Political History Commons^™

[Review Of The Book The Soviet Union And Cold War Neutrality And Nonalignment In Europe, Edited By M. Kramer, A. Makko, And P. Ruggenthaler]., Austin Jersild

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Purpose Of The Electoral College: A Seemingly Endless Controversy, Marvin L. Simner

History Publications

Use of the Electoral College as the sole means for determining the outcome of a presidential election in the United States has come under repeated attack in recent years. The purpose of this article is to review the nature of the attack, the reason for the College as discussed by the Framers of the Constitution, its questionable early significance, and finally, a current proposal for altering its importance that appears to be gaining momentum.

Book Reviews

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

Book Reviews

Traces: a novel

The Gospel of Freedom: Black Evangelicals and the Underground Railroad

The Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune of West Tennessee's David Crockett

Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia

The Finest Place We Know: A Centennial History of Murray State University

A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South

"The Dash In-Between": The Life And Lnfluence Of Ned Mcwherter, 46th Governor Of The Great State Of Tennessee

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

"The Dash In-Between": The Life and Influence of Ned McWherter, 46th Governor of the Great State of Tennessee

Gail Perkins Barton

"Ideal Press Work": The Contributions Of Kentucky Suffrage Press Superintendents To Public Relations History

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

"Ideal Press Work": The Contributions of Kentucky Suffrage Press Superintendents to Public Relations History

Melony Shemberger

A Crime Of Passion In Calloway County

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

A Crime of Passion in Calloway County

Bobby Smith Bryant

Modernizing Warfare: Us Grant And Military Engineering In The Middle Mississippi Valley During The Civil War

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

Modernizing Warfare: US Grant and Military Engineering in the Middle Mississippi Valley during the Civil War

William H. Mulligan, Jr.

Calloway County Bicentennial Celebration: A Panel Discussion

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

Calloway County Bicentennial Celebration: A Panel Discussion

Bill Mulligan, Bobby Smith Bryant, Gina Winchester, Randy Patterson, and Pat Seiber

Year In Review July 2022 To June 2023 And President's Report

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

President's Report: July 2022 - June 2023

Bill Mulligan

Editor's Remarks

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Journal Archive

Editor's Remarks

James S. Humphreys

Pirates And Propaganda: The Condemnation Of Piracy In The Early Modern Era, Alexandra G. Wisner

Tenor of Our Times

The modern view of pirates is shaped by their media representations, from Pirates of the Caribbean to the Pirates of Penzance. Often, they are in direct opposition to the imperial British navy, which is depicted as bumbling at best and overwhelmingly cruel at worst. The pirates in these stories, whether historical or fictional, are heroes, eking out a living on the seas. Such depictions are over simplified, and lack the nuance of what piracy meant in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition, they glorify pirates, turning them from sailors looking to make a profit into champions of democracy and …

De-Nazifying By De-Cartelizing, Daniel A. Crane

Book Chapters

In 1945, a group of zealous American trustbusters, freshly groomed in the Brandeisian tradition of “anti- Bigness,” descended on the smoldering ruins of Germany, eager to identify and then nullify the culprits behind Hitler’s rise to power. Their eyes were fixed on the enormous industrial combines and cartel organizations that had sprung up in the German economy since the time of Bismarck, grown exponentially during the Weimar era, and then served as the economic infrastructure of the Third Reich. To the trustbusters in the Office of Military Government US (“OMGUS”) Decartelization Branch, the monopolies and trusts were the prime culprits …

Iii.G.2 Public Memory, Buried Histories, And Narratives Of Black Spartanburg, Kim Rostan, Bria Harper, Rhiannon Leebrick Ph.D., Miles Havard

Crafting Democratic Futures

The document explores how public memory shapes collective understanding of Black history in Spartanburg, emphasizing its role in challenging official narratives and fostering identity through community-driven projects. It highlights recent initiatives such as walking tours, cultural monuments, festivals, and exhibits that commemorate the Black community’s contributions and experiences, illustrating ongoing efforts to reclaim and celebrate buried histories.

Bloody Sunday: Death & Press, Joseph Gaffney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is a historical paper on Bloody Sunday, a day of violence in Dublin during the Irish War for Independence on November 21, 1920, analyzing primary and secondary sources centered on the subject to answer specific historiographical research questions. The primary objective of this research project is to understand the immediate social and political ramifications of Bloody Sunday in Ireland and England as reflected in the spread of information via the written press. The goal of the written analysis will be to answer a series of historical research questions. How were both the IRA’s killings and the subsequent reprisal …

New Women In The Old Dominion: Race And Gender In Progressive-Era Virginia, Rachel Scott

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis traces the development of Black and white Southern women’s pursuit of political power between the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. Emancipation and the downfall of the antebellum planter aristocracy upset traditional Southern gender norms and opened new doors for women of both races in the political upheaval of Reconstruction. Though both Black and white women participated in the women’s club movement and joined women’s advocacy and charity groups following the Civil War, their work was distinctive both from each other and from other regional Progressive movements. The context of …

Art, Propaganda, And Truth, Melissa Dinsman

Publications and Research

This essay explores how British and American writers and theorists in the first half of the twentieth century thought about art, propaganda, and truth. Focusing largely on literature written during the First and the Second World Wars, this essay shows that very few authors defined their art as propaganda or truth and instead used words like “political,” “resistance,” “information,” and “anti-fascist” to describe their wartime writing. However, while authors might have eschewed the term propaganda, that does not mean that they avoided producing it. As this essay illustrates, what many authors wrote would now be considered “propaganda.” Moreover, even if …

Translating "La Parola Ebreo": Rosetta Loy And A Child's-Eye View Of Italian Fascism, Amelia Muniz

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a translation of an excerpt from the 1997 memoir of Italian author Rosetta Loy, La Parola Ebreo, and an accompanying paper which explains my translation process, gives historical context and provides an argument for the continued relevance of the text. La Parola Ebreo recounts Loy’s memories of growing up in Rome, Italy, under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist rule. This translation is not meant to be an official English version of the memoir, as it is only a short excerpt, and was not done in collaboration with Loy’s estate or publishers. Instead, it is intended to bring attention to …

From Schleswig To Anschluss: The Plebiscites And Referendums Of Interwar Germany, Matthew J. Rocha

Honors Theses

This paper aims to bridge the gap between the plebiscites following the First World War and the referendums of the Third Reich. To this point, the literatures on these sets of votes have remained completely separate. No scholars have considered the NSDAP’s votes in the context of the postwar votes. By comparing and contrasting these groups of plebiscites for the first time, this paper will shed light on the democratic backsliding of interwar Germany.

This paper argues that when planning their referendums, the leaders of the Third Reich had the immediate postwar plebiscites in mind and were, in some cases, …

Alabama's French Connection, Dixie Norwood

Theses

During the seventeenth century, a race to expand European empires into the New World was underway. Many explorers landed on shores that were far from where they had intended to arrive. What many perceived as mistakes, others saw as opportunities. Louis XIV was determined to expand his empire and establish a larger French dominance in North America. He and his minister of finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert, recognized that France was in a position to expand New France and the French Empire’s territory by following a previously spoken plan laid out by French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in …

Weltpolitik Und Weltkrieg: Second International Socialism And Imperialism (1907-1914), Luke P. Taylor

Honors Theses and Capstones

The outbreak of World War I tore apart the Second Socialist International (1889-1914) as the forces of nationalism overcame international solidarity. By 1917, the global socialist movement was split between reformist social democracy and revolutionary communism. Before this dramatic schism, tensions between a reformist right, a radical left, and a moderate center defined the contours of social democratic politics. Contemporary to the Second International, imperialism and competition between the great powers represented a global crisis that exploded into a worldwide conflict. While not initially responsible for the schisms that tore apart the Second International, debates over imperialism reflected, reconfigured, and …

“Principles Which Constitute The Only Basis Of The Union” : Virginian Beliefs During The Nullification Crisis, 1832-1833, Sean Elliott Kellogg

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Preceding the American Civil War by three decades, the Nullification Crisis is often overshadowed by that larger conflict. It tends to be thought of only as an event in which the two sides of the war, pro-union and anti-union, coalesced around divisive issues. This perspective obscures the complex ideological loyalties that were in conflict during the crisis. These disagreements were on especially clear display in the influential border state of Virginia, which hosted many different opinions about the relevant issues. The state ultimately chose to steer a middle course. In January 1833, it adopted a set of resolves that rejected …

A Historical And Philosophical Comparison: Joseph De Maistre & Edmund Burke, Carl J. Demarco Jr.

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Most historians have focused on the British thinker and statesman Edmund Burke, when discussing the development of Conservatism. He is often considered the “Father of Conservatism” as his principal work Reflections on the Revolution in France inspired generations of conservative thinkers. However, another conservative thinker was writing during the same period as Burke and has been relatively lost to history. Joseph de Maistre, was developing conservative thought at the same time as Burke, but has received little to no credit for the influence he held. The aim of this paper is to show that Maistre was just as influential in …

American Inheritance: Liberty And Slavery In The Birth Of A Nation, 1765-1795, Edward J. Larson

Faculty Books

New attention from historians and journalists is raising pointed questions about the founding period: was the American revolution waged to preserve slavery, and was the Constitution a pact with slavery or a landmark in the antislavery movement? Leaders of the founding who called for American liberty are scrutinized for enslaving Black people themselves: George Washington consistently refused to recognize the freedom of those who escaped his Mount Vernon plantation. And we have long needed a history of the founding that fully includes Black Americans in the Revolutionary protests, the war, and the debates over slavery and freedom that followed. We …

'Grave Fears Of Collision' : James Beecher And The Administration Of Freedmen's Bureau Policy In Reconstruction South Carolina, Cameron Sauers

Theses and Dissertations--History

As an agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau and military officer, James Beecher embodied Federal power in the South Carolina Lowcountry. During Presidential Reconstruction, Beecher became a key administrator of Order No.15 that promised formerly enslaved peoples’s “40 acres and a mule” that formerly belonged to white plantation owners. Beecher, despite his antebellum abolitionist politics, was remarkably unsympathetic to freedpeople’s desire for independent landholding. Beecher believed that freedpeople were unfit for immediate citizenship and should sign labor contracts to return to plantations where they might be inculcated with Northern free labor values. Amid epidemic disease, famine, and white paramilitary violence, James …

"Any Changes, Eh?": Party Defection, Party Switching, And Shifting Allegiances In Antebellum America, 1830-1860, Jacob Wood

Theses and Dissertations--History

Political party ties hardened during the Second Party System period, most noticeably in the transition from the Federalist and Democratic-Republicans to the Democratic and Whig parties. “Any Changes, Eh?” argues that politically-minded Americans still found ways to leave their political parties and support another, even in the face of social and political ostracism. As party ties grew stronger, party defection shifted from direct to indirect methods to challenge political system. Sometimes these movements were permanent conversions, other times they were a protest vote only to make a point to their home party. Party defection took a variety of forms beyond …

A Hollow Victory And Unending Problem: The Undying Anti-Russian Insurgency In Ukraine, Abraham Ashley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis uses quantitative and qualitative research methods to: (1) explore the base causes of insurgency in Ukraine, (2) examine the historical basis for Ukrainian insurgency, (3) provide historical examples of successful and unsuccessful insurgencies to contrast against Ukraine, and (4) provide recommendations for NATO and Ukrainian policy. Collectively, this project demonstrates that current Russian counterinsurgency tactics will not be successful without significant adjustment. This Ukrainian insurgency may also derail the possibility of peace in the region.

Zerschlagen: German Unification And Divided Identity, Harrison Quinn

Honors Theses

The Unification of East and West Germany ended one of the Cold War’s longest divides, but only on paper. After decades under a unified German state, former East Germans face lower standards of living, economic opportunities, and access to national utilities compared to their Western counterparts. This inequality stems from the bifurcated German identity, which remains largely unaddressed amid German state ambitions for a central role in international institutions. The failure to properly acknowledge East German identity and the suppression thereof demonstrates the failure of Unification to unite the German nation. Political ambitions outweighed a true reconciliation of German nationhood, …

The Final Straw: The Battle For Puerto Rico, Samantha N. Marrero

Theses and Dissertations

The Common Wealth of Puerto Rico has undergone tremendous amounts of oppression. The capstone will evaluate the policies imposed on the commonwealth by the United States, and the actions revolutionaries or independentistas took to have a liberated Puerto Rico

(Re)Constructing National Memory In Neoliberal Chile Through Patricio Guzman's The Cordillera Of Dreams (2019), Mica Barrett

Scripps Senior Theses

One of the most renowned Chilean exile filmmakers is Patricio Guzmán. Best known for his documentary work regarding the Allende years, Guzmán has continued to make films regarding his homeland in the decades following his initial exile.

The Cordillera of Dreams is the concluding film in a trilogy exploring the natural lands of Chile and their relationship to physical remnants of the human past. The initial and most renowned film in the series, Nostalgia for the Light, centers the Atacama Desert and Chileans’ relationship to the geography as a gateway to revealing artifacts of Chile’s recent history of genocide …

Black Deathways: An African Methodist History, 1829-1916, Christina M. Varney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study will focus on the transformations of death practices and the shifting roles of death workers from 1829-1916. The Postbellum portion of this study will focus on African Methodist communities in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee as practices and people moved West to the states of Montana, Colorado, and California. These practices experienced changes as a result of rising literacy rates, the establishment of Black churches, and from the movement of Black people within the South. More changes occurred with the creation of mutual aid societies and Black-owned funeral homes. Black funeral directors …