Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 1999, Department of Humanities

Cinema, during the 1960's indirectly reflected the social and political conflagrations of the era through changes in production and style. These changes shadowed a larger transformation in sensibility that was most visible in the development of a youth subculture that questioned the hegemony of a pre-existing set of cultural preconceptions, creating a canon of its own. While the emergence of counterculture, did not alter American politics, it exerted aan indirect effect over all of the arts, including Cinema, where new ideas about effacing boundaries between audiences and performers, directors and critics and old notions regarding high and low culture came together to form a new cinema.

Committee: Martin Berger (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History

After eighty years of obscurity the German Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927) has reemerged as a valuable subject of study. The Baroness was an artist and a writer whose media included poetry, collage, sculpture, performance and costume art. In chapter one I firmly establish the Baroness's position as a Dada artist through examining her shared connections with the emergence of European Dada. In final chapters I will examine the most under-examined aspect of the Baroness's various mediums-her performance and costume art. In the second chapter I will explore the Baroness's work utilizing performative and feminist theories in relation to Marcel Duchamp's female alter ego Rrose Selavy. Finally, I will discuss the theme of “The Other” as a social and cultural commentator within the Baroness's performance art. A study of the Baroness's Dada performance art during her ten years in America can broaden our understanding of New York Dada.

Committee: Theresa Leininger-Miller (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; History, Modern

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2007, History

D.W. Griffith capitalized upon already existing theories and social positions in order to present audiences with entertaining plots and dramatic antagonists. Often these subjects consisted of individuals that were potentially marketable regarding public opinion and sensationalism, allowing him to make a name for himself in the film world as a source of artistic and technical innovations. Perhaps known best for his controversial film, Birth of a Nation, he has been applauded and crucified by modern historians and analysts regarding his creative practices and basically, spread of racial stereotypes to early film audiences. The denigration of his work by modern scholars lies mainly within the characters and racial tensions that were perpetuated on-screen as a result of his conceptual character options. However, in many of his early films that were produced at the Biograph Company, Griffith initiated exposure for gender, racial and ethnic groups that were largely ignored and propelled these issues to the forefront of the public eye. Griffith should be celebrated as a filmmaker that used controversy to provoke thought regarding issues of race, class and gender, and certainly his other films have the teaching capability that Birth of a Nation is commonly utilized for. There are several other pieces that were produced by Griffith that are symbolic of public attitudes and accurate representation of society near the turn of the twentieth century. These works should be celebrated as primary resource materials, and therefore used in classrooms to teach political, racial and social issues to students that wish to study such concepts. The evidence for this theory lies not only in his films, but in the behind-the-scenes production occurrences, character references, personal anecdotes and various current and past media sources. The documentation that will be employed in order to support this thesis follow in the form of original film reviews, newspaper articles detailing public re (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Diane Britton (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, History

Language is politically invested, and a speech community's administration of its language and alphabet marks, constructs, defines, and expresses its identity. Among the Turkmen people of Central Asia, language policies and alphabet reforms have epitomized continuous efforts to build a national community in the contexts of the tsarist empire, Soviet rule, and independence. Through an examination of language policy, planning, and reform from the 1904 to 2000, my study contributes a new historical perspective on the formation of Turkmen identity; our knowledge more generally of the role of language in expressing and constructing self throughout the exigencies of various political eras; and advances Eurasian and Soviet historiography by illuminating the often absent Turkmen perspective. This study links Turkmenistan's contemporary efforts at post-Soviet language reforms with the earlier Turkmen lexicographic and orthographic work (especially 1910s-1930s), which laid the foundations for the modern Turkmen identity. As contemporary Turkmen struggle to negotiate a postcolonial identity and sort out their place in the international community, my dissertation's examination of Turkmen language evolution over the last century supplies needed historical context to current language renewal efforts and Turkmen identity construction.

Committee: Nicholas Breyfogle (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2007, History (Arts and Sciences)

This case study of United States-Paraguayan relations during the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship (1954-1989) examines the evolution of broader US policy toward Latin America from anticommunism to the later promotion of democratization and human rights. For much of the early Cold War era, US national security interests were predominant in that relationship, thereby establishing the basis for US cultivation of Paraguayan alignment in the anticommunist Western alliance vis-a-vis the Soviet Union. Purchased through a variety of foreign economic and military assistance programs, Paraguayan support for US leadership in that struggle against communism was both broad and deep. Beginning in the early 1970s, however, a new consensus was constructed by US officials which held that authoritarian regimes—such as Stroessner's—were no longer consonant with the promotion of human rights in the post-Vietnam War era. Increased scrutiny of the authoritarian underpinnings of the Stroessner regime accordingly led to a sharp decline in the previously cooperative nature of bilateral relations. US-Paraguayan relations were ultimately symbolic of this larger shift in US foreign policy during the Cold War from anticommunism to human rights.

Committee: Michael Grow (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2002, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation studies the 1994 U.S. intervention in Haiti, focusing on causation (why did Bill Clinton decide to intervene in Haiti?) and consequences (what did the United States and the United Nations achieve from 1994 to 2001?). Regarding U.S. motives, the dissertation argues that economics and ideology played secondary roles in convincing the Clinton administration to intervene in Haiti. Restoring U.S. and presidential credibility; stopping the flow of Haitian refugees; securing the political support of the Congressional Black Caucus; and responding to demands by Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were the decisive factors. Regarding consequences, the dissertation views the U.S./U.N. occupation as a political and economic failure. U.S. occupation forces, particularly during the first few months following the 1994 intervention, limited themselves to basic law and order, often with the help of former Haitian soldiers. Political strife soon resumed. A politically divided Haitian government refused to approve economic reforms requested by foreign donors and thus failed to seize this opportunity to better the economic lot of most Haitians. Sources for the dissertation are: World Bank, IMF, UN, OAS, U.S., and Haitian internal government documents; documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act; interviews with participants; published government documents; U.S., Haitian, French, Canadian, and Venezuelan newspapers and magazines; and secondary literature.

Committee: Michael Grow (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2002, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis explores the French farmer and activist Jose Bove and his widely publicized protest against McDonald's France in August 1999. With the help of 300 demonstrators, he dismantled a partially constructed McDonald's restaurant and caused an international stir. Many factors influenced Bove's protest: his background in radical agricultural activism, a historical overview of French-American cultural relations, and tensions over globalization in France. Jose Bove's protest has undergone many interpretations, some that favor his cause and some that do not. Even after his trial a year later, several issues remained unresolved—how much damage the protest caused and whether the action against McDonald's was a legitimate (if illegal) form of protest. McDonald's France has responded to Bove's criticisms by changing its image, decor, and menu offerings. Jose Bove is a complex character; though his tactics are extreme at times, he has successfully raised awareness about issues that contemporary French society faces.

Committee: Chester Pach (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, History

Many British women went to India during the nineteenth and twentieth century. They were either part of the imperial community or they were activities, reformers, doctors and missionaries and worked outside the imperial hierarchy. The stories that they left behind of their experiences in India are fascinating. This thesis will focus on five twentieth century British women in India and create an image of India through their writings. The British women's interest in India benefited India in many ways but their interaction with Indians also portrayed a complicated story of cross-cultural interactions and the limitations they faced in reaching out to India and Indians. This thesis will also endeavor to examine the nature of limitations to cross-cultural interactions and if at all they can be circumvented, and if so, how.

Committee: Judith Zinsser (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, History

Despite its natural place within the discipline, postmodernism has prompted many historians to avoid narrative histories. Irish historians in particular have turned from the story due to its links to nationalism and loose commitment to factual sources. The narrative is now perceived as inherently non-historical. This criticism is unfounded, for it is entirely possible to produce a factually-based narrative history free of political undertones. The narrative has a long history of its own right in Irish culture and can easily be stripped of the nationalist metanarrative. By utilizing the story as a historical genre, Irish historians can fully maintain their commitment to describing the past truthfully and critically. The short history Roisin provides an example of this, serving as an image of Dublin in 1918 and as an examination into the subtle variations of national identity put forth by James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Daniel Corkery, Sean O'Casey, and J.M. Synge.

Committee: David Fahey (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, History

Proliferation of popular newspapers during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 transformed the boundaries of public debate in Russia. Circulation of these papers brought the people into close contact with each other as well as the outer world. Printing and the press had a parallel effect on the Fin de Siecle Ottoman public sphere. Newspapers of the Sublime Porte utilized defeats against Russia to juxtapose the Sultan's cult as the sole symbol of unity with a nationalist one. “Wartime Propaganda and the Legacies of Defeat” is a comparative study of the two major newspapers – Basiret and Golos – during this period. I examine the major commonalities between these papers. My primary purpose is to shed light on the Turkish Popular Press, which weighed in on the issues of nationalism, defeat and political campaigning just as its Russian counterparts did.

Committee: STEPHEN NORRIS (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2005, History

This paper deconstructs Jawaharlal Nehru's extensive account of world history in the form of letters to his daughter, Indira. First published in 1934, Glimpses of World History remains an important resource in understanding the formative years of Nehru's perspective of world history and world politics. An analysis of Nehru's text contributes to growing field of scholarship concerned with the uses and approaches to world history. In addition, an analysis of influences on Nehru's construction of world history questions the traditional view that only British perspectives informed Nehru's ideas about the world. In conclusion, this paper suggests that Nehru's world history served as the premise to his key foreign policy initiative, nonalignment, once Nehru became prime minister of India in 1947.

Committee: Judith Zinsser (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2004, History

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role of the Russian Orthodox Church as a cultural force in the formation of post Soviet Russian national identity. In order to demonstrate the depth of Russian Orthodoxy's involvement with Russian life, Russian Orthodox political and social programs in the post Soviet era are examined. A brief summary of Orthodox involvement historically in political and social life is presented as a framework for understanding Orthodoxy's role in the post Soviet period, followed by an examination of contemporary church state relations, both political and economic, and a discussion of the evolution of post-Soviet Orthodox social ministry.

Committee: Robert Thurston (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern

MA, Kent State University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Title: Comparing Ancient History Textbooks of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic History book for secondary schools of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic were compared to establish how the depiction of ancient Greek and Roman history is influenced by the two political constellations, how much they emphasized democracy and use ancient social values to support ideals of the monarchy and later the republic. In addition it is determined how much the different authors compared past historical events to more recent ones, how they evaluated the influence of socioeconomic developments on historical events, and how they met the educational policy of the two periods. The larger goal is to seek how these textbooks appropriated ancient history for the presentist purposes of the age in which they were written: how they served not only as political and cultural symptoms of their age, but perhaps even causes of political and cultural transformation in the German youth who read them. The history books of Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic both mirror the political landscape of their time. In the Imperial period the advantages of a single leader are underpinned while democracy is downplayed. As the Burgertum of the monarchy became more assertive by defending and expanding their political rights, Athens' democratic achievements gained more attention. In the republic the support of such single leadership appeared as nostalgic longing for the more structured political system of the past however within a democratic frame. This argument is supported by the authors claiming that the Roman and German aristocracy through their selfless dedication helped the respective country to excel. These textbooks reflect not only the change from a monarchy to a republic but also the waning of the humanistic ideology as it made room for more science oriented education.

Committee: Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall (Advisor) Subjects: History, Modern