Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 0, History

Scholars have long prized Mercy Otis Warren as a subject of historical study because of her extensive correspondence, which shows how elite women expressed their support of the American Revolution. In this thesis, I show that her letters reveal something more fundamental than her patriotic impulse – they show her fear of losing her elite position. I demonstrate this by applying the insights of the history of emotions to the letters Mercy Otis Warren wrote between 1769 and 1780. In these letters, Mercy Otis Warren expressed the emotions of “spirit” and “sentiment” towards her family members, her community of Plymouth, and the Revolutionary cause sweeping over New England. But she expressed herself most passionately about her family's elite status and cultural power. Her letters reveal that Mercy was a product of her time, her class, and her family. In today's terms, we would call her “entitled.” Methodologically, this thesis draws on insights from social history, gender history, and the history of emotions. I place Mercy's correspondence (roughly sixty letters written and received in the period under study) into the context of her relationships with family, friends, and community. She was passionate in her letters because she and her correspondents were facing the destruction of their privileged lives. I argue that understanding Mercy Otis Warren's emotions is critical to understanding her determination to maintain her elite status (chapter 2), her unquestioning acceptance of the gender expectations of a woman in her position (chapter 3), her firm support of the Revolutionary cause (chapter 4), and her attempts to shape the nation's memory of the Revolution afterwards (chapter 5). Historians have implicitly argued that Mercy challenged the gender expectations of her day, but I find that she did not. She simply followed the lead of her male kin, who were extremely well educated and politically powerful.

Committee: Ruth Wallis Herndon Ph.D. (Advisor); Andrew Schocket Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christine Eisel (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Gender; History; Womens Studies

Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2014, Music Theory (Fine Arts)

This thesis compares formal analyses by various authors of each movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and relates these scholars' analyses to James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy's Elements of Sonata Theory and William Caplin's Classical Form. The thesis focuses on how aspects of inherited formal structures such as sonata form and scherzo/trio form have been used and/or adapted within Symphony No. 5.

Committee: Elizabeth Sayrs (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts; Music

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2014, Journalism (Communication)

Despite growing evidence to the contrary over the last fifty years, the mainstream media in America have stubbornly clung to the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and was himself murdered there two days later by Jack Ruby, who also was acting alone. This dissertation examines the patchwork of misleading, suspect and narrowly selected evidence that supports the Warren Report's theory and then documents via content and textual analyses and in-depth telephone interviews how the mainstream media have marginalized and at times ridiculed critics of the lone gunman theory in book reviews, newspaper columns, magazine articles, TV news broadcasts, and the selection of books for publication. Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda Model of the Mass Media helps explain why the mainstream media, especially its elite newspapers and news magazines, have failed for a half century to delve more deeply into the full range of evidence and connections that appear to underlie a conspiracy in what has been called The Crime of the Century. But the model falls short of explaining why both the media and nearly everyone in the JFK research community have failed to examine the broadest possible set of connections that may include the complicity of the French secret army (OAS), Israeli leaders and the Mossad. To understand "the firewall" that has been built around a full investigation into the Kennedy assassination, one must turn to the theories of Political Correctness and Spiral of Silence.

Committee: Mike Sweeney (Committee Chair) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Middle Eastern Studies; Military History; Modern History; Peace Studies; World History

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2007, Department of Humanities

James Munsene, a reputed bootlegger in Warren, Ohio, had been tried so many times for allegedly attempting to bribe the Trumbull County Sheriff in 1925, that the case had become known colloquially as his annual bribery trial. The 1928 trial appeared to be merely a repeat of the previous two trials until Munsene revealed that the identity of his new lead defense counsel was none other than world famous defense attorney, Clarence Darrow. Darrow's decision to defend Munsene elevated the trial from a marginally important local bribery trial, to a nationally covered media event. For Clarence Darrow, the trial was supposed to be a triumphant return to the Ohio county where he was born, raised, and first practiced the law. Darrow had attempted to retire from the practice of law for many years and he hoped to do so with a victory in front of a home crowd. For Munsene, the trial marked the third attempt by Trumbull County Prosecutors to convict him of offering a five hundred dollar bribe to Sheriff J. H. Smith. If Darrow could secure Munsene a victory, the racketeer hoped to expand his operations in Warren. Munsene did not intend to leave the lucrative business of bootleg alcohol. In fact testimony in the first two trials implied that he was looking to establish control over gambling activities in the area as well. The fates of Darrow and Munsene both hinged on the outcome of the trial. Munsene's need for an acquittal was obvious, as he faced three years in prison. Darrow's need for a victory was less apparent, but no less important. Darrow had always longed to impress the people where he had grown up, and no matter how much prestige he gained nationally, he still did not feel respected in his hometown. All of that could change if he could just secure one last victory. Though the outcome of the trial was not exactly what either man had had in mind, it had an enormous impact on both crime and politics in Warren, Ohio and the Mahoning Valley for decades.

Committee: Fred Viehe (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2009, History

This work will focus on the presidential election of 1920 and the campaign of James M. Cox. In it, I argue that the campaign was not simply a referendum on the League of Nations or Woodrow Wilson's presidency. Instead, Cox's campaign inadvertently changed the way presidential campaigns were conducted and how candidates addressed the issues. The first chapter will examine the political issues that impacted this presidential election, dispelling the notion that the election was simply a single issue referendum on World War I, prohibition, the League of Nations, or the progressive movement. While the final chapter will discuss how Cox responded to the various issues, this chapter will be important in demonstrating the extremely difficult political climate in which Governor Cox campaigned. The second chapter will describe the changing political geography and the decline of partisan politics. Included in this chapter is a discussion of the importance of both candidates emerging from the state of Ohio and how this particular election marked the end of party machines dominating the nomination process. The third chapter will examine the Cox campaign in contrast with that of Harding. This chapter will reveal the myriad ways that Cox attempted to adapt his campaign to fit the issues and changing political landscape. Here, it will be demonstrated how the campaign and election marked the blending of the two eras, the effects of which are still felt today.While other books provide the reader a greater sense of Warren Harding as a candidate and the way his campaigned negotiated the issues, Harding's perspective is not dominant in my work. Instead, Harding's campaign will serve as the constant and Cox's as the variable. Harding added to the history of presidential campaigns primarily in the hiring of an advertising agent and in his savvy use of celebrity endorsements. But, his campaign largely kept him on his front porch in Marion, Ohio, borrowing heavily from the McKinley model. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Ortiz PhD (Committee Chair); Scott Martin PhD (Committee Member); Jeffrey Peake PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Political Science