural Policy, 1946-1949, Rachael Preiss Susman

Dissertations and Theses

After World War II, women became very important to the Soviet plan to reassert control over the countryside and reestablish agriculture in those areas hard hit by war. This happened because long term migration trends to the city and wartime casualties had made women the majority in the countryside. There was a need for them to exceed their previous contributions to agriculture, even as they struggled to cope with wartime losses.

State propaganda encouraged rural women to regard employment in agriculture as their patriotic duty. This study analyzes one publication aimed at rural women, Krest'ianka, and examines the following …

“Wars Of The Three Margarets”: Women In The Wars Of The Roses, Barbara Jean Traver

Dissertations and Theses

No study has yet examined the role of elite women in the Wars of the Roses. However, an explanation of their motivations and actions is crucial to understanding these conflicts.

Aristocratic women exercised considerable power under the system of "bastard feudalism." Women built and maintained affinities, acquired and defended land, used and manipulated the law, and influenced local politics. They had acknowledged roles as peacemakers and knew how to defend a castle. During the Wars of the Roses women would make use of all of these tools.

Three women played such an important role in these conflicts that they might …

What A Saint Am I! : The Self-Canonization Of Madame Jeanne-Marie Guyon In The Quietist Controversy Of Seventeenth-Century France, Jennifer Marie Lior Blacke

Dissertations and Theses

At the center of the heated Quietist Controversy in late seventeenthcentury France was Jeanne-Marie Guyon, whose writings and teachings on inner prayer were similar to those of recognized Catholic mystics. Unlike celebrated mystics, however, Mme Guyon expounded a doctrine which seemed to concentrate not only on holy indifference, but on herself as the sole mechanism by which others could attain union with God. A careful reading of the writings of Mme Guyon reveals a woman obsessed with herself --her salvation, her martyrdom, her popularity, and her superiority. Such a description corresponds perfectly with the suggestions of her foremost persecutor, the …

Vormärz Of Germany And The Critique Of Heinrich Heine, Andrew Dean Henley

Dissertations and Theses

The conclusion of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars marked the beginning of the modem world. In western Europe new ideals about the position of the individual and the future of society flourished in the early nineteenth century--prior to the revolutions of 1848. However, the forward move into the modem world was stymied in the multitude of states which composed Germany after 1815. Due to a combination of factors- political repression, conservative/romantic trends, social lethargy, and liberal immaturity--German society in the period 1815-1848--the Vormärz (pre-March 1848) clung to traditional ways. The most famous German writer of this period, Heinrich …

From The Printing Press To The Guillotine: Gracchus Babeuf And The Revolutionary Language Of Thermidor, David Brian Audley

Dissertations and Theses

The traditional history of Franc̦ois-Noel 'Gracchus' Babeuf has been centered on politics and socialism. Since his death in 1 797 historians have attempted to show the foundations of nineteenth and twentieth-century social revolution and communism in the polemical works of Babeuf. One result of this method of research has been an assumption of contradiction within Babeuf's writings in the months immediately following the fall of Maxmilien Robespierre. Historians have assumed that the seemingly anti-Robespierrist rhetoric found from September 1794 to February 1795 was both a product and an evidence of the 'Thermidorization' of Babeuf. However, a close textual analysis of …

Germany, Great Britain And The Rashid Ali Al-Kilani Revolt Of Spring 1941, James Christian Scott

Dissertations and Theses

There are few events in the history of humankind which have been more compelling than the Second World War (1939-1945). Unfortunately, most of what transpired during this period of history stands obscured by events such as D-Day, Kursk, and Midway, all happenings which popular history has been more than happy to dwell upon.

This study's intent is to, with the use of primary materials, analyze one of the more "obscured" happenings of the Second World War, the Rashid Ali al-Kilani Revolt of April and May 1941. Central to this work is an assessment of the policy responses of both Great …

Kurt Tucholsky: Left-Wing Intellectual And Politically-Engaged Journalist, David Johnson

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Critics of intellectuals have focused on the naive idealism of intellectuals and their tendency to withdraw from the political theater, instead concentrating on their respective specialties. Tucholsky did not fit into this group of intellectuals, as he was an active participant in the political debates of the day. He polemicized, satirized and criticized. He wrote poems and cabarets. When he saw a theme which needed to be addressed, he tackled it; often many times. He focused on real issues. His methods of satire and criticism were purposefully used to highlight the real problems faced by Germany. Tucholsky may have not …

The English Crown's Foreign Debt, 1544-1557, Wayne M. Kline

Dissertations and Theses

As background to an investigation of the crown's foreign borrowing from 1544 though 1557, this thesis examines the general fiscal situation of the mid-Tudor Commonwealth with special emphasis on the great inflation of the 16th century, the role of Antwerp in European finance, and the relationship between war and English fiscal policy. It then examines in detail the creation of the debt under Henry VIII, its development into a standard feature of state finance under Edward VI, and its liquidation under Mary. Information on England and English crown finance was drawn principally from published primary sources while information on the …

English Housewives In Theory And Practice, 1500-1640, Lynn Ann Botelho

Dissertations and Theses

Women in early modem England were expected to marry, and then to become housewives. Despite the fact that nearly fifty percent of the population was in this position, little is known of the expectations and realities of these English housewives. This thesis examines both the expectations and actual lives of middling sort and gentry women in England between 1500 and 1640.

The Collapse Of The German Army In The East In The Summer Of 1944 (Volume 2), Stephen Ariel Veal

Dissertations and Theses

The collapse of the German Army in the East in the Summer of 1944 is analyzed and determined to be the result of the following specific factors: German intelligence failures; German defensive doctrine; loss of German air superiority; Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union; German mobile reserves committed in the West; Soviet numerical superiority; and Soviet offensive doctrine and tactics. The collapse of Army Group Center, the destruction of the XIII Army Corps, and the collapse of Army Group South Ukraine in Romania during the Summer of 1944 are examined in detail. The significance of the collapse of the German …

The Collapse Of The German Army In The East In The Summer Of 1944 (Volume 1), Stephen Ariel Veal

Dissertations and Theses

The collapse of the German Army in the East in the Summer of 1944 is analyzed and determined to be the result of the following specific factors: German intelligence failures; German defensive doctrine; loss of German air superiority; Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union; German mobile reserves committed in the West; Soviet numerical superiority; and Soviet offensive doctrine and tactics. The collapse of Army Group Center, the destruction of the XIII Army Corps, and the collapse of Army Group South Ukraine in Romania during the Summer of 1944 are examined in detail. The significance of the collapse of the German …

Every Man Crying Out: Elizabethan Anti-Catholic Pamphlets And The Birth Of English Anti-Papism, Carol Ellen Wheeler

Dissertations and Theses

To the Englishmen of the sixteenth century the structure of the universe seemed clear and logical. God had created and ordered it in such a way that everyone and everything had a specific, permanent place which carried with it appropriate duties and responsibilities. Primary among these requirements was obedience to one's betters, up the Chain of Being, to God. Unity demanded uniformity; obedience held the universe together. Within this context, the excommunication of Elizabeth Tudor in 1570 both redefined and intensified the strain between the crown and the various religious groups in the realm. Catholics had become traitors, or at …

The Congress Of Berlin Of 1878: Its Origins And Consequences, Kenneth Allen Shafer

Dissertations and Theses

Historians have expressed a variety of opinions concerning the true significance of the Congress of Berlin. While the 1878 meeting did not have to deal with questions as comprehensive as those discussed in Vienna in 1814-1815 or at Paris in 1856, the Congress of Berlin had great impact in its own right. While the Berlin meeting made decisions in order to reorganize the Balkans after years of instability and war, it also created a split in relations between the German Empire and Imperial Russia which would eventually drive the two powers towards conflict in "The Great War" in 1914.

The European Neutrals In World War Ii, Jerrold Michael Packard

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis begins with a short section on the nature of neutrality in Europe in the 1930s, and briefly introduces the political circumstances of the six nations that remained neutral throughout the war. The primary subject of the paper deals with the relationship between the belligerents and the neutral states, especially the extent to which military strength and preparedness was responsible for the latter maintaining their neutrality.

Women Of The Tudor Court, 1501-1568, Carol De Witte Bowles

Dissertations and Theses

Writing the history of Tudor women is a difficult task. "Women's lives from the 16th century can rarely be constructed except when these women have had influential connections with notable men.This is no less true for the court women of Tudor England than for other women of the time.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss some of the more memorable court women of Tudor England who served the queens of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, 2 and to determine what impact, if any, they had on their contemporary times and to evaluate their roles in Tudor …

The Role Of Episcopal Theology And Administration In The Implementation Of The Settlement Of Religion, 1559-C. 1575, Caroline J. Litzenberger

Dissertations and Theses

The term, Elizabethan Settlement, when applied solely to the adoption of the Prayer Book in 1559 or the Thirty-nine Articles in 1563, is misleading. The final form of the Settlement was the result of a creative struggle which involved Elizabeth and her advisers, together with the bishops and the local populace. The bishops introduced the Settlement in their dioceses and began a process of change which involved the laity and the local clergy. Through the ensuing implementation process the ultimate form of religion in England was defined.

From 'The Help Of Grave And Modest Women' To 'The Care Of Men Of Sense': The Transition From Female Midwifery To Male Obstetrics In Early Modern England, Karen L. Smith Adams

Dissertations and Theses

Until the sixteenth century, childbirth in England was the exclusive domain of women and was orchestrated by the female midwife. By the end of the seventeenth century, university-educated and church-approved male physicians were systematically beginning to usurp the midwife's role in the lying-in room and to gradually assume authority and power over the process of childbirth. Ultimately doctor-dominated childbirth threatened, and in some places accomplished, the displacement of the midwife. No one factor was responsible for the shift in delivery room personnel nor was the transition from female midwives to male obstetricians a "natural" one. This thesis looks at three …

Patterns In Creativity : An Examination Of Viennese Culture And Politics At The Turn Of The Century, Allen Nolan Hauser

Dissertations and Theses

This examination explores the Viennese cultural milieu at the turn of the century in an effort to show the commonality of backgrounds and interests among those who created the culture during that period. In this the study aims at illustrating the similarities among those artists, intellectuals, and politicians in spite of the fact that their ideas helped lay the basis for the breakdown in integration of twentieth century culture which was illustrated by Carl E. Schorske in his Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture. All this is in pursuance of the overall issue of the origin of the ideas which have …

German-Czech Conflict In Cisleithania: The Question Of The Ethnographic Partition Of Bohemia, 1848-1919, Nicholas Aldorde

Dissertations and Theses

Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, the former Crownlands of Austria-Hungary which now make up the western half of Czechoslovakia, had for centuries a population mixture of 40% German, 60% Czech. The national reawakening of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries pitted the majority Czechs against their German minority master. This, coupled with the social upheavals caused by the industrial revolution, brought Czechs and Germans in Bohemia to center stage in the nationality conflict in the multinational Empire.