United States History Commons^™

What Pandemic?: Physical Memorialization Of The 1918 Pandemic, Carly M. Kauffman

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Throughout history there have been many significant events the people find worth remembering. Some of these events are significant enough that people build structures to honor, commemorate, or memorialize them. However, there are some events that are also significant, yet they seem to warrant little or no memorialization. In the United States' historical narrative, it seems that the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 is forgotten among the chaotic period of World War I and the interwar years. The lack of traditional memorials dedicated to the 1918 Pandemic can be attributed to the lack of acknowledgement of the pandemic in terms of …

What Produced Four Lynchings In Duluth, Minnesota In 1918 And 1920?, Gabriel Das

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis explores the context of Duluth, Minnesota between the years 1918 and 1920, and how the history, politics, and society of Duluth contributed to two separate lynchings within two years of each other. A brief history of Duluth will be established which describes its demographics, race relations, politics, and work environment in the early 20th century. The lynchings will be discussed in chronological order. Olli Kinkkonen’s murder in 1918 is analyzed within the context of World War One, nationalism, workers’ rights, and anti-Finnish sentiment in Northern Minnesota. The lynchings of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie will be …

The Past As "Ahead": A Circular History Of Modern Chamorro Activism, Gabby Lupola

Pomona Senior Theses

This is not a traditional thesis of the Pomona College History Department. Spanning over a century from start to finish, this work tracks the history of Guam’s political status from 1898 to 2021. To support such a lengthy timeline, snapshots of key events and trends are recounted each chapter. Chapter 1 focuses on the Spanish-American War and the local struggle for acting governorship. Chapter 2 documents the impact of World War II, the Organic Act of Guam, modernization and early Chamorro activism on island. Chapter 3 depicts the evolution of late 20^th century Chamorro activism through a model of …

Whitewashed: A Look Into The Evolution Of Race Conversations In American Classrooms, Lily M. Walters

Senior Independent Study Theses

This paper seeks to follow the evolution of race conversations in the classroom through generations of people after the Civil War. My thesis is that curriculum excluded positive mentions of Black people after the Civil War until the Civil Rights Movement, when Black individuals crafted a more accurate and impartial curriculum. American curriculum’s exclusion of positive Black representation left white people unable to have positive race conversations in general. Additionally, through a case study of my family, I examine how generations of people shaped their ideas on race through conversations. The written portion of my IS begins with curriculum from …

Review Essay: "America's Hometown" Revisited, Drew Lopenzina

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"A Period Of Misunderstanding": Reforming Jim Crow In Richmond, Virginia, 1930-1954, Marvin T. Chiles

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Neuman, Johanna. Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites Who Fought For Women’S Right To Vote, Kelly L. Marino

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Kelly L. Marino.

Neuman, J. (2019). Gilded suffragists: The New York socialites who fought for women’s right to vote. New York University Press.

Interpretresses: Native American Women Translators In Colonial America, Faith Clarkson

Undergraduate Research Awards

Underlying all the disputes and treaties between native Americans and Europeans was the need for an understanding of what the groups were saying to each other. Translation was the common denominator throughout the numerous interactions between native tribes in America and colonists coming over from Europe. In colonial America, translators were crucial to establishing relationships between native Americans and the Europeans that came to North America to create colonies. These interpreters operated in the in-between of two different cultures and they needed to be knowledgeable enough about both of them to correctly convey meaning to either side. It was also …

John Andrew Jackson: Enslaved Resistance, Uncle Tom’S Cabin, And The Downfall Of American Chattel Slavery, Alexander Ernst

Undergraduate Research Awards

John Andrew Jackson was a former slave who lived in the early-to-middle nineteenth century. After escaping slavery in South Carolina and making his way north to Massachusetts, Jackson was forced to head to Canada after the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. Jackson lectured about his experiences as a slave after he travelled to England and he eventually returned to South Carolina after the Civil War, to the place where he was enslaved, where he worked to improve the lives of other former slaves. During his journey to Canada Jackson met Harriet Beecher Stowe, who housed Jackson and helped him …

A Noble Duty: Ladies’ Aid Associations In Upstate South Carolina During The Civil War, Elizabeth Aranda, Carmen Harris

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

The contributions of women during the American Civil War have been typically examined within the broader picture of a nation or state-wide mobilization of citizens during a time of war. In this paper, I seek to show the mobilization of women during the Civil War from a regionalized perspective limited to the Upcountry of South Carolina and the effect their development of aid societies had on the war as well as on their place as white women in the Confederacy. Female-run aid societies began for the purpose of gathering supplies for soldiers. Within two years they had founded hospitals and …

Barbara Powers: Witch Or Myth? The Last Case Of Witchcraft In South Carolina, Brandon Smith, Bobbie Jo Wimberly, Courtney Mcdonald

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

Was an elderly woman from the upstate of South Carolina the last to be accused of and put on trial for witchcraft in the United States? In this paper, we investigate claims from an old letter sent to the president of South Carolina College to determine whether or not Barbara Powers was truly accused of witchcraft during a criminal trial. After thoroughly investigating census data, court records, marriage records, and other historical data in the named counties and those surrounding them, we were unable to determine conclusively if the trial was real or fabricated. Despite not knowing if the case …

100 Years Ago In The Tyler Daily Courier-Times, Vicki Betts

Presentations and Publications

Chronology of significant events appearing in the Tyler Daily Courier-Times in 1921, in the Chronicles of Smith County, Texas (2021)

Personal Experiences Of Lindsey Zollars During The Civil War, Vicki Betts

Presentations and Publications

Reminiscences of Lindsey Zollars,106^th Illinois Cavalry, of his capture at Marks’ Mills, Arkansas and imprisonment at Camp Ford near Tyler, Texas during the Civil War. Chronicles of Smith County (2021), edited by Vicki Betts and Randal B. Gilbert.

1861 Minutes Of The Commissioners Court, Vicki Betts

Presentations and Publications

Transcription of the minutes of the 1861 Smith County Commissioners Court, including lists of jurors, road crews, slave patrols, and the appointment of men to take a firearms census in Smith County. In Chronicles of Smith County, Texas (2021), edited by Vicki Betts.

"To Claim That Greatness For Themselves”: A History Of The Kentucky Horse Park, Emily Elizabeth Libecap

Theses and Dissertations--History

The Kentucky Horse Park describes itself as the world’s only equine theme park. However, the park is not entirely without historical precedent; instead, world’s fairs, amusement parks, and theme parks all form a century-long pedigree chart through which the park can trace its ancestors. The Kentucky Horse Park’s links to these predecessors deepen our understanding of how the park is a reflection of the world around it and the motivations for how and why it was built. From its inception in the late 1960s, to when it opened in 1978, through the present day, the Kentucky Horse Park was and …

To “Reawaken The Conscience Of Mankind”: The International War Crimes Tribunal And Transnational Human Rights Activism During The Vietnam War, 1966-1967, Cody J. Foster

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation looks at the International War Crimes Tribunal (IWCT) as a vessel for human rights’ ideas during the Vietnam War. I argue that the IWCT supported a transnational advocacy network that used the language of human rights to oppose the Vietnam War and rally support from those around the world who stood against American imperialism. On the one hand, the tribunal precedes the institutionalization of human rights in the 1970s. On the other, it is an extension of the human rights norms that emerge after World War II through the passage of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights …

Building Public Health In A Rural State: Strategies For Preventing Disease In Kentucky, 1883-1914, Abigail Stephens

Theses and Dissertations--History

During the period from 1883-1914, the Kentucky State Board of Health developed strategies for preventing disease in the state by enforcing hard power measures of vaccination, quarantine, and isolation of disease suspects, and through the soft power measures of written and spoken communication. Throughout this period their efforts to prevent and contain disease were limited by inadequate funding as well as opposition from the public, local authorities, and the state legislature, demonstrating that while hard power measures can be effective in combating disease, they cannot be fully successful without support from the people they aim to protect.

Appalachia On The Airwaves: A History Of Public And Educational Television In The Southern Mountains, Carson Benn

Theses and Dissertations--History

Through a series of historical case studies of individual states within the multi-state region of the Appalachian mountain range, as well as the region as a whole, this dissertation examines educational television (ETV) operations, both at the network level and that of individual stations. Though mostly thought of as “public television”—an educational and noncommercial alternative to mainstream broadcast media—these ETV networks offered, I argue, something more analogous to present-day understandings of distance education and the use of instructional media and technology. Station directors, philanthropic benefactors, and school administrators took different approaches to providing the service of ETV, but all were …

Statelessness And Contested Sovereignty In The Middle East: The United States, Palestinian Refugees, The Muslim Brotherhood, Syrian Ethnic Minorities, And The Early Cold War, 1945 – 1954, John Perry

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation examines the significance of America’s interactions with stateless actors. It argues that it was groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine’s refugees, and ethnic minorities, not the U.S. and Soviet governments, nor the state governments of the region, which dictated how the Cold War unfolded in the Middle East. These groups transformed the policy decisions, strategies, and alliances of both native regimes and the superpowers. Traditionally, historians have looked at the global politics of the Cold War through the lens of state-to-state relations. How have state governments interacted with each other and how did this influence the strategies …

“Escaped From Dixie:” Civil War Refugees And The Creation Of A Confederate Diaspora, Stefanie Greenhill

Theses and Dissertations--History

My dissertation, “‘Escaped from Dixie:’ Civil War Refugees and the Creation of a Confederate Diaspora,” examines the experiences of the half a million people who fled from the Confederacy to Union territory under duress during the U.S. Civil War—a massive, diverse movement that had a lasting impact on the nation’s reconstruction in the aftermath of the war. My research considers what prompted refugees to leave, as well as what logistics those escaping from the Confederacy and resettling elsewhere considered, especially in the absence of any formal institutions for the aid of refugees in the nineteenth century. The handful of studies …

A Holy Tug Of War: Us Christians Against The Contras (1970-1990), Mark Maxwell Brown

Theses and Dissertations--History

After the Sandinista revolution of 1979 ousted the longstanding Somoza dynasty of Nicaragua, the small Central American nation became an obsession of US foreign policy as the Reagan administration committed its efforts to deposing the leftist revolutionary government through the funding and training of the Contras, a counter-revolutionary guerrilla group. With the Cold War at a boiling point, continued control and influence over Central America became a pillar of US anticommunist agenda. Uniquely, many of the most ardent critics of the Reagan administration during this period of violent intervention were Christian missionaries. The Sandinistas were able to defeat the Somoza …

“The Spirit Of Revolution:” The Impact Of Rum On The Formation Of The United States, Charles Streator

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the impact of rum, be it the distillation, consumption, or trade of it, upon the formation of the American Revolution and the desire of American Colonists for independence. Through the analysis of three distinct subfactors: rum as an economic force, rum as a political tool, and the cultural and societal impacts of the rum trade and its subsequent removal from the American ethos, this project contends that rum as a commodity became a driving factor in the creation of the United States. While much has been written on the roles of stamps, sugar, and tea in the …

Regulating Rideshare In Progressive Era California Cities: Jitneys In San Francisco And Los Angeles 1914-1919, Nathaniel Huntington

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis looks at the regulatory responses to the jitney craze from San Francisco and Los Angeles municipal governments from 1914-1919. Beyond just looking at jitneys as a new form of public transportation, it seeks to understand discussions about the right to public space during the Progressive Era. In doing so, the burgeoning power of these city governments in shaping urban life becomes evident. Whether jitneys promoted or hurt the public good became a central question, often framed around how much space jitneys should be given. It argues that in regulating where the jitney could operate, municipalities sought to maintain …

15 Nr 2005 Grenadier Battalion Köhler, Graff, From September 1781 Vacant Graff, From July 1782 Platte -1779 – 1784 (January – April), Johannes Schwalm Historical Association

Schwalm Marburg Files

No abstract provided.

“Educators Of The Public Taste”: Post-Civil War Textbook Publishing And The American History Textbook, Andrea T. Traietti

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Backfire: How The Rise Of Neoliberalism Facilitated The Rise Of The Far Right, Jacob Fuller

Capstone Showcase

The U.S. far right has become increasingly mainstream in contemporary American politics. In this paper, I analyze the theory that the far right has gained ground due to a backlash from neoliberal policies beginning in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. Using Process tracing, I operationalize claims made by those arguing that the white working class has moved towards the far right due to their loss of status, as well as the theory that specific wealthy actors have mobilized these groups and altered the movement against neoliberalism to suit their interests. I find that these arguments have merit, and further the …

America’S Presidential Crisis Of Legitimacy: How The Electoral College Became Obsolete And How We Can Fix It, Julia Rose Foodman

Scripps Senior Theses

The goal of this thesis is to critique the current American Presidential electoral system, the Electoral College, and to show what an alternative could potentially mean for the American people. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: What are the main arguments for the Electoral College, why are they troubling, and how can we mend American Presidential elections for the greater purposes of political equality, democracy, and freedom? To do so, core arguments made by conservative pundits in favor of the Electoral College are outlined in order to bring attention to their logical, political, and moral inconsistencies. The inequalities …

Archives Of “Sexual Deviance”: Recovering The Queer Prisoner, Vic Overdorf

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Queer federal prisoners are a population often inaccessible to queer memory due to the strong institutional barriers that separate these individuals from life outside of prison walls. This paper asks: how can we employ feminist methodologies in the recovery of queer voices from federal prison archives? By documenting perceived deviance and perversions, carceral institutions in the 1930s-1950s built a case to justify their use of discursive and physical violence against queer bodies. This paper argues that carceral archives serve as norming mechanisms, creating barriers between normal and abnormal, heterosexual and homosexual. To counter this norming, Ann Laura Stoler (2002) provides …

Centralizing The Purse: Why A More Centralized National Government Was Crucial For Managing America's Revolutionary War Debt, Ethan Berg

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Research on the American Revolutionary debt has particularly focused on the leadership of American financial figures: most notably Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris and U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. While scholars affirm their indispensable leadership, they also acknowledge institutional and political conditions that distinguish their tenures. This CE/T seeks to further analyze these conditions. It draws upon scholarly works while evaluating different aspects and time frames of Americas’ public debt, including the initial accumulation of debt, the tenure of Robert Morris, the formation of the U.S. Constitution, and the tenure of Alexander Hamilton. The CE/T also analyzes the papers of …

Drag Magazine: A Study Of Community, Olivia Austin

Departmental Honors Projects

This research aims to understand the trans/drag community and its relationship to political activism and the lesbian and gay community in the 1970s and early 1980s. I aim to answer the following questions: How did Drag perceive the relationship between the gay/lesbian community and the trans/drag community? How did Drag function in the trans/drag community? How did Drag benefit its readers? Transgender individuals and drag queens were at the forefront of activism in the1960s during the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot and the Stonewall Inn Riots. Recently, there has been more attention to the critical transgender activism by Marsha P. Johnson and …