United States History Commons^™

Creating The Back Ward: The Triumph Of Custodialism And The Uses Of Therapeutic Failure In Nineteenth Century Idiot Asylums, Philip M. Ferguson

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"My focus in this chapter is on the origin of the back ward rather than its demise. Where did the “back wards” that [Burton] Blatt and [Senator Robert] Kennedy witnessed come from in the first place? What 3 exactly were those “antecedents of the problems observed” that Blatt cited? This chapter reviews that history and argues that, in fact, there is a specific narrative to the evolution of the institutional “back ward” as an identifiable place where people with the most significant intellectual disabilities were to be incarcerated and largely forgotten."

Realignment: Highways And Livability Policy In The Post-Interstate Era, 1978–2013, Michael R. Fein

Humanities Department Faculty Publications & Research

While federal policy makers have pursued “livable” communities since the late 1970s, they have rarely agreed on precisely what “livability” entailed and how best to achieve it. When U.S. Secretary of the Department of Transportation Ray LaHood promised in 2009 to make livability the hallmark of an ambitious interagency partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency—and, in the process, to undo long-standing patterns of auto-dependency—it appeared that LaHood was poised to shift American transportation policy in a bold new direction. And yet other policies, such as those that govern the alignment of highway …

The Heartland Of The Democracy: Presidential Politics In Oley Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, 1860-64, Benjamin Petersheim

Masters Theses

Oley Township, founded in 1740, in Berks County, Pennsylvania holds a special place in the commonwealth's history because of its unique religious, political, and cultural history. With hundreds of historic buildings and its Pennsylvania German heritage, the heart of the Oley Valley continues to attract colonial and Pennsylvania German historians from great distances so that they are able to analyze and research its rich heritage. Indeed, the area was designated as a National Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and much of the farmland has been preserved through land trusts and historical preservation efforts. Many …

Book Review Of A Companion To James Madison And James Monroe, Dinah Mayo-Bobee

ETSU Faculty Works

Review of A Companion to James Madison and James Monroe edited by Stuart Leibiger

‘Liberty Is The Word With Me’ The Ideologies And Allegiances Of Civil War Soldiers In Hamilton County, James J. W. Scott

Honors Theses

This case study of Hamilton County, Tennessee investigates Civil War soldiers to determine how the county was divided and why men chose to fight for the Union or the Confederacy. Using descriptive statistics and Grounded Theory Method, this study analyzes census data, military records, and personal correspondence to show that Confederate soldiers were concentrated in urban areas as wealthy businessmen or poor laborers, while Unionists dominated rural areas mostly as middleclass small farm owners. This research reveals that Confederates adopted an identity and ideology similar to other states in the Confederacy through railroad and business connections, and Unionists resented a …

South Carolina Press Opinions Toward The Spanish-American War And Territorial Annexation Of 1898, Maria Cinquemani

All Theses

Historians have contested the origins and aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898 for over a century. Whether in pursuit of political, economic, or humanitarian goals, the nation entered the war with Spain enthusiastically and emerged victorious, with several new annexed territories in its possession. One of the most important factors to the success of the war was the overwhelming public support, driven largely by the popular press and the famous 'yellow journalists' of the time. Despite being a brief war, historians have praised it as the event that united the North and South following the tensions of the Civil …

Revolution, Rebellion And Subversion In Us History: Government And Public Response, Christie F. Andrle

History Theses

The main objective of this thesis is to identify and examine the trends throughout American history regarding how the government has responded to internal conflicts. From the Revolution to the post-9/11 years, the United States government has dealt with numerous instances of tension and conflict with its citizens, often resulting in restrictive legislation or other measures suppressing liberty.

The primary methods used in exploring this subject include comparison and evaluation of the public and government responses to such conflicts. Previous historical analysis of events and laws, public commentary, and firsthand accounts of individual experiences are drawn upon to illustrate the …

Urban Undertaking: Changes In The Land And The Decline Of Spatial Quality In Buffalo, Ny, 1951-2011, Timothy Tielman

History Theses

The City of Buffalo in 1880 was a densely developed city of 180,000 people. Its success was built upon reducing the friction of space between it (and its Great lakes hinterland) and the Atlantic seaboard, first with the Erie Canal, then with railroads. Within the city, people walked or used carriages or streetcars pulled by horses on iron rails. Freight was moved mostly with horse and wagon. These were centripetal forces, concentrating people and economic activity in an ever-denser core as the city grew. Changes to this landscape began to be seen in fundamental ways in the early 1950s, and …

Divine Economy: George Rapp, The Harmony Society, And Jacksonian Democracy, James Tomney

Masters Theses

Divine Economy: George Rapp, the Harmony Society, and Jacksonian Democracy is a chronological exploration of the sucesses achieved, conflicts encountered, and eventual demise of George Rapp's Harmony Society. During its one-hundred year existence as it awaited the Second Coming of Christ, three successful agricultural and manufacturing towns were created by the Society out of the wilderness. Also explored is the impact Jacksonian Democracy had on George Rapp's Harmony Society during the 1824 to 1847 period, as is the contribution the Society made to American industrialization after George Rapp's death in 1847.

"They Cannot Catch Guerrillas In The Mountains Any More Than A Cow Can Catch Fleas": Guerrilla Warfare In Western Virginia, 1861-1865, Karissa Marken

Masters Theses

The American Civil War unleashed great violence and chaos in the western mountains of Virginia. The guerrilla warfare there between Unionists and secessionists remained bitter throughout the war. No historical study has considered the entirety of pre-war western Virginia during the time it underwent a unique civil war within the context of the national struggle from 1861-1865. This study supports findings from studies of other areas of Appalachia that seek to explain the prevalence of such conflict in the mountains, challenges the myth of a Union Appalachia during the war, offers the backdrop for the political wrangling on both state …

Black Radicals And Marxist Internationalism: From The Iwma To The Fourth International, 1864–1948, Charles R. Holm

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project investigates historical relationships between Black Radicalism and Marxist internationalism from the mid-nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century. It argues that contrary to scholarly accounts that emphasize Marxist Euro-centrism, or that theorize the incompatibility of “Black” and “Western” radical projects, Black Radicals helped shape and produce Marxist theory and political movements, developing theoretical and organizational innovations that drew on both Black Radical and Marxist traditions of internationalism. These innovations were produced through experiences of struggle within international political movements ranging from the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century to the early Pan-African movements and struggles …

Virginia's Pursuit Of Self-Government : The Effects Of The Civil War And Interregnum On England's First Successful Colony In North America, 1652-1660., Lloyd Franklin Fowler

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of The Benefit: How Wilbur Mills's Expansion Of Medicare Led To Escalating Medical Costs, Sirmad Chaudhary

Undergraduate Honors Theses

For much of the early 1960s, House Ways and Means chairman Wilbur Mills represented the “One-Man Veto” on Medicare before eventually offering his reluctant support to the measure in 1964 and 1965. Ironically, this longtime opponent would be the one to suggest an expansion in the scope of the bill. Early proposals for Medicare only offered to cover hospital costs; Mills would call for physician costs to be covered, as well. The aim of this thesis is to show how Mills’s expansion of Medicare benefits in 1965 caused health care costs to skyrocket in the late 1960s, causing the fiscally …

Hollywood’S Invention Of The Native American, And The Myth Of The Cowboy As A History, Kathleen Labbe

All Theses And Dissertations

A major institution in perpetuating beliefs of Native Americans as the “other” during the Twentieth Century was the Hollywood Western. This highly popular genre perpetuated the myth of Native Americans as the “other,” an animal like savage that could be saved only with the intervention and assimilation of White ideals and society. This paper focuses on the following questions. Firstly, why and how has the Native American been continuingly labeled, invented, and accepted as the other both in American academia and the cultural consciousness? Lastly, how has the myth of the good, white, rugged pioneer cowboy versus the savage Native …

Echoes Of Environmentalist Sensibilities: Exploring The Origins Of A Movement, Hannah Raines

Honors Theses

In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt demonstrated tremendous foresight by organizing a conference of state governors, congressmen, and Supreme Court justices to address what he considered “the weightiest problem” facing the United States: diminishing natural resources. In the gathering’s opening address, he articulated his concerns as follows: “The occasion for the meeting lies in the fact that the natural resources of our country are in danger of exhaustion if we permit the old wasteful methods of exploiting them longer to continue.” A year prior, in his annual address to Congress, Roosevelt stated, “Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to …

Ella Deloria: A Dakota Woman’S Journey Between An Old World And A New, Susana Grajales Geliga

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The subject of this thesis is a Yankton Dakota Sioux woman named Ella Cara Deloria who lived from 1889 to 1972. The intent of this thesis is to use her own construct of an educated Indigenous woman to examine her personal and professional life as a middle figure between a world of Dakota traditionalism and a modern academic arena during an era of intellectual curiosity about Native Americans. She flowed between these worlds to become a distinguished author and accomplished Dakota woman who built bridges of understanding between cultures. Ella initially set out to follow the patriarchs in her family …

A Beacon Of Light: Tougaloo During The Presidency Of Dr. Adam Daniel Beittel (1960-1964), John Gregory Speed

Dissertations

This study examines leadership efforts that supported the civil rights movements that came from administrators and professors, students and staff at Tougaloo College between 1960 and 1964. A review of literature reveals that little has been written about the college‘s role in the Civil Rights Movement during this time. Thus, one goal of this study is to fill a gap in the historical record.

A second purpose of this study is to examine the challenges of progressive leadership at a historically Black college in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement when a White president was at the helm.

When Dr. …

A Leatherneck In Congress: Melvin Maas's Fight For A Modern Marine Corps Reserve, Timothy A. Guill

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Melvin J. Maas was a Marine Corps officer, combat pilot, and member of Congress. Maas’s unique view of American defense in the Interwar Period led him to promote the modernization the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve, which resulted in the formation of a well trained pool of semi-professional personnel prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. This study first examines the evolution of the formation of the reserve system of the American Armed Forces during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in order to understand the state of the Marine Corps Reserve that Maas joined in 1925. …

“Thank God It’S Only Maneuvers!:” Tennessee And The Road To War, Joshua G. Savage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Thank God It’s Only Maneuvers!:” Tennessee and the Road to War offers the reader a comprehensive explanation of the importance of the Tennessee Maneuvers of June 1941 to American preparation for World War II. Beginning with pre-war changes in the infantry, followed by the inception of the Armored Force, and continuing through the testing of both during the 1941 Maneuvers, the reader will gain an appreciation of the significance of these actions to overall American preparation before and during the Second World War. This work also presents a look at how these extensive combat actions influenced the people of the …

The Grizzly, May 1, 2014, Dave Muoio, Deana Harley, Jonathan Vander Lugt, Larissa Coyne, Olivia Z. Schultz, Evan Hill, Sophie Snapp, Shawn Hartigan, John Carty, Dana Feigenbaum, Giovanni Waters, Karch Connors

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Faculty Start First Creative Art Exchange at Myrin Library • UC Sustainability and Graduation Speaker Important to Upcoming Commencement • Safety and Care Remain Important RA Qualities • Bearitones and B'Naturals Will Take the Stage This Weekend for Semesterly Concerts • Ursinus Dance Company to Take the Stage This Weekend • Soccer Tournament Supports Ragball • Fulbright Winner Will Travel to Spain • Opinion: Four Loko-Type Drinks Shouldn't be Banned; Temple Cuts Cast Shadow Over Men's Gymnastics • Opinion: NFL Players Earn Every Cent • NBA Owner Accused of Making Racist Comments • Men's Lacrosse, Both Tennis Teams Finish Strong

The Infrastructure Of The Fur Trade In The American Southwest, 1821-1840, Hadyn B. Call

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Careful study of the published history of the American Southwest reveals that historians have not provided a comprehensive analysis of the infrastructure that enabled the fur trade in the American Southwest to thrive. Analysis of that infrastructure unveils an amalgamation of blended characteristics derived from the French, British, and American systems along with characteristics derived from the Southwest’s own evolutionary development over time and space. This paper will detail and explain the shared characteristics of the Southwestern fur trade’s infrastructure, emphasizing the animals, people, depots, and supplies, during the era of the soft fur trade, which dealt primarily with beaver …

Slavery, Sacred Texts, And The Antebellum Confrontation With History, Jordan Tuttle Watkins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the first six decades of the nineteenth century, America's biblical and constitutional interpreters waged their hermeneutical battles on historical grounds. Biblical scholars across the antebellum religious spectrum, from orthodox Charles Hodge's Calvinism to heterodox Theodore Parker's Transcendentalism, began to emphasize contextual readings. This development, fueled by an exposure to German biblical criticism and its emphasis on historical exegesis, sparked debate about the pertinence of biblical texts and the permanence of their teachings. In the 1830s, the resurfacing slavery issue increased the urgency to explore the biblical past for answers, which exposed differences between ancient and American slavery. Some still …

Types Of Mankind: Polygenism And Scientific Racism In The Nineteenth Century United States Scientific Community., Robert A. Smith

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of American scientists known collectively as the “American School” of ethnology challenged the validity of the biblical story of creation. They proposed that, contrary to the teaching of Genesis, there had been a number of separate divine acts of creation, leading to the appearance of more than one human species within the genus homo. They ranked the species, also known as varieties or races, in terms of relative superiority, with the Caucasian in the highest position of all.

I argue in my thesis that the rise of the American School was a defining moment …

Integrated Relationships: The Impact Of European Integration On The Special Relationship, 1969-1973, Benjamin Jared Pack

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The special relationship has long been a topic of interest to historians of US foreign relations. The general consensus has been that the years 1969-1973 were a low point for Anglo-American relations, and have therefore been dismissed as largely insignificant. Rejecting this interpretation, this thesis contends that while certainly one of the lowest moments in the history of the special relationship, the Heath-Nixon relationship reveals much about the nature of the special relationship and America's relations with its allies more broadly. Focusing on the question of European integration (and the corresponding British entry into the European Community in 1973) and …

"A Song Workers Everywhere Sing:" Zilphia Horton And The Creation Of Labor's Musical Canon, Chelsea Hodge

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Zilphia Horton, a college educated, middle class white woman from the rural American south, created the canon of music that would become central to the black freedom struggle in postwar America. Horton's work in the post-New Deal labor movement established the methods of incorporating protest music in movements of social justice that prevailed for the rest of the century. The work songs and hymns that she collected, arranged, notated, and published while music director at Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, TN--including "We Shall Overcome," "This Little Light of Mine," "We Shall Not Be Moved"--motivated generations of activists as they transformed …

Cherokee Freedmen: The Struggle For Citizenship, Bethany Hope Henry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court voted to exclude freedmen (descendants of former slaves) from voting, overturning a constitutional amendment that gave freedmen tribal rights. Cherokee freedmen argue that the Cherokee Nation is ignoring the Treaty of 1866 which granted all freedmen "rights as Cherokee citizens", and they call upon federal support to redeem their rights as equals. The Cherokee Nation, however, claims they are exercising tribal sovereignty and have a right to determine who is a member of their tribe. Using a comparative historical approach, the goal of this paper is to explore the institution of slavery among …

Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, And Second Wave Feminism, Lauren A. Stealey

Honors Theses

The First Ladyship is an ambiguous, constitutionally undefined role. The women who have inhabited this role since Martha Washington have had to interpret this role in their own ways and encounter the scrutiny or approval of their country along the way. On this national stage, these women have influenced and been influenced by contemporary conceptions of American womanhood. National discussion shifted to focus prominently on the role of women particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, in the resurgence of an organized women’s rights movement known as Second Wave Feminism.

In this qualitative study, I focused on two First Ladies during …

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942, David Dubois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942 is a chronicle of the opening days of World War II in the Pacific and the demise of the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Fleet. Beginning with the background of Four Star Admiral Thomas Hart, this chronicle shows the history of the nearly obsolete ships that fought in the beginning of World War II. The reader will come to realize how and why this fleet ceased to exist within ninety days from the start of the war. Historical evidence will show that the damage inflicted on the Japanese …

The Fall Of The House Of Dixie: The Civil War And The Social Revolution That Transformed The South, Brexton L. O'Donnell

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article reviews The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South (2013) by Bruce Levine.

Île À Vache And Colonization: The Tragic End Of Lincoln's “Suicidal Folly”, Graham D. Welch

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

Colonization, the state-sponsored emigration and resettlement of freed slaves outside the United States, was a prevalent narrative in the antebellum United States, and had a vocal adherent in Abraham Lincoln. Despite its ideological support, American colonization had few examples of emigration in action, leading to the attempted settlement on the Haitian island of Île à Vache. Led by speculators and Wall Street financiers under the aegis of the Lincoln administration, 453 black settlers departed Virginia in April 1863 for the hopes of a new, prosperous life in Haiti. The venture proved disastrous, however, as the colony was marred by disease, …