Degree Discipline

An Appeal to Reason: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Whig Presidential Politics, 1836-1848 (open access)

An Appeal to Reason: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Whig Presidential Politics, 1836-1848

American politics from 1832 to 1848 underwent a profound transformation. Whereas in the early years of the republic politics had been based on deference and elitism, by the early 1830's a definite change in the political arena had occurred. With the coming of the "Age of Jackson, " the political rules and styles of the older era began to change. The politics of deference began to give way to the politics of "availability." Because this study is a discussion, examination, and analysis of Webster's and Clay's "appeal to reason, " the sources most heavily consulted were the published and microfilmed correspondence, speeches, and papers of these two statesmen. Other personal papers, correspondence, memoirs, and biographies of other central personalities of the middle period, both protagonists and antagonists, were used in order to place Webster and Clay in proper historical perspective. This dissertation is organized chronologically, and it traces and analyzes the evolution of the candidacies of Webster and Clay for the presidency from the early 1830's through the four presidential elections from 1836 to 1848. Each chapter includes an examination of Clay's and Webster's attempts to secure the Whig nomination and gain the presidency through forceful appeals to the voters' …
Date: December 1977
Creator: Teague, William Joseph, 1941-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Combat Reconsidered: A Statistical Analysis of Small-Unit Actions During the American Civil War (open access)

Combat Reconsidered: A Statistical Analysis of Small-Unit Actions During the American Civil War

Historians often emphasize the physical features of battleterrain, weaponry, troop formations, earthworks, etc.in assessments of Civil War combat. Most scholars agree that these external combat conditions strongly influenced battle performance. Other historians accentuate the ways in which the mental stresses of soldiering affected combat performance. These scholars tend to agree that fighting effectiveness was influenced by such non-physical combat conditions as unit cohesion, leadership, morale, and emotional stress. Few authors argue that combat's mental influences were more significant in determining success or failure than the physical features of the battlefield. Statistical analysis of the 465 tactical engagements fought by twenty-seven Federal regiments in the First Division of the Army of the Potomac's Second Corps throughout the American Civil War suggests that the mental aspects of battle affected fighting efficiency at least as muchand probably more thancombat's physical characteristics. In other words, the soldiers' attitudes, opinions, and emotions had a somewhat stronger impact on combat performance than their actions, positions, and weaponry.
Date: December 2001
Creator: Barloon, Mark C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The South and the Mexican War (open access)

The South and the Mexican War

This thesis examines newspapers and correspondence of public men in the era of the Mexican war to provide some answers to pertinent questions regarding the South's role in the Mexican War. It attempts to reveal to some degree whether Southerners uniformly supported the war, whether their support arose from an expansionist sentiment or a desire to extend the area of slavery, whether any strong opposition to the war existed in the South, and why they supported or opposed it.
Date: December 1970
Creator: Lowe, Billie Lynne Owens
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wawrzyniec Goslicki: The Counsellor (open access)

Wawrzyniec Goslicki: The Counsellor

Wawrzyniec Goslicki's De optimo Senatore was published in Venice in 1568. Subsequent translations of the work had an impact on political thought in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Goslicki's work has received little attention since, and this paper is an effort to restore to Goslicki his place of importance in Polish history and western political thought. The paper provides a brief biography of Goslicki; an account of the English translations and historiography surrounding De optimo Senatore; an analysis of Goslicki' s political thought; and, an explanation of his influence on William Shakespeare.
Date: December 1980
Creator: Sharp, Betty C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Greek texts and English translations of the Bible: a comparison and contrast of the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament of the sixteenth century and the Alexandrian text of Westcott and Hort (nineteenth century) and Aland and Metzger (twentieth century) concerning variant texts that pertain to the orthodox Christology of the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325. (open access)

Greek texts and English translations of the Bible: a comparison and contrast of the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament of the sixteenth century and the Alexandrian text of Westcott and Hort (nineteenth century) and Aland and Metzger (twentieth century) concerning variant texts that pertain to the orthodox Christology of the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325.

The argument of this paper is that certain salient passages in the New Testament concerning Christology, as it was defined in the Nicene creed in A.D. 325, reflect such orthodoxy better in the Textus Receptus Greek texts and the English translations made from them than do the Alexandrian texts. Arian theology, which was condemned as heretical at Nicea, is examined. Patristic quotations, historical texts, and arguments of the scholars are cited and traced, along with a comparison of Christological verses.
Date: December 2002
Creator: Samples, Gil L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Marshall Robert Sanguinet, Architect (open access)

Marshall Robert Sanguinet, Architect

Sanguinet was one of the most important early architects in Texas. His partnership with Arthur and Howard Messer was responsible for the development of Arlington Heights, a prominent resort community. With partner Carl Staats and later partner Wyatt Hedrick, Marshall Robert Sanguinet designed most of the early towers of the Fort Worth central business district. In addition, the firm also designed residences, churches, educational facilities, courthouses, and club buildings in Fort Worth as well as in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Wichita Falls, where branch offices are located.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Brun-Ozuna, Barbara Suzanna
System: The UNT Digital Library
Geoffrey Dawson, Editor of The Times (London), and His Contribution to the Appeasement Movement (open access)

Geoffrey Dawson, Editor of The Times (London), and His Contribution to the Appeasement Movement

The appeasement movement in England sought to remove the reasons for Adolph Hitler's hostility. It did so by advocating a return to Germany of land and colonial holdings, and a removal of the penalties inflicted upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. While the movement itself is well documented, the contribution of The Times under the leadership of Geoffrey Dawson is not. This work deals with his direct involvement with appeasement, the British leaders and citizens involved in the movement, and the use of The Times to reinforce their program.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Riggs, Bruce T. (Bruce Timothy)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Frances Farenthold: Texas' Joan of Arc (open access)

Frances Farenthold: Texas' Joan of Arc

Born in 1926, Frances "Sissy" Tarlton Farenthold began her exploration of politics at a young age. In 1942, Farenthold graduated from Hockaday School for Girls. In 1945, she graduated from Vassar College, and in 1949, she graduated from the University of Texas School of Law. Farenthold was a practicing lawyer, participated in the Corpus Christi Human Relations Commission from 1964 to 1969, and directed Nueces County Legal Aid from 1965 to 1967. In 1969, she began her first term in the Texas House of Representatives. During her second term in the House (1971-1972), Farenthold became a leader in the fight against government corruption. In 1972, she ran in the Democratic primary for Texas governor, and forced a close run-off vote with Dolph Briscoe. Soon afterwards in 1972, she was nominated as a Democratic vice-presidential candidate at the Democratic convention, in addition to her nomination as the chairperson of the National Women's Political Caucus. Farenthold ran in the Democratic primary for governor again in 1974, but lost decisively. From 1976 until 1980, she was the first woman president of Wells College, before coming back to Texas and opening a law practice. For the next three decades, Farenthold practiced law, taught at …
Date: December 2012
Creator: Fields-Hawkins, Stephanie
System: The UNT Digital Library

John Buchan (1875-1940) and the First World War: A Scot's Career in Imperial Britain

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This dissertation examines the political career of Scottish-born John Buchan (1875-1940) who, through the avenue of the British Empire, formed political alliances that enabled him to enter into the power circles of the British government. Buchan's involvement in governmental service is illustrative of the political and financial advantages Scots sought in Imperial service. Sources include Buchan's published works, collections of correspondence, personal papers, and diaries in the holdings of the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Letters and other documents pertaining to Buchan's life and career are also available in the Beaverbrook papers, Lloyd George papers, and Strachey papers at the House of Lords Record Office, London, and in the Liddle Hart Collection at King's College, London. Documents concerning Buchan's association with the War Cabinet, the Foreign Office, and the Department of Information are among those preserved at the Public Record Office, London. References to Buchan's association with the British Expeditionary Force in France are included in the holdings of the Intelligence Corps Museum, Ashford, Kent. The study is arranged chronologically, and discusses Buchan's Scottish heritage, his education, his assignment on Lord Alfred Milner's staff in South Africa, and his appointment as Director of the Department of Information during World War …
Date: December 1999
Creator: Mann, Georgia A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Prusso-Saxon Army and the Battles of Jena and Auerstädt, October 14, 1806 (open access)

The Prusso-Saxon Army and the Battles of Jena and Auerstädt, October 14, 1806

The twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt were fought on October 14, 1806 between the Prusso-Saxon forces under King Frederick William III of Prussia and the French forces under Emperor Napoleon I of France. Since these famous battles, many military historians have been quick to claim that the Prusso-Saxon Army of 1806 used tactics that were too outdated and soldiers that were quite incapable of effectively taking on the French. But the Prusso-Saxon Army of 1806 has been greatly misrepresented by these historians, and a recent body of respected scholarship has indicated that the Prusso-Saxon soldiers of 1806 fought well enough and that their tactics were not so outdated. The fact that the Prusso-Saxon Army lost the campaign of 1806 is not disputed, but a fair assessment of the army is due. Using writings from a respected body of scholarship, various memoirs, and military regulations from the period, this thesis will present the Prusso-Saxon Army and the important battles of 1806 from a point of view more in line with the evidence.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Hallmark, James (James Carl)
System: The UNT Digital Library
School Spirit or School Hate: The Confederate Battle Flag, Texas High Schools, and Memory, 1953-2002 (open access)

School Spirit or School Hate: The Confederate Battle Flag, Texas High Schools, and Memory, 1953-2002

The debate over the display of the Confederate battle flag in public places throughout the South focus on the flag's display by state governments such South Carolina and Mississippi. The state of Texas is rarely placed in this debate, and neither has the debate adequately explore the role of high schools' use of Confederate symbols. Schools represent the community and serve as a symbol of its values. A school represented by Confederate symbols can communicate a message of intolerance to a rival community or opposing school during sports contests. Within the community, conflict arose when an opposition group to the symbols formed and asked for the symbols' removal in favor of symbols that were seen more acceptable by outside observers. Many times, an outside party needed to step in to resolve the conflict. In Texas, the conflict between those in favor and those oppose centered on the Confederate battle flag, and the memory each side associated with the flag. Anglos saw the flag as their school spirit. African Americans saw hatred.
Date: December 2006
Creator: Dirickson, Perry
System: The UNT Digital Library
Lord Acton and the Liberal Catholic Movement, 1858-1875 (open access)

Lord Acton and the Liberal Catholic Movement, 1858-1875

John Dalberg Acton, a German-educated historian, rose to prominence in late Victorian England is an editor of The Rambler and a leader of the Liberal Catholic Movement. His struggle against Ultramontanism reached its climax at the Vatican Council, 1869-1870, which endorsed the dogma of Papal Infallibility and effectively ended the Liberal Catholic Movement. Acton's position on the Vatican Decrees remained equivocal until the Gladstone controversy of 1874 forced him to take a stand, but even his statement of submission failed to satisfy some Ultramontanists. This study, based largely on Acton's published letters and essays, concludes that obedience to Rome did not contradict his advocacy of freedom of conscience, which also placed limits on Papal Infallibility.
Date: December 1987
Creator: Shuttlesworth, William T. (William Theron)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Creation of Fictional History in the Tequila Industry (open access)

The Creation of Fictional History in the Tequila Industry

The creation of fictional history in the tequila industry due to changes in government policy, trade agreements and big business.
Date: December 2016
Creator: Nichols, Cynthia A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Culture and Self-Representation in the Este Court: Ercole Strozzi's Funeral Elegy of Eleonora of Aragon, a Text, Translation, and Commentary. (open access)

Culture and Self-Representation in the Este Court: Ercole Strozzi's Funeral Elegy of Eleonora of Aragon, a Text, Translation, and Commentary.

This dissertation presents a previously unedited text by one of the most distinguished- yet neglected-Latin writers of the Italian Renaissance, Ercole Strozzi (1471-1508), a poet and administrator in the court of Ferrara. Under the Este Dukes, Ferrara became a major center of literary and artistic patronage. The Latin literary output of the court, however, has received insufficient scholarly scrutiny. The text is a verse funeral elegy of Eleonora of Aragon (1450-1493), the first Duchess of Ferrara. Eleonora was a remarkable woman whose talents and indefatigable efforts on behalf of her husband, her children, and her state, won her accolades both at home and abroad. She also served as a prototype for the remarkable careers of her two daughters, Isabella d'Este, and Beatrice d'Este, who are celebrated for their erudition and patronage of arts and letters. The text is a mirror of the Estense court and reveals to us how its members no doubt saw themselves, at the very peak of its temporal power and the height of its prestige as a center of cultural creativity. It is also important for the striking portrait it presents of Eleonora. Ercole Strozzi chose to call his poem an epicedium, an ancient minor literary …
Date: December 2010
Creator: Cassella, Dean Marcel
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Countess of Counter-revolution: Madame du Barry and the 1791 Theft of Her Jewelry (open access)

The Countess of Counter-revolution: Madame du Barry and the 1791 Theft of Her Jewelry

Jeanne Bécu, an illegitimate child from the Vaucouleurs area in France, ascended the ranks of the Ancien régime to become the Countess du Barry and take her place as Royal Mistress of Louis XV. During her tenure as Royal Mistress, Jeanne amassed a jewel collection that rivaled all private collections. During the course of the French Revolution, more specifically the Reign of Terror, Jeanne was forced to hatch a plot to secure the remainder of her wealth as she lost a significant portion of her revenue on the night of 4 August 1789. To protect her wealth, Jeanne enlisted Nathaniel Parker Forth, a British spy, to help her plan a fake jewel theft at Louveciennes so that she could remove her economic capital from France while also reducing her total wealth and capital with the intent of reducing her tax payments. As a result of the theft, her jewelry was transported to London, where she would travel four times during the French Revolution on the pretext of recovering her jewelry. This thesis examines her actions while abroad during the Revolution and her culpability in the plot. While traveling to and from London, Jeanne was able to move information, money, and …
Date: December 2015
Creator: Lewis, Erik Braeden
System: The UNT Digital Library
Gerhart Hauptmann: Germany throught the Eyes of the Artist (open access)

Gerhart Hauptmann: Germany throught the Eyes of the Artist

Born in 1862, Gerhart Hauptmann witnessed the creation of the German Empire, the Great War, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and World War II before his death in 1946. Through his works as Germany's premier playwright, Hauptmann traces and exemplifies Germany's social, cultural, and political history during the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and comments on the social and political climate of each era. Hauptmann wrote more than forty plays, twenty novels, hundreds of poems, and numerous journal articles that reveal his ideas on politics and society. His ideas are reinforced in the hundreds of unpublished volumes of his diary and his copious letters preserved in the Prussian Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. In the 1960s, Germans celebrated Hauptmann's centenary as authors who had known or admired Hauptmann published biographies that chronicled his life but revealed little of his private thoughts. This dissertation examines Hauptmann's life from his early childhood through his adult life with emphasis on social and political commentaries found in his works, diaries, and letters. Hauptmann told of the social problems alcohol and greed created and used historical events to express his concern about Germany's labor and social conditions. He also used historical events to address the political problems that …
Date: December 1996
Creator: Igo, William Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
William's America: Royal Perspective and Centralization of the English Atlantic (open access)

William's America: Royal Perspective and Centralization of the English Atlantic

William III, Prince of Orange, ascended the throne of England after the English Glorious Revolution of 1688. The next year, the American colonists rebelled against colonial administrations in the name of their new king. This thesis examines William's perception of these rebellions and the impact his perception had on colonial structures following the Glorious Revolution. Identifying William's modus operandi—his habit of acceding to other's political choices for expediency until decisive action could be taken to assert his true agenda—elucidates his imperial ambitions through the context of his actions. William, an enigmatic and taciturn figure, rarely spoke his mind and therefore his actions must speak for him. By first establishing his pattern of behavior during his early career in the Netherlands and England, this project analyzes William's long-term ambitions to bring the Americas under his direct control following the 1689 rebellions and establish colonial administrations more in line with his vision of a centralized English empire.
Date: December 2018
Creator: Woodlock, Kylie Michelle
System: The UNT Digital Library
From the Hague to Nuremberg: International Law and War, 1898-1945 (open access)

From the Hague to Nuremberg: International Law and War, 1898-1945

This thesis examines the body of international law drawn upon during the Nuremberg trials after World War II. The work analyzes the Hague Conventions, the Paris Peace Conference, and League of Nations decisions to support its conclusions. Contrary to the commonly held belief that the laws violated during World War II by the major war criminals were newly developed ideas, this thesis shows that the laws evolved over an extended period prior to the war. The work uses conference minutes, published government sources, the official journal of the League of Nations, and many memoirs to support the conclusions.
Date: December 1987
Creator: Wright, Crystal Renee Murray
System: The UNT Digital Library
Martin Van Buren and Slavery (open access)

Martin Van Buren and Slavery

The main objective of this study is to determine Martin Van Buren's views on slavery and the influence of the institution on his public career.
Date: December 1972
Creator: Waters, Philo Wayne
System: The UNT Digital Library
Baptists and Britons: Particular Baptist Ministers in England and British Identity in the 1790s (open access)

Baptists and Britons: Particular Baptist Ministers in England and British Identity in the 1790s

This study examines the interaction between religious and national affiliations within a Dissenting denomination. Linda Colley and Jonathan Clark argue that religion provided the unifying foundation of national identity. Colley portrays a Protestant British identity defined in opposition to Catholic France. Clark favors an English identity, based upon an Anglican intellectual hegemony, against which only the heterodox could effectively offer criticism. Studying the Baptists helps test those two approaches. Although Methodists and Baptists shared evangelical concerns, the Methodists remained within the Church of England. Though Baptists often held political views similar to the Unitarians, they retained their orthodoxy. Thus, the Baptists present an opportunity to explore the position of orthodox Dissenters within the nation. The Baptists separated their religious and national identities. An individual could be both a Christian and a Briton, but one attachment did not imply the other. If the two conflicted, religion took precedent. An examination of individual ministers, specifically William Winterbotham, Robert Hall, Mark Wilks, Joseph Kinghorn, and David Kinghorn, reveals a range of Baptist views from harsh criticism of to support for the government. It also shows Baptist disagreement on whether faith should encourage political involvement and on the value of the French Revolution. Baptists …
Date: December 2005
Creator: Parnell, John Robert
System: The UNT Digital Library
Henry Clay and the Peculiar Institution (open access)

Henry Clay and the Peculiar Institution

The major concern of this study is an attempt to analyze the attitudes.of Henry Clay, United States Congressman and Senator from Kentucky, 1807-1852, and three time presidential candidate, concerning the institution of slavery by examining its effects upon his political career from 1798 to 1850. The major conclusions of this study are that early in his life Clay made an intellectual commitment that slavery was wrong and maintained this abstract view of the institution until his death. However, Clay never took an active stand against slavery for three reasons: he believed that an antislavery stand would destroy his political career; he realized the explosiveness of the slavery issue as early as 1799, and his misguided love for the Union forced him to attempt to suppress the issue; and Clay was a racist who did not wish to see the United States populated with a sizable number of free blacks.
Date: December 1971
Creator: Boeding, Michael Alexander
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Vital Imperative of Oswald Spengler's Philosophy of History (open access)

The Vital Imperative of Oswald Spengler's Philosophy of History

This investigation deals with the underlying motivation of Oswald Spengler in The Decline of the West. Sources include the published and translated works of Spengler: books, essays, and selected letters. Contingent areas of exploration, arranged in separate chapters, are the philosophy of history, using the works of Dilthey and Herder; philosophy, using the concepts of Husserl's Phenomenology, Bergson's Time and Free Will, and Goethe's Conversations with Eckermann; the contemporary human potential psychology of Abraham Mazlow and Rollo May, and the contemporary philosophy of Alan Watts and Ortega y Gasset. R. G. Collingwood as critic of Spengler is dealt with. The conclusion is drawn that Spengler did not attempt a system of history except as a vehicle for expressing a directive to live fully in the eternal now.
Date: December 1975
Creator: Pilot, Diane Anderson
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Political, Economic, and Military Decline of Venice Leading Up to 1797 (open access)

The Political, Economic, and Military Decline of Venice Leading Up to 1797

This thesis discusses the decline of the Venetian nobility, the collapse of the Venetian economy, and the political results of the surrender of the Venetian Republic to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797. Topics include the formation of Venice, Venetian domination of trade, the class system in Venice prior to 1797, the collapse of the aristocracy, feudalism in Venice, Venice’s presence in the Adriatic and Aegean seas, and the rise of the middle class within the provisional democratic government. Very few historians have attempted to research the provisional democracy of Venice and how the political and class structure of Venice changed as a result of the collapse of the Republic in 1797. Using primary sources, including government documents and contemporary histories, one can see how the once dominant noble class slowly fell victim to economic ruin and finally lost their role in the political leadership of Venice all together. During this same period, the middle class went from only holding secretarial jobs within the government, to leaders of a modern democratic movement. On top of primary research, several secondary sources helped in explaining the exclusivity of the noble class and their journey from economic dominance to economic ruin and the administrative consequences …
Date: December 2013
Creator: FitzSimons, Anna Katelin
System: The UNT Digital Library
African American Children in the Jim Crow North:  Learning Race and Developing a Racial Identity (open access)

African American Children in the Jim Crow North: Learning Race and Developing a Racial Identity

This thesis explores how African American children in the North learned race and racial identity during the Jim Crow era. Influences such as literature, media, parental instruction, interactions with others, and observations are examined.
Date: December 2016
Creator: Beal, Michele
System: The UNT Digital Library