History

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/15806

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4-F: The forgotten unfit of the American military in World War II
(1/1/2013) Smith, Tiffany Leigh; Landdeck, Katherine Sharp; Travis, Paul D.; Presnall, Barbara
This research explores how different segments of American society understood, interpreted, and responded to militarily rejected men, classified as 4-F by the Selective Service System during the Second World War. The first area of this study explores the military's intent and meaning in the creation and use of a 4-F classification. The second section is dedicated to an in depth examination of African American rejection rates. As the only minority group in America kept statistically separate by the U.S. Armed Forces and the Selective Service System, special consideration is given to the circumstances and contributing factors influencing the higher rejection of black men. In contrast to official institutional understandings of 4-F, the third section discusses the social stigma and response to 4-F men on the American home front from the general public, business, and vocal politicians. The fourth section details the intimate implications of military rejection and its associative effects on dating and family life. The fifth and final section is dedicated to how and why some 4-F men sought military reclassification out of 4-F. This thesis seeks to broaden the space in the historical narrative for non-combatant men during WWII and re-examine the complex social dynamics of the U.S. home front.
Alla Delphia Clary: The Speaker's secretary
(8/30/1995) Fielder, Catherine Louise; DeMoss, Dorothy; Swain, Martha; Hodges, Lybeth
This biographical study of Alla Clary, who was Texas Congressman Sam Rayburn's secretary for more than forty years, portrays a woman who witnessed major historical events during the first half of the twentieth century. This research examines Clary's personal life and her career in Washington, D.C. Her personal diaries as well as material from the Rayburn Papers, a collection located at the Center for American History at the University of Texas, helped gain a clearer picture of Alla Clary. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to give visibility to someone whose significance has been generally overlooked in traditional historical investigation.
American imperialism?: The United States interventions in Nicaragua, 1909 to 1933
(2013-08) Binyon, Kristin Danell; Kessler, Mark; Fanning, Sarah; Belfiglio, Valentine
This thesis is an examination of the active policies of the United States in the early twentieth century and the effects of the interventions these policies influenced. This essay reveals that U.S. presence in Nicaragua from 1909 to 1933 acted as a catalyst for positive changes and developments in the political, economic and social sectors of Nicaraguan society. The interventions and military occupations from 1909 until 1933 are classified as failures by much of the existing scholarship because the U.S. failed to meet its objectives in accordance with the Tipitapa Agreement. However, the interventions positive by-products examined in this essay efficiently prove these interventions were not complete failures. Utilizing primary sources including conference proceedings, archived photographs, journals, personal papers, letters, newspaper articles as well as a multitude of secondary sources, this essay examines in detail the political, economic and social developments and advancements brought on by the 1909 to 1933 interventions in Nicaragua to add to the existing scholarship in this subject area.
An inferno of anxiety: How narratives surrounding the North Texas fires of 1860 ignited paranoia and distrust in Texas prior to secession
(May-23) Hustoft, Stefanie 01/26/1997-; Blosser, Jacob; Parker, James; Van Erve, Wouter
The purpose of this thesis was to examine the impact of the 1860 North Texas fires on Texas’ decision to secede. This research project looks at the various factors of these events. Chapter one looks at the environment of North Texas and how the dry conditions combined with white settlement practices created conditions that helped the summer fires spread. This chapter also analyzes Donald E. Reynolds’ prairie match, which claims that the North Texas fires of 1860 were caused by matches combusting from the summer heat. Chapter two looks at the animosity Texans had against northerners. A specific focus of this section is Texans’ assumption that all northerners were abolitionists who wanted to harm southerners and take away their slaves. The third chapter analyzes Texas coverage of the North Texas fires and how the narratives were manipulated to accuse abolitionists of setting fires across the region. The chapter also introduces how other southern states influenced Texas to secede during the state convention of 1861.
An inferno of anxiety: How narratives surrounding the North Texas fires of 1860 ignited paranoia and distrust in Texas prior to secession
(May-23) Hustoft, Stefanie 01/26/1997-; Blosser, Jacob; Parker, James; Van Erve, Wouter
The purpose of this thesis was to examine the impact of the 1860 North Texas fires on Texas’ decision to secede. This research project looks at the various factors of these events. Chapter one looks at the environment of North Texas and how the dry conditions combined with white settlement practices created conditions that helped the summer fires spread. This chapter also analyzes Donald E. Reynolds’ prairie match, which claims that the North Texas fires of 1860 were caused by matches combusting from the summer heat. Chapter two looks at the animosity Texans had against northerners. A specific focus of this section is Texans’ assumption that all northerners were abolitionists who wanted to harm southerners and take away their slaves. The third chapter analyzes Texas coverage of the North Texas fires and how the narratives were manipulated to accuse abolitionists of setting fires across the region. The chapter also introduces how other southern states influenced Texas to secede during the state convention of 1861.
Anamnesis, myth, and the political in selected works of Murakami Haruki
(2003-12) Geer, Ruthann Jones; Hoye, Timothy; Presnall, Barbara; Alexander, Jim
This thesis analyzes two novels of the contemporary Japanese author Murakami Haruki. It seeks to dispel the premise advanced by Ōe Kenzaburo, a Nobel Laureate in Literature, which regards Murakami as an inferior writer. Murakami's fast paced style bears resemblance to Western authors and seemingly ignores the literary traditions of Japan. Through study of the development of the novel in Japan and its characteristic elements, this thesis demonstrates that Murakami utilizes many of these valued precepts in his works. Evidence further supports the contention that these novels serve an anamnestic purpose through archetypal patterns and imagery. Murakami raises political questions that proceed from being cast in shadows to a more candid dialogue concerning Japanese actions in Manchuria, the misplaced trust of Japanese citizens, and a distorted idealism of broad cross sections of the populace.
Anglo-American diplomacy on the Oregon issue, 1844-1846: A compilation of selected documents on public opinion
(1974-08) Cardenas, Maria de la Luz Rodriguez; Landry, Harral; Yarborough, Kemp; Dawson, John; Belfiglio, Valentine
Anna Raguet Irion: Writing a woman's life into Texas history
(1995-08) Norgaard, Carolyn Porter; DeMoss, Dorothy; Swain, Martha; Hodges, Lybeth; Scobie, Ingrid Winther
Anna Raguet Irion (1819-1883) came with her family from Pennsylvania by way of Cincinnati, Ohio to Nacogdoches in 1833. Her father, Henry Wynkoop Raguet, and Sam Houston became friends and political allies during the tumultuous years of the Texas Revolution and Republic of Texas. Houston, a frequent visitor with the Raguet family, became infatuated with Anna, the eldest daughter of Marcia and Henry Raguet. Smitten Sam Houston, twenty-six years her senior, sent Anna Raguet his personal token from the battlefield of San Jacinto, oak leaves, the symbolic "laurels of victory." For more than five years Houston, an inveterate letter-writer, sent gifts and letters to "the peerless Miss Anna," delivered by his close friend and Secretary of State, Robert Anderson Irion. Letters exchanged between them discussed politics, horses, poetry, all "the beauty and fashion" in society as well as Houston's divorce. Houston's unreserved, often eloquent letters to a young, unmarried woman are a rare view into the private life of the "Hero of San Jacinto" and into a pivotal era in Texas history. The courtship failed, however, and Anna Raguet eloped with Robert Irion in 1840. Anna remained close to her family in the Redlands of East Texas where she raised her five children and was active in her community until her death in Overton, Texas in 1883.
The arts in the early Renaissance court of Henry VIII, King of England: A study in royal patronage, 1509-30
(1974-08) Hodges, Lybeth; Landry, Harral; Dawson, John; Jamison, Alonzo; Yarborough, Kemp
Beyond East and West: Political melancholy in the works of Orhan Pamuk
(2013-05) Cooper, Travis; Hoye, Timothy; Travis, Paul D.; Belfiglio, Valentine
This thesis examines Orhan Pamuk's use of melancholy as a political concept. While the Nobel committee argues Pamuk's work is an example of clashing civilizations, this thesis argues Pamuk's novels examine how collective melancholy is the cause of, rather than a symptom of, political conflict. This thesis provides a conceptual analysis of melancholy, reviews the origins and uses of the term in both Western and Islamic literature, and examines how Pamuk reinvented the concept to explain Turkish political culture since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The primary sources include Pamuk's novels, essays, and speeches; medical and philosophical literature on melancholy and Sufi poetry. This thesis will show that Pamuk's reconceptualization of melancholy has political implications globally as well as in Turkey.
Beyond oil: The Cold War relationship between the United States, Britain, and the Iraqi monarchy, 1946-1958
(6/6/2018) Al-Tameemi, Rasha Talib; Landdeck, Katherine Sharp; Travis, Paul D.; Hodges, LyBeth
ABSTRACT This thesis examines Anglo-American relations in Iraq during the Cold War and evaluates the way that the conflict, along with the growing demand for oil, shaped the relationship between Great Britain and the United States and influenced the Iraqi perspective of Anglo-American relations from 1946-1958. This thesis covers the aspects of cooperation and rivalry between the United Kingdom and the United States in the period immediately following WWII during the administrations of Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Through close examination of both Western and Arabic sources, this thesis argues that dissention between the Western allies, which both powers attempted to conceal, indirectly contributed to the toppling of Iraq’s pro-Western monarchy in 1958. Thus, the Cold War trigged tensions not only between the United States and the Soviet Union but between the Western Allies as well.
Beyond orientalism: A study of three Arabic women writers
(2007-05) Elhajibrahim, Samah Samih; Hoye, Timothy; Alexander, Jim; Travis, Paul D.
In 1978, Edward Said, a Palestinian-American literary theorist, published his famous book, Orientalism. The book was an attack on the concepts of "Orient" and "Occident". Said described orientalism as a discourse that helped the West colonize the East. Recent events such as the illegal occupation of Iraq, the war on Afghanistan and U.S. interference in Lebanese affairs, all helped to bring orientalism to the fore. Today, some Arab scholars are questioning if orientalism actually ended. This study argues that orientalism did not vanish but has simply taken on a new form. The aim of this thesis is to study Edward Said's theory of orientalism and examine his notion that literary production provides the raw material of politics. To examine orientalism and colonialism in the Arab world, I use novels written by three Arab women writers (Fadia Faqir, Pillars of Salt; Yasmin Zahran, A Beggar at Damascus Gate; and Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Memory in the Flesh). The novels are used as tools with which to build the thesis that orientalism and colonialism continue, largely unchanged, and form the basis for the troubled relationship between the Western world and the Arab world. I argue that orientalist discourse still functions to justify and perpetuate the political, economic and military hegemony. This thesis also highlights the solutions introduced by Edward Said and the three novelists in order to move beyond orientalism and colonialism. By using novels to examine Edward Said's theory of orientalism, this thesis provides a twofold contribution to the field. First, it provides an example of how novels can be used to study social and political phenomena and how novelists are political thinkers who raise the consciousness of the society. Second, this thesis demonstrates how the study of the literature of other cultures can provide the reader with the opportunity to make a place in their mind for a foreign "other." Unlike the media which have the tendency to magnify the differences between cultures, novelists focus on the humanity of the characters, thus diminishing the differences between the reader and the character and providing the reader with light that illuminates, otherwise invisible problems.
Beyond the apparatus: Karl Jaspers as political theorist
(2012-05) Pierce, Phillip H.; Hoye, Timothy; Alexander, Jim
Karl Jaspers is considered a founder of existentialism and while this may be true such a characterization misses some of the fundamental aspects of his philosophy. Existentialism begins with a concept of the absurd. Jaspers' Existenz-philosophy begins with a concept of reason grounded in an experience of transcendence, similar to the teachings of a classical, philosophic tradition with roots in the works of Plato and Aristotle. The philosophy of Karl Jaspers, while modern, also continues in the classical tradition; Jaspers diagnoses the conditions of the modern world as a product of what he calls an Apparatus. Although written in 1930 to describe the political situation in the heart of Europe at the beginning of the National Socialist movement in Germany, the concept of an Apparatus exists in political conditions in nations around the world today, including within the United States. This thesis presents a conceptual analysis of "Existenz-philosphy" in selected works of Karl Jaspers and how his work contributes to an understanding of global political dynamics in today's world.
Biafra: A study in national self-determination and tribalism in Nigeria
(1977-05) Justice, Madeline Carol; Belfiglio, Valentine; Landry, Harral
Bui Doi: Vietnamese Amerasian experiences in Vietnam and the United States
(2004-05) Olmsted, Elizabeth; Travis, Paul D.; Hoye, Timothy; Robb, Jeffrey
When examining the devastation of the Vietnam War, the experiences of the children of American soldiers and Vietnamese women: the Bui Doi, “children of the dust,” must be considered. Discriminated, ostracized and unwanted because of the origins of their births, Amerasians have suffered racial hatred to an unimaginable extent. In the United States and Vietnam, they have existed as a people without a country, children without a homeland and individuals without a culture. This is an investigation into the experiences and realities of the Amerasians. By utilizing primary and secondary sources: interviews, government documents, books, articles, and periodicals, this investigation examines the nature of the United States' involvement in Vietnam, the race relations and oppression in each society, as well as the experiences of Amerasians in both countries. This investigation yields an understanding of the discrimination, oppression and dislocation suffered by Amerasians in Vietnam and the United States.
The Civil War in North Central Texas: Its impact on frontier families, 1860-1874
(1991-05) Box, Grady W.; DeMoss, Dorothy
The Civil War was experienced differently by north central Texas frontier families in Clay, Collin, Cooke, Denton, Fannin, Grayson, Jack, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Wise and Young counties. In 1860, many viewed these remote frontier counties as a refuge from the impending violence and there was considerable sympathy for the Union cause. Later, however, Union sentiment was displaced by a growing support for the Confederate war effort and the imperative to provide local common defenses against hostile Indian attacks. Frontier living was exacerbated by a general lack of governmental security, poor communications, manpower shortages, geographical isolation and an almost total privation of basic human necessities. Despite the development of the buffalo and cattle industries in the postwar years, indifference by federal officials resulted in violent frontier conditions until 1874, slowed economic recovery and created lasting social consequences well into the twentieth century.
The concepts of sovereignty at the American founding
(2003-08) Butler, Alice A.; Hoye, Timothy; Belfiglio, Valentine; Alexander, Jim
This thesis examines the importance and influences of the concepts of sovereignty throughout the establishment of the United States structure of government. It is an examination of the different aspects of sovereignty identified from the early days of colonization through the ratification of the Constitution. Five specific concepts of sovereignty are recognized. These are absolute sovereignty, state sovereignty, popular sovereignty, individual sovereignty and national sovereignty. Each of these concepts of sovereignty played a major role in the writing of the Constitution, and has contributed to the flexibility, balance, and strength of the American government. Sovereignty continues to play a key role in international politics as well as those in the United States. It continues to be an important aspect of government that needs to be studied and considered.
The decline and fall of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey
(1979-08) Oubre, Virginia Carmical; Landry, Harral E.; Belfiglio, Valentine; Yarborough, Kemp
Elizabeth Whitear Sermon Camm: Atypical Mormon pioneer
(8/30/2017) McLaurin, Denise; Travis, Paul D.; Hodges, Lybeth; Olsen, Jonathan
This study examines the life of one Mormon pioneer woman, Elizabeth Whitear Sermon Camm, who immigrated to the United States with a specific dream of reaching Utah and living among other members of her faith. Everything went terribly wrong when she crossed the Plains with the Martin Handcart Company, which became one of the worst disasters of the westward migration in American history due to an early winter and scarce food rations. When Elizabeth’s husband died during this trek west, her life took a dramatic turn. This study uses firsthand accounts, biographical accounts, and newspaper articles to compare the outcome of Elizabeth’s life to that of other women in her age group who also became widowed while crossing the Plains with the Martin Handcart Company. Elizabeth’s experience is not typical, and adds new perspective to this event.
Ethics, ambiguity, and the existential novel; A study of Simone de Beauvoir's works of fiction
(5/30/2015) Gonzalez, Sylvia; Hoye, Timothy; Belfiglio, Valentine; Presnall, Barbara
This thesis analyzes five novels of the existentialist French author Simone de Beauvoir. It seeks to challenge the arguments presented by many scholars, which regard Simone de Beauvoir's work as subordinate to and dependent on Jean Paul Sartre's work. Secondly, too many see her only as a feminist philosopher and little more. Through the study of Simone de Beauvoir's works of fiction, this thesis demonstrates that Beauvoir goes beyond both Sartre's work and feminism. Through settings, characters, and plots, inspired by Beauvoir's reading of G.W.F. Hegel as interpreted by Alexandre Kojève, these works of fiction illuminate key concepts in her philosophic essays, particularly her Ethics of Ambiguity.

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