"'Constructive Engagement': Land, Justice and Peasant Politics in Ireland and Russia: The Land War of 1879-82 and the Revolution of 1905" (2003)
Russia and Ireland in the nineteenth century defined the stereotype of the European periphery: agrarian, poor, economically backward, and relatively isolated. However, the lives of Russian and Irish rural people changed drastically in the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. The transformations that were already occurring in post-Emancipation Russia and post-Famine Ireland made it possible for peasants and tenant farmers in these respective countries to create dramatic social movements that threatened their existing governments, forcing them to listen to peasant grievances and demands. Participation in these movements was, in turn, a transformative experience.
In this period, peasants and farmers were becoming more literate and more connected with market forces and urban culture. This does not imply, however, that they were on a linear path to becoming "modern" people. Throughout these years, rural people maintained their traditional bond with the land, around which they constructed their ideas of "justice," often in opposition to the "law" as represented by the state. Rather than being passive victims of change, Russian peasants and Irish tenant farmers proved adept at manipulating the existing social and political structures and negotiation ambiguities to their advantage in order to mitigate change and to improve their condition with respect to their legal relationship to the land. Peasant politics in these years represent an effort at proactive participation; at "constructive engagement," of historical narratives, political ideologies, and the mechanisms of social mobilization.
Sources include:
Breshkovskaia, Katerina, Hidden Springs of the Russian Revolution. Stanford, 1931.
Clark, Samuel, Social Origins of the Irish Land War. Princeton, 1979.
Ireland under the League, Illustrated by Extracts from the Evidence Given before the Cowper Commission.Dublin, 1887.
Lenin, Vladimir, Selected Works, Volume I: The Prerequisites of the First Russian Revolution, 1894-1899, ed. J. Feinberg. New York, 1935.
O'Connor Morris, William, Letters on the Land Question of Ireland. London, 1870
Semynova Tian-Shanskaia, Olga, Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia, ed. David Ransel; trans. David Ransel and Michael Levine. Bloomington, 1993.
Senchakova, Larisa, Krest'yanskoe dvizhenie v revolyutsii 1905-07gg. Moskva, 1989.
Trotsky, Leon, 1905, trans. Anya Bostock. New York, 1971.
Vaughan, W. E., Landlords and Tenants in Mid-Victorian Ireland. Oxford, 1994.
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"The Thought of Meiji through Fukuzawa Yukichi and Okakura Tenshin" (2003)
The thesis presents an inquiry into the intellectual characteristics of the Meiji period in Japan (1868-1912). The writer argues that through these two men, the evolution of Meiji thought can be observed. Production of ideas in Japan was always of a nationalist character, but this nationalism evolved from a nationalism with the concrete nation of Japan as its foundation to one of an idea of Japan as its foundation. Through the cases of Okakura and Fukuzawa, as well as a comparison and contrast of their ideas with those of their contemporaries, this changing nationalism will become apparent.
Sources include:
Philosophical works by the two men
Speeches presented by both
Essays written by both
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"The Meaning and Importance of the Body in the National Socialist Weltanschauung" (2003)
This thesis looks at the Nazi Weltanschauung of race through the lens of the body. Concentrating on the main themes of their ideology—race, nature, Kulture, and religion—this thesis attempts to "decode" the meaning of the body as it fit into their ideological approach to the world. Chapter One discusses the issue of race as it pertains to the body. It looks at race from a historical point of view, focusing on the characteristics of race, the "enemies" of race, and the idea of a Nazi racial historiography. Chapter Two examines the nature, origins, and inspirations of Kulture. It then goes on to discuss its reflection through art and the characteristics of "true" National Socialist art. Finally, it synthesizes these ideas by discussing the Schőnheitsideal and its portrayal through the body. Chapter Three looks at how the Nazis viewed religion. Through a discussion of history as it related to religion, the idea of racial religious values, and the power of the soul in guiding the spiritual ans well as secular life of the race, the role of the body as a religious symbol is discussed. The thesis then ends with an analysis of the various meanings and importance of the body in Nazi Germany, particularly in light of their Weltanschauung.
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"C'est le cowboy: French Homosexual Impressions of American Gay Identity, Community, AIDS and Sexual Fantasy, 1962-1992" (2003)
The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze French homosexual impressions of American gay male subculture between Stonewall, the first official event of the American Gay Liberation Movement, and the last edition of the first Parisian homosexual weekly publication, Gai Pied (Gai Pied Hebdo as of January 1983) in October 1992. In the body of this thesis, the writer describes general impressions of American Culture in French society during this period in order to set the stage for the discussion of French homosexual perceptions of American gay identity and community and reactions to American responses to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. It is concluded that these elements, in addition to French homosexual fantasies of American gay lifestyles helped to create a special bond between French homosexuals and gay Americans, a bond that would leave them forever dreaming of gay life in the American metropolis.
Sources include:
Arcadie, 1969-1982
Gay Pied/Gai Pied Hebdo, 1979-1992
Personal interviews with:
Jean Le Bitoux, the founder of Gai Pied
Didier Lestrade, the founder of Act Up-Paris and writer for Gai Pied
Dr. Claude Lejeune, founder of the French Gay Doctors Association (AMG)
Frederic Martel, author of Le Rose et le noir: les homosexuals en France depuis 1968
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"The Strategy of Hegemony: The Role of Arbitration in U.S.-Latin American Relations at the Turn of the Twentieth Century" (2003)
This thesis explores the relationship between the United States policy of international arbitration and America's expanding conception of national interests, rights, and responsibilities in the Western Hemisphere at the turn of the twentieth century. I conclude that arbitration was an instrument of U.S. foreign policy employed in its Latin American relations specifically to advance the process of establishing hegemony in the hemisphere. As this process neared completion, the advent of the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in 1905 rendered arbitration obsolete as an effective measure to promote American interests in the region.
Sources include:
Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States
Various Documents of Congress
Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols, and Agreements between the United States of America and other Powers
Letters of Theodore Roosevelt
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"How Can You Tell When a Lawyer is Lying? The Evolution of American Legal Ethics" (2003)
This thesis investigates the historical trends in the evolution of the subject of legal ethics in the United States. The preface and first chapter attempt to describe the current low public perception of lawyering in the U.S., an also focus on the difficulty of presenting an uncontested definition of the term "legal ethics." The second chapter explores the early history of this subject, beginning in the early 19th century, and covering the period up until 1974 when the American Bar Association made Legal Ethics a mandatory course for Law School graduation. The third chapter discusses changes in this subject from the late 1970s through the end of the 1980s – changes in constitutional law, "official" ethics codes, and subject theory. The fourth chapter is concerned with the changes in the teaching of Legal Ethics in law schools, especially beginning in the mid-1990s, and focuses specifically on the results of a series of grants to Legal Ethics professors to improve this course. This chapter also re-ignites a discussion of the negative changes in the public perception of the legal profession over the years, and how the subject of legal ethics has played a role in this public view. The fifth and concluding chapter goes back – briefly – through the evolution of this subject, this pointing out consequences of changes that might not have been the first impression of many readers.
In short, this thesis attempts to discover if the subject of legal ethics – as it has evolved over the last one hundred and fifty years – has had its intended impact on American lawyers, "to uphold the dignity of the profession."
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"Destroying Organic Beijing: The Demolition of the Beijing City Wall, 1950-1962" (2003)
This thesis chronicles the destruction of the Beijing city wall, which took place during the first decade and a half of Communist rule in China. It adopts an environmental historical perspective in investigating the ideas and natural circumstances that endowed the city wall with meaning, contrasting those forces with the dominant tenets of socialist city planning applied to the design of Beijing in the 1950s. In addition to focusing on the spatial and cultural implications of the wall's destruction, the thesis documents the life of Liang Sicheng, an architect and historic preservationist who struggled fruitlessly to save the Beijing city wall from Maoist ideology and the Soviet planners commissioned to design Beijing after the Communist victory.
List of major works cited:
Klingle, Matthew W. "Urban by Nature: An Environmental History of Seattle, 1880-1970." Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 2001.
Liang, Sicheng. Liang Sicheng quan ji si wu juan. Edited by Yang Yong Sheng. Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu shi gongye chuban she, 2001.
Meyer, Jeffrey, The Dragons of Tiananmen: Beijing as a Sacred City.Columbia, SC: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Shapiro, Judith. Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and Environment in Revolutionary China. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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"Memory on Display: World War II Through the Eyes of American and Japanese Museums" (2003)
This thesis examines the nature of public memory of the years 1931-1945. To ascertain the status of collective memory and the direction it is taking, it looks at our nations' museums. For the United States, the thesis examines the 1993-1995 controversy surrounding the presentation of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian. As for Japan, the writer undertakes an analysis of the contents of six of Japan's most important museums. The conclusion is drawn that American collective memory is rather static, while Japanese memory is beginning to evolve.
Sources include:
Documents from The Enola Gay Debate, an Air Force Association compilation
Congressional Record
Personal notes from visits to Japanese museums.
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"Daytime's Integrated Experiment: Generations, Race, and the Soap Opera Genre" (2002)
My thesis examines Generations,a soap opera that aired on NBC in the years 1989-1991. I argue the dwindling of the daytime audience as well as the increased presence of African American characters in primetime roles contributed to the creation of Generations,daytime television's first truly integrated soap opera. Because daytime executives never made a full commitment to integration, however, the decade since Generationscancellation has been marked by a dramatic decrease in African American representation in the soap opera genre. I examine the history of minority representation in daytime as well as the story lines and behind the scenes struggle of the program.
Sources include:
Generationsepisodes
Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Weekly
Ebony
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"'Some a Strong Appetite for Coloreds & Others a Slight Thirst for None' Anti-Abolitionism and Racism in Vermont, 1777-1860" (2002)
There is ample evidence in support of Vermont's claim of having been the most inherently anti-slavery and socially tolerant state in the Union in the antebellum era. My thesis questions whether Vermont's proud anti-slavery self-image is fully consistent with the facts. I argue that Vermonters were not united in their support of abolition and were not free of the belief in the doctrine of African-American racial inferiority. Among other things, I explore the anti-abolition mobs of 1835, the use of the word "nigger" by antebellum Vermonters, and the beliefs and influence of Bishop John Henry Hopkins.
Sources include:
Speeches and writings of Bishop John Henry Hopkins
Speeches and writings of Lemuel Haynes
Correspondence of George G. Robinson and Rowland E. Robinson
The Liberator
The Rutland Herald
The Vermont Chronicle
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"Crash of the Tsunami: A Cross Cultural Comparison of Cause and Effect of the Attempted Mongol Invasions of Japan" (2002)
In 1274 and 1281 Khubilai Khan attempted to assert his military authority over the people of Japan, and each time the effort failed disastrously. The social effects of these defeats would eventually lead to the demise of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty of China. Ironically, the "victorious" Japanese military government, the Kamakura bakufu, would suffer a similar fate thirty-five years later. This thesis examines the motivations behind the assaults, the mobilization and implementation of them, and the varied and profound changes they would bring about in both empires involved. Cross-cultural comparisons reveal surprising ideological parity between the regimes. The writer examines the unique and significant intercourse that occurred between these cultures in medieval Asia, the effects of which reverberate to this day.
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"Rolling the Dice: Reexamining the development of the US Navy's code breaking capability and reconsidering the Yamamoto action" (2002)
he thesis examines the development of the United States Navy's code breaking capability in the Pacific and considers the decision to use it in the killing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in 1943. In deciding to eliminate the Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy, the US took an enormous gamble with a priceless intelligence advantage. The writer argues that the decision to kill the leader had many non-military motivations and that it needlessly risked alerting the Japanese Navy that the United States had broken their top operating code. To justify this claim this thesis relies heavily on US Navy documents declassified and released to the National Archives.
Sources include:
National Archives Record Group 38 – Yamamoto Collection
National Archives Record Group 457 – National Security Agency Releases
Time Magazine, 1942-1943
The New York Times, 1942-1943
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"Descent into Insurgency: The Historical Suppression of the Kashmiri Subaltern Voice, 1920-1989" (2002)
This thesis examines the suppression of the Kashmiri voice, mainly in the years 1920-1989. It argues that, in the development of the territory of Kashmir into a political tug-of-war between politicians in India and Pakistan, the voice of the subaltern Kashmir has been overlooked, resulting in the insurgency that has plagued the region since 1989. The fears, ambitions, and assumptions of Indian, Pakastani, and Kashmiri political leaders caused the silencing of the Kashmiri voice. Using previously classified government documents consisting of personal notes, private correspondence and interviews, the personalities of the major politicians that affected the situation in Kashmir during these years are analyzed and presented.
Sources include:
India: The Transfer of Power
Kashmir: Constitutional Documents and History
Documents on Kashmir Problem
Mission with Mountbatten
Nehru: An Anthology
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"Memory, Identity, and Politics in the Federal Republic of Germany: 1980-1985" (2001)
My thesis analyzes the interaction between memory, identity, and politics in West Germany in the years 1980-1985. The thesis argues that in response to an identity crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, politicians on both ends of the West German political spectrum pursued policies of normalization and closure with history in order to construct a new identity built on traditional German symbolism. The case is made for the failure of this approach and the reinvigoration of public concern with history in the Federal Republic. To make this argument, events such as the Pershing II missile debate, the fortieth anniversary of D-Day, and the Bitburg affair were examined.
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"'An Unparalleled Enterprise': Charles Loring Brace and the Children's Aid Society's Program of Western Emigration, 1800-1900" (2001)
This thesis examines the public record of the western emigration program of the Children's Aid Society in the context of nineteenth-century America. The writer argues that the program was successful because Charles Loring Brace's proposal of a practical solution to developing social ills addressed both the fears and hopes of the middle class by drawing on child welfare rhetoric, threats of urban disorder and the ideals of nineteenth-century America. The writer draws parallels between the program's stated policy and emerging sentiment in nineteenth-century urban society
Sources include:
The Annual Reports of the Children's Aid Society
Life and Letters of Charles Loring Brace
Charles Loring Brace, The Dangerous Classes of New York and Twenty Years Among Them
Charles Loring Brace, The Best Method of Disposing of our Pauper and Vagrant Children
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"Women in the Lodz and Warsaw Ghettos" (2001)
The thesis examines women's experiences in the Lodz and Warsaw ghettos in the years 1939-1943. The writer argues that an exploration of women's lives under the Nazi regime is a valid category for analyzing the Holocaust. Women's unique experiences have been largely ignored and neglected in Holocaust literature. Such an examination, however, is necessary because it adds to a more complete understanding of the Holocaust and personalizes this horrific event.
Major sources include: diaries and chronicles of contemporaries.
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"Conformity and Defiance: Aristocratic Women in Catholicism and Puritanism, 1558-1640" (2001)
This thesis examines the role of noble- and gentlewomen in early modern England in Catholic recusancy and Puritan nonconformity. In each religion, some degree of separation from the established Church of England made the aristocratic household an important center of religious practice. Within the practice of household religion, women could play an enhanced role in family and religious life. The writer argues that Catholic and Puritan women in some ways conformed to a feminine ideal of piety that remained subject to patriarchal authority, and in other ways were able to use religion to temper or subvert patriarchal authority within the household and to exercise power in the public realm. To compare and analyze the lives of Catholic and Puritan women, the writer primarily used three biographies of Catholic women, and an autobiography, diary and collection of letters of three Puritan women, as well as many secondary sources.
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