States

Between Coalition and Unilateralism: The British War Machine in the Mediterranean, 1793-1796

In 1793, the British government embarked on a war against Revolutionary France that few expected would last twenty-five years and engulf all of Europe. Radical French policies provided an opportunity for William Pitt, the British prime minister, to endeavor to cobble a European alliance, including a number of Mediterranean states. These efforts never progressed beyond theory and negotiations because of conflicted policy and tension between the British diplomatic corps and Royal Navy over the strategic goals in the region. With diplomats focused on coalition building and military commanders focused on national objectives, British efforts never congealed into a unified effort to defeat Revolutionary France.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Baker, William Casey
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Testing the Narrative of Prussian Decline: 1778-1806 (open access)

Testing the Narrative of Prussian Decline: 1778-1806

The story of Prussia's defeat at the Battles of Jena and Auerstedt and subsequent reform has dominated the historiography of Napoleonic Prussia. While Napoleon has received the vast majority of historical attention, those who have written on Prussia have focused on the Prussian reform movement or the Prussian army's campaigns against Napoleon. These historians present the Prussian army before 1807 as an ossified relic, a hopelessly backward and rigid army commanded by a series of septuagenarians. Apart from the 1806 campaign, these scholars scarcely address the field operations of the Prussian army during the French Wars (1792-1801). This thesis seeks to prove that the Prussian army during the War of the Bavarian Succession and the War of the First Coalition was still an effective fighting force by examining the field operation of the Prussian army from 1778-1793 and the reactions of Prussian thinkers to it. The history of the Prussian army from 1778-1806 challenges the narrative of the army as a force in decline. The Prussian army struggled in the War of the Bavarian Succession, and the war revealed two of its weaknesses, the lack of light troops and an uncoordinated strategic approach. However, many of the problems of the …
Date: December 2020
Creator: Soefje, Ethan K
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 179, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 15, 2020 (open access)

The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 179, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Triweekly newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: December 15, 2020
Creator: Bloom, David
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
A Study of Conwy and Caernarvon Castles in Wales: A Colonial Reexamination of the Conquest of Wales, 1284 (open access)

A Study of Conwy and Caernarvon Castles in Wales: A Colonial Reexamination of the Conquest of Wales, 1284

King Edward I of England's castle building program in Wales from 1282 to 1295 provides a unique event that can be studied in further detail. Edward's castle building program turns the conquest of Wales into an early example of what future English colonization would become. By examining the building of Conwy and Caernarvon in Wales and the accompanying social programs we are better able to understand how the English viewed conquest and colonization. The conquest spent approximately £35,000 on the building of the castles of Conwy and Caernarvon, a colossal sum for the time. The reallocation of resources from England into Wales provide important similarities to later colonial endeavors, especially in the large application of manpower to build successful colonies. Another similarity becomes the split between the use of local raw resources such as the stone and timber combined with the need for manufactured goods brought from England. The social changes also had a major impact. The construction of Edward's castles Conwy and Caernarvon replaced iconic locations of Welsh power. The accompanying Statute of Wales (1284) changed the Welsh legal landscape and forced the English legal system on the Welsh. By replacing Welsh locations of power and instituting legal reform …
Date: December 2020
Creator: Liberty, Samuel Joseph
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 3, 2020 (open access)

North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 3, 2020

Weekly student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state, national, and campus news along with advertising.
Date: December 3, 2020
Creator: Kain, Spencer
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sociocultural Considerations and the Parallel Agendas of Music and Text in the Lullaby (open access)

Sociocultural Considerations and the Parallel Agendas of Music and Text in the Lullaby

This research is an investigation of how the lullaby, which is often viewed as purely a simple and pretty song, is a multifaceted vocal tradition that carries historical and cultural significance. As an exploration of how sociocultural factors impact the emotions expressed and the stories told in lullabies, this research encourages deeper examinations of lullaby texts in relation to the historical, cultural, and social aspects reflected in their textual themes. Through the close analysis of text and music of folk and art song lullabies, I propose that the lullaby's function extends beyond putting a baby to sleep; the further roles of the lullaby encompass cultural connections and therapeutic functions for both the parent and child. As a result of these sociocultural considerations, dialogue exists between the lullaby text and its music that do not always match the song's primary intent to provide peace and comfort.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Estwick, Brandi
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Despedida con Mariachi": The Musical Mediation of Masculine Grief in Mexican Immigrant Funerals (open access)

"Despedida con Mariachi": The Musical Mediation of Masculine Grief in Mexican Immigrant Funerals

Music plays an important role in Mexican funeral ceremonies, acting as a vehicle for men to acceptably express emotions of bereavement. As an important symbol of mexicanidad (Mexicanness), mariachi music is often used in traditional Catholic funerals, ritualizing grief equally as a mourning of loss and a celebration of the life of a deceased person. Although a form of popular music, mariachi's secular songs go through a process of sacralization, becoming meaningful sites for experiencing grief. As a musical expression of Mexico's idealized gender norms mariachi opens an aesthetic sphere for masculine grief to be expressed, experienced, and socialized in an acceptable form. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the musical mediation of masculine grief, experienced and ritualized within funeral ceremonies, and observed through an ethnographic study of Mexican immigrant communities.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Domínguez, Lizeth C.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sounding the Ancestors: Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw and the Ancestral Spirit Imaginary (open access)

Sounding the Ancestors: Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw and the Ancestral Spirit Imaginary

Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw is a Taiwanese Aboriginal pop artist of the Pinuyumayan ethnic group. His albums have been acclaimed by Aboriginal listeners and Han-Taiwanese mainstream music critics for capturing the traditional Aboriginal sound and evoking the presence of the ancestors. In this thesis, I explore why Sangpuy's songs are understood to evoke ancestral spirit imaginary using a semiotic approach. I compare his music to traditional Pinuyumayan music such as pa'ira'iraw and shamanic songs to demonstrate how he uses similar musical gestures to evoke the sense of ancestral spirits. Other sonic elements such as the inclusion of the soundscape of a Pinuyumayan village provides a direct link to the lived experiences of the Pinuyumayan. I also position Sangpuy's music in the broader context of nationalism in Taiwan and how Sangpuy uses his music to negotiate Aboriginal issues such as land rights and environmentalism. Through this analysis, I demonstrate how Taiwanese Aborigines are incorporating their Indigenous ideology into popular music to carve out a space for themselves in Taiwanese society and garner more support for Indigenous rights in Taiwan.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Chen, Yang T.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
This Land is My Land: The Dynamic Relationship between Migration and the Far-Right (open access)

This Land is My Land: The Dynamic Relationship between Migration and the Far-Right

This dissertation examines the dynamic intersections of the relationship between migration and the far-right through three empirical, stand-alone chapters. The first substantive chapter re-evaluates existing theories of far-right support using a novel theory and comprehensive dataset to assess how immigration opinion and immigration levels interact to shape individual far-right support. The findings suggest that increases in asylum-based migration are associated with increased far-right voting, but that this is effect is mainly observed in those with negative or neutral opinions toward immigration. The second substantive chapter examines the other side of this relationship by analyzing the impact of far-right electoral and legislative success on asylum-recognition rates in EU member states. The results of empirical analyses show that when far-right parties gain legislative seats, the expected rate of asylum approvals decreases. This suggests that far-right parties in legislatures have measurable effects on migration outcomes. Finally, the third substantive chapter uses original field research to assess how far-right politics impacts the lived experiences of immigrants in France and Switzerland, relying on a small survey and interviews conducted in the field. The results show that immigrants are generally aware of far-right parties and distrustful toward them. However, undocumented migrants and asylees are among the …
Date: December 2020
Creator: Winn, Meredith
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library