Political History Commons^™

The Shadow Of Exceptionalism: Morality, Pragmatism, And Covert Action In American Cold War Foreign Policy, Kyle Stacy

History Theses - Archive

The complex forces of national identity, economic ambition, and ideological justification created a dynamic and contested landscape that shaped America’s Cold War policies. A carefully curated useful past, bolstered by religious convictions, fostered a belief in American exceptionalism and moral leadership that provided both the impetus and justification for 11 America’s actions abroad. Yet, America’s stated ideals—freedom and democracy—existed in stark tension with the pursuit of its national interests, often clashing with its self-perceived moral superiority. The Cold War environment fostered a culture of secrecy within the highest levels of government. Here, transparency and accountability were readily sacrificed for strategic …

Iii.A.2 Displacement & Barriers To Home Ownership, Kim Rostan, Bria Harper, Jim Neighbors, Mark Byrnes

Crafting Democratic Futures

This document explains how systemic racism and discriminatory policies from the Civil War & Reconstruction period through the 20th century prevented African Americans in Spartanburg from building wealth through land ownership and home equity. It details barriers such as Black Codes, sharecropping, convict leasing, exclusion from New Deal programs, discriminatory housing policies, and urban renewal projects that displaced Black neighborhoods without providing equitable opportunities for economic advancement.

Iii.B.2 Educational Barriers, Kim Rostan, Bria Harper, Rylee Jorgensen

Crafting Democratic Futures

The document examines how historical segregation and systemic racism have shaped educational disparities in Spartanburg County, highlighting persistent inequities in school resources, teacher pay, and student outcomes. It concludes that these historical barriers continue to influence academic performance and post-secondary enrollment, with schools serving more diverse populations often facing lower proficiency rates despite high graduation rates.

Iii.F.2 Safety And Security, Kimberly Rostan, Bria Harper, Jim Neighbors

Crafting Democratic Futures

The document details the persistent and systemic violence against Black people in Spartanburg County from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights era, highlighting the role of groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Red Shirts in enforcing white supremacy through terror, intimidation, and murder. It emphasizes that this continuous threat of violence created lasting psychological trauma and served as a major barrier to economic and social progress for Black communities.

Asian American Navigation In Higher Education: Do We Belong At Colby College?, Amanda Rose Alpert

Honors Theses

This thesis explores how Asian American students navigate their belonging at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI), specifically a case study at the higher educational institution Colby College. In understanding how Asian American students navigate the spaces around them, this thesis dives into the history of Asian immigration to the U.S., the Asian American politicized label, and the different diasporas and cultural nuances Asian Americans experience that make up the complicated, diverse, and misunderstood label. Through exploring global racializations of Asian bodies and legacies of Western imperialism and colonialism, this gives a basis of how Asian Americans understand themselves as persons living …

Republicanism In The Age Of Democratic Revolution: The Democratic-Republican Societies Of The 1790s, Matthew Schoenbachler

History

No abstract provided.

Healing Communities With Police Divestment: Seeking Abolition Through Transformative Reform And Community-Government Collaboration, Jessica E. Gillson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Concerns about the efficacy and sustainability of the U.S. carceral system have persisted throughout the country’s history, recently fueling renewed activism and bipartisan calls for reform. However, proposed solutions remain divisive. This thesis first defines the current status of our prison systems, then explores collaborative alternatives to incarceration and policing that support communities and break cycles of incarceration.

Focusing on partnerships among local governments, community organizations, justice-involved individuals, and law enforcement, this study examines holistic approaches to crime prevention, reentry, and reintegration. Using an interdisciplinary framework incorporating restorative justice, community resilience, and systems theory, it investigates how community-based strategies can …

4h Nr 3122 Fusiller Regiment Von Knyphausen, Trenton, New Jersey, 1782, Johannes Schwalm Historical Association

Schwalm Marburg Files

No abstract provided.

Project Tackle 12 Years Of Cia And Taiwanese Joint Reconnaissance Overflights, Maximilian Digiovanni

Honors Theses and Capstones

Project TACKLE was a joint collaborative project between the CIA and the Taiwanese government to facilitate U-2 spy plane missions flown by Taiwanese pilots over China. These missions, conducted from 1962 to 1974, provide critical insights regarding the US and Taiwan’s fluctuating relationship during this period. TACKLE missions played a crucial role in informing policymakers on a variety of subjects, such as the progress of China’s rapidly evolving nuclear weapons program. This paper situates the TACKLE missions within the broader political context of their time to highlight the constant prioritization challenge that plagued the program.

Cascadian Independence: A Rising Movement For An Independent Northwest Amid Growing Regionalism In The United States And Canada, Elias V. Savitt

Capstone Showcase

Because of the Civil War, secession is a sore topic to many Americans. However, the idea of secession has not been confined to this notorious example. My essay focuses on the idea that Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia could be the basis for a unified autonomous or even independent entity called Cascadia. First, I discuss the history of secession as such, and the arguments that have been made pro and con as to its legality and under what situations. I then situate this within the histories of the United States and Canada and the phenomena of regionalism and independent movements. …

Operation Dumbo Drop: Cultural Memory, And Representations Of The Vietnam War In The 1990s, Sylvie Kromer

Scripps Senior Theses

In 1995, the film Operation Dumbo Drop was released by Walt Disney Pictures. This film, based on a true story of elephants being airlifted across Vietnam in 1968 by the American military, holds a unique position as a rare family-friendly comedy about the Vietnam War. As a reflection of 1990s-era cultural memory of the Vietnam War, the film rehistoricizes and sanitizes the war, following a similar trend in other pieces of media from the same era. Operation Dumbo Drop must be seen in this context and as a product of the moment in which it was made. In taking a …

U.S. And Russian Responses To The Syrian Civil War: A Comparative Analysis, Grace Dewitt

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Syrian Civil War was among the most devastating conflicts in the 21st century and was defined by the involvement of various international actors, including the United States (U.S.) and Russia. The Syrian conflict was sparked by the Arab Spring movement. The Asad regime, which controlled the Syrian government at the time of the Arab Spring, reacted violently to the civilian protests and calls for reform. This led to the formation of organized rebel groups, creating a complex and violent civil war. The U.S. and Russia, as well as other international actors such as Turkey and Iran, became involved in …

Defining ‘Un-Americanism’ In Culture And Art: The Dies Committee’S Investigation Of The Federal Theatre Project, Matthew G. Summers

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the House Un-American Activities Committee’s (HUAC) expansive definition of ‘Un-Americanism’ through the body’s 1938 investigation of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). The committee, then known as the Dies Committee after its chairman Martin Dies (D-TX), publicly presented the hearings as an attempt to root out communism in a deeply compromised government program. And indeed the FTP, an ambitious New Deal Program to provide work for unemployed professionals in the theatre, had an undoubtedly leftist bent. However, the hearings were consistently focused on the project's progressive stances on issues of race and gender, and effectively exposed the underlying …

Faltered States: The Rise, Fall, And Containment Of Psychedelic Science In The United States, Baxter Brew

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis traces the history of psychedelic science in the United States and its implications for policymaking. In the postwar period, psychedelic researchers were enabled by a unique convergence of optimism in medical science and structural flexibility. But their hope blinded them to the deeper tensions of their field. As institutions grew increasingly rigid and risk-averse, the space for psychedelics began to close. Some scientists responded by fortifying the walls around them, developing socially and professionally acceptable research methods. Others tried to escape these walls entirely. But neither approach could prevent psychedelics from being squeezed out of formal inquiry. Yet …

Red Diplomacy And Black Liberation: The Cold War's Influence On The Naacp, Natalie A. Filkins

Honors College Theses

The Civil Rights Movement and Cold War occurred concurrently, yet the two events represent entirely different moments in American history. While one marked a moment of immense social growth, the other illustrated how widespread paranoia can influence a nation’s decision making. This thesis centers on an examination of how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (”NAACP”) utilized international bodies, like the United Nations (“UN”), to bring global attention toward the mistreatment of those of African descent. My analysis relied on internal documents from the NAACP’s offices, and the organization’s magazine publication, The Crisis. I examined volumes 55-68 …

“Situation Is Out Of Control:” Drug Use, Violence, Resistance, And Politics During The Vietnam War, Andrew Domenic Ray

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Vietnam War was notable because it was a very violent and very public war. Throughout the course of the conflict, the United States imposed anti-guerilla warfare on a grand scale. American soldiers were often given orders to destroy the enemy at all costs; but in a war with no discernable front lines, the difference between combatant and non-combatant was, at best, blurry. The way the war was being fought, coupled with its unpopularity and emerging counterculture at home, made the Vietnam War a hub for illicit drug use among American soldiers. American soldiers use drugs for a number of …

This Is A War: The 1977-78 Coal Strike And The Fracturing Of The Postwar Social Compact, Christian B. Rowe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The 1977–78 coal strike was a landmark moment for the American labor movement. Despite holding out for 110 days with no pay or benefits through a historically severe winter, miners were unable to advance their demands and achieve a progressive contract. By invoking the Taft–Hartley Act to end the strike, Jimmy Carter destabilized the New Deal political coalition by enraging one of its core constituencies and placing the needs of the state over the needs of unionized industrial workers. The BCOA’s immovable position in negotiations was an early sign that the labor-management accord that had governed industrial relations since World …

Bargaining For Statehood: The Intersection Of Capitalism And Politics In The Creation Of West Virginia, Kristen L. Bailey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This project explores the original architecture of West Virginia. The plans and deliberate construction of the new state not only represented the longstanding desire of western counties for equitable representation in its legislature but also rested on the economic and political ambition of the movement’s leaders. Not all western counties supported independent statehood, and a substantial number of counties favored secession. Without a cohesive citizen consensus to embark upon statehood, traditional narratives that the western counties embarked on statehood solely to protect republican interests bears further investigation. Lacking a unified front, political and business leaders steered the movement through the …

The Single Vote: The Senators Who Acquitted Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Maxwell Cohen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On February 24th, 1868, the House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson, and in May of that same year, he would be acquitted in the United States Senate by one vote. At the center of these events were the seven Republican Senators who defected from their party and found the President not guilty. This thesis examines the conflicts between Johnson and the Radical Republicans, framing this within the broader political context of the era as the key to understanding the political nature of Johnson’s 1868 trial. This politicization culminated in the Tenure of Office Act, which was both protectionist and antagonistic …

Rifles And Riflemen: Material Culture, Violence, And Early American Identity, 1720 -- 1820, John Bradstreet Weaver

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The rifle was one of many material objects which colonists of British North America brought with them from Europe. Starting in the early eighteenth century, German-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania began to manufacture rifles from locally made and imported parts. These rifles became associated with other material objects – namely a system of dress, which included wearing a whitetail deer’s tail in the hat, the hunting shirt, and forms of Native American dress – which became emblematic of some British colonists who used rifles in hunting and war. Rifles became militarily important in the Seven Years’ War, where Native American warriors, …

The Texas Electorate's Views Of Health Care As A Human Right, Community Health Centers, And Certain Matters Of The Health Care Safety Net, Scott Elphingstone

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

In a country in which the government does not recognize a right to health care,social safety nets are the last hope for persons without insurance or other means to pay for needed care. In United States, community health centers, hospital emergency rooms, and private charities comprise that safety net. Community health centers offer a practicable alternative for politicians and citizens who want to help improve the lives of persons who struggle to access health care. This dissertation reviews the political history of community health centers from their founding as part of the War on Poverty in the 1960s through Democratic …

The Politics Of 9/11 Memory At Ground Zero And Shanksville: How Two National Memorials Were Debated, Negotiated, And Created, Emily Mundt

History Student Work

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, four United Airlines flights took off on the East Coast bound for California. Each plane carried passengers, crew, and...undetected hijackers. With four hijacked planes, two crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, one crashed into the Pentagon, and the other crashed into a rural field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. September 11th, 2001, has become known as 9/11 — the day many of us would never forget. Those old enough to remember seeing the loss of buildings and bodies unfold live on television on that day created individual memories of 9/11. But …

Air Supremacy, The Enabler Of Close Air Support Operations – An Evaluation Of Past, Present, And Future Air Campaigns., Owen Topolnicki

Senior Honors Theses

The achievement of gaining aerial supremacy, or lack thereof, is the hinge upon which Close Air Support (CAS) swings. The attainment of it enables CAS specialist aircraft, not unlike the Ju-87 Stuka or A-10 Thunderbolt II, to be exceptionally effective in their operating environment. While the lack of it, forces aircrews to pioneer new solutions either in the form of multi-role aircraft (capable of self-defense), or other innovative solutions similar to unmanned aerial systems (UAS’s), as aptly seen in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Thus, the ability of an air force to gain air supremacy and to do so quickly, …

Señoritas On And Off The Silver Screen: How Chicana Women Organized For Equality And Challenged The Cultural Prison Of Sexualized Media Representations In The First Half Of The Twentieth-Century, Rossandra Paloma Martinez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research is personal for me due to lived experience and day-to-day situations where I have felt the pressures of unattainable beauty standards and society’s fluid definition of beauty and femininity surrounding Chicana, Latinas, Mexican, and Mexican-American women. What inspired me to pursue these issues and topics was the work of Dr. Vicki Lynn Ruiz in her book From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. This research focuses on rival and contested images of Chicana, Mexican, Mexican-American and Latina labor advocates and activists from the early twentieth as opposed to sexualized and eroticized packaged caricatures that Hollywood …

The Civil War In Bedford County, Virginia: The Role Of One Small County In The Nation’S Bloodiest War, Jacob Slusser

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Bedford County, Virginia played a central role in many important aspects of the Civil War. The county provided some of the first troops to Virginia following secession and fielded numerous units in many of the most important battles of the Civil War. Liberty (as Bedford was known then) also served as a major hospital town, effectively making the county seat a major Confederate military outpost. The women of Bedford County helped to ensure that sick or wounded soldiers were fed and taken care of in the numerous hospitals in the city. The importance of Liberty, therefore placed the town in …

Liberty To The Captive: The Two Definitions Of Equality In The Abolitionist Movement, Justin Searls

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The matter of the debate on equality’s definition between black Christian ministers and white Christian ministers is an understudied topic of discourse that merits attention in the historical profession. In recent years, there has been discussion surrounding the general racial divide within abolitionism. However, the religious perspective on this matter has received little to no attention. How did black ministers and white ministers address the question of emancipation and enfranchisement for African Americans in the abolitionist movement from the 1830s through the Civil War and beyond? There is a significant disparity in the discussion of equal rights for African Americans …

Cutting Ties With The South: Maryland’S Constitution And The Demise Of The Slave Economy, 1864, Alex Fancher

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

In the years immediately preceding the Civil War, the state of Maryland appeared to be doing away with slavery at a slow but steady pace. However, an examination of the data at the county level shows a significantly larger population of slaves in the southern and eastern parts of Maryland. While this is well-known, the number of slaves in the top five tobacco producing counties (what I call the Big Five) fluctuated slightly in the years leading up to the war. Four of the Big Five counties remained the same or increased slave totals. Only one, Anne Arundel, saw its …

Casar Public Lecture: The Results Are Out! Implications Of The Us 2024 Elections On Egypt & The World: Looking At A Broader Perspective’, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

DONALD TRUMP WON THE 2024 US ELECTIONS!

CASAR Public Panel Discussion: The results are out! Implications of the US 2024 Elections on Egypt & the World: Looking at a Broader Perspective."

Speakers: From AUC: Amb. Karim Haggag - Dr. Manar El-Shorbagi , and from the University of Central Florida Mr.David Dumke.

The panel was moderated by CASAR Director Dr.Mark Deets.

The panelists deliberated about the possible implications of this election round from several perspectives, analyzing the impact on Egypt, the region & the world.

Learn more about CASAR and follow us: CASAR website: https://gapp.aucegypt.edu/academics/c...

Facebook: / casar-auc-egypt-461110727349183

Instagram: https://instagram.com/casar2003?igshi.. …

Integrating Humanities Into Cybersecurity Education: Enhancing Ethical, Historical, And Sociopolitical Understanding In Technical Training, Joseph Frusci

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The increasing complexity of cybersecurity challenges necessitates a holistic educational approach that integrates both technical skills and humanistic perspectives. This article examines the importance of infusing humanities disciplines such as history, ethics, political science, sociology, law, and anthropology—into cybersecurity education. Through a pilot course developed for Staten Island Technical High School, aligned with the New York State K-12 Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards, students were introduced to an interdisciplinary curriculum that combined technical cybersecurity training with historical analysis, ethical reasoning, and sociopolitical context. The results of pre- and post-course assessments demonstrated significant improvements in critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and …

Bibliography For "Code Talkers Display", Arianna Tillman, Arianna Tillman, Isabella Piechota

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to support a display about Code Talkers at the Leatherby Libraries during November 2024 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.