Master of Arts, Miami University, 2013, History

Theodore Roosevelt and his family offer a unique opportunity for exploring how the rise of print media coverage at the turn of the twentieth century impacted the ways in which the family was constructed as American celebrities. Theodore Roosevelt became a recognized personality because of his involvement in national politics and was depicted as embodying muscular, athletic masculinity in political cartoons. Americans initially took interest in the Roosevelt family because of their relation to Theodore Roosevelt, but eventually both the individual members as well as the Roosevelt family as a whole stood on their own as celebrities. This thesis argues that the press coverage of Theodore Roosevelt and his immediate family created an image of a First Family with whom other Americans could sympathize. Sources used in this thesis include newspaper and magazine articles, political cartoons, photographs, and the personal letters of the family.

Committee: Mary Cayton PhD (Advisor); Kimberly Hamlin PhD (Committee Member); Kathryn Burns-Howard PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Families and Family Life

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1960, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1965, History

Committee: Gerald G. Eggert (Advisor) Subjects: History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1951, History

Committee: R. Stanley McCordock (Advisor) Subjects: History

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, Theological Studies

The Vatican's condemnation of Fr. John Augustine Zahm's most famous work, Evolution and Dogma, in the autumn of 1898 has traditionally been the subject of great interest among religious scholars and historians. This thesis describes several coalescing factors that negatively affected the book's fate: the neo-Thomists' critical reaction to Zahm's use of Saints Augustine and Aquinas in defense of evolutionism; the author's Americanist connections; the release of the French translation of Walter Elliott's The Life of Father Hecker; and the Church's resistance to the advancements of liberalism in European society, especially after the French Revolution. However, this thesis also takes a step further and argues that Fr. Zahm's writing and teaching career did not cease after the condemnation of his book. His passion for imparting an intelligent faith to his Catholic readers and audiences did not cease; his expansion efforts at the University of Notre Dame as Provincial of the Congregation of Holy Cross and his later publications, such as the trilogy of South American travelogues and the apologetic work Woman in Science, are testaments to his enduring “teaching heart” -- his passion for pursuing knowledge and communicating new understandings to others. This thesis emphasizes the importance of acknowledging Fr. Zahm's life holistically, in broad strokes. His contribution to American Catholic history need not be limited to the intrigue surrounding Evolution and Dogma.

Committee: William Portier (Committee Chair); William Trollinger Jr. (Committee Member); Sandra Yocum (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Religion; Religious History; Science History; Theology

MA, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Staudacher, Nicholas A., M.A. May 2016 History THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S CONSTRUCTION OF THE “PUBLIC INTEREST”: RHETORIC, IDEOLOGY, AND PRESIDENTIAL INTERVENTION, 1901-1906 (96pp.) Thesis Advisor: Clarence E. Wunderlin The current historiography of Roosevelt's political ideology splits into two competing interpretations, with some viewing him as a conservative, pushing for reform in order to stabilize the social order and stave off socialist uprisings, while other consider him to be a liberal statist, championing the expansion of federal power in order to better the condition of the average American citizen. This analysis concludes that rather than a liberal statist or conservative, Roosevelt was instead more a progressive statist, prioritizing the needs of the public above individual private or corporate interest, especially when the public and private interests directly conflicted. Between 1901 and 1906, Roosevelt used his position as president to intervene in the economy to control corporate power in the “public interest.” To do so, he constructed both “the Executive Branch” and “the public” differently in each of the three different approaches which he employed (prosecutor of a railway trust to further the general welfare of the nation; agent of the public arbitrating the coal industry's labor dispute; advocate for regulatory legislation to protect American consumers) that roughly corresponded to the three basic categories of law—judge-made law, administrative decisions, and statutory law. This project, being a conceptual history, builds upon both traditions, but will also go a step further by transcending the debate and focus on Roosevelt's rhetoric in relation to the three previously mentioned categories of law. The mainstay of this project's methodology is rhetorical analysis, working with concepts established by British political theorist Michael Freeden's Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Utilizing an approach th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Clarence Wunderlin Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: History; Public Policy

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2010, Leadership and Change

This dissertation examines the history and impact of color-blind educational reform in the post-Brown era on racial inequality of educational opportunities and outcomes in America's public schools. Through the lens of critical race theory and race critical theory, the dissertation employs a dual analysis. A macro analysis of the evolution and impact of colorblind educational reform on the national level is juxtaposed with a micro, case-study analysis of the history of color-blind educational reform at a historically Black high school. The historical analysis of the relationship between race and education encompasses intellectual and social aspects of education in the U.S. during the pre-Brown era, however, this dissertation's primary interest is on the past forty years, 1970 to the present. The dissertation draws on the work of traditional critical race scholars, critical race theorists in education, and critical theory pedagogues. Largely informed by document and policy evidence, the aim of the macro analysis is to reconstruct the history of education in the U.S. from a race-critical perspective. While archival evidence is very important to the microanalysis, the locus of analysis at the micro level centers on the narrative, antenarrative, microstoria, and lived experiences of the people most closely associated with the case study. By making the people its focus, the dissertation uncovered nuanced understandings and submerged interpretations that provide valuable insight into the relationship between race, education, and educational reform in the African American community. The resulting narrative exposed the racialized oppression of color-blind educational reform and the effects of internalized racism, and suggested the need for a counterhegemonic culture and emancipatory pedagogy in predominantly African American schools, thus revealing hopeful possibilities in the development of a race-critical twenty-first century conscientization. The electronic version of thi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Chair); Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Member); Heather Andrea Williams PhD (Committee Member); George W. Noblit PhD (Other) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Black History; Education; Education History; History; School Administration; Secondary Education; Teaching; Vocational Education

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2012, History

Most analysts of black voting patterns in the United States have assumed that the first substantive abandonment of the Republican party by black voters occurred in the 1930s, when the majority of black voters embraced Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. A closer examination, however, of another Roosevelt presidency – that of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) – demonstrates the degree to which black voters were already growing disenchanted with the Republicans in the face of what they viewed as uneven support and contradictory messages from the highest ranking Republican in the land. Though the perception of Theodore Roosevelt's relationship to black Americans has been dominated by his historic invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House in 1901, in fact even this event had assorted and complex meanings for Roosevelt's relationship to the black community. More importantly, his dismissal of black troops following a controversial shooting in southern Texas in 1906 – an event known as the Brownsville affair – set off a firestorm of bitter protest from the black press, black intellectuals, and black voters. This paper traces Roosevelt's evolving relationship with black Americans between the Washington dinner and the Brownsville affair. By the election of 1908, Roosevelt's actions had altered black voters' relationship to and expectations of the Republican party. In this paper, I show that black flight, or even its threat, was a significant factor in presidential politics long before Franklin Roosevelt successfully wooed black voters from the Republican party in the 1930s.

Committee: Tracey Jean Boisseau Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Black History; History