Degree Level

Unionism in Texas: 1860-1867 (open access)

Unionism in Texas: 1860-1867

This thesis studies the issue of unionism in Texas during the era of the Civil War.
Date: January 1954
Creator: Haynes, Billy Dwayne
System: The UNT Digital Library
The British-Loyalist Strategy to Recover the Southern Provinces During the American Revolution (open access)

The British-Loyalist Strategy to Recover the Southern Provinces During the American Revolution

This thesis examines the efforts of the British loyalists in Georgia and the Carolinas to assist the British army bring the southern provinces back under royal control. These efforts and a judgment of the reasonableness of the trust in the zeal and strength of the southern loyalists are the subjects of this study.
Date: August 1966
Creator: Griffin, Roger Allen
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Coming of Conscription in Britain (open access)

The Coming of Conscription in Britain

The subject of this thesis is the conscription debate in Great Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, defined in a social-cultural context. The basic assumption is that a process of cultural conditioning works to determine human actions; actions therefore can be understood by examining cultural conditioning. That examination in this thesis is limited to a study of social and intellectual influences relating to conscription as they acted upon various groups in the English community prior to the Great War. The thesis also discusses the 1915-1916 crisis over actual adoption of conscription, in light of these influences.
Date: May 1972
Creator: Baker, Suzanne Helen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Clarence R. Huebner: An American Military Story of Achievement (open access)

Clarence R. Huebner: An American Military Story of Achievement

In the eyes of the American public excellence is often overshadowed by brilliance of personality. This is particularly true in the portrayal of many of the country's military leaders in World War II. A prime example of this phenomenon is Douglas MacArthur, whose larger than life persona made him a newspaper fixture during the war despite a series of strategic and tactical blunders that would have led to the sacking of a less visible (and publicly popular) leader. At the level of divisional commanders, this triumph of brilliance over excellence is best exemplified by the two primary leaders of the country's 1st Infantry Division, Terry de la Mesa Allen and Clarence R. Huebner. One was a hard-drinking, swashbuckling leader who led by almost the sheer force of his personality; the other, a plain spoken, demanding officer who believed that organization, planning and attention to detail were the keys to superior battlefield performance. The leadership differences between Allen and Huebner have been documented in multiple publications. What has not been documented is the life of the truly overshadowed general - Huebner. Huebner's transition to the leadership of the 1st Infantry Division (1st ID) constitute only a small period in a military …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Flaig, Steven
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Oran M. Roberts

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
This thesis analyzes the political career of Oran M. Roberts during the critical period from 1850 to 1873. Through a reassessment of Roberts's extensive personal papers in the context of modern historical scholarship, the author explains how Roberts's political philosophy reflected the biases and prejudices typical of his era, as well as his own material interests and ambitions. Topic areas covered include Roberts's position on the Compromise of 1850, his constitutional philosophy, his involvement in the secession movement in Texas (including his service as president of the state secession convention), his military career during the Civil War, his participation in Presidential Reconstruction, his views on Congressional Reconstruction, and his role in the process of "redemption" in Texas.
Date: May 2004
Creator: Klemme, A. Christian
System: The UNT Digital Library
General Paul Von Lettow-vorbeck’s East Africa Campaign: Maneuver Warfare on the Serengeti (open access)

General Paul Von Lettow-vorbeck’s East Africa Campaign: Maneuver Warfare on the Serengeti

General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s East African Campaign was a conventional war of movement. Lettow based his operations on the military principles deduced from his thorough German military education and oversea deployments to China and German South West Africa. Upon assignment to German East Africa, he sought to convert the colony’s protectorate force from a counterinsurgency force to a conventional military force. His conventional strategy succeeded early in the war, especially at the Battle of Tanga in October 1914. However, his strategy failed as the war in East Africa intensified. He suffered a calamitous defeat at the Battle of Mahiwa in November 1917, and the heavy losses forced Lettow to adopt the counterinsurgency tactics of the colonial protectorate force.
Date: May 2012
Creator: Nesselhuf, F. Jon
System: The UNT Digital Library
The German Officer Corps and the Socialists, 1918-1920: A Reappraisal (open access)

The German Officer Corps and the Socialists, 1918-1920: A Reappraisal

This work attempts to examine the relationship shared by two ideologically opposed groups during the post-World War I period in Germany. The officer corps is viewed as a relic of the traditional imperial state while the socialists represented the harbinger of the modern, democratic, industrialized state. Although it should seem evident that these two factions of society would be natural enemies, the chaos of World War I pushed these ideological, opposites into the same corner.
Date: May 1973
Creator: Pierce, Walter Rankin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Company A, Nineteenth Texas Infantry: a History of a Small Town Fighting Unit (open access)

Company A, Nineteenth Texas Infantry: a History of a Small Town Fighting Unit

I focus on Company A of the Nineteenth Texas Infantry, C.S.A., and its unique status among other Confederate military units. The raising of the company within the narrative of the regiment, its battles and campaigns, and the post-war experience of its men are the primary focal points of the thesis. In the first chapter, a systematic analysis of various aspects of the recruit’s background is given, highlighting the wealth of Company A’s officers and men. The following two chapters focus on the campaigns and battles experienced by the company and the praise bestowed on the men by brigade and divisional staff. The final chapter includes a postwar analysis of the survivors from Company A, concentrating on their locations, professions, and contributions to society, which again illustrate the achievements accomplished by the veterans of this unique Confederate unit. As a company largely drawn from Jefferson, Texas, a growing inland port community, Company A of the Nineteenth Texas Infantry differed from other companies in the regiment, and from most units raised across the Confederacy. Their unusual backgrounds, together with their experiences during and after the war, provide interesting perspectives on persistent questions concerning the motives and achievements of Texas Confederates.
Date: August 2014
Creator: Williams, David J. (History teacher)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Enemy of My Enemy Is What, Exactly? the British Flanders Expedition of 1793 and Coalition Diplomacy (open access)

The Enemy of My Enemy Is What, Exactly? the British Flanders Expedition of 1793 and Coalition Diplomacy

The British entered the War of the First Coalition against Revolutionary France in 1793 diplomatically isolated and militarily unprepared for a major war. Nonetheless, a French attack on the Dutch Republic in February 1793 forced the British to dispatch a small expeditionary force to defend their ally. Throughout the Flanders campaign of 1793, the British expeditionary force served London as a tool to end British isolation and enlist Austrian commitment to securing British war objectives. The 1793 Flanders campaign and the Allied war effort in general have received little attention from historians, and they generally receive dismissive condemnation in general histories of the French Revolutionary Wars. This thesis examines the British participation in the 1793 Flanders campaign a broader diplomatic context through the published correspondence of relevant Allied military and political leaders. Traditional accounts of this campaign present a narrative of defeat and condemn the Allies for their failure to achieve in 1793 the accomplishments of the sixth coalition twenty years later. Such a perspective obscures a clear understanding of the reasons for Allied actions. This thesis seeks to correct this distortion by critically analyzing the relationship between British diplomacy within the Coalition and operations in Flanders. Unable to achieve …
Date: August 2012
Creator: Jarrett, Nathaniel W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The German-Polish Boundary at the Paris Peace Conference (open access)

The German-Polish Boundary at the Paris Peace Conference

Although a great deal has been written on the Paris Peace Conference, only in recent years have the necessary German documents been available for an analysis of the conference, not only from the Allied viewpoint but also from the German side. One of the great problems faced by the Allied statesmen in 1919 was the territorial conflict between Germany and Poland. The final boundary decisions were much criticized then and in subsequent years, and in 1939 they became the excuse for another world war. In the 1960's, over twenty years after the boundaries established at Versailles ceased to exist, they continued to be subjects of controversy. To understand the nature of this problem, it is necessary to study the factors which influenced the delineation of the German-Polish boundary in 1919. From the conflict of national interests there emerged a compromise boundary which satisfied almost no one. After this boundary was destroyed by another world war, the victors were again faced with the complex task of reconciling conflicting strategic and economic necessities with the principle of self-determination. This time no agreement was possible, and the problem remained a significant factor in German-Polish and East-West relations. The methods by which the statesmen …
Date: August 1963
Creator: Bostick, Darwin F.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Causes of the Jewish Diaspora Revolt in Alexandria: Regional Uprisings from the Margins of Greco-Roman Society, 115-117 CE (open access)

Causes of the Jewish Diaspora Revolt in Alexandria: Regional Uprisings from the Margins of Greco-Roman Society, 115-117 CE

This thesis examines the progression from relatively peaceful relations between Alexandrians and Jews under the Ptolemies to the Diaspora Revolt under the Romans. A close analysis of the literature evidences that the transition from Ptolemaic to Roman Alexandria had critical effects on Jewish status in the Diaspora. One of the most far reaching consequences of the shift from the Ptolemies to Romans was forcing the Alexandrians to participate in the struggle for imperial patronage. Alexandrian involvement introduced a new element to the ongoing conflict among Egypt’s Jews and native Egyptians. The Alexandrian citizens consciously cut back privileges the Jews previously enjoyed under the Ptolemies and sought to block the Jews from advancing within the Roman system. Soon the Jews were confronted with rhetoric slandering their civility and culture. Faced with a choice, many Jews forsook Judaism and their traditions for more upwardly mobile life. After the outbreak of the First Jewish War Jewish life took a turn for the worse. Many Jews found themselves in a system that classified them according to their heritage and ancestry, limiting advancement even for apostates. With the resulting Jewish tax (fiscus Judaicus) Jews were becoming more economically and socially marginalized. The Alexandrian Jews were …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Vargas, Miguel M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Textual Analysis of News Framing in the Sri Lankan Conflict (open access)

A Textual Analysis of News Framing in the Sri Lankan Conflict

The purpose of this study is to investigate how local and foreign newspapers used the war journalism and peace journalism frames when covering the Sri Lankan civil war, and to uncover subframes specific to the conflict. The first part of the thesis provides an in- depth literature review that addresses the history of the conflict and media freedom in Sri Lanka. The newspaper articles for the textual analysis were selected from mainstream Sri Lankan and U.S newspapers: the Daily News (a state sponsored newspaper) and Daily Mirror from Sri Lanka, and the New York Times and Washington Post from the U.S. A total of 185 articles were analyzed and categorized into war journalism and peace journalism. Next, subframes specific to the Sri Lankan conflict were identified. The overall coverage is dominated by the peace journalism frame, and the strongest war journalism frame is visible in local newspaper articles. Furthermore, two subframes specific to the Sri Lanka conflict were identified: war justification subframe and humanitarian crisis subframe. In conclusion, the study reveals that in the selected newspapers, the peace journalism frame dominated the coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war. All in all, while adding to the growing scholarship of media …
Date: December 2014
Creator: Ratnam, Cheran
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Governors (open access)

Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Governors

One facet of the problem of state rights within the Confederacy is revealed through a study of the relations between President Davis and the war governors. As a means of investigating those relationships this study considers their attempts to solve several major problems. This work seeks to discover the degree of co-operation which existed between the President and governors and to establish what effect this co-operation or lack of it had on the failure of the states to support many important central government policies. It also seeks to determine what influence those relationships had on the outcome of the war.
Date: June 1959
Creator: Daniel, Arthur Gordon
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federalism and Civil Conflict: the Missing Link? (open access)

Federalism and Civil Conflict: the Missing Link?

This thesis investigates federalism and civil conflict. Past work linking federalism and civil conflict has investigated the factors that pacify or aggravate conflict, but most such studies have examined the effect of decentralization on conflict onset, as opposed to the form federalism takes (such as congruent vs incongruent forms, for example). I collect data on civil conflict, the institutional characteristics of federalist states and fiscal decentralization. My theoretical expectations are that federations who treat federal subjects differently than others, most commonly in an ethnically based manner, are likely to experience greater levels of conflict incidence and more severe conflict. I find support for these expectations, suggesting more ethnically based federations are a detriment to peace preservation. I close with case studies that outline three different paths federations have taken with regards to their federal subunits.
Date: August 2012
Creator: Lancaster, Ross
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Rebirth of Poland (open access)

The Rebirth of Poland

A study of the rebirth and development of Poland after World War I.
Date: 1941
Creator: McCarty, Tom R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Military Religio: Caesar's Religiosity Vindicated by Warfare (open access)

Military Religio: Caesar's Religiosity Vindicated by Warfare

Gaius Julius Caesar remains one of the most studied characters of antiquity. His personality, political career, and military campaigns have garnered numerous scholarly treatments, as have his alleged aspirations to monarchy and divinity. However, comparatively little detailed work has been done to examine his own personal religiosity and even less attention has been paid to his religion in the context of his military conquests. I argue that Caesar has wrongly been deemed irreligious or skeptical and that his conduct while on campaign demonstrates that he was a religious man. Within the Roman system of religion, ritual participation was more important than faith or belief. Caesar pragmatically manipulated the Romans' flexible religious framework to secure military advantage almost entirely within the accepted bounds of religious conduct. If strict observance of ritual was the measure of Roman religiosity, then Caesar exceeded the religious expectations of his rank and office. The evidence reveals that he was an exemplar of Roman religio throughout both the Gallic Wars (58-51BC) and the subsequent Civil Wars (49-45BC).
Date: August 2020
Creator: Adkins, Austin L
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Great Hanging (open access)

The Great Hanging

"The Great Hanging" is a documentary film that tells the story of the largest extra-legal mass hanging in U.S. History. This story is told through stage play recital of "October Mourning" written by historian and professor Dr. Pat Ledbetter. Using the stage play as a vehicle, the film showcases cinematic re-enactments based in the events in Gainesville, Texas during October 1862. These events show how a small community became overwhelmed by the fog of war and delved into madness as the Civil War crept closer and closer to their doorstep.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Martin, Johnathan Paul
System: The UNT Digital Library
Black Opposition to Participation in American Military Engagements from the American Revolution to Vietnam (open access)

Black Opposition to Participation in American Military Engagements from the American Revolution to Vietnam

This thesis includes two background chapters based largely on secondary works; Chapters I and II trace the historiography of black participation in American military engagements from the American Revolution through the Korean conflict. Chapter III, based largely on primary sources, places emphasis on black resistance and attitudes toward the Vietnam crisis. Evidence indicates that the Vietnam era of black protest was not unique but was an evolutionary process that had its roots in other periods in American history. Some blacks questioned their involvement in each American military conflict from the American Revolution to Vietnam.
Date: August 1976
Creator: Alexander, Vern L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Forging Their Legacy: Cooperation and Accommodation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1848-1870 (open access)

Forging Their Legacy: Cooperation and Accommodation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1848-1870

Forging Their Legacy: Cooperation and Accommodation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is an examination of the relationships created during the mid-nineteenth century between Anglo and Tejano elites in the five counties that make up the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Conducted through a quantitative lens, the five-chapter study seeks to demonstrate that, although the period between 1848 and 1870 was fraught with conflict and violence, the Anglo and Tejano elite of the Lower Rio Grande Valley came together in cooperation in order not only to survive these troubling times but to prosper. The thesis begins by identifying and analyzing the economic and political elite in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the 1850s. A new crop of Anglo immigrants arrived with the Mexican-American War, but only a small number willing to assimilate to local Tejano culture were able to leave their mark on the Lower Valley. Chapter 4 relates the effect of the Civil War on the elite of the Lower Valley. It explores the profitable cotton trade during the war and the struggle that both Anglo and Tejano elites faced during Reconstruction. The thesis concludes with a macro-analysis of the twenty-two-year period from 1848-1870. It summarizes overall trends found …
Date: December 2018
Creator: Ballesteros, Nicholas A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Present Conditions in Germany as an Effect of the Treaty of Versailles (open access)

The Present Conditions in Germany as an Effect of the Treaty of Versailles

This is a study of the causes of the rise of the Third Reich, and its attitude toward the Treaty of Versailles.
Date: May 1939
Creator: Schmidt, Jess Edwin
System: The UNT Digital Library

The "Sixties" Come to North Texas State University, 1968-1972

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
North Texas State University and the surrounding Denton community enjoyed a quiet college atmosphere throughout most of the 1960s. With the retirement of President J. C. Matthews in 1968, however, North Texas began witnessing the issues most commonly associated with the turbulent decade, such as the struggle for civil rights, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the fight for student rights on campus, and the emergence of the Counterculture. Over the last two years of the decade, North Texas State University and the surrounding community dealt directly with the 1960s and, under the astute leadership of President John J. Kamerick, successfully endured trying times.
Date: December 2004
Creator: Phelps, Wesley Gordon
System: The UNT Digital Library
Serpent Imagery in William Blake's Prophetic Works (open access)

Serpent Imagery in William Blake's Prophetic Works

William Blake's prophetic works are made up almost entirely of a unique combination of symbols and imagery. To understand his books it is necessary to be aware that he used his prophetic symbols because he found them apt to what he was saying, and that he changed their meanings as the reasons for their aptness changed. An awareness of this manipulation of symbols will lead to a more perceptive understanding of Blake's work. This paper is concerned with three specific uses of serpent imagery by Blake. The first chapter deals with the serpent of selfhood. Blake uses the wingless Uraeon to depict man destroying himself through his own constrictive analytic reasonings unenlightened with divine vision. Man had once possessed this divine vision, but as formal religions and a priestly class began to be formed, he lost it and worshipped only reason and cruelty. Blake also uses the image of the serpent crown to characterize priests or anyone in a position of authority. He usually mocks both religious and temporal rulers and identifies them as oppressors rather than leaders of the people. In addition to the Uraeon and the serpent crown, Blake also uses the narrow constricted body of the serpent …
Date: December 1975
Creator: Shasberger, Linda M.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Victims of Hope: Explaining Jewish Behavior in the Treblinka, Sobibór and Birkenau Extermination Camps

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
I analyze the behavior of Jews imprisoned in the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau extermination camps in order to illustrate a systematic process of deception and psychological conditioning, which the Nazis employed during World War II to preclude Jewish resistance to the Final Solution. In Chapter I, I present resistance historiography as it has developed since the end of the war. In Chapter II, I delineate my own argument on Jewish behavior during the Final Solution, limiting my definition of resistance and the applicability of my thesis to behavior in the extermination camp, or closed, environment. In Chapters III, IV, and V, I present a detailed narrative of the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau revolts using secondary sources and selected survivor testimony. Finally, in Chapter VI, I isolate select parts of the previous narratives and apply my argument to demonstrate its validity as an explanation for Jewish behavior.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Motl, Kevin C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Tragedy of Shakespeare's Hotspur (open access)

The Tragedy of Shakespeare's Hotspur

It seems obvious that Shakespeare was interested in Hotspur as something more than a strictly historical character. The firey character found in I Henry IV is no longer recognized as the Ill-fated rebel from Holinshed and Daniel. Holinshed offers only a spark which Shakespeare uses to build a very real flame. The events leading up to the rebellion and the rebellion itself are historical, but the name of Hotspur in Holinshed is no more outstanding than that of Worcester, Glendower, or any of the other rebels. In Shakespeare's drama no other rebel character even approaches the development of Hotspur.
Date: August 1961
Creator: Wright, Eugene Patrick, 1936-
System: The UNT Digital Library