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Title: Drilling for Oil and Gas in and Near Florida: Lease Sale 181 and Beyond.
Creator: Dempsey, Angela Cote, Moore, Dennis D., Arline, Terrell K., Donoghue, Joseph F., Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the geology, history, law, policy and environmental effects of drilling for oil and gas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Annually, the Gulf supplies approximately 25% of the United States' oil and gas supplies. The U.S. Department of the Interior has divided the Gulf into three Planning Areas, the Eastern, Central, and Western. Historically, the Central and Western have had significantly more exploration and production activity than the Eastern due to lesser resources and...
Show moreThis thesis examines the geology, history, law, policy and environmental effects of drilling for oil and gas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Annually, the Gulf supplies approximately 25% of the United States' oil and gas supplies. The U.S. Department of the Interior has divided the Gulf into three Planning Areas, the Eastern, Central, and Western. Historically, the Central and Western have had significantly more exploration and production activity than the Eastern due to lesser resources and Florida law and policy. Florida bases its restrictive policy toward drilling off its shores on the state's fragile ecology, economic dependence on tourism and military operations conducted in the Eastern Planning Area (EPA). Additionally, there are significantly fewer estimated petroleum reserves in the EPA. Currently, there is some exploration in the EPA on 1.5 million acres adjacent to the Central Planning Area and 100 miles from Florida's coast. Florida's government helped reduce the size of the area, known as the Lease Sale 181 area by 75% and continues to fight to maintain no leasing within 100 miles of Florida's unique shores. Environmentalists have recognized the decrease in size of Lease Sale 181 area is one of the most significant environmental victories by a state administration. Florida should continue to aggressively protect its fragile coastline, groundwater and biologic resources in all three branches of government.
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Date Issued: 2003
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0766
Format: Thesis

Title: Not Our Newspapers: Women and the Underground Press, 1967-1970.
Creator: Youngblood, Teresa, Jumonville, Neil, Fenstermaker, John J., Stuckey-French, Ned, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the ways in which the underground newspapers of the late 1960s corroborated the growing sentiment that movement women were not considered as valuable to the revolution as movement men, thereby helping the then-burgeoning women's liberation movement to justify a full split from the rest of the leftist counter-culture. The late 1960S marked the height of the underground press's popularity as well as the beginning of the independent women's liberation movement. While women...
Show moreThis thesis examines the ways in which the underground newspapers of the late 1960s corroborated the growing sentiment that movement women were not considered as valuable to the revolution as movement men, thereby helping the then-burgeoning women's liberation movement to justify a full split from the rest of the leftist counter-culture. The late 1960S marked the height of the underground press's popularity as well as the beginning of the independent women's liberation movement. While women were banding together through consciousness-raising to expose their common dissatisfaction with patriarchal social structures, the underground press, mostly run by movement males, continued to allow mainstream, sexist concepts of gender to inform their papers' depiction of women. Women were used as sex objects (under the guise of being "sexually liberated"), icons of the revolution, helpmates, earth mothers, and in other symbolic ways, but were denied the voice and agency granted to men. As the women's liberation movement became more sophisticated in its goals and demands, this hypocrisy came into focus and became the subject of discussion. In the four-year period of this study, 1967-1970, important issues of sexual determinism, freedom of speech, and gender relations within the counter-culture came to a head and were expressed and discussed through the pages of the underground press.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0768
Format: Thesis

Title: The Last Eden: The Development of a Regional Culture of Eco Spirituality in the Pacific Northwest.
Creator: Eller, Mara Kaitlin, Porterfield, Amanda, Corrigan, John, Jumonville, Neil, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The culture of the Pacific Northwest is formed by and around its natural environment. Cultural descriptions of the region usually highlight its spectacular scenery, its rich natural resources, and the connection that many residents feel with the land. Often, this connection takes on a spiritual quality, prompting some to identify a culture of nature religion in the region: a culture in which participants consider the natural world sacred, ordering their lives around its protection and...
Show moreThe culture of the Pacific Northwest is formed by and around its natural environment. Cultural descriptions of the region usually highlight its spectacular scenery, its rich natural resources, and the connection that many residents feel with the land. Often, this connection takes on a spiritual quality, prompting some to identify a culture of nature religion in the region: a culture in which participants consider the natural world sacred, ordering their lives around its protection and conceptualizing their own welfare as inextricably tied to that of the environment. This thesis attempts to chronicle the development of such a culture of eco-spirituality from European exploration to present, locating today's reality firmly in a historical context. I argue that the region's history as a last frontier, dependence on natural resource extraction, and relative lack of institutional religious presence paved the way for a fusion of environmentalist activism and New Age spirituality in the 1980s. As spiritual concern infused environmentalism with ideological power, political battles intensified, publicity increased, and a new culture of eco-spirituality emerged to stamp itself indelibly on the face of the Pacific Northwest.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0575
Format: Thesis

Title: Distant Music: Recorded Music, Manners, and American Identity.
Creator: Attaway, Jacklyn, Faulk, Barry J., Jumonville, Neil, McGregory, Jerrilyn, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis discusses Derrida's theory of Hauntology, establishes a theoretical framework for an analysis of the hauntological aesthetic in recorded music, and explores the hauntological aesthetic in reference to Victorian spirit photography and contemporary recorded music of producer-musicians such as Greg Ashley, Jason Quever, Tim Presley, and Ariel Pink. By describing and analyzing the recorded music of said producer-musicians, this thesis reveals how aesthetically hauntological recorded...
Show moreThis thesis discusses Derrida's theory of Hauntology, establishes a theoretical framework for an analysis of the hauntological aesthetic in recorded music, and explores the hauntological aesthetic in reference to Victorian spirit photography and contemporary recorded music of producer-musicians such as Greg Ashley, Jason Quever, Tim Presley, and Ariel Pink. By describing and analyzing the recorded music of said producer-musicians, this thesis reveals how aesthetically hauntological recorded music expresses American anxieties concerning the effects of changing technologies and cultural transitions. In effect, this thesis shows how American ideologies operate as "ghosts," and how one can better interpret and understand these core values by combining aesthetics and history through the medium of recorded music.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5315
Format: Thesis

Title: The New Community School: Placing Informal Musuem Education into Historical Context.
Creator: Langham, Audrey Elizabeth, Jumonville, Neil, Wiegand, Wayne, Koslow, Jennifer, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Recently museums have begun to feature public programming that engages new audiences, they partner with a number of diverse community organizations, and they put the focus of their efforts on education. With these new focuses they have changed from didactic institutions to places where the visitor may confirm his experience, and at times may add his own voice to the discussion. This shift in focus has been swift, and scholarship is only beginning to catch up with the values being expressed in...
Show moreRecently museums have begun to feature public programming that engages new audiences, they partner with a number of diverse community organizations, and they put the focus of their efforts on education. With these new focuses they have changed from didactic institutions to places where the visitor may confirm his experience, and at times may add his own voice to the discussion. This shift in focus has been swift, and scholarship is only beginning to catch up with the values being expressed in the profession. It is my intention to offer a history of educational philosophy that is relevant and useful for museum professionals by closely examining two historical lines of thought. Progressive education provides a framework that museums can use to model their educational programming. Creating hands-on programming, and focusing on the individuality of the learner are important aspects of progressive educations that museum professionals can use for their own programming. The idea of the community school focuses on partnerships, the use of the physical building, and bringing a number of resources together in one place. This set of ideas follows the paths that museums use to receive funding and strengthen their relationships within their local community. Local history museums have begun to use these all ideas, and focusing their attention on similar work done in the past is an important step for the profession. Therefore these two concepts provide a historically relevant and important background for present day museum programming.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3287
Format: Thesis

Title: The United States and the International Criminal Court: A Relationship That Can Redefine American Foreign Policy.
Creator: Swaisgood, Daniel Robert, Coonan, Terry, D'Alemberte, Talbot (Sandy), Jumonville, Neil, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: In response to a heightening concern for international justice, in the late 1990`s in Rome, Italy over 160 countries deliberated on the most suitable approach to an international standard dealing with war crimes, crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity and genocide. In reference to the International Criminal Court`s jurisdiction, these four crimes have come to be termed ―core crimes.‖ Although the culmination was the establishment of the ICC a variety of countries stood against such an...
Show moreIn response to a heightening concern for international justice, in the late 1990`s in Rome, Italy over 160 countries deliberated on the most suitable approach to an international standard dealing with war crimes, crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity and genocide. In reference to the International Criminal Court`s jurisdiction, these four crimes have come to be termed ―core crimes.‖ Although the culmination was the establishment of the ICC a variety of countries stood against such an establishment and fought to weaken the Court`s jurisdictional reach. The United States of America took center stage during the deliberations in Rome as one of these countries, voting against the Court with such infamous human rights abusers as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, among others. Determined to undermine the Court`s ability to threaten national sovereignty the U.S. even went so far as to pass legislation enabling it to invade The Hague upon the possible arrest of any U.S. military representative. Despite U.S. objections though, the Court operates as a new standard for international justice and labors to hold war criminals accountable. Further, among the various movements, standards and ad hoc tribunals, the ICC stands alone as the first permanent international judicial composition with universal jurisdiction over core crimes. With the Court having a direct affect on international human rights standards and accountability, as well as being an important leader through its role on the global stage, this paper will detail the history of the aforementioned movements as well as their influence on the ICC`s creation. Further, the U.S. objections and reaction to the Court will be summarized and responded to with the conclusion that U.S. interests would be served by both signing and ratifying the Rome Treaty. Whereas a denial of ICC jurisdiction over core crimes seemingly protects national sovereignty, the same denial undermines the U.S. position of leadership in the world theatre. Finally, although more difficult to quantify, undermining the position of U.S. leadership in this manner invariably creates a far more dangerous threat to U.S. national sovereignty than does allowing the ICC to exercise complementary jurisdiction over the core crimes.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5217
Format: Thesis

Title: Kinking the Stereotype: Barbers and Hairstyles as Signifiers of Authentic American Racial Performance.
Creator: Freeland, Scott, Lhamon, William T., Anderson, Leon, Sommer, Sally, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: When Sherman Dudley's black barber character, Raspberry Snow, took to the stage in 1910, his pre-promoted "shiftless" personality fulfilled American audiences' conditioned, pejorative expectations for blackness. A closer look at the storyline, however, suggests Dudley fashioned Snow's predictability to be an example of the opportunity for subversion of power that exists for stereotyped individuals. Embodying the surface attributes of the stereotype designed to confine them, a number of...
Show moreWhen Sherman Dudley's black barber character, Raspberry Snow, took to the stage in 1910, his pre-promoted "shiftless" personality fulfilled American audiences' conditioned, pejorative expectations for blackness. A closer look at the storyline, however, suggests Dudley fashioned Snow's predictability to be an example of the opportunity for subversion of power that exists for stereotyped individuals. Embodying the surface attributes of the stereotype designed to confine them, a number of American performing personae escape persecution, and even profit by lulling their "audiences" (read: adversaries) into believing all is well. Quite often, performing the stereotype is as simple as donning a notably "black" hairstyle, or presuming the supposedly docile attributes associated with black barbers. Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that since at least the early nineteenth century, storytellers both black and white have contributed to the promotion of this powerful secret. Black hairstyles and barbers that subvert racist intentions are a recurring theme throughout American lore, and their inclusion in tales by Dan Emmett and Herman Melville resurface in later works by Charles Chesnutt and Sherman Dudley. This paper traces a lineage of characters who successfully subvert an imposed power structure, and whose messages continue to recycle themselves in modern-day performances that suggest black and white are not as far apart as conventional wisdom would have us believe.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4398
Format: Thesis

Title: Music Scenes in America: Gainesville, Florida as a Case Study for Historicizing Subculture.
Creator: Vandegrift, Micah, Jumonville, Neil, Gunderson, Frank, Faulk, Barry, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The history of music scenes is a topic that has been misunderstood. Scholarship has tended to focus on sociological theory as a basis for understanding how and why music scenes exist and motivate youth. While accomplishing important work and connecting the study of scenes to academia, theory has left uncovered the narrative history of music scenes. Setting scenes in their specific historical, social and cultural context allows them to be examined by a different set of research goals and...
Show moreThe history of music scenes is a topic that has been misunderstood. Scholarship has tended to focus on sociological theory as a basis for understanding how and why music scenes exist and motivate youth. While accomplishing important work and connecting the study of scenes to academia, theory has left uncovered the narrative history of music scenes. Setting scenes in their specific historical, social and cultural context allows them to be examined by a different set of research goals and methods. In this paper, I outline a historiography of music scenes, from the original implications of subcultural research to ethnography in the early 1990s. Tracing the literature on scenes, I argue that studying scenes from my position in 2009 must be accomplished with a historical point of view, not ignoring theory, but placing narrative history as the primary methodology. The growth of post-punk music scenes in America throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s had extensive effects on popular culture, and through understanding the history first, I propose researchers will have a better grasp on what a scene is, why it functions in society, and how it has affected regional and national subcultural identity. I used Gainesville, Florida as an example of this method. The social characteristics of Florida and the shifts in the national subculture throughout the 1990s are two essential points I bring to bear in the case study of Gainesville. Overall, I hope to introduce Florida's scenes as anomalous instances of subcultural activity and to spur further inquiry on the topic of (re)writing music scenes into the history of youth culture, especially in the 1990s.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4589
Format: Thesis

Title: Testing Free Speech in Our Conflicted Democracy: Julia Hanway and the Wakulla Independent Reporter vs. the Florida Elections Commission.
Creator: Hanway, Julia D., Fenstermaker, John, Stuckey-French, Ned, Moore, Dennis, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis documents and analyzes events ignited by complaints to the Florida Elections Commission (FEC) against the fledgling, independent newspaper, The Wakulla Independent Reporter; its publisher, Julia Hanway; and her business, Florida MicroType Graphics, LLC, in the rural panhandle of Florida. In 2005, the FEC determined that the Wakulla Independent Reporter was an "electioneering communication" under Florida's election laws, and was "not a newspaper," and therefore did not fall under...
Show moreThis thesis documents and analyzes events ignited by complaints to the Florida Elections Commission (FEC) against the fledgling, independent newspaper, The Wakulla Independent Reporter; its publisher, Julia Hanway; and her business, Florida MicroType Graphics, LLC, in the rural panhandle of Florida. In 2005, the FEC determined that the Wakulla Independent Reporter was an "electioneering communication" under Florida's election laws, and was "not a newspaper," and therefore did not fall under the "newspaper" exemption in the "electioneering communication" statute. The FEC's final decision on the validity of the complaints left the paper and its publisher subject to financial penalties and potential criminal prosecution if Ms. Hanway continued to publish without submitting to the FEC's stringent requirements to disclose principals, contributions and expenditures, and to publish a conspicuous disclaimer in every issue. Ms. Hanway and her ACLU-sponsored lawyer, Robert Rivas, filed a lawsuit in federal court against Barbara Linthicum, Executive Director of the FEC, arguing that the Wakulla Independent Reporter was being penalized as a form of viewpoint discrimination, which is prohibited by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In turn, the FEC fought for two years to establish that the publication was an electioneering communication and was not a newspaper. The FEC forced Hanway to incur costs and attorney fees of nearly $80,000 to fight for the right to publish without registering with the FEC. At a pretrial hearing on the eve of trial, the FEC's lawyer suddenly changed its position, insisting that the paper was, in fact, a "newspaper" under Florida law. The newspaper was—contrary to all of its previous arguments—now exempt from the requirements the election law imposed upon electioneering communications. This change in the FEC's position, its lawyers argued, made the lawsuit "moot." They based their argument on the fact that the complaint and investigation were only based on the first issue of the paper—in spite of the fact that the FEC investigation reviewed other subsequent issues of the paper in 2005; and, in spite of the fact that the FEC had determined that the publisher could not print again without registering additional issues. Changing their argument after two years meant that the FEC would not be financially responsible for the Plaintiff's expenses if Judge Hinkle agreed with them. In the summer of 2007, Judge Hinkle ruled that the paper was a newspaper; that the FEC was clearly wrong in their original assessment that it was not a newspaper; and that the FEC should never have tried to force the paper to register as an electioneering communication. In court, he forced the FEC to admit that they would not hinder the publication from printing or force the publisher to register with the FEC in the future. Relieving the FEC from financial responsibility because he did not have to impose an injunction as the plaintiff had requested, Judge Hinkle cited the Eleventh Amendment in his decision. Judge Hinkle wrote that the Eleventh Amendment dictated that he should not overreach in his judgment and create new law without necessity. Instead, he chose to completely avoid the First Amendment aspect of the case and ruled that the case was "moot"—as the FEC had argued in the February hearing. He ruled that, as long as the FEC promised never to take action against the Wakulla Independent Reporter, the case was moot because there was no longer the need for an injunction to protect the paper from the FEC. In 2009, however, the First Amendment was finally addressed as it pertained to the state's electioneering laws. In Broward Coalition v. Browning Florida's electioneering laws were determined to be "overbroad" and were overturned by a court in Orlando. The United States Supreme Court completely reversed earlier decisions that justices had made in the landmark case of McConnell vs. Federal Election Commission. In 2010 the Supreme Court determined that all electioneering communication laws throughout the country were unconstitutional in a case known as Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4278
Format: Thesis

Title: Losing Home: Why Rural Northwest Florida Needs to Be Saved.
Creator: Riley-Taylor, Zena S., Jumonville, Neil, Davis, Frederick, Koslow, Jennifer, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Land use in Florida has seen many changes since it became an American territory in 1821. But while land use can be a categorical term for classifying property, it can also take on a more valuable meaning. When the land was originally opened up for frontier settlers and wealthy planters to farm in the early years, it usually meant family and freedom as individuals and large kinship networks migrated south to establish homesteads and plantations. This population was mostly concentrated in...
Show moreLand use in Florida has seen many changes since it became an American territory in 1821. But while land use can be a categorical term for classifying property, it can also take on a more valuable meaning. When the land was originally opened up for frontier settlers and wealthy planters to farm in the early years, it usually meant family and freedom as individuals and large kinship networks migrated south to establish homesteads and plantations. This population was mostly concentrated in Middle Florida or the northern part of the state. Leading up to the Civil War, cotton was obviously a royal crop and a manufacturing movement emerged to support the momentum toward Southern independence. However, the aftermath of the Civil War seems to be a turning point for the dominantly agrarian region as timber, railroads, and tourism changed the way residents used the land. While Northwest Florida retained agriculture as a major part of the economy, the peninsula became more developed and populated, mostly with wealthy Northern tourists, and in effect, the state transformed into two distinct regions with very different environments and cultures. Comparisons between the two sections are made throughout the study to illustrate lessons that can be learned from one to the other. Sprawl, congestion, and overdevelopment's assault on the environment are common concerns. My focus for this study is to show how land use and essentially rural life changed for those individuals who were accustomed to subsistence farming in Northwest Florida. Land prices, a decline in farm acreage, population distribution, and suburbanization exhibit this transformation. In addition, the intention is to show the assets of the Panhandle through its environment, rural character, and agrarian heritage which equates into a revered quality of life. The rural places of Northwest Florida deserve protection from inappropriate and misplaced development using rural land conservation and land-use planning techniques while revitalizing towns and cities that have already been developed and preserving the region's vast historical resources for future generations.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7577
Format: Thesis

Title: From Boom to Bust: Ghost Towns of Selected Florida Gulf Coast Communities.
Creator: Roberts, Rebecca, Davis, Frederick, Fenstermaker, John, Bickley, Bruce, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines extinct or vanishing towns along Florida's northwest coast, specifically communities in Wakulla and Levy Counties, that experienced a boom to bust phenomena between Florida's territorial period and the early twentieth century. The exceptional growth of the selected areas prospered largely due to an abundance of seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. The towns withered and disappeared when industrialization depleted the natural resources or when populations shifted...
Show moreThis thesis examines extinct or vanishing towns along Florida's northwest coast, specifically communities in Wakulla and Levy Counties, that experienced a boom to bust phenomena between Florida's territorial period and the early twentieth century. The exceptional growth of the selected areas prospered largely due to an abundance of seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. The towns withered and disappeared when industrialization depleted the natural resources or when populations shifted according to changes in land availability and mandated land use. Lumberyards sometimes demanded specific wood for manufacture and harvested a species to decimation within a geographical area. Sawmill owners bought non-contiguous land or leased other nearby lands to meet the increasing need for production. Early Gulf Coast railroads tended to follow the path of high-yield lumber mills and commodified natural products. Newly implemented laws often changed the methods of available collection, and consumption of resources and became another factor in whether a town thrived or died. Small, independent commercial fishermen abandoned their livelihoods when new net bans challenged their authority. Hunting resorts closed in consequence of federal land purchases. The Civil War changed forever the labor force behind cotton production. Southerners who viewed slaves as just another limitless resource had to reevaluate their lifestyles. Even the old planters and slave owners who could readjust morally and socially were unable to realign themselves financially and the death of their beneficent town soon followed. Freedmen left their master's land when and if opportunity arose in favor of newer or black-cultured communities. An out-migration of freedmen could lead to the death of post Civil War towns. The demise of many southern ghost towns is often attributed to technological advances and progress bypassing the sleepier little villages, but this theory diminishes, if not totally dismisses the agency of a single person, or a select group of people, to make or challenge decisions contributing to the boom or bust of a particular settlement. It is true that the areas studied often witnessed a loss of transportation services and outward migration in favor of larger or newer sites, but a breach usually appeared in the town's power-structure long before population loss. Larger political, social, and economic forces working outside of the geographical area of a future ghost town were not truly as powerful as might be expected. Instead, the decisions of a relatively small group of citizens, who often had contacts with people connected to larger government forces, made decisions independently of a town council and greatly contributed to the sometimes gradual and sometimes swift extinction of their own districts. The town's lack of a powerful force could be equally devastating if the area received no external representation.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1821
Format: Thesis

Title: Louis J. Witte: Hollywood Special Effects Magician.
Creator: Snyder, Joanna Sumners, Fenstermaker, John, Moore, Dennis, Parrish, Timothy, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Louis John Witte is a man whose name is lost to time and whose work is overshadowed by flashier modern-day computerized advancements in movie wizardry. Nevertheless, he remains a cornerstone upon which a thriving scientific discipline has been built. Although he and his creations existed well before the advent of computer technology, he is credited with inventing devices that advanced the art of faking realism by replacing state-of-the-art crude facsimiles and dangerous replications with...
Show moreLouis John Witte is a man whose name is lost to time and whose work is overshadowed by flashier modern-day computerized advancements in movie wizardry. Nevertheless, he remains a cornerstone upon which a thriving scientific discipline has been built. Although he and his creations existed well before the advent of computer technology, he is credited with inventing devices that advanced the art of faking realism by replacing state-of-the-art crude facsimiles and dangerous replications with safer, hyper-realistic models. Witte's inventions erased the boundary separating audiences from the bona fide. His contribution to the science of entertainment coincided with the historic period 1896-1946, in which "movies were the most popular and influential medium of culture in the United States" (Sklar 3). Not only did Witte give his valuable civilian expertise to his country, but he also was a veteran of WWI, when during a "long lonely and dangerous mission," he was wounded (Leavell Appendix II). "Sergeant Louis J. Witte," a telegram written to his mother reads, "was wound [sic] in the Meuse-Argonne operation, on the night of Oct. 2nd., 1918, by an air bomb, and was evacuated to the hospital" (Leavell Appendix II). Witte's service and injury earned him the Purple Heart commendation for his involvement in that battle.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1653
Format: Thesis

Title: James Fenimore Cooper's Frontier: The Pioneers as History.
Creator: Berson, Thomas, Davis, Frederick, Fenstermaker, John, Stuckey-French, Ned, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines aspects of American culture and society in Post-Revolutionary upstate New York through the lens of James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Pioneers. While scholars have looked to The Pioneers as an object of literary criticism or for overarching American themes such as manners or authority, I examine The Pioneers' value as a historical document. Specifically, I examine the clash between a new culture still in its infancy and an existing one in its last days. The frontier...
Show moreThis thesis examines aspects of American culture and society in Post-Revolutionary upstate New York through the lens of James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Pioneers. While scholars have looked to The Pioneers as an object of literary criticism or for overarching American themes such as manners or authority, I examine The Pioneers' value as a historical document. Specifically, I examine the clash between a new culture still in its infancy and an existing one in its last days. The frontier settlers in Cooper's work, as in reality, imposed their religion, science, and land-ownership principles on the remnants of native Americans and pre-revolutionary "squatters" even as their own understandings of those institutions were changing. In this paper I examine how, although settlers attempted to impose their religion on native Americans, religion did not play as major a role in guiding frontier morality, but that Jeffersonian notions of republican motherhood and innate morality did. At the same time, these notions of morality came into conflict with the new laws that were being enforced while settlers were imposing Christianity onto the indigenous residents of America. These topics are the subject of Chapters One and Two. Fledging notions of applied science were brought to bear in an attempt to create a sustainable long-term development, but that scientific institutions in America, such as medicine, were notably deficient. These issues are the subject of Chapter Three. Following that, I also discuss how land-ownership issues were complicated by pre-existing claims on the land, by Indians, Loyalist settlers and squatters. Finally, I explore how Cooper presciently staked out proto-environmentalist themes long before modern notions of conservation were developed, and how his portrayal of these themes is valuable to understanding ideas of the Turnerian "frontier." The paper examines all these ideas by comparing Cooper's writing to that of historical scholars and Cooper's contemporary cultural observers, as well as by utilizing other primary source materials.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1385
Format: Thesis

Title: Activism amid a Chaotic Era: The Underground Press of the 1960S.
Creator: Nelson, Hope, Jumonville, Neil, Fenstermaker, John, Coxwell-Teague, Deborah, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis addresses the major activist and radical issues of the 1960s and early 1970s and illustrates the myriad shifts that take place within each of these social movements as depicted in the alternative press of the era. These movements serve as reflections of the shift of the collective American character throughout the 1960s, and while they propel America to adjust to new mindsets, they also reflect the desires – and fears – of a nation thrust into a chaotic postwar period. But despite...
Show moreThis thesis addresses the major activist and radical issues of the 1960s and early 1970s and illustrates the myriad shifts that take place within each of these social movements as depicted in the alternative press of the era. These movements serve as reflections of the shift of the collective American character throughout the 1960s, and while they propel America to adjust to new mindsets, they also reflect the desires – and fears – of a nation thrust into a chaotic postwar period. But despite their differences in goals and ideologies, the major movements of the era – the struggles for civil rights, women's rights, and peace in the face of war – bring with them many similarities, more than many historians are wont to depict. So often, such historians focus solely on one of the activist movements of the 1960s, seemingly overlooking other events of the decades that could perhaps be catalysts or results of a particular movement's actions. But the groups that formed and the events that took place within the decade did so with a high degree of interconnectedness, even in ways that are not readily apparent initially. This mentality is illustrated quite clearly within the alternative newspapers of the era. Specifically, the bylines and subjects showing up in a forum for one activist movement often echo those from other publications and other movements. More generally, the motives, tactics, and even slogans made successful by one movement often were employed by activists in other realms, adding much to the collective ideological shifts of the era. Through the alternative press, it is easy to see the tendencies toward chaos even within the movements themselves; rarely does a neat and tidy chronology of progression exist. These newspapers chronicled the transformations taking place with the times – indeed, a shift from semantics to activism, from a more passive ideology to one that was vibrant with action. But such shifts are not easily decipherable and are nestled among shades of gray rather than being decidedly black and white. And it is those gray areas, those areas of confusion, tension, frustration, and joy, that this thesis analyzes.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2684
Format: Thesis

Title: 28 January 1980, Blackthorn and Capricorn: Collision with History in Tampa Bay.
Creator: Nunez, Judy Kay, Doran, Glen H., Sellers, Robin J., Jones, James P., Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: It was a quiet night as the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Blackthorn headed back to duty. After over three months of receiving new equipment and getting badly needed repairs, it was finally time to return her home to Galveston, Texas and regular duty. At approximately 2021 e.s.t. 28 January 1980, none of her new equipment or upgrades was enough to protect her from what lay ahead. For as fate would have it, unknowingly she had spent over three months preparing for nothing more than twenty...
Show moreIt was a quiet night as the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Blackthorn headed back to duty. After over three months of receiving new equipment and getting badly needed repairs, it was finally time to return her home to Galveston, Texas and regular duty. At approximately 2021 e.s.t. 28 January 1980, none of her new equipment or upgrades was enough to protect her from what lay ahead. For as fate would have it, unknowingly she had spent over three months preparing for nothing more than twenty-three men and her own burial. The dawning of 28 January 1980 was significant inasmuch as it marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of the United States Coast Guard. By nightfall, however, this date would take on an additional, more somber, meaning. For during the evening hours of 28 January 1980, Blackthorn collided with the tanker, Capricorn, resulting in death of twenty-three servicemen, and this date remains the worst peacetime loss of life in Coast Guard history. The accident became the catalyst for the creation of a new school intended to prevent the recurrence of any such events. But before the Command and Operations School at the Coast Guard Academy ever accepted its first student, a lot of soul searching had to happen and some tough questions had to be answered by both the agency that patrolled the sea and the men who navigated it. What happened? Why did it happen? Could it have been avoided? Did any good result from this disaster? For some, these questions still linger.
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Date Issued: 003.
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2495
Format: Thesis

Title: On Shaving: Barbershop Violence in American Literature.
Creator: Yadon, Ben, Moore, Dennis, Fenstermaker, John, Parrish, Timothy, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis identifies and examines the trope of barbershop violence in American literature. Drawing on a wide range of literary, scholarly, and historical documents, I explore the way that certain authors subvert traditional ideas about barbershop discourse and use the quintessential American setting as a stage for failed nostalgia, tragic miscommunication, and outbursts of irrational violence in order to craft fictions that call on readers to strive for a more authentic and humanistic...
Show moreThis thesis identifies and examines the trope of barbershop violence in American literature. Drawing on a wide range of literary, scholarly, and historical documents, I explore the way that certain authors subvert traditional ideas about barbershop discourse and use the quintessential American setting as a stage for failed nostalgia, tragic miscommunication, and outbursts of irrational violence in order to craft fictions that call on readers to strive for a more authentic and humanistic identification with their fellow man. In the first chapter I take a close look at Herman Melville's tableau of barbering in the 1855 novella Benito Cereno within a socio-historic context and then trace allusions to this seminal barbering scene in a number of works to show how many authors depict barbershop miscommunication and violence in order to highlight the racial disparities at the heart of American society. In Chapter Two I borrow the sophisticated methodology of James Joyce scholar Cheryl Temple Herr to examine contemporary American novelist Don DeLillo's numerous depictions of the barbershop through the prism of Heideggerian ontology.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1177
Format: Thesis

Title: Graphic Imagery: Jewish American Comic Book Creators' Depictions of Class, Race, and Patriotism.
Creator: Yanes, Nicholas, Fenstermaker, John, Faulk, Barry, Stuckey-French, Ned, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Comic books printed during the 1930s and 40s contained stories and characters that supported the New Deal and America's entry into World War II. Though comic books are typically seen solely as reflections of the decades; the comic books, in actuality, were propaganda for political stances. Moreover, these were the political stances of the Jewish Americans who built the comic book industry. While much of corporate America was terrified by FDR's New Deal policies, comic books supported the...
Show moreComic books printed during the 1930s and 40s contained stories and characters that supported the New Deal and America's entry into World War II. Though comic books are typically seen solely as reflections of the decades; the comic books, in actuality, were propaganda for political stances. Moreover, these were the political stances of the Jewish Americans who built the comic book industry. While much of corporate America was terrified by FDR's New Deal policies, comic books supported the President. When war loomed on the horizon, comic book writers and artists sent patriotic superheroes to war long before the country became mobilized. Finally, the political dialogue taking place in comic books resonated with the American public because they were created in a time when patriotism was synonymous with sacrifice.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1162
Format: Thesis

Title: "At Home We Work Together": Domestic Feminism and Patriarchy in Little Women.
Creator: Wester, Bethany S., Moore, Dennis, Edwards, Leigh, Fenstermaker, John, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: For 136 years, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women has remained a classic in American children's literature. Although Alcott originally wrote the novel as a book for young girls, deeper issues run beneath the surface story of the March family. This thesis explores a few of these issues. Chapter One examines the roles of patriarchy and domesticity in Alcott's private life and in Little Women. Chapter Two emphasizes the Transcendentalist thinking that surrounded Alcott in her childhood, her own,...
Show moreFor 136 years, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women has remained a classic in American children's literature. Although Alcott originally wrote the novel as a book for young girls, deeper issues run beneath the surface story of the March family. This thesis explores a few of these issues. Chapter One examines the roles of patriarchy and domesticity in Alcott's private life and in Little Women. Chapter Two emphasizes the Transcendentalist thinking that surrounded Alcott in her childhood, her own, feminized Transcendentalist philosophy, and how it subsequently infiltrates the novel. Chapter Three explores the role of the struggling female artist in Little Women, as portrayed by the March sisters, especially Jo and Amy March, and how the fictional characters' struggles reflect Alcott's own problems as a female writer in a patriarchal society. Chapter Four discusses Alcott's reformist ideas and the reformist issues that surface in Little Women. Domestic feminism--the idea that a reformed family, in which men and women equally participate in domestic matters, would lead to a reformed society--emerges as the predominant reformist issue in Little Women. Alcott believed that women should be able to choose the course of their adult lives, whether that included marriage, a professional career, or otherwise, without the threat of being ostracized from society. In Little Women, the March family serves as an example of a reformed, egalitarian family in which women exercise self-reliance, employ their non-domestic talents, and still maintain femininity.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1144
Format: Thesis

Title: Ocean Hill-Brownsville and Changes in American Liberalism.
Creator: Childs, Andrew Geddings, Moore, Dennis, Wood, Susan, Jumonville, Neil, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the relationship of the confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville and the change away from New Deal liberalism and toward separatism. Through historicizing this issue, I also critiquethe changing nature of professionalism, the push for community control and decentralization of schools, and how these ideas influence democracy in education. Various people involved in the confrontation during the summer and fall of 1968 represent the particular positions of each side of the...
Show moreThis thesis explores the relationship of the confrontation at Ocean Hill-Brownsville and the change away from New Deal liberalism and toward separatism. Through historicizing this issue, I also critiquethe changing nature of professionalism, the push for community control and decentralization of schools, and how these ideas influence democracy in education. Various people involved in the confrontation during the summer and fall of 1968 represent the particular positions of each side of the issue. Further, these two sides are also personified in the AFT (American Federatino of Teachers)and the advocates of community control and decentralization. Through my examination, I attemtp to locate the importance of the experiment in community control in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district under the greater context of American liberalism.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3815
Format: Thesis

Study and teaching (16)	+ -
United States (3)	+ -
Arts (2)	+ -
Humanities (2)	+ -
History (1)	+ -

Florida State University (19)	+ -
Program in American and Florida Studies (19)	+ -
Jumonville, Neil (9)	+ -
Fenstermaker, John (8)	+ -
Moore, Dennis (5)	+ -

Stuckey-French, Ned (4)	+ -
Davis, Frederick (3)	+ -
Faulk, Barry (2)	+ -
Koslow, Jennifer (2)	+ -
Parrish, Timothy (2)	+ -
Anderson, Leon (1)	+ -
Arline, Terrell K. (1)	+ -
Attaway, Jacklyn (1)	+ -
Berson, Thomas (1)	+ -
Bickley, Bruce (1)	+ -
Childs, Andrew Geddings (1)	+ -
Coonan, Terry (1)	+ -
Corrigan, John (1)	+ -
Coxwell-Teague, Deborah (1)	+ -
D'Alemberte, Talbot (Sandy) (1)	+ -
Dempsey, Angela Cote (1)	+ -
Donoghue, Joseph F. (1)	+ -
Doran, Glen H. (1)	+ -
Edwards, Leigh (1)	+ -
Eller, Mara Kaitlin (1)	+ -
Faulk, Barry J. (1)	+ -
Fenstermaker, John J. (1)	+ -
Freeland, Scott (1)	+ -
Gunderson, Frank (1)	+ -
Hanway, Julia D. (1)	+ -

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