Social History Commons^™

Rewriting The Nation: Collective Memory And The 1776 Commission, Dashiell K. Brown

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

This paper examines the ongoing struggle over the historical memory in the United States through an analysis of the 1776 Commission and its 2021 report. It argues that the report represents a deliberate effort to construct and control collective memory in order to promote a particular vision of national identity. By placing the 1776 Commission within a broader historiographical and political context, the paper shows how efforts to shape public understanding of history are closely tied to struggles over power, education, and national identity.

Silk And Authority: The Political Meaning Of Elite Women's Fashion In Europe, Kaylee S. Rupasinghe

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Fashion for women has not always been about personal style and fashion trends, but women's fashion among the elite has served in ways to express a woman's identity, authority, and wealth to the public. By analyzing Elizabeth I, Marie Antoinette, and Victoria, noticeable differences and outcomes occur based on what they wore, how they wore their clothing, and the self-portraits they released to the public. This analysis suggests that elite women in European history went beyond fashion trends with their clothing choices and shaped a society with the clothing they wore.

No New Lessons: The Impact Of World War 2 On The American Fire Service, Brady L. Hutchison

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Large loss of life fires occurred with terrifying regularity in 1940s America. While overseas, the nation’s military waged a war on tyranny and oppression abroad, at home, the country faced an enemy every bit as deadly. Tradition in the fire service has held the notion that the 1940s saw so many deadly fires due to the nation being at war. The war, it is believed, drained fire departments of manpower, dramatically increased the call volume for departments, and led departments to cut or suspend fire inspections owing to lack of manpower. With that, the consensus is that fire codes in …

The Many Lives Of Benjamin Franklin: A Historiographical Examination Of America’S First Self-Made Man, Michael W. Cunningham

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This paper explores how Benjamin Franklin's historiography has changed over time. It argues that Franklin has been reinterpreted throughout American history and that these reinterpretations say just as much about America as they do about Franklin. Instead of taking a chronological approach to Franklin's life, this study explores how historians have thought about Franklin over time, starting with eighteenth-century writers and ending with historians writing in the twenty-first century. The life of Franklin has been used to exemplify upward mobility, middle-class virtues, and republican success stories, but has more recently been the subject of revisionist scholarship focused on slavery and …

Bibliography For "Commemorating The American Revolution 250 Years Later" Display, Victoria Perez, Sally Park

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to support a display about the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in fall 2026 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.

“When I’M Not Heard, I Feel Like I Don’T Matter”: Advancing Equity In Disability Policy Through Critical Participatory Action Research With People With Intellectual Disability, Cris Marchionne

Student Theses

People with intellectual disability deserve a system that offers flexible, timely, and person-centered support — one that is innovative, sustainable, and holistic in enabling them to live fulfilling lives. This qualitative study, grounded in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), examines how people with intellectual disability experience participation in decision-making within New York State's disability service system. By centering lived experience, the study identifies factors that facilitate or hinder participation in decision-making and examines structural, social, and policy-related barriers that limit agency. Through six focus groups and a Photovoice project with self-advocates receiving OPWDD services, participants described systemic barriers that limited …

Winnie's Feminism: A Tribute To Mama Dr. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela As A Radical Feminist From 1986-2018, Anna Lefatshe Moagi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Growing up in South Africa and having read several “tell-all” biographies by influential women have made this researcher aware of the struggles of women to be recognised and valued within their social environments. The many names that come to mind, when speaking of women’s voices that challenged their position in our society, belong to those of struggle veterans such as Adelaide Tambo, Ruth First, Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu, Thandi Modise, Baleka Mbethe, Leymah Gbowee, Ruth Mompati, Charlotte Maxeke, Joice Majuru, Thuli Madontsela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Their as women leaders roles remain undervalued (Shekhawat 2015). These phenomenal influential women and many …

The Method And The Machinery: Gloria Steinem, India, And The Cold War Making Of American Second Wave Feminsim, 1956-1972, Rashida Shafiq

History Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that Gloria Steinem became one of the most visible feminists of her generation because two political inheritances — postcolonial India and the Cold War liberal United States — converged in a single career. In 1957 and 1958, on a Chester Bowles Asian Fellowship, Steinem spent eighteen months in India, where she moved from elite intellectual circles in Delhi to Gandhian and Sarvodaya peace work in the villages of Ramnad. Walking with Bhoodan fieldworkers through caste-riot-stricken communities, she absorbed a repertoire of organizing practices — listening across difference, lateral and leaderless structure, decision by consensus, and the conversion …

Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers And World War Ii, Talisa Flores

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most enduring symbols of patriotism, women's empowerment, and gender equality in the United States. Yet this iconic representation has obscured the experiences of many women whose wartime labor remains marginalized in both public memory and historical scholarship, particularly Mexican American defense workers. This thesis reexamines the history of Rosie the Riveter by centering the voices of Mexican American women employed in wartime industries during the Second World War. While the war undoubtedly shaped their lives, this study argues that the conventional Rosie narrative, one that portrays wartime employment as …

Tragedi Tempe Bongkrek Di Banyumas: Upaya Pemerintah Daerah Tingkat Ii Dalam Menangani Kasus Keracunan (1988-1989), Regita A. Zahra, Didik Pradjoko

Multikultura

This study examines the efforts made by the local government in handling the mass poisoning case resulting from the consumption of tempe bongkrek in the Banyumas area from 1988 to 1989 to prevent a recurrence. Bongkrek tempeh is an Indonesian culinary dish made from coconut dregs or cake, and it is not uncommon for this food to be contaminated by the bacteria Pseudomonas cocovenenans if produced improperly. The consumption of tempe bongkrek among the community at that time was not only influenced by economic factors, but also related to the habits and views of the community towards traditional foods. This …

His 127 Microhistories: A Lens Into The Past — Apartheid In South Africa Syllabus, Marta Millar

Open Educational Resources

The microhistory course introduces students to the study of history by exploring a particular event, individual, or issue, and its legacy. Students will read both primary source documents and modern texts to examine how the topic under consideration was shaped by, and in turn shaped contemporary culture.

This syllabus is for a course focusing on the history of apartheid in South Africa. Students will analyze the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the apartheid era. This includes understanding how segregationist policies developed in South Africa, what political transformations led to the implementation of the apartheid system, how different policies …

They, The People, Ammel Sharon

Socio-Legal Review

This essay engages with Rohit De and Ornit Shani’s Assembling India’s Constitution by situating it within a broader conceptual history of “the people.” While the book offers a compelling account of participatory constitution-making, the essay suggests that it opens up further questions about the conceptual and historical conditions shaping the people as a political subject. Drawing on contemporary political theory on populism, the essay explores how politics invokes the people through affective and performative practices alongside constitutional forms.

Regimes Of Pain: Violence, Silence, And The Reproduction Of Power In Indonesia, Andi Achdian, Erna Ermawati Chotim

Jurnal Politik

This article examines political violence in Indonesia as a continuing mode of governance that extends beyond periods of open repression. Focusing on three historical episodes—the mass violence of 1965–1966, militarised rule in Aceh during the Military Operations Zone, and the racialised violence of May 1998—it argues that violence does not disappear after formal repression ends, but is reorganised within everyday life through bodily injury, social silence, fear, and learned endurance. To explain this process, the article develops the concept of regimes of pain, defined as forms of power that produce and normalise bodily suffering in order to sustain political order. …

A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre, Harris Darcie Shugart

Master's Theses

The Underground Comix Scene of the 1960s and 1970s was born out of an age of censorship. The Comics Code Authority, a regulatory body created by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954, established guidelines requiring publishing houses to self-regulate following a recommendation from the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953. Comix with an X, for their X-rated nature, represent an emerging counter-culture in the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, with an epicenter of San Francisco. These comix and their artists were not interested in obtaining the looming ‘Seal of Approval’ from the …

Let Freedom Read: Exploring Mississippi’S Defiance Of National Book Banning Trends, Olivia S. Hoover

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Why have book bans have surged so dramatically across the United States in recent years, especially as they have become a defining political project for conservative lawmakers? At the center of this uptick in book bans lies a confusing puzzle: while book bans overwhelmingly occur in Republican-dominated states, Mississippi, despite its conservative political landscape, has seen almost none, even as states like Florida have enacted more than a thousand in a single year. Much of the existing scholarship on book bans focuses on national patterns of them or on the lawmakers and advocacy groups driving these bans, leaving a gap …

Old World Ranks On A New Frontier: Noncommissioned Officer Command In The United States Military, Robert K. Whillock

History Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the development of the United States Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps and the regulatory limits placed on its authority. The early American military adopted European traditions that reserved command for commissioned officers and confined NCOs to supervisory and disciplinary roles. Regulations reinforced this hierarchy by preventing NCOs from exercising autonomous command and limiting opportunities for advancement into the officer corps through merit. Over time, however, egalitarian reformers began to question whether these rigid distinctions served the needs of the evolving American military.

The paper argues that foreign military examples and operational necessity gradually challenged the established roles of …

The Battle Of Tupelo Hospital Cemetery National Register Nomination, Madeline K. Weems

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On July 14, 1864, the Battle of Tupelo, or the Battle of Harrisburg as it is also known, occurred within fifteen miles of the community of Palmetto in northeast Mississippi. As the battle ensued, wounded and dying soldiers were transported to different sites in and around Tupelo, including the home of Dr. William Henry and Jane Calhoun in Palmetto that served as the main hospital. The bodies of some of those soldiers still remain on the former Calhoun Plantation, including the grave of D. D. Drake. This public history capstone thesis evaluates this Civil War era cemetery’s history and integrity, …

“We Have Not Failed Our Country In The Past; We Shall Not Fail Her In The Future.”: The Army National Guard In Peace And War During The Interwar Period And World War Ii, Bearington C. Curtis

Dissertations

This dissertation explores one of the most fundamental questions in the War & Society field of American history: how the American people organize for war and how the citizenry has negotiated with themselves and their government to formulate a compromise that is culturally acceptable and militarily practical. Addressing such an elemental yet sweeping question of how a society organizes for war necessitates engagement with a broad swath of historiography, including institutional history, traditional and new military history, cultural assumptions of race and masculinity, politics, and civil-military relations. By taking a holistic approach, the various interests that shaped American military policy …

They Returned Fighting: World War I, Disillusionment, And The Remaking Of African-American Political Life In New York City, Michael Frank

Theses and Dissertations

They Returned Fighting examines how Black New Yorkers used World War I service, wartime activism, and postwar protest to press claims to citizenship and democracy, even as racial violence, discrimination, and contested public memory exposed the limits of that belonging in New York City and the United States.

The Unwritten Legacy: Native Americans, Slaves, And Women In The Life Of Thomas Jefferson, Anthony C. Hudson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the influence of Native Americans, slaves, and women on the Founding Fathers and provides a way of study for future historians of early American history. By using Thomas Jefferson as the case study, this thesis will show how these three people groups shaped the culture and political decisions of America’s Founding Fathers. Though many historians have looked at this relationship in the past, there are two main things that set this thesis apart from the work of previous historians. First, this thesis attempts to separate itself from the moral questions surrounding the placement of Native Americans, slaves, …

(Review Of) Monica Ciobanu And Mihaela Șerban, Eds. Between The Memory And Post-Memory Of Communism In Romania: Fluid Memories, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Monica Ciobanu and Mihaela Șerban's Between the Memory and Post-Memory of Communism in Romania: Fluid Memories.

Roundtable, Stefan Cristian Ionescu

History Faculty Articles and Research

"Many thanks to the editors of the Journal of Romanian Studies, Mihaela Șerban and Narcis Tulbure for organizing this roundtable focused on my recent book—Justice and Restitution in Post-Nazi Romania: Rebuilding Jewish Lives and Communities, 1944–1950—in this prestigious journal! I am extremely honored and grateful for the opportunity to respond to the insightful and interdisciplinary comments on my book from reputed scholars in the field of Romanian studies, Emanuela Grama, Grant T. Harward, Irina Livezeanu, and Mihaela Șerban."

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Differences Between The New Deal And Great Society, Brayden T. Gallagher

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

This paper examines the differences between the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, challenging the prevailing interpretation that the latter administration was the logical continuation of the former. Through comparative historical analysis of policy and rhetoric, the research finds that, despite clear similarities such as expanded government involvement and social welfare programs, the two initiatives diverged significantly. The New Deal prioritized economic recovery through short-term job creation while often tolerating or reinforcing racial inequality. In contrast, the Great Society directly confronted systemic racism and struck at the roots of poverty through education, …

Where Do Policy Demanders Come From? Protestants And Party Formation In The Antebellum Period, John W. Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

The early 1830s were years of intense religious fervor, when well-organized moral reform movements seemed destined to remake the political landscape. Curiously, however, the party system that emerged from this period was premised on the exclusion of moral issues from party politics. How did the early Jacksonian Democrats and Whigs manage to construct an essentially amoral party system during a decade marked by large-scale moral reform movements? And why did the resulting system unravel in the mid-1850s? Answering these questions requires shifting the focus from party activists and elected officials to organized religion. Specifically, I show that the nation's largest …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Stakhanov Lives Forever: How Art And Culture Outlasted Politics In The Communist World, Samuel Shewmake

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The Stakhanovite movement and its long term consequences has been heavily debated in the field of Soviet history for several decades. The dominant scholarly narrative is that the Stakhanovite movement and Stakhanovism were largely extinguished during the period following the buildup to the Second World War. Previous works have relied heavily on solely political analysis of the movement, presuming that its character was primarily state-driven with little social component. This paper analyzes the social and artistic legacy of the Stakhanovite movement through novel analysis of film, music, and art of the Stakhanovite period and following decades. Contrary to what has …

Libertatis Cunabula: Slavery In San Antonio, Makayla Hernandez

Posters - 2026

This research on the taxes collected by our city and county exposes the pervasiveness of slavery in San Antonio. This truth is shockingly new for San Antonio. No marker nor plaque nor historical commemoration exists to honor the memory and contributions of enslaved San Antonians, nor to force a reckoning with the legacy of prominent enslavers among San Antonio’s leading families and Alamo heroes. This research project recovers every person listed as enslaved in the Bexar County Tax Assessment Records from 1837 to 1862 and names their enslavers. It immediately counters the assumption and assertion that slavery was insignificant in …

Back Matter

Tenor of Our Times

Back Matter

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Jr Duke, David T. Richardson

Tenor of Our Times

Faculty Spotlight

For They Shall Inherit The Earth: Humility And The Constructed Etruscan And Carolingian Origins Of The Medici, William M. Deloach

Tenor of Our Times

The Italian Renaissance and the cultural legacy of the Classical World are inextricably linked. The links between the non-classical sources and the Renaissance, however, have frequently been neglected. This article examines the non-classical origin claims made by the Medici family in Renaissance Florence. Specifically, it evaluates the purpose behind the Medici's attempts to link themselves to the Etruscans and to Charlemagne. Ultimately, it concludes that these efforts represent an attempt to conceal the significant authority the Medici had, both at the time that these sources were written and in Florentine history through the fifteenth century.