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Title: "Vicksburg's Troubles": Black Participation in the Body Politic and Land Ownership in the Age of Redeemer Violence.
Creator: Dorsey, Albert, Jones, Maxine D., Montgomery, Maxine L., Jones, James P., Koslow, Jennifer L., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This dissertation looks at the 1874 "Vicksburg (Mississippi) Massacre" and its direct causes. Black sharecroppers, during the Reconstruction era, have been the focus of considerable scholarship that looks at black life in relation to white landowners. Little attention, however, has been given to black landowners. An examination of the House of Representatives Reports, Land Deeds, Census Records, Tax Records, and the American Missionary Association Archival Records allow a critical examination...
Show moreThis dissertation looks at the 1874 "Vicksburg (Mississippi) Massacre" and its direct causes. Black sharecroppers, during the Reconstruction era, have been the focus of considerable scholarship that looks at black life in relation to white landowners. Little attention, however, has been given to black landowners. An examination of the House of Representatives Reports, Land Deeds, Census Records, Tax Records, and the American Missionary Association Archival Records allow a critical examination of the agency that black landowners in Vicksburg garnered before the Massacre. This dissertation focuses on the direct causes behind the massacre, including local black politicians and civic leaders, and a growing number of black landowners. More importantly, the acquisition of land by black Mississippians prompted the most prosperous white land owners to take action against them. Most threatening to Vicksburg's white population was the fact that Vicksburg had a black sheriff who also served as county tax collector. As Vicksburg's black leaders began to spend tax money on black education, whites became infuriated. This micro history of Vicksburg during the Reconstruction era demonstrates that life for these folk must have been hard but many of them found ways to form communities independent from white landowners.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6911
Format: Thesis

Title: Scapegoats No More the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps, British Myths and Cover Ups, and the Battle of the Lys.
Creator: Pyles, Jesse, Grant, Jonathan A., Souva, Mark A., Harper, Kristine, Doel, Ronald Edmund, Wynot, Edward D., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of...
Show morePyles, Jesse, Grant, Jonathan A., Souva, Mark A., Harper, Kristine, Doel, Ronald Edmund, Wynot, Edward D., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps held up to nine miles the British First Army's front in northern France between April 1917 and April 1918. On 9 April 1918, the sledgehammer blow of the German operation Georgette fell upon First Army's XI and XV Corps, the former with the 2nd Portuguese Division holding seven miles of the approximately ten-mile-wide attack frontage. British accounts of the Portuguese troops' service with the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, and in the...
Show moreThe Portuguese Expeditionary Corps held up to nine miles the British First Army's front in northern France between April 1917 and April 1918. On 9 April 1918, the sledgehammer blow of the German operation Georgette fell upon First Army's XI and XV Corps, the former with the 2nd Portuguese Division holding seven miles of the approximately ten-mile-wide attack frontage. British accounts of the Portuguese troops' service with the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, and in the Battle of the Lys in particular, are dismissive and almost entirely false. Regarding Georgette, the British narrative asserts that a majority of the Portuguese soldiers threw their weapons aside and ran. Instead, most of the Portuguese combat troops held their ground against the German assault. The 2nd Portuguese Division was destroyed on the battlefield facing, not running from, an attacking force that outnumbered it by 8 to 1, or more. This dissertation examines the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps' history.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9429
Format: Thesis

Title: From Frontier Paradigm to Modern Public Policy: The Development of Homestead and Property Exemption Law in Texas, Florida, and Alaska.
Creator: Miller, Eric H., Jumonville, Neil T., Frank, Andrew K., Koslow, Jennifer L., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This paper argues the creation and development of homestead and personal property exemptions in state constitutions and statutes exemplify change in public policy concerning the rights of debtors and creditors, economic development, preservation of families, and property rights in Texas, Florida, and Alaska. Reserving to a debtor some items of personal property by express exemption from the reach of general creditors has roots in the historical jurisprudence of both Spain and Great Britain,...
Show moreThis paper argues the creation and development of homestead and personal property exemptions in state constitutions and statutes exemplify change in public policy concerning the rights of debtors and creditors, economic development, preservation of families, and property rights in Texas, Florida, and Alaska. Reserving to a debtor some items of personal property by express exemption from the reach of general creditors has roots in the historical jurisprudence of both Spain and Great Britain, influencing the development of similar principles in Mexico and the United States. Excluding that portion of each debtor's real property comprised of the residence and additional land was a new doctrine originating in Mexico in the 1820s, fully articulated in the Republic of Texas by statute in 1839, and embedded as principle of organic law in the Texas Constitution of 1845. Using a similar term in a different context, the federal Homestead Act of 1862 was the culmination of national discussion on the best manner to develop the vast public lands. Since the implementation of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 the United States pursued a policy of offering tracts of land in new territories at low prices both to raise funds for the federal government and to encourage economic development through settlement. Occasionally, provision was made by law for donations of federal land to qualifying settlers, limited to a specific time and location. The Armed Occupation Act of 1842 was the first law adopted by Congress offering land grants to any settler who occupied and cultivated parcels of vacant public land, albeit limited to the Florida peninsula. This Act incorporated part of the emerging principle of homestead exemption by prohibiting creditors from seizing and selling a land claim to satisfy debts arising prior to the government issuing its patent conveying title to the parcel. I find this principle, modified and incorporated into the Homestead Act, had a significant effect on the development of property exemption laws in territories such as Alaska. Because Texas retained its vacant public land upon entering the Union, providing settlement land grants by pre-emption and donation was a matter of state law. Unlike the Homestead Act, because of the existing state constitutional homestead exemption the Texas law on settlement donations did not incorporate a prohibition against seizing claims for pre-existing debts. The narrative develops the history of the homestead exemption and of the settlement land donation laws by analyzing the text of the original laws, statutes, and constitutions for each state. Because some early documents from Mexico were first written in Spanish, the text of original translations relied upon in Texas as these doctrines were developed is used. By examining the evolution of homestead and personal property exemptions in each state, together with the influence of the applicable settlement land donation laws, I argue the use of similar concepts represented different public policy developments. The public policy of Texas historically was to prevent family impoverishment by preserving adequate means for shelter and support. This protection was so important that placement in the Constitution was necessary to avoid its curtailment without a prior general vote of the people. Over time, Texas maintained this consistent public policy by changing the language of the constitutional homestead and statutory personal property exemptions. Although no longer emphasizing the family farm, the modern, very lengthy homestead exemption continues to embody a concern to protect ordinary citizens from financial improvidence. Florida chose a different method of adapting public policy to economic change. Adopting an early statutory form of property exemptions, Florida did not place homestead and personal property exemption principles in its Constitution until 1868. The language adopted proved sufficiently flexible to remain essentially unchanged since then. Expanding on Texas' example Florida constitutionally-designated not only the rural homestead but also an urban homestead without regard to value, both limited solely by area. Unlike Texas, Florida gave express constitutional protection to a specific value, $1,000, of personal property; also adopted in 1868, this amount has never been changed. I conclude this unchanged text demonstrates the changed intent of Florida public policy to rely on increasing land values to provide adequate resources to support debtors after financial reversals. Public policy in Alaska deemed statutory structures adequate to protect a debtor's interests. Having one of the longest territorial periods before achieving statehood, much of Alaska's doctrine on property exemptions developed from the federal laws, including the 1862 Homestead Act, used to administer the district. As I conclude, changes in Alaskan exemption policy were reflected in changed statutes.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6971
Format: Thesis

Title: The Life and Times of Adella Hunt Logan: Educator, Mother, Wife, and Suffragist, 1863-1915.
Creator: Willis, Daria J., Jones, Maxine D., Montgomery, Maxine, Jones, James P., Koslow, Jennifer L., Mizelle, Richard, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Adella Hunt Logan was a woman trapped between two worlds. She was a mulatto who suffered from the pressures and injustices of Jim Crow America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The impact of Adella Logan's life is seen beginning in 1883 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She maintained a large family while making a lasting impact on the Tuskegee community, as well as the women's suffrage movement. Adella often led a life full of contradictions that can be attributed to her social...
Show moreAdella Hunt Logan was a woman trapped between two worlds. She was a mulatto who suffered from the pressures and injustices of Jim Crow America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The impact of Adella Logan's life is seen beginning in 1883 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She maintained a large family while making a lasting impact on the Tuskegee community, as well as the women's suffrage movement. Adella often led a life full of contradictions that can be attributed to her social status as well as her mixed racial heritage. Nonetheless, her efforts at advancing the cause of lower-class blacks and the students and teachers at Tuskegee Institute cannot be denied. This study discusses Adella Logan in terms of race, class, and gender. It is the story of an African American woman, an unusual American family, and the world she lived in.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7026
Format: Thesis

Title: Moses Did It, Why Can't You: The Role of Stephen S. Wise during the Holocaust.
Creator: Bryant, Elizabeth Ann, Jones, James P., Fenstermaker, John, Grant, Jonathan, Jones, Maxine D., Wynot, Edward, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Between 1933-1945, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise did more than any other American Jewish leader to fight against Hitlerism. Wise was one of the earliest outspoken critics of Adolf Hitler, speaking out against him and the National Socialist German Workers Party even before they assumed power in Germany. Yet, in recent years, he has come under constant scrutiny for his perceived inactions during the Holocaust. This dissertation seeks to investigate these criticisms, and explore their validity, by...
Show moreBetween 1933-1945, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise did more than any other American Jewish leader to fight against Hitlerism. Wise was one of the earliest outspoken critics of Adolf Hitler, speaking out against him and the National Socialist German Workers Party even before they assumed power in Germany. Yet, in recent years, he has come under constant scrutiny for his perceived inactions during the Holocaust. This dissertation seeks to investigate these criticisms, and explore their validity, by examining the actions of Stephen Wise during this era. This includes analyzing his relationship with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his role in the American and World Jewish Congresses, his fight against American apathy and anti-Semitism, as well as his multitudinous plans for the rescue and relief of European Jews.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6165
Format: Thesis

Title: The Italian Occupations of Ethiopia and Cephalonia: A Comparative Analysis.
Creator: Rowlands, Amanda, Stoltzfus, Nathan, Garretson, Peter, Maier-Katkin, Daniel, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This work examines the nature of two of Fascist Italy's military occupations: that of Ethiopia from 1935-1941 and that of the Greek island of Cephalonia from 1941-1943. Beginning with the case of Ethiopia, this work describes the sheer brutality that Fascist Italy was capable of--from the use of poison gas bombings to the murder of innocent civilians--and contrasts this with the later occupation of Cephalonia where the level of brutality exacted upon the native population was far less...
Show moreThis work examines the nature of two of Fascist Italy's military occupations: that of Ethiopia from 1935-1941 and that of the Greek island of Cephalonia from 1941-1943. Beginning with the case of Ethiopia, this work describes the sheer brutality that Fascist Italy was capable of--from the use of poison gas bombings to the murder of innocent civilians--and contrasts this with the later occupation of Cephalonia where the level of brutality exacted upon the native population was far less pronounced, almost nonexistent. By comparing and contrasting the two occupations, this work analyzes the factors that could then account for this disparity. By and large, race was a crucial element in determining the nature of the occupations, though other factors also had an effect upon this, such as geography, religion and the time frame that the occupations took place. More importantly, since they were the ones who interacted with the occupied populations on a daily basis, the Italian soldiers had a significant bearing on the nature of the occupations. As such, their experience as occupiers deserves to be examined. This work attempts that to the extent possible, positing that the nature of the occupation changed as the soldiers' own relationship to fascism changed.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6836
Format: Thesis

Title: The Demise of Patronage: Garfield, the Midterm Election, and the Passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act.
Creator: Uhler, Kevin A., Jones, James P., Grant, Jonathan, Jumonville, Neil, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This study explores the role of the assassination of President James Abram Garfield and the midterm election of 1882 in compelling the 47th Congress to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Act in January 1883. Relying on the manuscript collections of major Gilded Age political figures and contemporary newspapers/periodicals, this thesis showcases the rapid changes in public opinion regarding the civil service reform movement, specifically from the inauguration of President Garfield in 1881 to the...
Show moreThis study explores the role of the assassination of President James Abram Garfield and the midterm election of 1882 in compelling the 47th Congress to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Act in January 1883. Relying on the manuscript collections of major Gilded Age political figures and contemporary newspapers/periodicals, this thesis showcases the rapid changes in public opinion regarding the civil service reform movement, specifically from the inauguration of President Garfield in 1881 to the passage of the Pendleton Act. During his few short months as president, Garfield, like most presidents of the late nineteenth century, became consumed with distributing the spoils to his supporters. Unfortunately, Garfield, a Republican, faced the growing divide of two factions in his party: the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds. Garfield's actions in the spring and early summer of 1881 demonstrated his alliance with the Half-Breeds, led by his Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, a group that opposed the Stalwarts, led by Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. By early July 1881, Garfield defeated Conkling, who resigned from the Senate in protest; however, Garfield's short-lived victory ended when Charles Julius Guiteau, an assassin, shot the president in a Washington train depot on 2 July 1881. Garfield lingered along for almost three months, until his wounds finally overpowered him on 19 September 1881. During the eighty days that he struggled to survive, the public closely followed their chief executive's condition and frequently suggested various treatments to aid in Garfield's recovery. After Garfield's death, his vice-president, Chester Alan Arthur, assumed the presidency amidst the skepticism of many Republicans and reformers. Arthur, a longtime friend and crony of Senator Conkling, attempted to remain neutral during his first months in office, primarily in an effort to calm the public's tensions. As the summer of 1882 approached, the civil service reformers continued whipping up public outrage toward patronage. The political dealings of Representative Jay A. Hubbell of Michigan, who chaired a committee that asked for voluntary contributions from government employees, provided additional fuel for the public's anger. As the election season began late in the summer of 1882, widespread disapproval toward the spoils system began influencing the campaigns in many critical states. After the November elections, the majority in the House of Representatives shifted from the Republicans to the Democrats. Meeting in December 1882, the Republican-controlled 47th Congress began seriously considering legislation to reform the civil service before their terms expired. Senator George Hunt Pendleton of Ohio, who a year earlier introduced his bill to the Senate, once again put his measure on the floor. Over the course of two weeks, the Senate debated and amended various aspects of the bill, which they passed in late December. A few days later, in early January, the House passed the bill and sent it off to President Arthur. On 16 January 1883, Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act into law, the first major piece of civil service reform legislation.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6033
Format: Thesis

Title: History of Eglin Field and Okaloosa County during World War Two.
Creator: Mcdaniel, William M., Creswell, Michael, Gussak, David, Jones, Maxine D., Wynot, Edward D., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: ABSTRACT In the mid-1930s the United States and the world were gripped in a great depression which caused industries to fail, families to struggle, and individuals to lose hope. The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded by applying various measures in an effort to sustain the citizenry while mending the economic malady. Historical reflection on an event like the Great Depression, which eventually ended in recovery, has the potential to engender a comforting certainty...
Show moreABSTRACT In the mid-1930s the United States and the world were gripped in a great depression which caused industries to fail, families to struggle, and individuals to lose hope. The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded by applying various measures in an effort to sustain the citizenry while mending the economic malady. Historical reflection on an event like the Great Depression, which eventually ended in recovery, has the potential to engender a comforting certainty regarding paths taken and decisions made, however, at the time correctness of the administrations policies was extremely uncertain. There was no assurance that the United States was on the right course for emerging soundly from the economic collapse. While policy makers sought to return the nation to a sound economic footing, American military leaders faced a different set of challenges. The global depression had helped to create an environment which nourished aggressive foreign policies in nations which were competitors and potential enemies of the United States. It was the job of the defense establishment to prepare for any aggression and to emerge victorious from any armed conflict which might arise. Japan, a nation destined to become a key member of the Axis powers, continued its overt aggression on the Asian mainland and in the Pacific region. As the Japanese leadership continued expansion behind the slogan "Asia for Asians" and eventually under the mantel of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, decades-old concern for the security of Hawaii and American interests in Guam and the Philippines became increasingly intense. The initiation of warfare is almost always shocking, especially for the object of the attack, and it was apparent that the United States might have to contend with just such a reality in the Pacific. As Japan continued her aggressive actions in the Eastern Hemisphere, in Europe the United States faced the politically ironic cooperation (and eventual alliance) between a Communist Soviet Union and Fascist Germany as well as an increasingly belligerent Fascist Italy. Germany had significant economic control over a number of European client states, an eastern border eventually to be secured by bilateral agreement with the Soviet Union, a burgeoning yet competent military capability and an aggressive leadership bold enough to employ that capability. An increasingly oppressive, and ultimately murderous racial policy toward the Jewish people of Germany and Europe along with a foreign policy which led to military aggression in Europe, at its margins and along its lines of communication, created a setting parallel to that in the Pacific for involving the United States in open war. Faced with the possibility of warfare in either Europe or the Pacific or perhaps in both theaters simultaneously, the United States civilian leadership and the civilian and military leaders of the War Department, the Army and Navy were forced to prepare to achieve military success in any eventuality. One significant aspect of this preparation was the establishment and subsequent rapid development of military bases which lent themselves to technical training, operational preparation and initiation, logistics support and to the research and testing which would help to defeat a potential enemy. This dissertation examines how one such base, Eglin Field, an air base built along the panhandle of Florida during the 1930s, came into being, how it developed, and how it contributed to the defeat of the Axis nations during World War Two. Because the manner of the founding and the evolution of the base were directly related to the surrounding civilian community, Eglin Field and Okaloosa County, Florida, where the base is located, have a shared history. This dissertation explores that common thread in the period shortly before, during and at the conclusion of World War Two. It shows how Eglin and the surrounding community changed during the war. The county advanced in terms of population, prosperity and economic stability while Eglin Field evolved from a minor grass strip into a major military installation making significant contributions toward the nation's defense. Moving beyond the founding and development of Eglin Field and the effect on the surrounding community, this study covers the technical and operational preparations for war which took place at Eglin. In some cases, the preparations are important but mundane, while in others they are dynamic and cut right to the heart of successfully prosecuting the war against the Axis nations. One area to be discussed is the gunnery and bombing training which Eglin Field directly supported. Another is the testing of various armaments, some designed for use against very specific enemy targets. Ultimately, this study tells the story of Eglin Field's development into a key weapons testing facility that contributed significantly to the nation's war effort. In addition to technical training and weapons testing supported by Eglin Field, this study examines the preparation for certain operational missions which occurred at the base. In telling the story of these missions and in telling the overall history of Eglin Field, this author seeks to include the contributions of select individuals and units and the challenges which they faced and overcame.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6447
Format: Thesis

Title: With One Hand on My Gun and the Other on My Heart: A Comparative Analysis of European Resistance Movements and Their Relation to Jewish Resistance and Survival in World War II Europe.
Creator: Mcbee, Jared, Grant, Jonathan, Jones, James, Creswell, Michael, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the national resistance movements in Eastern and Western Europe during World War II and their relationship with Jewish resistors. The areas under consideration include the 1940 territory of the Soviet Union in the East as well as France, Belgium and the Netherlands in the West. It argues that there is a relationship between the national resistors and Jewish resistance, and the idea that Jews went meekly to their deaths in the Holocaust does not withstand investigation. In...
Show moreThis thesis examines the national resistance movements in Eastern and Western Europe during World War II and their relationship with Jewish resistors. The areas under consideration include the 1940 territory of the Soviet Union in the East as well as France, Belgium and the Netherlands in the West. It argues that there is a relationship between the national resistors and Jewish resistance, and the idea that Jews went meekly to their deaths in the Holocaust does not withstand investigation. In the East the Soviet partisans have been considered anti-Semitic and with good reason. However, the actions of Jewish-centric organizations and their members in the partisan war have been neglected. Resistance in Western Europe had a more integrated approach to membership and thus many Jews served in the national resistance. This helps to explain why Jews saw themselves more as Frenchmen, Dutch or Belgian citizens and less as Jews. This study departs from others in that the integration of Jewish resistance within national resistance movements has not been attempted on this scale. There are some micro-histories that deal with this combination in one country or one region but not a comparative analysis of multiple countries over two different regions. Placing primary emphasis on the Jewish struggle within the various resistance units allows historians a deeper understanding of the complexities of the partisan war. In addition, it counters the stubborn belief that the majority of Jews did not resist the Holocaust. This also aids in understanding the connection between Jewish and national resistance movements that were ongoing throughout the entirety of the Nazi occupation of Europe. This also means that Jewish resistance is much more complicated than the ghetto uprisings so frequently mentioned.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-6446
Format: Thesis

Title: As Advertised: Depicting the Postwar American Woman from Bride, to Wife, to Mother.
Creator: Burger, Tarin, Sinke, Suzanne, Harper, Kristine, Koslow, Jennifer, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: I am working to illuminate a connection between the pervasive anxiety regarding "traditional" gender roles that permeated Cold War culture during the mid-twentieth century and the advertising industry's messages to women during the same period. By examining women's magazines, a particularly important piece of cultural media for the period, and their advertisements, I seek to examine patterns that develop in the way advertisers expressed their messages to women. Tracing the development of...
Show moreI am working to illuminate a connection between the pervasive anxiety regarding "traditional" gender roles that permeated Cold War culture during the mid-twentieth century and the advertising industry's messages to women during the same period. By examining women's magazines, a particularly important piece of cultural media for the period, and their advertisements, I seek to examine patterns that develop in the way advertisers expressed their messages to women. Tracing the development of these messages through a narrative that examines the varying prescribed roles women were expected to assume will lead to a discussion that flows from advertisers targeting brides, wives, and mothers. This narrative strategy will help create an accessible, clearly organized discussion of this topic. This project relies heavily on an examination of primary sources including advertising images from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Much scholarship has been written regarding gender, advertising, consumerism, and the postwar/Cold War era. While most of these works focus on only a few of these aspects, my work attempts to present a discussion of this period with these aspects at the forefront. By examining how advertisers spoke to women through their images in a period that was unquestionably influenced by an all-permeating anxious culture of the Cold War, I hope to prove that issues of gender, consumerism, and Cold War political efforts were inextricably connected.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4750
Format: Thesis

Title: Stirring the American Melting Pot: Middle Eastern Immigration, the Progressives and the Legal Construction of Whiteness, 1880-1924.
Creator: Soash, Richard, Koslow, Jennifer, Sinke, Suzanne, Garretson, Peter, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: When an immigrant came to early twentieth-century America, his or her ability to naturalize was dependent on the artificial color designation assigned to his or her group. Armenian and Syrian-Lebanese immigrants, however, entered the country as the ultimate "in-between people." They were situated geographically between Europe and Asia and racially between Caucasian and Mongolian, "white" and "yellow." The two groups were unique in that, at the dawn of the Progressive Era, they could have...
Show moreWhen an immigrant came to early twentieth-century America, his or her ability to naturalize was dependent on the artificial color designation assigned to his or her group. Armenian and Syrian-Lebanese immigrants, however, entered the country as the ultimate "in-between people." They were situated geographically between Europe and Asia and racially between Caucasian and Mongolian, "white" and "yellow." The two groups were unique in that, at the dawn of the Progressive Era, they could have conceivably been placed into either category. This thesis argues that the socioeconomic biases of the people in power at the time, in this case Progressive Era policy-makers, played a large role in determining the "whiteness" of Armenian and Syrian-Lebanese immigrants.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7610
Format: Thesis

Title: Revolutionary Marriage: Family, State, and Natalism from the Ancien Régime to the Napoleonic Era.
Creator: Smith, Allyce, Blaufarb, Rafe, McMahon, Darrin, Sinke, Suzanne, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Marriage and family relations underwent a dynamic change during the French Revolution. However, seeds of change can be detected in eighteenth century marital trends. Changing ideals were not only for the elite of French society but permeated through the lower rungs of the third estate. Although it is debatable as to where these changes began, it is undeniable that they in fact occurred. Resistance to these changes from family, state, and church created a power struggle for the control of...
Show moreMarriage and family relations underwent a dynamic change during the French Revolution. However, seeds of change can be detected in eighteenth century marital trends. Changing ideals were not only for the elite of French society but permeated through the lower rungs of the third estate. Although it is debatable as to where these changes began, it is undeniable that they in fact occurred. Resistance to these changes from family, state, and church created a power struggle for the control of marriage. In the end, this power struggle reflected the tumultuous regime changes of the French Revolution. These changing cultural ideals are not only reflected in legislative changes, but in contemporary conceptions of childhood and emotional attachment. The very heart of this change lays within a fundamental attitude shift which can be detected around 1750 and full matured in the early nineteenth century. Families continued to influence marital choice throughout the French Revolution. However, an emphasis on personal choice became more common. As families examined couples of the past they sought to create a new order where companionship between husband and wife took on a new importance. The State sought encouraged marriage as a source of stability for France. In addition, marriage led to the creation of legitimate citizens. Natalism was not only a state supported policy, but encouraged by philosophers of the day. This growing emphasis on children further developed the concept of childhood and motherhood. The family unit as a whole took on unprecedented importance.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7609
Format: Thesis

Title: Why We Fight: The Visual Rhetoric of American Wars, 1860-1918.
Creator: Spivey, Denise, Jones, Maxine, Faulk, Barry, Green, Elna, Koslow, Jennifer, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This dissertation is concerned with visual media as it became a vehicle for public debate in United States Society. It examines the illustrations from print media published during the three American wars between 1860 and 1918. When observed with care, these images open a window onto the American cultural and political landscape as it evolved. This project is designed to use that window to understand American attitudes toward each other during the Civil War and afterwards as the country began...
Show moreThis dissertation is concerned with visual media as it became a vehicle for public debate in United States Society. It examines the illustrations from print media published during the three American wars between 1860 and 1918. When observed with care, these images open a window onto the American cultural and political landscape as it evolved. This project is designed to use that window to understand American attitudes toward each other during the Civil War and afterwards as the country began to determine its role on the world scene. It asks how and to what extent outsider groups have negotiated their place in the national dialogue. The degree to which these populations had access to state of the art media outlets defined the extent of their participation in the country's visual rhetoric. The earliest illustrated printing technology was simply too expensive for poorly financed marginalized groups to afford, but over time this changed. This dissertation covers the period when print was the undisputed monarch of American visual media: between the advent of illustrated journalism and the arrival of moving pictures. During this time, increasingly affordable technology and rising affluence among minority groups made the perspectives expressed in the visual press slightly more reflective of the nation as a whole. This project draws from a range of scholarship: media history, the histories of war on the home front, and the histories of minority activist groups. It is also loosely related to propaganda analysis. The chapters examine each of the three conflicts' mainstream and alternative illustrated media. Each of the chapters is devoted to one war: The Civil War, The Spanish-American War, and World War I. Historical events and non-visual rhetoric provide the context for the images themselves, with the focus on the visual dialogue as it evolved. This dissertation is a comparative analysis of themes in American visual media over time, with particular attention to the ways outsider groups negotiated their way into the national dialogue. Not surprisingly, both change and continuity are evident. Exploring what changed and what stayed the same illuminates aspects of American society not evident in scholarship of particular moments. In particular, it demonstrates the painfully slow movement toward a more democratic United States media culture and the limitations of that progress.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5198
Format: Thesis

Title: The Evolution of Dutch American Identities, 1847-Present.
Creator: Douma, Michael J., Sinke, Suzanne, Leushuis, Reinier, Gray, Edward, Koslow, Jennifer, McMahon, Darrin, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This work is at once a study of ethnic change among Dutch Americans and a contribution to the study of ethnic identity in America more broadly. It seeks to explain how Dutch American identities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries formed and evolved and why references to the Netherlands played an enduring role in how Americans of Dutch descent identified themselves. This study argues that the evolution, the adaptability, and the reinterpretation of "Dutchness" in an American setting has...
Show moreThis work is at once a study of ethnic change among Dutch Americans and a contribution to the study of ethnic identity in America more broadly. It seeks to explain how Dutch American identities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries formed and evolved and why references to the Netherlands played an enduring role in how Americans of Dutch descent identified themselves. This study argues that the evolution, the adaptability, and the reinterpretation of "Dutchness" in an American setting has been the primary cause of the persistence of Dutch American ethnic identities. It shows that for the Dutch in America, ethnic identity has been resilient, not because it has remained intact, but rather because it has changed shape. The main contribution of this study is its demonstration of the evolution of ethnicity over the long-term (over generations and centuries) and the implications of this perspective for how we understand ethnic groups. Scholars have long seen ethnic groups as ever-evolving entities with boundaries that are constantly renegotiated. But like the evolution of species, ethnic change is gradual and imperceptible at the daily level. From the perspective of decades or centuries, however, certain themes of historical change become visible. At least two key lessons emerge from this long-term perspective on the evolution of ethnic identity. One is the understanding that ethnic groups persist by evolving, and do so when and where ethnicity is flexible, adaptable, and useful. The second lesson is the important role of written histories and historical memory in influencing the continued evolution of ethnicity. Ethnicities must be understood as developing categories, historically situated, and continually informed by interpretations of the past.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7128
Format: Thesis

Title: "A" Force of Deceit: The Origins of British Deception in North and East Africa during the Second World War.
Creator: Bendeck, Whitney T., Creswell, Michael, Souva, Mark, Garretson, Peter, McMahon, Darrin, Singh, Bawa, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Following the devastation of the First World War, the British utterly rejected the idea of fighting another major war in their near future. As a result, the country's interwar policies were not geared towards maintaining a powerful military. When the Second World War erupted, the British found themselves completely unprepared. The situation was particularly dire in the Middle East where British forces faced a numerically superior Italian army. Because Cairo and the Suez Canal were vital to...
Show moreFollowing the devastation of the First World War, the British utterly rejected the idea of fighting another major war in their near future. As a result, the country's interwar policies were not geared towards maintaining a powerful military. When the Second World War erupted, the British found themselves completely unprepared. The situation was particularly dire in the Middle East where British forces faced a numerically superior Italian army. Because Cairo and the Suez Canal were vital to maintaining Britain's empire in the east, the British had no choice but to stand and fight. The man charged with defending Egypt was General Archibald P. Wavell, the commander-in-chief of the Middle East. Since his forces were out-numbered and poorly supplied, Wavell turned to deception to give his men an artificial advantage. After successfully carrying out deception in his first offensive against the Italians, Wavell decided to create an organization exclusively designed to deceive the enemy. To that end, he requested the services of Colonel Dudley Wrangel Clarke, an officer Wavell judged to be suitably unconventional in his approach to warfare. Clarke arrived in Cairo in December of 1940; by the end of March, 1941, he had created Britain's first deception organization - 'A' Force. Although 'A' Force's origins were humble, it developed into an impressive deception organization. With Clarke at its head, 'A' Force practiced deception on a scale unlikely repeated in the world. They were able to take advantage of modern technology, combined with innate creativity, to formulate some of the grandest deceptions of the war. Through a long and complex process of trial and error, Clarke and his men eventually perfected the art of deception. By the Battle of El Alamein, the deceptionists had created the blueprint that was to form the basis of all future deceptions. Thus, when the war reached Europe and London took over responsibility for coordinating Allied deception, the London deceivers modeled their efforts after those meticulously crafted by 'A' Force in Africa. In fact, the largest deception of the war, Operation Bodyguard (D-Day deception), was largely designed by men who had previously worked under Clarke and was based on the 'A' Force established blueprint. This work, which is the first to combine the military and deception histories into one cohesive narrative, argues that the British turned to deception out of pure necessity, that the deception machine was forged and perfected in the deserts of Africa ' not in London, and that the British were the masters of game.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7096
Format: Thesis

Title: "Discover our Sunshine State. Rediscover Yours.": The Public's Participation in Florida Mythmaking in the 20th Century.
Creator: Baker, Tiffany Marie, Koslow, Jennifer, Davis, Frederick, Green, Elna, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Natural resources, the environment, and conservation movements all played an important part in Florida's past, particularly within the last half of the twentieth century. As development of the built environment within Florida and the population increased, Floridians experienced a culture change that altered the ways that they viewed the environment and the accompanying natural elements. Numerous conservation movements emerged, and individuals became more aware of the effects of these...
Show moreNatural resources, the environment, and conservation movements all played an important part in Florida's past, particularly within the last half of the twentieth century. As development of the built environment within Florida and the population increased, Floridians experienced a culture change that altered the ways that they viewed the environment and the accompanying natural elements. Numerous conservation movements emerged, and individuals became more aware of the effects of these developmental changes. From this ideological transformation, writers and artists used Florida's natural features as inspiration for works that reflect sentimentally on a more natural past and also attempted to invoke feelings of indignation at the detrimental changes happening around them. Each set of artistic works analyzed in this thesis are the products of this influence. The twentieth-century landscape paintings of Martin Johnson Heade and the mass-produced works of the Highwaymen both highlight the struggle that has plagued Florida since the beginning of its widespread development: the conflict between the desire to live somewhere that is exotic and natural and the need to civilize this place in order to make it inhabitable. Heade, a Hudson River School painter, moved to Florida in 1883 to take advantage of the landscapes and scenery that Florida had to offer. His scenes contained features such as conflicts between the civilized and wild and were more vibrant than his earlier works, suggesting that Florida was to be viewed differently from other parts of the country. The Highwaymen, a group of south Florida African American painters, act as a comparison group for Heade's works. Because one of the founders of the group, Alfred Hair, was trained by A. E. Backus, a white painter who was classically trained in the Hudson River School style, influences of this style can be found in the Highwaymen's paintings. Regardless of the similarities, the Highwaymen paintings were unique to specialized mass-production techniques. Both Heade and the Highwaymen were influenced an emerging tourism culture that enveloped Florida in the early and mid-twentieth century, and close examinations of their paintings reveal these nuances. Participants in the 1985 Florida license plate contest convey similar ecological themes in their entries. The results of the contest, over 3,500 images and letters, reveal Floridians' contemporary concerns. In addition, these entries reflect the increasing influence and continuity of a cohesive Florida image that highlights the natural characteristics of the state. Other issues discussed in that chapter will include people's perception of government process, the increasing awareness about conservation and environmental movements in Florida, and the ways that Floridians felt about their state in the 1980s. When the state of Florida's 2004 state quarter was minted with the images of a Sabal Palm, a Spanish galleon, and a launched space shuttle on its face, the long-standing developmental discourse was again reinforced through the images that were selected to represent Florida nationwide. The state quarter contest, and the chapter devoted to it, serves as an addendum to the 1985 license plate contest. The finalist selections were analyzed to reveal the narrowing focus of the Florida brand at a national level, to compare the images chosen with those submitted in the 1985, and to evaluate the differences and similarities between the conduct of the 1985 and 2002 contests. Ultimately, the outcome of the quarter contest shows that themes such as ecology, history, and recreation constitute Floridians' opinions of the state. Taken together, these three groups of artistic works show how pervasive and cohesive the Florida myth has become. In the conclusion, a brief analysis of a new ad campaign produced by VISIT FLORIDA, the state's official tourism advocacy organization, will show that with each passing year, these images of Florida became inherent to Floridian culture and identity as representative of the 'real' Florida.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7090
Format: Thesis

Title: It's a Man's World: Women's Entrance into Male Spaces during World War II in Florida.
Creator: Duda, Kelley, Sinke, Suzanne, Harper, Kristine, Jones, Jim, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Was World War II a watershed for gender roles for Florida women? Researching wartime roles in Jacksonville, Florida, with additional support from Tampa and Panama City, I sought to explore Floridians' experience in: shipyards, the military, and postwar higher education. This clarified, to what degree if any, WWII acted as a watershed for gender roles. Historians discussed the unique opportunity the war brought for women in terms of paid labor. Indeed, shipyards opened positions of manual...
Show moreWas World War II a watershed for gender roles for Florida women? Researching wartime roles in Jacksonville, Florida, with additional support from Tampa and Panama City, I sought to explore Floridians' experience in: shipyards, the military, and postwar higher education. This clarified, to what degree if any, WWII acted as a watershed for gender roles. Historians discussed the unique opportunity the war brought for women in terms of paid labor. Indeed, shipyards opened positions of manual labor to women that never occurred before; the military recruited women into the WAVES and WACs. The venereal disease campaign also pinpointed women as dangerous carriers while it only sought to encourage male treatment. Yet, both propaganda and the mindset of these managers reinforced prewar roles and the temporality of the job. This thesis examines magazines and government posters as a foundation for understanding gender dynamics during the war. I analyze wage differences, social attitudes through newspapers, and treatment of women to strengthen this conclusion. Furthermore, the continued efforts in postwar advertisements reflected breadwinner/housewife expectations. Higher education also transitioned in Florida yet held onto these expectations. Florida State College for Women became Florida State University which operated as co-educational primarily for returning soldiers utilizing the G.I. bill. The school's handbook rhetoric, student newspaper, and meetings between deans and the president depicted differential treatment of female students compared to male students. The university sought to control and reinforce the respectability of female students. Analyzing Florida within the historical discourse of World War II allowed better understanding into how state officials, military personnel, and society shaped gender roles. However, even as reinforcement of gender roles continued, World War II acted as a seed for change. The opportunities did not generate a sudden change; the war afforded women opportunities to prove their capability and determination.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7360
Format: Thesis

Title: Bloddied but Bruised: How the World War II American Army at Kasserine Pass Grew Up in North Africa.
Creator: Sherwood, Christopher Eric Jacob, Piehler, G. Kurt, Jones, James, Grant, Jonathan, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The American Army's first encounter during World War II with the German Army in North Africa at the Battle of Kasserine Pass resulted in a tactical defeat. Lloyd Fredendall, the II Corps commander, did not lead from the front and instead preferred to remain at a safe distance in his man-made command post cut into a mountain over one hundred miles from his forward positions. After the Wehrmacht launched its attack on 14 February 1943, the American positions quickly disintegrated and...
Show moreThe American Army's first encounter during World War II with the German Army in North Africa at the Battle of Kasserine Pass resulted in a tactical defeat. Lloyd Fredendall, the II Corps commander, did not lead from the front and instead preferred to remain at a safe distance in his man-made command post cut into a mountain over one hundred miles from his forward positions. After the Wehrmacht launched its attack on 14 February 1943, the American positions quickly disintegrated and headquarters elements fled to the rear stranding entire infantry units on mountaintops. As the senior leaders were running for their lives, they ordered field grade officers to conduct counterattacks against a superior German armor force. These battalion commanders fought valiantly, but were overmatched and their units became combat ineffective. Finally, two days into the fight, British General Kenneth Anderson released a substantial reinforcement element to bolster the lines and slow down the German thrust enough to allow the American 9th Infantry Division artillery forces to be brought 735 miles to eventually stop Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's offensive. Following the defeat, General Dwight Eisenhower replaced senior generals who had made glaring tactical mistakes throughout the battle with capable leaders. The new commanders instilled discipline within the ranks which would play a critical role in future battles in North Africa. Eisenhower realized that the men under his command made mistakes throughout the battle and he was inspired to create changes in combat training. First, lessons had to be collected from the men at the frontlines. "Ike" issued training directives based on combined arms lessons to the units under his command, but he also had a bolder plan to influence the training cycles of basic training and unit predeployment training in the United States. Armed with combat experience, Eisenhower flooded the War Department with recommendations to intensify training to better prepare the units for war. The bureaucracy of the War Department prevented immediate modifications to existing training cycles, but by late summer 1943 training regiments were infused with battle lessons. The ability of the American Army to change training based on the lessons it received from the frontlines of North Africa was decisive to success in the North African, Mediterranean, and European theater of operations.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8638
Format: Thesis

Title: Art of the Cold War: How the United States and France Depended on Whistler's Mother, the Mona Lisa and Georgia O'Keeffe to Strengthen Relations.
Creator: Drewel, Amy Lynn, Creswell, Michael, Jumonville, Neil, Jones, James, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Since the post-modernist turn in academic history, there has been an increasing interest in cultural diplomacy particularly in regards to the Cold War. Yet one area rarely explored by historians is the manner in which the United States and France used art exhibits for cultural diplomatic purposes. This study discusses three exhibits at length-- Advancing American Art, Mona Lisa, and Whistler's Mother. These exhibits illustrate the varied reasons that fine art became symbolic of the two...
Show moreSince the post-modernist turn in academic history, there has been an increasing interest in cultural diplomacy particularly in regards to the Cold War. Yet one area rarely explored by historians is the manner in which the United States and France used art exhibits for cultural diplomatic purposes. This study discusses three exhibits at length-- Advancing American Art, Mona Lisa, and Whistler's Mother. These exhibits illustrate the varied reasons that fine art became symbolic of the two countries' political dealings with one another. Of particular interest are the historic events surrounding these famous art exhibits. During these cultural exchanges, art almost literally took on a diplomatic role in relations between the American and the French governments.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8548
Format: Thesis

Title: Retracing the New Left: The SDS Outcasts.
Creator: Mikhail, Adam, Jumonville, Neil, Jones, James P., Harper, Kristine C., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: There comes a time in 1963/4 when many in the New Left/SDS start to perceive that the movement is high on analysis and low on action. They have ample idealism, but it's never acted upon. Harnessing this desire to act tangibly, SDS splits into two distinctive and opposing factions, the Political Education Project (PEP) and the Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP). PEP recognizes the threat posed by Barry Goldwater's nomination as the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 1964 as...
Show moreThere comes a time in 1963/4 when many in the New Left/SDS start to perceive that the movement is high on analysis and low on action. They have ample idealism, but it's never acted upon. Harnessing this desire to act tangibly, SDS splits into two distinctive and opposing factions, the Political Education Project (PEP) and the Economic Research and Action Project (ERAP). PEP recognizes the threat posed by Barry Goldwater's nomination as the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 1964 as the beginning of a shift in American culture and politics that could seriously inhibit "leftward" politics. PEP leaders (Steve Max and Jim Williams) try to mobilize support for the Democratic Party, much to the chagrin of the rest of SDS, who view these acts as adhering to the "old way" of fostering change. Instead, SDS focuses on ERAP, a multi-city organization that aims to bring about an interracial movement of the poor through community organizing. This study argues that historians have too often focused on the community organizing faction of SDS in an effort to continue a narrative that leads the most active part of the organization, the Vietnam War protests in the later 1960s. In doing so, they have incorrectly ignored that the actual tenets of the New Left were carried on by PEP.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8604
Format: Thesis

Title: Veterans at War: The American Legion and Civilian Mobilization in World War II.
Creator: Griffin, Christopher W. (Christopher Wayne), Grant, Jonathan, Souva, Mark, Jones, James P., Creswell, Michael, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This dissertation analyzes the role of the American Legion in the mobilization of World War II, focusing on its civilian defense and salvage programs. These programs demonstrate the contest between voluntary associations and the federal government to shape and control the development of federal programs as state responsibility expanded into new areas of American life. Though ultimately unsuccessful in its efforts to control the programs the American Legion exerted tremendous influence on them...
Show moreThis dissertation analyzes the role of the American Legion in the mobilization of World War II, focusing on its civilian defense and salvage programs. These programs demonstrate the contest between voluntary associations and the federal government to shape and control the development of federal programs as state responsibility expanded into new areas of American life. Though ultimately unsuccessful in its efforts to control the programs the American Legion exerted tremendous influence on them. Its size and presence in nearly every community ensured the American Legion positions and influence at every level of the federal civilian defense and salvage programs. Expertise gained through early civilian defense exercises and the exploratory Mission to England in 1941 positioned Legionnaires well to become leaders within civilian defense. The Legion's strong local and national structure made it one of the most successful organizers of salvage drives. Veterans experienced the Second World War in unique ways that were directly linked to their military experiences in previous wars. They had wartime memories of what life was like on the front lines and tried to use those experiences to better the lives of the new generation of soldiers and to improve home front support of military personnel. Animosities created during World War I toward war profiteers, "shirkers," and subversive forces, greatly influenced the Legion in World War II. Veteran studies, which have viewed veterans as post-war actors, would benefit from considering the activities of veterans in future wars.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5357
Format: Thesis

Title: Imperial Venture: The Evolution of the British East India Company, 1763-1813.
Creator: Williams, Matthew, Blaufarb, Rafe, Grant, Jonathan, Jones, James P., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Europe's dominance in the study of the Revolutionary Era obscures the era's many important non-European effects. Equally, scholars of India neglect the important role European imperial rivalry had on the British conquest of India in particular during the Revolutionary Era. These four key factors drove the British East India Company's corporate evolution: the decline of the Mughal Empire, Anglo-French imperial rivalry, Parliamentary reform of the East India Company, and the French...
Show moreEurope's dominance in the study of the Revolutionary Era obscures the era's many important non-European effects. Equally, scholars of India neglect the important role European imperial rivalry had on the British conquest of India in particular during the Revolutionary Era. These four key factors drove the British East India Company's corporate evolution: the decline of the Mughal Empire, Anglo-French imperial rivalry, Parliamentary reform of the East India Company, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Between 1763 and 1813, these factors forced the British East India Company to undergo a radical and rapid transformation from private joint stock company to quasi-governmental institution. The aforementioned factors and their unforeseen consequences compelled the East India Company to develop many of the attributes of a state: an army, a taxation system, a judiciary, bureaucracy, and foreign relations. These factors also compelled the East India Company to conquer India and eliminate its corporate and local rivals. By 1805, the East India Company become the master of India and by 1813 it had established firm control over the Indian Ocean. By 1813, the British East India Company had become a peculiar hybrid, a corporate-state.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5274
Format: Thesis

Title: From Selma to Montgomery: Remembering Alabama's Civil Rights Movement Through Museums.
Creator: Jansen, Holly, Jones, Maxine D., Koslow, Jennifer L., Piehler, G. Kurt, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Though the first wave of civil rights museums in the 1990s have received a fair amount of scholarly attention, the museums created in the twenty-first century, and those that have changed their exhibits, has not yet been investigated. This paper hopes to fill the gap in the historiography by exploring how newer museums remember the civil rights movement through case studies of three museums in central Alabama: the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma,...
Show moreThough the first wave of civil rights museums in the 1990s have received a fair amount of scholarly attention, the museums created in the twenty-first century, and those that have changed their exhibits, has not yet been investigated. This paper hopes to fill the gap in the historiography by exploring how newer museums remember the civil rights movement through case studies of three museums in central Alabama: the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, and the Lowndes County Interpretive Center in Lowndes County. Each chapter examines the museum's response to the scholarly literature, the collective memory of the local community, especially the museums' creators, and the narrative of the movement that the museum presents. By exploring these and other influences on historical memory, this paper will offer new insight on the meanings and legacies of the civil rights movement.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5370
Format: Thesis

Title: Hustling the Old Mexico Aside: Creating a Modern Mexico City Through Medicine, Public Health, and Technology in the Porfiriato, 1887-1913.
Creator: Weber, Jonathan Michael, Doel, Ronald E., Kalbian, Aline, Harper, Kristine C., Rankin, Monica, Liebeskind, Claudia, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This dissertation examines how state officials in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Mexico attempted to cultivate a modern image of Mexico City while dealing with thousands of unidentified and unburied corpses found in places such as the street, hospital morgues, and cemeteries. The central question that I raise is: how did the government attempt to solve this issue in order to present, to citizens and foreigners alike, that the capital city could achieve `order and progress'? My...
Show moreThis dissertation examines how state officials in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Mexico attempted to cultivate a modern image of Mexico City while dealing with thousands of unidentified and unburied corpses found in places such as the street, hospital morgues, and cemeteries. The central question that I raise is: how did the government attempt to solve this issue in order to present, to citizens and foreigners alike, that the capital city could achieve `order and progress'? My research found that Porfirian state officials in Mexico employed medicine and technology in matters related to death as tools for developing a modern society. In particular, they utilized new forms of transportation such as the railroad, promoted the utility of dissection in medical schools, and adopted new funerary technologies, all of which, promised to improve public health in the capital. At the same time, the majority of the population--the urban poor--failed to adopt any of these technological changes, choosing instead to approach death in a way that made sense to their lives.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7654
Format: Thesis

Title: "Don't Strip Tease for Anophlese": A History of Malaria Protocols during World War II.
Creator: Wacks, Rachel Elise, Piehler, G. Kurt, Koslow, Jennifer L., Mizelle, Richard, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This study focuses on the American anti-malaria campaign beginning in 1939. Despite the seemingly endless scholarship on World War II in the past seventy years, little has been written on the malaria epidemic on Guadalcanal. Through extensive archival research, the breadth of the anti-malaria campaign throughout the Pacific is explored as a positive side effect of the malaria epidemic on Guadalcanal in 1942-1943. While most scholars of the Pacific war mention the devastating effects of...
Show moreThis study focuses on the American anti-malaria campaign beginning in 1939. Despite the seemingly endless scholarship on World War II in the past seventy years, little has been written on the malaria epidemic on Guadalcanal. Through extensive archival research, the breadth of the anti-malaria campaign throughout the Pacific is explored as a positive side effect of the malaria epidemic on Guadalcanal in 1942-1943. While most scholars of the Pacific war mention the devastating effects of malaria during the battle for Guadalcanal, few have examined the malaria protocols. Through intensified atabrine discipline, bed nets, mosquito repellant, and an intense cultural war against malaria, the United States military won the war against the anopheles mosquito. Moreover, research and development in the years leading up to war fundamentally changed the way large-scale scientific and medical research is conducted in the United States, including the establishment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7640
Format: Thesis

Title: The Plurality of Soviet Religious "Policy".
Creator: Childers, Barry, Grant, Jonathon, Garretson, Peter, Williamson, George, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines and analyzes the Soviet Union's religious policies through a comparison of policy toward the Russian Orthodox Church and that toward Islam. It explains the differences in religious policy between each Soviet leader, while further breaking down each leader's policies for both religions. It argues that a universal Soviet religious policy did not exist, each Soviet leader instead creating his own religious policy. It furthermore argues that the Soviet ideology of Leninist...
Show moreThis thesis examines and analyzes the Soviet Union's religious policies through a comparison of policy toward the Russian Orthodox Church and that toward Islam. It explains the differences in religious policy between each Soviet leader, while further breaking down each leader's policies for both religions. It argues that a universal Soviet religious policy did not exist, each Soviet leader instead creating his own religious policy. It furthermore argues that the Soviet ideology of Leninist-socialism was not the motivating factor in the formation of policy, but that the personal goals of each leader, as well as the inherent need to protect the state's power and image, comprised the main factors in policy creation. The scope of this thesis is the entire span of the Soviet Union's existence.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4768
Format: Thesis

Title: Keepers of History, Shapers of Memory: The Florida Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1895 1930.
Creator: Codieck, Barrett, Koslow, Jennifer, Jumonville, Neil, Jones, James, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: From 1895 to the 1930s, The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) established itself as one of Florida's foremost interpreters of Confederate heritage. By examining the organization at the time of its greatest influence in Florida, this thesis demonstrates the ways in which the Daughters sought to forge a "usable past" from their Confederate legacy: to produce heritage from history. Specifically, it explains the Daughters' attempts to influence school curriculum to teach their favored...
Show moreFrom 1895 to the 1930s, The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) established itself as one of Florida's foremost interpreters of Confederate heritage. By examining the organization at the time of its greatest influence in Florida, this thesis demonstrates the ways in which the Daughters sought to forge a "usable past" from their Confederate legacy: to produce heritage from history. Specifically, it explains the Daughters' attempts to influence school curriculum to teach their favored historical narrative and to shape public consciousness of the Civil War through monuments and commemorative ceremonies. Since heritage always straddles the gap between past and present, it also explores how the Daughters' activities and rhetoric addressed the social issues of their own time such as race and gender. Sources used include the minutes of UDC conventions, newspaper records, and document collections at the State Archives of Florida, Florida State University, University of Florida, and Emory University.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4772
Format: Thesis

Title: Plasma Aerodynamics since the End of the Cold War.
Creator: Mills, Dennis C., Grant, Jonathan, Ruse, Michael, Davis, Frederick, Wynot, Edward, Blaufarb, Rafe, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This study examines two former adversarial scientific and technological aerospace constructs created, for the most part, separately during the Cold War and their subsequent meeting and collaboration after the Soviet Union collapse. They both strove first separately, then in unison to create a hypersonic aircraft. In studying this collaboration, one must evaluate each research communities' strengths and weaknesses as well as historians' efforts to explain the exact relationship between science...
Show moreThis study examines two former adversarial scientific and technological aerospace constructs created, for the most part, separately during the Cold War and their subsequent meeting and collaboration after the Soviet Union collapse. They both strove first separately, then in unison to create a hypersonic aircraft. In studying this collaboration, one must evaluate each research communities' strengths and weaknesses as well as historians' efforts to explain the exact relationship between science and technology, or applied science. This "international" approach offers some advantages in determining both nations' research capabilities. If one accepts a `science' and `technology' as separate entities, I show that it was actually each country's technological or `applied science' capabilities that defined their `science' and punctuated the two contending scientific communities views regarding the work together.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5043
Format: Thesis

Title: A Cascade of Intervention?: Legislating Midwifery in Florida, 1920-1992.
Creator: Bowes, Megan, Harper, Kristine, Sinke, Suzanne, Jones, Maxine, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, midwives in the South--generally older African-American women--maintained traditional birthing customs while assisting disadvantaged women in their communities. By the early-twentieth century, most upper-class white women were giving birth in hospitals while attended by physicians. As social reform programs began to develop during the early 1920s, social welfare agents and public health officials advocated for the regulation and education...
Show moreIn the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, midwives in the South--generally older African-American women--maintained traditional birthing customs while assisting disadvantaged women in their communities. By the early-twentieth century, most upper-class white women were giving birth in hospitals while attended by physicians. As social reform programs began to develop during the early 1920s, social welfare agents and public health officials advocated for the regulation and education of midwives, who, the former believed, were unfit for infant and maternal care. With funds from the federal Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921, Florida began implementing programs to assess practicing midwives' professional and moral fitness. A decade later, the Florida legislature passed the 1931 Midwife Act, which established training requirements and licensure for midwives. As a result, midwifery-training classes were established at Florida A&M College in Tallahassee and at locations in Tampa and St. Augustine. Some historians contend that the motive behind state agencies developing these programs was to eliminate midwifery as an occupation. In some instances, they may be correct. However, a further examination of how these programs--developed with the assistance of white public health nurses--trained a small number of midwives to assist women across the state with child birth needs a closer examination. With medical advances in the twentieth century, very few Florida women sought the assistance of midwives. However, the growth of the alternative birth movement in the 1970s brought midwifery back to the forefront of discussion concerning who would provide medical services in Florida. As the alternative birth movement gained ground, Floridians who wanted to obtain midwifery licenses formed a grassroots efforts to influence the legislative process. They not only helped to craft the Midwifery Practice Act (1982), but the Midwives Association of Florida also developed a three-year training program for women who wished to gain licensure. Using legal documents and the voices of women who participated in this movement, I argue that it was through their efforts that Florida's 1931 midwifery law came to be revised, and midwifery once again became a legal, viable option for Florida women seeking assistance with a routine birth.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8736
Format: Thesis

Title: Art "Vexed to Nightmare"?: Traditionalism and Modernism in the Painting of Nazi Germany.
Creator: Burkhalter, Matthew, Williamson, George S., Gellately, Robert, Stoltzfus, Nathan, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Painting in the Third Reich is frequently dismissed as mere propaganda, as anti-modernist kitsch, or as a homogeneous body of realist or academic "genre painting" in the tradition of nineteenth-century Munich naturalism. However, there was no monolithic aesthetic in Nazi painting. Though Nazi painting was representational and while abstract expressionism was stricken from artistic life by gradations after 1933, the roots of Nazi painting are complex. I focus on the paintings displayed at each...
Show morePainting in the Third Reich is frequently dismissed as mere propaganda, as anti-modernist kitsch, or as a homogeneous body of realist or academic "genre painting" in the tradition of nineteenth-century Munich naturalism. However, there was no monolithic aesthetic in Nazi painting. Though Nazi painting was representational and while abstract expressionism was stricken from artistic life by gradations after 1933, the roots of Nazi painting are complex. I focus on the paintings displayed at each of the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellungen (GDK) or Great German Art Exhibitions, 1937 – 1944, held each year in the Haus der Kunst in Munich. My examination of Nazi painting reveals a multiplicity of sources, traditional and modernist, for artists of the period. I also examine how artists' considerable agency in the period was defined by what they should not create more so than by what they should. By considering the competing voices within the Nazi cultural bureaucracy, including Hitler's own negatively-defined artistic preferences, it is clear that the regime lacked a rigorously-defined aesthetic program, even after the first GDK in 1937. Nazism incorporated into its fold, even until the end of the war, artists of varying aesthetic stripes, including some who had been defamed as "degenerate." In my research, I attempt to overcome the implicit Manichean divide between (good) modernist art and (bad) anti-modernist art. When one recognizes that Nazi painting was not stylistically or structurally homogeneous, that it contained elements of archaism and modernism, that artists responded to the vaguely defined aesthetic demands of the regime in varying ways, that the accusation of "degeneracy" was not always a pest-ban but sometimes a negotiable roadblock, and that even more artistic experimentation was possible in the Third Reich outside the confines of the GDK, one is forced to acknowledge that Nazi art did not emerge ex nihilo in 1933. At the same time, it was not a mere revival of academic trends that were eclipsed or discredited years before the First World War. This thesis is composed of three chapters, the first of which is focused on the origins and contours of Nazi painting. I examine the Kunstpolitik between the pragmatic or promodernist (Goebbels) and reactionary (Rosenberg) voices during the 1930s and conclude that, while Hitler's own tastes leaned closer to the latter, modernist art was publicly exhibited in Germany as late as 1937. After examining Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich, the regime's official magazine on contemporary art, and Kunst dem Volk, its widely-distributed art-history cousin, I argue that, as late as 1943, Nazi functionaries, ideologues, art critics, and, most importantly, artists themselves were unsure how to proceed in discussing or creating art for the new Reich. Nazi painting naturally developed as a forest of different (and often competing) stylistic trends. One sees ample evidence of art which was drawn from a variety of preexisting traditions: the Northern Renaissance, Munich naturalism, impressionism, Symbolism, and, in limited cases, even Fauvism or mild expressionism. In the second chapter, I focus on the question of Nazi artists' agency within the Third Reich's cultural apparatus. In other words, how did artists respond to the unclear artistic parameters provided by the regime? I examine the magazine Die Kunst, a monthly journal on contemporary art, art history, and home design published in Munich from 1884 through the fall of the Third Reich. After identifying a group of Nazi artists representative of the general artistic environment of the GDK (i.e., artists who were featured in numerous GDK exhibitions, artists often featured in contemporary-art publications, etc.), I turn my discussion to what they did before they were "Nazi artists." What becomes most clear from examining Die Kunst is the extent to which some artists in Germany during the Nazi era, paradoxically, were simultaneously autonomous and fettered — free to be stylistically inventive within the parameters outlined by Hitler's various pronouncements against modernism as well as the artistic program of the GDK. By examining their careers more fully, through the lens of Die Kunst in issues as early as 1920, it is clear that artists responded to those guidelines in various ways — by significantly moderating their more experimental personal styles, by adjusting their subject matter instead of changing stylistically, or by remaining the same and painting under Hitler as they had done even before the NSDAP was a vital political force. The third chapter is divided into two sections. In the first, I examine the immediate connections between the art of the Weimar era, so often maligned in Nazi propaganda, and the art of the Third Reich. I argue that there is more in common between the representational art of the neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), which dominated Weimar culture during the mid-1920s, and the art of the Third Reich than one is generally led to believe by major histories of Weimar culture. I have found considerable evidence which suggests more immediate parallels between German art in the mid-1920s and in the GDK. The deeper connections between fascism and modernism as well as the linkages between the avant-garde and reactionary ideology further complicate the notion that totalitarian systems arise from the political and social upheavals of modernity and then sever all ties to modernism in favor of stultifying realism. In the second section, I argue that, while there are certainly similarities between the realisms employed by totalitarian regimes — as examples, Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia — I maintain that the two aesthetic programs are ultimately different. While the former is defined more by its looseness and variation, both stylistically and programmatically, the latter can be comprehensibly broken down into an iconographic program. By juxtaposing Nazi painting against painting under Stalin, I show that artists in the two regimes utilized old artistic styles and structures in the creation and dissemination of new political and cultural realities. However, while legitimization through sacralization was employed in both art systems (through the altarpiece and the icon), the stylistic multiplicity of Nazi painting separates it from total parity with Stalinist art. The two can be discussed in terms of commonalities in twentieth-century representational or political art, but they should not be viewed as identical figures in a matrix of totalitarian aesthetics.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8746
Format: Thesis

Title: Parameters of Power: The Quandary of Yemen Between the World Wars.
Creator: Boyett, Colleen, Garretson, Peter, Doan, Petra, Grant, Jonathan, Gaiser, Adam, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The purpose of this dissertation is to use a Foucauldian lens to examine the nature and scope of the many challenges the British faced in southwest Arabia in the wake of the retreating Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. The subsequent power vacuum which ensued meant that Britain had to make a decision as to the nature of its future imperial policy in Yemen beyond Aden. The challenge would be to maintain the security of the Red Sea route to India by implementing some sort of...
Show moreThe purpose of this dissertation is to use a Foucauldian lens to examine the nature and scope of the many challenges the British faced in southwest Arabia in the wake of the retreating Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. The subsequent power vacuum which ensued meant that Britain had to make a decision as to the nature of its future imperial policy in Yemen beyond Aden. The challenge would be to maintain the security of the Red Sea route to India by implementing some sort of cost-effective imperial arrangement which allowed for some measure of Yemeni autonomy while keeping European competitors at a safe distance. The impact of the discussions at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and the Cairo Conference in 1921 are also examined. While the focus of the study is on Yemen, it begins with an explanation of the overlapping concerns of competing centers of power in Delhi, Cairo, and London and the fundamentally different visions they had for the Middle East in general, and the Arabian Peninsula, in particular. The professionals who staffed the India Office, the Foreign Office, and the Colonial Office held divergent views of where Yemen fit into their imperial plans, reflecting the various experiences they drew upon from their careers in Africa and India. They simply could not decide if Yemen belonged more to the Indian imperial system, or conversely, to the Red Sea world of colonial Africa. Failing to resolve this fundamental difference of vision, this disagreement led to the support of two different leaders in Yemen, the Sufi Idris of Asir and the Zaydi Imam of Sanaa. The default plan was for Aden-in Foucauldian style-to serve as a type of panopticon, overseeing the region with appropriate discipline and rewards via less formal, trucial-style arrangements with various tribal shayhks and other notables, believing that keeping southwest Arabia divided would serve Britain's strategic interests. A central theme is the display of Arab agency through the power and influence of Yemeni leaders who leveraged their religious heritage to reinforce their own positions and to maintain a state of chaos along the border with Aden in the south, and the Eastern and Western Protectorates. Ultimately, the British government concluded the Treaty of Sanaa in 1934 with a figure whom it had not initially backed, the Zaydi Imam Yahya, This delay of fourteen years to resolve the lingering territorial issues carried over from the war diminished the reputation of Britain at home and abroad, and ensured that these issues would continue to reverberate in Yemen into the twenty-first century, while taking on new and different outer forms. The paper concludes with a brief examination of these reverberations by comparing the problems faced by the British in the interwar period to those of the United States and her allies today. Although Yemenis witnessed increased independence and agency with the retreat of the Ottomans at the end of World War One, pressure (and eventually, violence) emanating from Aden acted to corral it within the parameters of the imperial panopticon based there. These problems include an excessive number of armaments and foreign soldiers emanating from "ungoverned spaces," large numbers of poor and exploited African immigrants, the presence of potentially volatile, non-orthodox forms of Islam, financial extortion by native leaders and the failed attempts by Western hegemonic forces to manage these problems effectively from a distance. Many of these same problems exist in the region today, now supervised from Camp Lemonnier, Dibouti, rather than Aden, and the disparity between Yemeni expectations and reality have erupted in revolutionary fervor with a distinct anti-Western bias.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8739
Format: Thesis

Title: Prelude to Disaster: Defending Confederate New Orleans.
Creator: Zwilling, Andrew, Jones, Jim, Grant, Jonathan, Hadden, Sally, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the defense of Confederate New Orleans during American Civil War, specifically during the year 1861 and the first four months of 1862. The importance of New Orleans to the South is first analyzed in order to give context for its defense. Then both the Confederate military perspective and the city's perspective are taken into account, resulting in the conclusion that the defense can be seen as an inevitable microcosm of the problems that generally plagued the Confederacy....
Show moreThis thesis examines the defense of Confederate New Orleans during American Civil War, specifically during the year 1861 and the first four months of 1862. The importance of New Orleans to the South is first analyzed in order to give context for its defense. Then both the Confederate military perspective and the city's perspective are taken into account, resulting in the conclusion that the defense can be seen as an inevitable microcosm of the problems that generally plagued the Confederacy. Lack of material resources and manpower, confusion and division between the local population and Confederate authority, disorganized and compartmentalized leadership and overwhelming Federal industrial advantage are all issues that can be seen both in the defense of New Orleans and the Confederacy as a whole.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0471
Format: Thesis

Title: From Mosquito Clouds to War Clouds: The Rise of Naval Air Station Banana River.
Creator: Euziere, Melissa Williford, Jones, James P., Conner, V.J, Green, Elna C., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Naval Air Station Banana River was created as a result of increased military appropriations to defend the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America. The Hepburn Board was charged with finding appropriate sites for new naval installations that could better protect American citizens from attacks along the coastline. After an exhaustive study, a site in Brevard County was selected to become a naval patrol sea plane base. County and city leaders in Brevard rallied around the construction of...
Show moreNaval Air Station Banana River was created as a result of increased military appropriations to defend the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America. The Hepburn Board was charged with finding appropriate sites for new naval installations that could better protect American citizens from attacks along the coastline. After an exhaustive study, a site in Brevard County was selected to become a naval patrol sea plane base. County and city leaders in Brevard rallied around the construction of the Naval Air Station Banana River that they had lobbied the Hepburn Board to bring to their county. They threw their support behind the station throughout its construction and celebrated its commissioning in October 1940. Pearl Harbor brought changes to NAS Banana River as German U-boats stalked the Florida coast and the station's mission was expanded to include patrol duty, search and rescue, bombardier training, sea-plane pilot training, and communications research. Buildings sprang up in response to the increase in personnel needed to fill all of the programs. Brevard County welcomed the sailors into their towns, homes, and lives. Although the base itself was isolated, there were a number of activities on and off base to keep the sailors busy. The county was felt the economic impact of the base with an increased number of employment opportunities, a rise in retail and food service profits, and a demand for additional infrastructure to support the station. Naval Air Station Banana River was deactivated in 1947 to the dismay of the people in Brevard County. Their disappointment did not last long when a few years later the base was reactivated to serve as the headquarters of the newly formed Joint Long Range Proving Ground, a testing site for the American rocket and missile program. The existence of the Naval Air Station Banana River and the infrastructure created to support it helped to bring missile program, and a few years later the space program, to Brevard County.
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Date Issued: 2003
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0489
Format: Thesis

Title: The Force of Nature: The Impact of Weather on Armies during the American War of Independence, 1775-1781.
Creator: Engel, Jonathan T., Hadden, Sally, Harper, Kristine, Jones, James, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the impact that weather had on armies during the American War of Independence. It argues that weather affected the operations of both American and British armies in three areas: strategy, influencing the planning of campaigns; tactics, affecting the course of battles; and administration, adding to the daily work of maintaining armies in the field and keeping them functional. Year after year, in all four seasons, generals and soldiers had to cope with phenomena such as...
Show moreThis thesis examines the impact that weather had on armies during the American War of Independence. It argues that weather affected the operations of both American and British armies in three areas: strategy, influencing the planning of campaigns; tactics, affecting the course of battles; and administration, adding to the daily work of maintaining armies in the field and keeping them functional. Year after year, in all four seasons, generals and soldiers had to cope with phenomena such as rain, snow, heat, and fog. Weather was capricious, sometimes helping one army and harming the other, and sometimes hindering both armies. Generals often tried to use the weather to gain an advantage and to mitigate the damage weather might do to their armies. The first chapter addresses weather's activity in early years of the war, up to the end of 1777. The second chapter focuses on the war in the north from 1778 to the end of major fighting in 1781, and the final chapter covers the impact of weather in that same period in the southern theater, concluding with the Franco-American victory at Yorktown. No previous study has concentrated on weather's role in the war as a whole. While weather was not the sole force that guided the armies' actions or decided the outcomes of battles or the war, this thesis demonstrates how the weather helped shape the Revolutionary War alongside other better-recognized factors such as political, economic, or logistical issues, and warrants recognition as such.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0562
Format: Thesis

Title: A Mississippi Burning: Examining the Lynching of Lloyd Clay and the Encumbering of Black Progress in Mississippi during the Progressive Era.
Creator: Dorsey, Albert, Jones, Maxine D., Montgomery, Maxine L., Jones, James P., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: When twenty-two year old African American Lloyd Clay was strung up from an old elm tree, burned alive, and his body riddled with bullets by a white lynch mob of approximately one-thousand people on the corner of a major intersection in Vicksburg, Mississippi, nothing happened. Vicksburg in the year 1919 was typical of many other cities throughout the United States deep South. When Clay was unjustly crucified, no whites from the mob were put on trial; and there was no backlash or retaliation...
Show moreWhen twenty-two year old African American Lloyd Clay was strung up from an old elm tree, burned alive, and his body riddled with bullets by a white lynch mob of approximately one-thousand people on the corner of a major intersection in Vicksburg, Mississippi, nothing happened. Vicksburg in the year 1919 was typical of many other cities throughout the United States deep South. When Clay was unjustly crucified, no whites from the mob were put on trial; and there was no backlash or retaliation from the black Vicksburg citizenry. As a matter of fact, Clay's mother was even told by whites not to go to the morgue to identify her dead son's body; it would be best, they suggested, if she stayed out of it. This case study will specifically situate Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the lynching of Lloyd Clay within the context of the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century, called by many historians, the Progressive Era. It will examine why black lynchings increased after slavery was constitutionally abolished and the Reconstruction Era in the American South came to an end. It will also juxtapose Mississippi lynchings, blamed for the maintenance of economical, political, and social white privilege, against the Progressive Era to show how those lynchings encumbered black economic, political, and social progress.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0686
Format: Thesis

Title: Realistic Religion and Radical Prophets: The Stfu, the Social Gospel, and the American Left in the 1930S.
Creator: Youngblood, Joshua C., Conner, Valerie Jean, Jones, James P., Grant, Jonathan, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union was an interracial organization of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and wage laborers that emerged from northeastern Arkansas in the mid-1930s. The STFU became the most important social action on the part of landless agricultural workers during the Great Depression and one of the most significant critics of the New Deal and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. This study examines the STFU as a dramatic expression of the Social Gospel in the South during...
Show moreThe Southern Tenant Farmers' Union was an interracial organization of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and wage laborers that emerged from northeastern Arkansas in the mid-1930s. The STFU became the most important social action on the part of landless agricultural workers during the Great Depression and one of the most significant critics of the New Deal and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. This study examines the STFU as a dramatic expression of the Social Gospel in the South during the 1930s and as a representation of the cooperative work of radical and moderate American leftists during the interwar period. From its inception, the STFU faced the violent opposition of planters and local authorities, yet the union managed to survive until the end of the decade as a result of talented leadership, the effectiveness of its organizational strategy, and the patronage of influential leftist leaders around the nation. The plight of the sharecroppers attracted the concern and attention of the eastern liberal establishment, Socialist leaders such as Norman Thomas, and the Communist Party. However, southern progressive leaders such as Harry Leland Mitchell, a former sharecropper turned political radical from west Tennessee, always led the union. The STFU also drew members of a new generation of southern seminary-trained social activists. These "Radical Prophets," through work with southern labor and national organizations such as the NAACP and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, injected the Social Gospel theology taught by social activists and university professors such as Alva Taylor at Vanderbilt University with a Marxist inspired desire to revolutionize southern economic and social institutions in keeping with the philosophy of modern theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr. Southern labor leaders, radical ministers, regional black leaders, and white and black country preachers, combined in the STFU, and the potent mixture allowed the union to quickly organize thousands of the nation's most impoverished and disenfranchised in a valiant though ill-fated effort to reform southern society. This thesis also presents the STFU as a microcosm of the dissolution of the American left consensus as the Great Depression came to an end. By the early 1940s, the union had all but disappeared after having reached a peak of 35,000 members. Although the pressures associated with affiliation with an international union and the changing demographics of the Delta South were the direct causes of the union's failure, ideological rifts between the radical and moderate leaders of the union, as closely observed below in the split between the "Radical Prophets" Howard Kester and Claude Williams, hastened the STFU's demise. By analyzing the letters and first-hand accounts of STFU leaders and organizers in the context of radical Christianity and leftist political and social thought, this study provides a new perspective concerning the STFU which addresses the place of the union in 1930s intellectual history and as a manifestation of the often overlooked radical progressive tradition that existed in the South during the period.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0764
Format: Thesis

Title: Witness to Glory: Lieutenant-Général Henri-Gatien Bertrand, 1791-1815.
Creator: Delvaux, Steven Laurence, Horward, Donald D., Hargreaves, Alec, Oldson, William, Creswell, Michael, Grant, Jonathan A., Department of Art History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Henri-Gatien Bertrand is perhaps the least known of the generals who occupied a prestigious position near Napoleon during the years of the First French Empire. Born in 1773 to a family of the lesser nobility, Bertrand's life encompassed all of the great and momentous events that shook France and Europe during the ensuing fifty years. He played a direct role in many of these events. Commissioned into the French army as an engineer officer in 1793, Bertrand served as an engineer during the...
Show moreHenri-Gatien Bertrand is perhaps the least known of the generals who occupied a prestigious position near Napoleon during the years of the First French Empire. Born in 1773 to a family of the lesser nobility, Bertrand's life encompassed all of the great and momentous events that shook France and Europe during the ensuing fifty years. He played a direct role in many of these events. Commissioned into the French army as an engineer officer in 1793, Bertrand served as an engineer during the siege of Metz in 1794, in the Egyptian Campaign from 1798-1801, at the camp de Boulogne from 1802-04, and during the 1809 Campaign. He also served as an aide-de-camp to Napoleon during the 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808 Campaigns. In 1811, the Emperor appointed him to serve as the Governor General of the Illyrian Provinces where he remained until being recalled to the army in 1813. He served in the ensuing 1813 Campaign as the commander of the 4th Corps, leading his corps in the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Gross Beeren, Dennewitz, Wartemburg, Leipzig, and Hanau. At the end of that campaign, Napoleon elevated Bertrand to the position of Grand Marshal of the Palace. Bertrand retained that position during the 1814 and 1815 Campaigns and throughout the Emperor's exiles to Elba and St. Helena. He remained with Napoleon on St. Helena until the Emperor's death in 1821. Bertrand's service to France and Napoleon during these many years is singular for its length and the devoted manner in which he performed it. He possessed an unshakeable conviction in Napoleon's greatness and he conducted himself in both victory and adversity in a distinguished and dignified manner that speaks highly of his character and integrity. He garnered the admiration, respect, and esteem of many for his unimpeachable service to France and Napoleon during these momentous years.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0772
Format: Thesis

Title: Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm's Way.
Creator: Smith, Douglas Vaughn, Jones, James Pickett, Tatum, William J., Grant, Jonathan, Horward, Donald D., Sickinger, James, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This dissertation considers the transformation of the United States Navy from a defensive-minded coastal defense navy during the first century of this nation's history into an offensive-mindset, risk taking navy in the very early stages of World War II. More precisely, since none of the most significant leaders of the U.S. Navy in World War II were commissioned prior to the Spanish-American War and none participated in any significant offensive operations in the First World War, this...
Show moreThis dissertation considers the transformation of the United States Navy from a defensive-minded coastal defense navy during the first century of this nation's history into an offensive-mindset, risk taking navy in the very early stages of World War II. More precisely, since none of the most significant leaders of the U.S. Navy in World War II were commissioned prior to the Spanish-American War and none participated in any significant offensive operations in the First World War, this dissertation examines the premise that education, rather than experience in battle, accounts for that transformation. In evaluating this thesis this dissertation examines the five carrier battles of the Second World War to determine the extent to which the inter-war education of the major operational commanders translated into their decision processes, and the extent to which their interaction during their educational experiences transformed them from risk-adverse to risk-accepting in their operational concepts. Thus the title for my dissertation: Carrier Battles: Command Decision in Harm's Way. Almost all of the top-level leaders of the U.S. Navy in World War II had two things in common. They invariably graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy from 1904 through 1912, and from the U.S. Naval War College from 1923 through 1937. Thus none had any experience in the Spanish-American War, and, due primarily to lack of many opportunities for offensive action in the First World War, few had any real experience of consequence in that war either. The question that obviously springs to mind, then, is how did these top naval leaders, brought up in the culture of a Navy that had been developed as a coastal defense Service during the first hundred years of its existence, develop a risk-taking, offensive attitude without any real opportunity to refine the skills necessary for offensive operations save in the classroom? That has become the central theme around which this dissertation has been structured. In the formative stages of their education at the Naval Academy something profoundly influenced the Midshipmen in inculcating a long-term commitment to naval service. Though several formative events surround their socialization in the military, one in particular seems to stand out. That would be the realization of the position of the United States as a player on the world stage emanating from President Theodore Roosevelt's ordering of the "Great White Fleet" around the world in a cruise that marked the emergence of the United States in global politics. That event solidified in the Annapolis Midshipmen the realization of the role the U.S. Navy would of necessity play as America emerged from a survival instinct for isolation from European and world involvements to active participation in world affairs. Moreover, fortified by the naval theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan, the Officer candidates at Annapolis realized the geo-strategic implications of that participation. Of necessity, the U.S. Navy would spearhead U.S. global involvement, and by virtue of their eminent commissioning and potential for leadership positions in that Navy, their own destinies would be tied to that of United States global engagement. Several authors have speculated as to what accounts for the success of the U.S. Navy in World War II -- and particularly in the early stages of that war. Luck, naval war gaming at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, breaking of Japanese naval codes, and Divine Intervention have all been postulated as credible rationale for that success. Though all of these were important -- none can adequately account for the aggressive, risk-accepting decisions that the top U.S. Naval operational leaders were able to embrace. The institutionalized naval educational process stands out as enabling in their relationship to decisive decision and action and fundamental understanding among the leaders interacting in combat of what they could expect from those fighting with them. Foremost among these is the so-called "Green Hornet," -- so named because of the color of its binding, which provided an extremely concise and rote method for approaching and analyzing a problem and formulating a sound course of action appropriate to the situation at hand. Hence the actual title of the "Green Hornet," -- Sound Military Decision. The main thesis explored in this dissertation is that education rather than experience best accounts for U.S. Navy success in operations in World War II, and that Sound Military Decision can be appropriately established as the main element of that education which produced the success enjoyed. This thesis is evaluated by analyzing the naval decision process in the five carrier battles of the Second World War: The Battle of the Coral Sea; The Battle of Midway; The Battle of the Eastern Solomons; The Battle of Santa Cruz; and The Battle of the Philippine Sea. The institutions of higher education of the various Services today have deviated significantly and unacceptably from the successful approach they maintained during the inter-War period. Today's education for Officers is very descriptive with respect to theory, operational art, doctrine, technology, techniques and tactics, as opposed to a much more proscriptive and interactive (among students) approach employed between the World Wars. It is hoped that the research completed for this study might be a catalyst for consideration of a return to an approach to education that will more fully capture the essentials of confidence-building between and among students and promote unconventional thinking (in the current parlance, thinking "outside the box") that can refine approaches to warfare before rather than in the midst of battle. From a historical standpoint, this study is unlike any done previously in terms of both scope and methodology. Experienced editors of naval publications indicate that no one has previously published a book which covers all five carrier battles of the Second World War. All five carrier battles have been mentioned in books, but only briefly attendant to campaigns taking place on land. In terms of methodology, dissection of the naval decision process in battle in relation to specific educational objectives previously instilled in the naval leadership, this study is believed to be applicationally unique. Thus this study has been conducted in appreciation of the possibility of making a unique scholarly contribution to the field of Military History, and also Military Education.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0344
Format: Thesis

Title: "Conservation of the Child Is Our First Duty": Clubwomen, Organized Labor, and the Politics of Child Labor Legislation in Florida.
Creator: Burns, Sarah, Green, Elna, Jones, Maxine, Koslow, Jennifer, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Florida's child welfare movement, a broad coalition of clubwomen, legislators, labor activists, and civic reformers, worked tirelessly to ensure that the right to a protected childhood was guaranteed to all of Florida's future citizens. These Progressive reformers, embracing new ideas about charity, the causes of poverty, and family life, turned to legislation to protect children when society could not, and their efforts culminated in the passage of Florida's comprehensive Child Labor Law in...
Show moreFlorida's child welfare movement, a broad coalition of clubwomen, legislators, labor activists, and civic reformers, worked tirelessly to ensure that the right to a protected childhood was guaranteed to all of Florida's future citizens. These Progressive reformers, embracing new ideas about charity, the causes of poverty, and family life, turned to legislation to protect children when society could not, and their efforts culminated in the passage of Florida's comprehensive Child Labor Law in 1913. Florida's child labor campaign was part of both a regional and a national movement to eradicate the practice of manipulating children in industry and the street trades. Despite its inclusion in this broader movement, Florida's anti-child labor coalition was unique. Unlike their Southern neighbors, Floridians shied away from the rhetoric of "race suicide." Speaking on behalf of child labor legislation, they emphasized the social and moral disadvantages of child labor rather than its repercussions for race relations. This grew out of Florida's distinct pattern of economic development: Florida was among the last Southern states to industrialize, and that industrial sector did not include the textile mills notorious for child labor abuses across the South. Florida's child laborers primarily consisted of African Americans and Southern and Eastern European immigrants working in canneries along the Gulf Coast and Cuban and Italian immigrants laboring in the cigar industry of South Florida. Both of these industries employed a much smaller number of child workers than manufacturers in Florida's neighboring states. Florida's child labor legislation thus served two distinct purposes: it was both a preventative measure designed to protect Florida's children from the kinds of exploitation taking place in neighboring states and a means of pressuring those states to pass similar legislation. This thesis, an examination of the politics of Florida's child labor movement, highlights the ways in which the national child labor platform could be adapted to succeed in different states, while it reaffirms the diversity of both Progressive reform and Progressive reformers in the early twentieth-century South.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0193
Format: Thesis

Title: Baptist Missions in the British Empire: Jamaica and Serampore in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century.
Creator: Elliott, Kelly Rebecca, Upchurch, Charles J., Singh, Bawa S., McMahon, Darrin M., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Baptist missions in the British Empire must be understood in the context of the Dissenting tradition in England, including Baptist history, theology, epistemology, radical politics, and class considerations. The Baptist missions at Serampore, in British Bengal, from 1794 to 1837, and in Jamaica from C. 1824 to 1850 provide ideal case studies through which to examine missionary identity formation, as well as the impact of missions on the Empire. British Baptist missionaries, already...
Show moreBaptist missions in the British Empire must be understood in the context of the Dissenting tradition in England, including Baptist history, theology, epistemology, radical politics, and class considerations. The Baptist missions at Serampore, in British Bengal, from 1794 to 1837, and in Jamaica from C. 1824 to 1850 provide ideal case studies through which to examine missionary identity formation, as well as the impact of missions on the Empire. British Baptist missionaries, already marginalized in England as Dissenters and artisan-class men, faced powerful challenges to their individual identities and loyalties in the mission field. In both India and Jamaica, white missionaries tended to identify more with non-white converts than with their fellow colonials. This shift led the Baptists studied here to ground their identities and loyalties in their mission and in their churches, rather than in the British Empire. Baptist missionaries thus viewed themselves primarily as Christians and Dissenters, not as English and white, and placed allegiance to their churches before English nationalism. The white missionaries who began the missions at Serampore and in Jamaica ultimately entrusted the future of their work to non-white converts. In both cases, the goal of evangelization was an independent church led by indigenous Christians.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0574
Format: Thesis

Title: Case Studies in Aquarium History: Trends Discovered in Studying the History of Three Regional Aquariums..
Creator: Doar, Kevin H., Davis, Frederick R., Koslow, Jennifer, Wulff, Janie L., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Three regional aquariums, Waikiki Aquarium, Clearwater Aquarium, and the Mote Marine Laboratory, provide the case-studies for this analysis into the history of aquariums. The history of these institutes provided historical trends into their educational, entertainment, research, and rehabilitation efforts. This in turn helped prove their influence upon the surrounding society.
Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0724
Format: Thesis

Title: Bourbon, Pork Chops, and Red Peppers: Political Immorality in Florida, 1945-1968.
Creator: Weitz, Seth A., Jones, James P., O’Sullivan, Patrick, Jones, Maxine, Wynot, Edward D., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: While Florida was a member of the "solid South", it differed from the rest of the region in that the state experienced a population boom, transforming the peninsula from a backwater, poor, insignificant state into one of the largest states by 1965. Many of the new Floridians brought with them political beliefs alien to the Deep South. These principles threatened to undermine the deeply entrenched system dominated by the Pork Chop Gang, a group of conservative, states' rights, segregationist...
Show moreWhile Florida was a member of the "solid South", it differed from the rest of the region in that the state experienced a population boom, transforming the peninsula from a backwater, poor, insignificant state into one of the largest states by 1965. Many of the new Floridians brought with them political beliefs alien to the Deep South. These principles threatened to undermine the deeply entrenched system dominated by the Pork Chop Gang, a group of conservative, states' rights, segregationist Democrats from rural Northern and Central Florida. They held a stranglehold over the Legislature due to archaic apportioning which had been mandated by the Constitution of 1885. The Pork Choppers took their cue from Senator Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism in Florida, commencing at the end of the Senator's national reign of terror, proved a methodical and orderly assault on all opponents of the region, whether they be Communists, African-Americans, homosexuals or liberals. The perceived threats against morality, white supremacy and the concocted communist hazard were used as an excuse and disguise to purge Florida of its enemies and more importantly maintain the power of the Pork Chop Gang in the face of its growing political enemies.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1195
Format: Thesis

Title: The Rise of Radicalism in Antebellum Florida Politics: 1845-1856.
Creator: Weitz, Seth A., Jones, James P., Green, Elna C., Wynot, Edward, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The political culture of the 1850's was largely dictated by emotional rather than rational thought. Nowhere was this closer to reality than in the Deep South. Florida, while largely insignificant on the national level, underwent a transformation during the 1850's from a conservative society to a fire eating haven dominated by the South Carolina School of Politics. This thesis examines the metamorphosis that took place within the state from Florida's admission to the Union as the twenty...
Show moreThe political culture of the 1850's was largely dictated by emotional rather than rational thought. Nowhere was this closer to reality than in the Deep South. Florida, while largely insignificant on the national level, underwent a transformation during the 1850's from a conservative society to a fire eating haven dominated by the South Carolina School of Politics. This thesis examines the metamorphosis that took place within the state from Florida's admission to the Union as the twenty-seventh state in 1845 through the collapse of the two party political system in 1856. Antebellum Florida politics was dominated by the region of Middle Florida, known as the black belt because its economy was driven by the institution of slavery. This region, except for Jefferson County, was staunchly Whig in the early years of statehood. The radical element of society, mainly the fire eating Democrats led by David Levy Yulee, John C. McGehee, James E. Broome, and Madison Starke Perry, wanted to ally the state with extremist South Carolina but could not do so as long as the planter aristocracy felt a strong allegiance to the conservative Whigs. The security felt by the planter class within the Whig party began to erode during the Crisis of 1850 and, once this powerful group defected to the Democratic Party the state was ready to follow South Carolina in breaking the bonds of Union.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1197
Format: Thesis

Title: Petty Despots and Executive Officials: Civil Military Relations in the Early American Navy.
Creator: Sheppard, Thomas, Hadden, Sally, Creswell, Michael, Jones, James, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: As a new nation, the United States lacked the long naval traditions of the other powers of the time, particularly Great Britain. When Congress created a naval force in 1794, the country had to rely on its first officers to form the traditions of the service and lay the foundations of the American Navy. These first officers bequeathed to their country the naval force that would eventually challenge the mighty Royal Navy in the War of 1812. However, officers alone were not responsible for the...
Show moreAs a new nation, the United States lacked the long naval traditions of the other powers of the time, particularly Great Britain. When Congress created a naval force in 1794, the country had to rely on its first officers to form the traditions of the service and lay the foundations of the American Navy. These first officers bequeathed to their country the naval force that would eventually challenge the mighty Royal Navy in the War of 1812. However, officers alone were not responsible for the maturation of the Navy. Civilian officials, notably the Secretary of the Navy, also played a major role in the development of an American maritime force. These two components did not always interact harmoniously. Captains, used to the total autonomy that command at sea in an era of starkly limited communication created, often had difficulty subordinating themselves to their civilian superiors. During the first three decades of the Navy's existence, successive Secretaries of the Navy would gradually increase their authority over their officers, establishing the traditions of civilian control over the military that had long been a part of land warfare. This thesis explores the process whereby the question of ultimate authority over the Navy was settled, beginning with the creation of the navy and culminating in the creation of the Board of Naval Commissioners following the War of 1812.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0312
Format: Thesis

Title: Angels or Monsters?: Violent Crimes and Violent Children in Mexico City, 1927-1932.
Creator: Weber, Jonathan, Herrera, Robinson, Anderson, Rodney, Upchurch, Charles, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Based upon archival sources located in Mexico, this thesis represents a focused attempt at analyzing the factors affecting the punishment of juvenile offenders in late 1920s and early 1930s Mexico City. I argue that different crimes, homicide, prostitution, and rape, merited punishments that were prescribed to uniquely fit a suspect based on elite views of what represented the model family, education, and sexual behavior. The elite views were represented by state officials in the Tribunal...
Show moreBased upon archival sources located in Mexico, this thesis represents a focused attempt at analyzing the factors affecting the punishment of juvenile offenders in late 1920s and early 1930s Mexico City. I argue that different crimes, homicide, prostitution, and rape, merited punishments that were prescribed to uniquely fit a suspect based on elite views of what represented the model family, education, and sexual behavior. The elite views were represented by state officials in the Tribunal para Menores, a court established in January 1927, to specifically deal with minors, legally defined as anyone under the age of 18. Prior to the establishment of the Tribunal para Menores, minors were adjudicated in adult courts and placed in adult correctional facilities. However, the Tribunal represented the first attempt in Mexico City to separate child from adult. Correctional schools were established that solely housed minors and in most cases, prison sentences alongside adults were no longer acceptable. Instead, minors were placed in correctional schools where the ultimate goal was rehabilitation so minors could re-enter society as productive members of the nation.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1226
Format: Thesis

Title: Writing Race: The Florida Federal Writers' Project and Racial Identity, 1935-1943.
Creator: Tomlinson, Angela E., Green, Elna, Jones, Maxine, Koslow, Jennifer, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: In the late 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration employed thousands of out-of-work writers and other white-collar professionals. Although publication of a comprehensive guidebook for each state was the main task of the FWP, project writers also traveled their respective states collecting life histories, interviewing former slaves, and compiling local histories and ethnographic studies. As a result, the work of the FWP entailed much more than preparation of...
Show moreIn the late 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration employed thousands of out-of-work writers and other white-collar professionals. Although publication of a comprehensive guidebook for each state was the main task of the FWP, project writers also traveled their respective states collecting life histories, interviewing former slaves, and compiling local histories and ethnographic studies. As a result, the work of the FWP entailed much more than preparation of travel books, for taken as a whole, its writings represented an attempt to craft a new portrait of America and its people. Like many other New Deal programs, the FWP was a product of the liberal, progressive intellectual community that had emerged at the turn of the twentieth century. By the 1930s, this community, influenced by concepts of cultural pluralism, cosmopolitanism, and cultural relativism, was engaged in an ongoing discourse on redefining American identity and culture to include a broader spectrum of the American people. These concepts also influenced many of the national officers of the FWP, who wanted the project to present a more inclusive depiction of America that celebrated the country's diversity. As this thesis demonstrates, however, this goal broke down at the state level, particularly in the South, which was deeply committed to Jim Crow segregation in the 1930s. An examination of both published and unpublished writings of the Florida Federal Writers' Project, including Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State and The Florida Negro, reveals that where race was concerned, traditional biases and prejudices trumped the national office's more liberal ideology. As a result, despite the efforts of liberal members of the Florida staff, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Stetson Kennedy, and the editorial oversight of the national office, the Florida FWP ultimately failed to provide three-dimensional, unbiased portraits of the state's African-American and mixed-race populations.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1280
Format: Thesis

Title: Command and Control in the Peninsula: The Role of the British Cavalry 1808-1814.
Creator: Gerges, Mark T., Horward, Donald D., Hargreaves, Alec, Oldson, William O., Creswell, Michael, Grant, Jonathan, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the utilization and effectiveness of the British cavalry during the Peninsular War. The accomplishments and reputation of the mounted arm has been in dispute since the end of the Napoleonic era, and no systematic study has been undertaken to either refute or support the various claims. Numerous books and articles have been written on the British cavalry under Sir John Moore and the Duke of Wellington. They tend towards two schools. In the first,...
Show moreThe purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the utilization and effectiveness of the British cavalry during the Peninsular War. The accomplishments and reputation of the mounted arm has been in dispute since the end of the Napoleonic era, and no systematic study has been undertaken to either refute or support the various claims. Numerous books and articles have been written on the British cavalry under Sir John Moore and the Duke of Wellington. They tend towards two schools. In the first, the cavalry could do no wrong-- gallantly charging against superior number, usually with the sun shining, reflecting off their sabers, and being successful everywhere is the core of this premise. The second tends towards examining the cavalry only during the major battles of the war, particularly the cavalry charges where the cavalry either had a spectacular success or failure. In this genre, the cavalry can often do nothing well, and the failure of the charge means the eternal condemnation of the branch. This dissertation attempts to fill in the gaps between these two extremes, examining the pre-war training, doctrine, officer education and selection as it pertains to the cavalry. With that base, systematically scrutinizing the organization and evaluating the effectiveness of the cavalry as an auxiliary arm will help to place their performance into the larger context of the operations of the British Army in the Peninsula. The charge, the quintessential aspect of cavalry, was but a small portion of the cavalryman's life. The cavalry, compared to the 18th century infantry, was more often on duty, facing a far-off enemy in lonely and monotonous outpost duty. This portion of the cavalryman's life, the daily vicissitudes of protecting the army and providing early warning of their opponent's action, has been too often missed in studies of the Peninsular War cavalry and yet forms the most important portion of their duties. The effectiveness of how the cavalry did this duty, as well as protecting the Anglo-Portuguese Army during advances and retreats, is the true essence of the role that cavalry provided to the army. The leadership of the cavalry also is normally painted in a broad brush of extremes—bravery and heroism; incompetence and stupidity. Officer education, duties expected of an officer, both field grade and general, are often ignored. The British Army of the Napoleonic Wars has been called the last of the Ancien Regime armies; patronage and purchase seemed more important than performance and study. However, the professionalism of the officer core that occurred during this period has rarely been applied to their operations in the field. When Great Britain deployed its small army to the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, it faced the most modern and effective army in Europe. That this small force was able to survive, grow, learn and finally contribute to the defeat of Napoleonic France is a testament to the officers and men who did take their profession seriously. The effectiveness of the British cavalry, and contribution it made should be placed into the context of the success of the Peninsular Army.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4345
Format: Thesis

Title: Household and Family in Guadalajara, Mexico, 1811 1842: The Process of Short Term Mobility and Persistence.
Creator: Hardin, Monica Leagans, Anderson, Rodney, Josserand, Kathryn, Childs, Matt, Garretson, Peter, Herrera, Robinson, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: 1821 Guadalajara, Mexico exhibited surprising mobility within its population. Using a set of data from the back-to-back censuses of 1821 and 1822, this study argues that mobility affected almost every individual who lived in Guadalajara during that time period. The methodology used traces individuals who persisted from one year to the next to determine overall rates of mobility. It is my contention that an analysis of short-term stability and change within this set of historically...
Show more1821 Guadalajara, Mexico exhibited surprising mobility within its population. Using a set of data from the back-to-back censuses of 1821 and 1822, this study argues that mobility affected almost every individual who lived in Guadalajara during that time period. The methodology used traces individuals who persisted from one year to the next to determine overall rates of mobility. It is my contention that an analysis of short-term stability and change within this set of historically identifiable individuals, families and households reveals a process of mobility that not only has been neglected by studies based on aggregate data, but that is often at variance with the findings of those studies. The evidence shows that a significant portion of the extensive movement of individuals to and from the wards is short term and often cyclical, rather than long term and permanent. Additionally, data sets from 1811-1813 and 1839-1842 are used as "control groups" to conclude that the mobility in 1821-1822 was not a unique historical event based on circumstances, but an overarching trend throughout the 19th century.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4271
Format: Thesis

Title: From Whence They Came: Origins of the Missionary Baptists in Southwest Georgia, 1865-1900.
Creator: Hope, Warren C. (Warren Conley), Jones, Maxine D., Corrigan, John A., Richardson, Joe M., Gray, Edward G., Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Following the Civil War, Blacks in Southwest Georgia withdrew from the White Baptists churches of their former masters and formed independent congregations. Their departure has been described as an exodus. The Baptist churches established by former slaves in the last half of the 19th century are historically important. These congregations and the people who organized them were the forerunners of today's Missionary Baptists. The Missionary Baptists' history unfolded in Reconstruction and...
Show moreFollowing the Civil War, Blacks in Southwest Georgia withdrew from the White Baptists churches of their former masters and formed independent congregations. Their departure has been described as an exodus. The Baptist churches established by former slaves in the last half of the 19th century are historically important. These congregations and the people who organized them were the forerunners of today's Missionary Baptists. The Missionary Baptists' history unfolded in Reconstruction and continued to manifest in the Jim Crow society that prevailed in the South. However, research on Black Baptists at the regional and local levels has been largely unexplored. In obscurity are pioneers who blazed a trail of faith in God and set in motion what Carter G. Woodson and others have called the Negro Church. What began many years ago as their religious experience lives on today, but the stories of their time have not been told. In a manner of speaking, Southwest Georgia's Black Baptists of the past have not had an appropriate burial because they are unsung heroes. Their contributions to posterity are shadowed by time, inconspicuous, and therefore not fully appreciated. Their generation created many churches and associations that are vibrant today. The purpose of this research is reflected in the words of a gospel song; let us all go back, back to the old landmark. This research tells a story about the early Black Baptists in Southwest Georgia.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3785
Format: Thesis

Title: Men, Women and Children in the Stockade: How the People, the Press, and the Elected Officials of Florida Built a Prison System.
Creator: Holt, Anne Haw, Betten, Neil, Gussak, David, Jones, Maxine, Grant, Jonathon, Department of History, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This study examines form and change in the early development of the Florida prison system, especially the period from 1821 to 1925. I also examine influences on prison growth, including change in the state's economy and politics. I place particular emphasis on local and national pressures for change that government officials, the press and popular opinion demanded. That pressure occurred through statements published in newspapers, in speeches or letters to officials or through elected...
Show moreThis study examines form and change in the early development of the Florida prison system, especially the period from 1821 to 1925. I also examine influences on prison growth, including change in the state's economy and politics. I place particular emphasis on local and national pressures for change that government officials, the press and popular opinion demanded. That pressure occurred through statements published in newspapers, in speeches or letters to officials or through elected officials. "Men, Women and Children in the Stockade" includes a brief overview of the administrative practices followed in state prisons and jails throughout the American colonies and in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It will present the history of the early Florida prison system in its historical context. I have woven through the study consideration of how race and class affected actions and attitudes toward control of deviants. Specific chapters will examine how treatment of women and children evolved in Florida's early prisons and the use of the convict leasing system. Reports on how state officials and the public reacted to those practices are investigated. Official state records, newspaper reports, letters and other sources are examined to discover how the system adapted to deal with women, children and other special populations. Finally, and important to presenting a full and balanced portrayal of the development of the Florida prison system, available letters and testimony of prisoners and ex-prisoners are included. Evidence gathered from the above sources balance the voluminous papers and reports Florida officials created
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3801
Format: Thesis

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