Social History Commons^™

Below-Deck: The Specialist Sailor In World War Ii, Gregory Falcon

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

U.S. Navy ships were made up of many unexpected jobs during World War II. Traditional war histories say little about sailors who rarely saw direct combat below active war decks but instead worked skilled jobs. Specialized sailors were often unseen as they worked below the waterline as, for example, electrician’s mates and boiler room firemen. These jobs were pivotal to keeping the ship running and allowed men to make use of their valuable time in the navy. This thesis argues that, although evolving naval culture led men to enter for various reasons, many entered to enhance their future career during …

Life Is Beautiful, Or Not: The Myth Of The Good Italian, Shira Klein

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Life is Beautiful illustrates a popular misconception about Italy's role in the Holocaust. The film features the good Italian and the warped view that Italy treated Jews kindly in the late 1930s and during World War II. Historians have proven this claim to be grossly exaggerated, arguing that Italians persecuted Jews vigorously. Yet popular representations of the past-films, novels, museum exhibits, and websites-continue to give credence to the notion that Italians were overwhelmingly good to Jews. Although France and Germany cultivated similar self-acquitting myths in the decades immediately after the war, they eventually moved on to accept the more …

Sovereignty, Statehood, And Subjugation: Native Hawaiian And Japanese American Discourse Over Hawaiian Statehood, Nicole Saito

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Although discourse over Hawaiian statehood has increasingly been described by scholars as a racial conflict between Japanese Americans and Native Hawaiians, there existed a broad spectrum of interactions between the two groups. Both communities were forced to confront the prejudices they had against each other while recognizing their shared experiences with discrimination, creating a paradoxical political culture of competition and solidarity up until the conclusion of World War Two. From 1946 to 1950, however, the country’s collective understanding of Japanese American citizenship began to shift with recognition of the community’s military service record and an increased proportion of veterans elected …

The Infinite Crisis: How The American Comic Book Has Been Shaped By War, Winston Andrus

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that war has been the greatest catalyst for the American comic book medium to become a socio-political change agent within western society. Comic books have become one of the most pervasive influences to global popular culture, with superheroes dominating nearly every popular art form. Yet, the academic world has often ignored the comic book medium as a niche market instead of integrated into the broader discussions on cultural production and conflict studies. This paper intends to bridge the gap between what has been classified as comic book studies and the greater academic world to demonstrate the …

3rd Place Contest Entry: Sovereignty, Statehood, And Subjugation: Native Hawaiian And Japanese American Discourse Over Hawaiian Statehood, Nicole Saito

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Nicole Saito's submission for the 2021 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. It contains her essay on using library resources, a three-page sample of her research project on the consequences that Japanese American advocacy for Hawaiian statehood had on Native Hawaiians, and her works cited list.

Nicole is a junior at Chapman University, majoring in Political Science, History, and Economics. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Robert Slayton.

Infectious Ideas: Why Do Radical Innovations Take Root?, Steven Pfaff

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"Living in the midst of a pandemic, we have all become familiar with the idea of contagion. An epidemic spreads through exposure to an infectious agent, like a novel virus. In a basic contagion model, the spread of a disease is a function of contact with the agent and its degree of infectiousness. Epidemiologists often model the risk of contagion as a function of contact (or frequency or level of contact) with the infected and the agent’s virulence.

When it comes to triggering radical institutional change, do ideas work the same way?

In a recent article, a team of …

Finding A Place For World War I In American History 1914-1918, Jennifer D. Keene

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"World War I has occupied an uneasy place in the American public and political consciousness.1 In the 1920s and 1930s, controversies over the war permeated the nation’s cultural and political life, influencing memorial culture and governmental policy. Interest in the war, however, waned considerably after World War II, a much larger and longer war for the United States. Despite a plethora of scholarly works examining nearly every aspect of the war, interest in the war remains limited even among academic historians. In many respects, World War I became the 'forgotten war' because Americans never developed a unifying collective memory about …

Failure To Protect: Why The International Community Will Fail To Respond To The Cultural Genocide Of Turkish Cypriot People, Hilmi Ulas

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

The international community has time and again committed to never let genocide occur again – however, multiple bouts of genocide have occurred since the Holocaust. This, in addition to the current quandaries surrounding the Uyghurs of China, points to the fact that the international laws and institutions have loopholes that allow for genocides – especially those that enact structural and cultural violence without necessarily employing direct violence – to ‘slip through’.

This has been the case in spite of R2P policies being in place. In this paper, I examine the inability of international systems to capture ‘cultural genocide’ or intervene …

The Munemitsu Legacy: The Japanese American Family Behind Mendez V. Westminster: California’S First Successful Desegregation Case, Annie Tang

Library Articles and Research

"Many Orange County, California schoolchildren know the name 'Mendez.' After all, the iconic name is front and center of the landmark civil rights case that desegregated several of the county’s public schools in 1947, preceding the 1954 Brown v. Board case on a national level. The Mendez family, one of five Latino families which challenged several school districts in the county on their practice of Mexican-only schools, had their name immortalized in history. But the Mendezes would not have been able to lead the legal charge if it was not for another family of color, the Munemitsus, the Japanese American …

Finding A Place For World War I In American History: 1914-2018, Jennifer D. Keene

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"World War I has occupied an uneasy place in the American public and political consciousness.1 In the 1920s and 1930s, controversies over the war permeated the nation’s cultural and political life, influencing memorial culture and governmental policy. Interest in the war, however, waned considerably after World War II, a much larger and longer war for the United States. Despite a plethora of scholarly works examining nearly every aspect of the war, interest in the war remains limited even among academic historians. In many respects, World War I became the “forgotten war” because Americans never developed a unifying collective memory about …

Chicanx Murals: Decolonizing Place And (Re)Writing The Terms Of Composition, Nora K. Rivera

English Faculty Articles and Research

Drawing from an interpretive decolonial framework that understands multimodal writing as the act of creating co-composed knowledge, this article analyzes Chicanx murals as multimodal compositions that exemplify the continuation of the Aztec tlacuilolitztli practice of writing with images. This work also invites rhetoric and composition scholars to reexamine Western understandings of history, particularly the history of writing.

The Good War?: Reinterpreting The Second World War In Contemporary Musical Theatre, Leana Sottile

SURF Posters and Papers

For years, American musicals have contributed to the mythologization of the Second World War and upheld ‘Greatest Generation’ nostalgia in mainstream war memory. For example, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is effectively silent on the brutality and dehumanization of the Pacific Theater and exoticizes the experience of service members. In the past five years, the New York theatre scene has seen three shows that portray the Second World War more accurately and less romantically: Allegiance, Bandstand, and Alice by Heart. While none of these shows ran for longer than a few months in New York, in that short …

“What For Is Democracy?”: The German American Bund In The American Press, 1936-1941, Minna Thrall

Voces Novae

Between 1936 and 1941, an American pro-Nazi organization called the German American Bund stirred outrage and controversy among Americans. The American perception of the Bund was largely influenced by newspapers, which portrayed some of the Bund’s issues as more important than others. These portrayals reveal American attitudes and anxieties toward the state of racism, nationalism, fascism, and democracy within the United States at the brink of WWII.

Desegregation Through Entertainment: Rodgers And Hammerstein’S South Pacific As An Instrument Of Military Policy, Leana Sottile

Voces Novae

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific became a staple of mainstream popular culture. However, the musical also served a specific function within the American military where its usage by the United Service Organizations and Department of Defense was widespread. This case study examines how South Pacific arguably served a way to ease the blow of desegregation on the military by other means, in this case, entertainment. This was achieved by combining the show’s progressive views on racial tolerance with the prevalent wartime nostalgia and romanticism in the piece. All of …

Too Much And Too Graphic: Dr. Ruth Westheimer And The Struggle For 1980s And 1990s Feminism, Louisa Marshall

Voces Novae

During the second wave of feminism, spanning from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s, the United States saw unprecedented levels of change regarding the status of women. However, the conservative administrations of Reagan and H.W. Bush that followed turned the tides against the feminist movement and towards re-establishing traditional gender roles. Trail blazing women, including sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, dedicated their 20th century careers to combating traditional sentiment, thus changing gender roles forever.

Inkatha, Propaganda, And Violence In Kwazulu-Natal In The 1980s And 90s, Michael Macinnes

Voces Novae

In 1980s and 1990s, Apartheid was entering its twilight in South Africa but a state of low density civil war existed in the province of KwaZulu-Natal between the African National Congress/United Democratic Front and Inkatha. This paper seeks to come to a better understanding of the violence of this time period and in this region by exploring the factors that motivated individual Inkatha supporters to engage in violence. The motivation factors discussed in this paper are Political Propaganda, Coercion, and Opportunistic Violence.

Nationalistic Massacre Victims Triumph Over Ccp, Nathan Huffine

Voces Novae

Following the Japanese invasion of mainland China, and the subsequent Nanjing Massacre in 1937, Chinese Massacre survivors gained a nationalistic perspective as a result of their lived experiences. Later, these survivors’ nationalistic perspective came in direct conflict with the class-based perspective held by the Chinese Communist Party. This clash in political views helps shed light upon much of the internal and external Chinese historical narrative throughout the mid to late twentieth century.

A War To Save Civilization: African American Soldiers In Britain During The Second World War, Joseph Dickinson

Voces Novae

During the Second World War, thousands of African American servicemen and women were sent to the British Isles as part of the war effort. Their arrival sparked a debate over American racial beliefs and how they would affect society in Britain, with many white Americans quickly finding that the locals were largely disapproving of the systems of segregation and discrimination common in the United States. Conflicts concerning race often escalated into violence between white soldiers, black soldiers, and the British civilians, forcing the American military to reevaluate their stance on discrimination and segregation in the armed forces.

Nicaragua's Response To Covid-19 – Authors' Reply, Mateo Jarquin, Andrea M. Prado, Benjamin Gallo Marin

History Faculty Articles and Research

An author's to John Perry's commentary ("Nicaragua's Response to COVID-19"), which was itself written in response to Mather, Gallo Marin, Medina Perez, et al.'s "Love in the Time of COVID-19: Negligence in the Nicaraguan Response".

Original article: Salazar Mather TP, Gallo Marin B, Medina Perez G, et al. Love in the time of COVID-19: negligence in the Nicaraguan response. The Lancet Global Health. 2020;8(6):e773. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30131-5 Perry's commentary: Perry J. Nicaragua’s response to COVID-19. The Lancet Global Health. Published online April 2020. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30218-7

A La Sombra De La Revolución Sandinista: Nicaragua, 1979-2019, Mateo Jarquín Chamorro

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Como suele suceder en cualquier sociedad conmovida por la pérdida abrupta del statu quo, el análisis de la historia vuelve a la moda en Nicaragua. La sociedad civil y la clase política buscan en el pasado las respuestas a las mismas preguntas planteadas por este libro: ¿cómo hemos llegado hasta aquí? ¿Qué perspectivas se abren para el futuro?

A primera vista, lucen imperantes las continuidades en la historia de Nicaragua. La consolidación de una nueva dictadura con pretensiones dinásticas invita a comparaciones evidentes con el proyecto somocista y hace eco de una larga tradición caudillista. Asimismo, lucen intactos los hábitos …

Review Of Religion As Resistance: Negotiating Authority In Italian Libya, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Eileen Ryan's Religion as Resistance: Negotiating Authority in Italian Libya.

Chapman's Berlin Wall As A Display Of Tribal Victory, Cameron Steiner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

From early contact between hunter-gatherer tribes, through the Middle Ages and to even modern times, societies in conflict would frequently engage in the intimidation tactic of severing the heads of their rivals and placing them upon spikes or poles. More than a means to warn away those who came upon it, these displays would exhibit the power and superiority of one tribe over the other. While the most explicit forms of this custom are no longer in widespread use, their gestures of dominance continue to be practiced in objects and figures that are given symbolic significance, typically representing the victory …

Review Of The Promise And Peril Of Credit: What A Forgotten Legend About Jews And Finance Tells Us About The Making Of European Commercial Society, Jared Rubin

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

A review of The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society, by Francesca Trivellato, published by Princeton University Press.

Planning For A War In Paradise: The 1966 Honolulu Conference And The Shape Of The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

This article explores the impact of one of the key non-military events in the U.S. war in Vietnam, at least in the crucial years from 1964 to 1968. During a two-day U.S.–South Vietnamese conference held in Honolulu in early 1966, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk laid out a series of overarching strategic objectives, both military and political, that shaped the allied war effort through the 1968 Tet offensive, and even beyond. The goals outlined at the summit remained the touchstone of U.S. military strategy until they were superseded in 1969 by a policy …

Media Discourses That Normalize Colonial Relations: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of (Im)Migrants And Refugees, Meng Zhao, Jorge Rodriguez, Lilia D. Monzó

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The im(migration) and refugee crisis that are being exacerbated under the Trump administration, is a manifestation of empire-building and the long history of colonization of the Global South. A Marxist-humanist perspective recognizes these as consistent aspects of a clearly racist global capitalism that functions in the interest of multibillion dollar U.S.–based corporations and increasingly transnational corporations. Trade agreements, international economic policy, political intervention, invasion or the threat of these, often secure corporate interests in specific countries and regions. The authors use critical discourse analysis to examine the discourses around Mexican, Central American, and Syrian im(migrants) and refugees as examples of …

Introduction To Stalin's Soviet Justice: "Show" Trials, War Crimes Trials, And Nuremberg, David M. Crowe

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Once Stalin won his power struggle against his principal rival, Leon Trotsky, he adopted new campaigns to collectivize Russian agriculture and dramatically increase industrial production. He decided in the late 1920s to use "show" trials as one of the ways to respond to growing domestic opposition to both programs. The 'show' trials, extralegal proceedings that bore modest resemblance to more traditional Western-style trials, were carefully orchestrated to convince the public of the dire nature of such threats. Thematically, Stalin used them to highlight his fears about an ongoing threat of domestic and international forces determined to destroy the Soviet state. …

Late Imperial And Soviet "Show" Trials, 1878-1938, David M. Crowe

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"According to Cassidy, the imperial 'show' trials, which began in the 1870s, were a series of 'highly publicized public spectacles that spread the ideas of Russian radicalism even as they condemned the radicals themselves to imprisonment, exile, hard labor, civil death, or execution.'⁴ They also became a source of 'popular entertainment' that drew large audiences and helped, according Elizabeth A. Wood, create a link in the public imagination between 'revolution and trials.' Georgii Plekhanov, one of Russia's foremost Marxists, saw the 'revolutionary trials in the 1870s and 1880s' as 'the greatest historical drama which is called the trial of …

"May Justice Be Done!" The Soviet Union And The London Conference (1945), Irina Schulmeister-André, David M. Crowe

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"The London Conference, which ended on August 8, 1945, with the signing of the London Four-Power Agreement¹ with annexed statute, was a crucial step in the planning of the Nuremberg IMT trial of major German war criminals. The joint development of the statute is regarded as an important example historically of the cooperation of the Allied Powers, who, despite their different legal traditions, found ways to reach a consensus acceptable as the legal basis for their common goal: to carry out a trial of the major war criminals. This was particularly remarkable, given that they had to negotiate the …

Review Of Levis Sullam, Simon, The Italian Executioners: The Genocide Of The Jews Of Italy, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

A book review of Simon Levis Sullam's The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy.

Translation Of "Three Jewish Men Are Accused Of Sodomy (Rome, 1624)", Shira Klein

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

A translation of "Three Jewish Men Are Accused of Sodomy (Rome, 1624)", testimony of captain Jacobus Spellatus. Dr. Klein is responsible for the translation, but did not author the editor's note at the top of the first page.