Degree Level

Military Reconstruction in District Five (open access)

Military Reconstruction in District Five

"As the American Civil War was brought to a close in April, 1865, the entire nation was plunged into an era which was characterized by unrest and turmoil. The North had before it the task of reconstructing the former Confederate states so that they would be able to resume their former positions in national councils, while the South was called on to adjust to a way of life which was drastically different. In military District Five, formed as a result of congressional control, as in the rest of the South, continued post-war controversy has tended to becloud appraisals of the period of military reconstruction. A fair evaluation requires examination of the primary sources inasmuch as secondary works on the era have continued to reflect sectional viewpoints. Such an evaluation reveals the need for a comprehensive re-interpretation of the entire era of military control of reconstruction under the congressional plan. This analysis of military government in District Five represents such a re-interpretation of one area of the post-war South."-- leaf iii.
Date: August 1959
Creator: Estell, Dora Lucile
System: The UNT Digital Library
May 1856: Southern Reaction to Conflict in Kansas and Congress (open access)

May 1856: Southern Reaction to Conflict in Kansas and Congress

This thesis examines southern reactions to events that occurred in May 1856: the outbreak of civil war in Kansas and the caning of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. I researched two newspapers from the upper South state of Virginia, the Richmond Enquirer and the Richmond Daily Whig, and two newspapers from the lower South state of Louisiana, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the New Orleans Bee to determine the extent to which political party sentiment and/or geographic location affected southern opinion towards the two events. Political party ties influenced the material each newspaper printed. Each newspaper worried that these events endangered the Union. Some, however, believed the Union could be saved while others argued that it was only a matter of time before the South seceded.
Date: May 2007
Creator: Fossett, Victoria Lea
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Propaganda in the Yellow Rain Controversy (open access)

An Analysis of Propaganda in the Yellow Rain Controversy

The use of arguments containing increasingly technical materials has grown significantly in the recent years. Specifically, arguments that are used to justify military expenditures or to allege violations of international agreements are becoming more sophisticated. This study examines the dissemination and use of technical argument in claims made by the United States government that the Soviet Union violated chemical and biological treaties in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. This study employs the Jowett-O'Donnell method for analyzing propaganda to determine the extent and effectiveness of the government's claims. The study concludes that propaganda was used extensively by the government in order to justify new weapons programs and that the propaganda campaign was effective because of the technological orientation of its claims.
Date: May 1989
Creator: Rollins, Joel D. (Joel David)
System: The UNT Digital Library
East is East and West is West: Philadelphia Newspaper Coverage of the East-West Divide in Early America (open access)

East is East and West is West: Philadelphia Newspaper Coverage of the East-West Divide in Early America

The prominent division in early America between the established eastern populations and communities in the West is evident when viewed through the lens of eighteenth-century Philadelphia newspapers, which themselves employed an East-West paradigm to interpret four events: the Paxton Boys Incident, Regulator Rebellion, Shays's Rebellion, and Constitutional Convention. Through the choices of what words to use to describe these clashes, through oversights, omissions, and misrepresentations, and sometimes through more direct tactics, Philadelphia newspapermen revealed a persistent cultural bias against and rivalry with western communities. This study illustrates how pervasive this contrast between East and West was in the minds of easterners; how central a feature of early American culture they considered it to be.
Date: December 2007
Creator: Leath, Susan Elizabeth
System: The UNT Digital Library
Space Race: African American Newspapers Respond to Sputnik and Apollo 11 (open access)

Space Race: African American Newspapers Respond to Sputnik and Apollo 11

Using African American newspapers, this study examines the consensual opinion of articles and editorials regarding two events associated with the space race. One event is the Soviet launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957. The second is the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. Space Race investigates how two scientific accomplishments achieved during the Cold War and the civil rights movement stimulated debate within the newspapers, and that ultimately centered around two questions: why the Soviets were successful in launching a satellite before the US, and what benefits could come from landing on the moon. Anti-intellectualism, inferior public schools, and a lack of commitment on the part of the US government are arguments offered for analysis by black writers in the two years studied. This topic involves the social conditions of African Americans living within the United States during an era when major civil rights objectives were achieved. Also included are considerations of how living in a "space age" contributed to thoughts about civil rights, as African Americans were now living during a period in which science fiction was becoming reality. In addition, this thesis examines how two scientific accomplishments achieved during this time affected ideas about education, …
Date: December 2007
Creator: Thompson, Mark A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Principle or Political Expediency: The Progressive Republicans, 1910-1916 (open access)

Principle or Political Expediency: The Progressive Republicans, 1910-1916

Progressivism, which had invaded the conservative-controlled Republican party, provoked a split that affected local politics as well as the party's national leadership. The rebellion engulfing the party demanded that each Republican clearly define his position.... The available choices, ranging from reaction to insurgency, required that the professional Republican politician be painfully specific. The dilemma faced by these politicians, particularly those of the rank and file who were sympathetic with progressive ideals, is the major concern of this study.
Date: January 1966
Creator: Eubanks, Richard K.
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
Gladstone, Egypt, and the Sudan, 1880-1885 (open access)

Gladstone, Egypt, and the Sudan, 1880-1885

This thesis examines the Egyptian and Sudanese policy of Gladstone's Second Ministry. Sources include microfilms of letters from the prime ministers to the Queen, and Cabinet papers. Essential were Hansard, The Times, and Herslet, as well as biographical and autobiographical studies of the persons involved. The thesis narrates the Egyptian events preceding the formation of Gladstone's Ministry. It then discusses the revolt in Egypt, which resulted in British occupation, and the Mahdi's rebellion in the Sudan, which led to the fall of Khartoum. The thesis concludes that Gladstone failed because he did not want Britain to be in Egypt or the Sudan. Therefore, there was no consistent policy, and his failures were among the elements that led to the fall of his Government.
Date: May 1975
Creator: Hammonds, Nancy Jones
System: The UNT Digital Library
Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy: How Society of Spectacle Bred the Mockingjay (open access)

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy: How Society of Spectacle Bred the Mockingjay

Using spectacle to alienate people from each other and life, President Snow's Panem from Collins' Hunger Games trilogy is Guy Debord's Society of Spectacle. As Debord predicts, the spectacle of the Annual Hunger Games causes a degradation of life for citizens in the Districts and the Capitol, leading to a society where nobody truly lives and citizens accept the narrative that President Snow and his regime promote about the Games. Using Luis Althusser to understand how President Snow links his power to that of the Games, we understand how the dictator brainwashed his citizens into compliance through his narrative, and also, how this narrative is constantly delivered through the various ISAs and SAs in Panem to degrade life into false unity and false consciousness, socially coercing citizens to fall in line with the narrative around spectacle. Katniss Everdeen is unique as she is too authentic to use her celebrity status in promotion of the Games; instead, she accidentally performs Debord's true critiques, sparking a rebellion through love. Katniss' acts of love translate into true critiques of the spectacle that is Panem and the Games, and because Snow has spent decades brainwashing his populace into a blind acceptance of celebrity and …
Date: August 2021
Creator: Trotter, Olivia Royce
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nine Lives: A History of Cat Women, Subversive Femininity, and Transgressive Archetypes in Film (open access)

Nine Lives: A History of Cat Women, Subversive Femininity, and Transgressive Archetypes in Film

The intention of this thesis is to identify and analyze the cat woman archetype as a contemporary extension of the transgressive witch archetype, which rampantly appears over the course of cinema history, working as a signifier of a patriarchal society's fear of autonomous and subversive women. The character of Catwoman is the ultimate representation for this archetype on grounds of her visibility, longevity, and ability to return again and again. More importantly, Catwoman and her sisterhood of cat women work against male creators as a means of female empowerment through trickery. Within this thesis, key films of varying genres are drawn from throughout cinema history and analyzed in order to demonstrate the intertextual network of characters that make up the cat woman archetype, and the importance of the Catwoman character in her many forms.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Barnett, Katrina
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Persistence of Antebellum Planter Families in Postbellum East Texas (open access)

The Persistence of Antebellum Planter Families in Postbellum East Texas

The effect of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the southern planter elite remains a topic of interest to historians. Did the war ruin the planter class? Or, did they maintain economic, geographic, or social persistence? This study focuses on the persistence from 1850 to 1880 of five East Texas large planter families who owned one hundred or more slaves in 1860. An analysis of data primarily from county, state, and federal records formthe basis of this study. Four families persisted as wealthy influential members of their postbellum communities. One family remained geographically persistent but not wealthy. The experiences of these families suggest that large East Texas planter families found it possible to persist in spite of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Newland, Linda Sue
System: The UNT Digital Library

Beyond the Hold: The Evolution of the Ship in African American Literature

In the wake of a disturbing decades-long trend in both print and visual media—the appropriation of Black history and culture—another trend is observed in works of African American fiction: the reclamation of the appropriated imagery, in both neo-slave narratives and works of Afrofuturism. The image focused on specifically in this paper is that of the ship, which I argue serves at least two identifiable functions in Black fiction: first, to address the historical treatment of Africans and their American descendants, and secondly, to demonstrate Black progress and potential. Through an exploration of three works of African American fiction, works that take their Black protagonists beyond the ship's dreadful hold, the reader can see the important themes being channeled: Charles Johnson's Middle Passage sets a course on how to arrive at true freedom, enacting a process of Black liberation that begins with learning how to survive "in the wake," a concept derived Christina Sharpe's work In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Rivers Solomon's An Unkindness of Ghosts demonstrates not only the effects of "the hold," but how the hold itself has evolved from its origins on the slave ship; as new holds are constructed and demanded by society, rebellion is …
Date: August 2022
Creator: Najera, Joel Luis
System: The UNT Digital Library
Presidential Reconstruction in Texas 1865-1867 (open access)

Presidential Reconstruction in Texas 1865-1867

Presidential reconstruction in Texas proceeded under the direction of provisional governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton, a Texas Unionist. Texas Unionists had deep political roots in pre-war politics and sought to reconstruct along moderate lines. Following the constitutional convention of 1866, conservative James Webb Throckmorton won the gubernatorial race against Unionist Elisha Marshall Pease. Throckmorton's administration did very little to curb the intense violence directed at Unionists in Texas, and the conservative legislature passed legislation repressive to blacks. Texas Unionists grew increasingly radical, and Throckmorton clashed with the federal military over the question of authority. After the Radicals in Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, Throckmorton was removed as governor, and E.M. Pease was appointed in his place, ending presidential reconstruction in Texas.
Date: December 1979
Creator: Chapin, Walter T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Forging of a Nation: Cultural and Political Scottish Unity in the Time of Robert the Bruce (open access)

The Forging of a Nation: Cultural and Political Scottish Unity in the Time of Robert the Bruce

While Scotland was politically unified before the First Scottish War of Independence (1296-1328), it was only nominally so. Scotland shared a rich cultural unity amongst the clans, and it was only through the invasion from England, and the war that followed, that Scotland found a true political unity under King Robert the Bruce. This thesis argues that Scotland had a shared cultural identity, including the way it waged war, and how it came to be united under one king who brought a sense of nationalism to Scotland.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Lowrey, Brian
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
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Walling Family of Nineteenth-Century Texas: An Examination of Movement and Opportunity on the Texas Frontier (open access)

The Walling Family of Nineteenth-Century Texas: An Examination of Movement and Opportunity on the Texas Frontier

The Walling Family of Nineteenth-Century Texas recounts the actions of the first four generations of the John Walling family. Through a heavily quantitative study, the study focuses on the patterns of movement, service, and seizing opportunity demonstrated by the family as they took full advantage of the benefits of frontier expansion in the Old South and particularly Texas. In doing so, it chronicles the role of a relatively unknown family in many of the most defining events of the nineteenth-century Texas experience such as the Texas Revolution, Mexican War, Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Close of the Frontier. Based on extensive research in census, tax, election, land, military, family paper, newspaper, and existing genealogical records; the study documents the contributions of family members to the settlement of more than forty counties while, at the same time, noting its less positive behaviors such as its open hostility to American Indians, and significant slave ownership. This study seeks to extend the work of other quantitative studies that looked at movement and political influence in the Old South, Texas, and specific communities to the microcosm of a single extended family. As a result, it should be of use to those wanting a greater …
Date: December 2016
Creator: Cure, Stephen
System: The UNT Digital Library
Politics in Reconstruction: a Study of the Political Aspects of Presidential Reconstruction (open access)

Politics in Reconstruction: a Study of the Political Aspects of Presidential Reconstruction

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Presidential Reconstruction and try to determine the part that politics played in Andrew Johnson's plan of restoration and in his war with Congress.
Date: August 1965
Creator: Pierce, Michael D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
George Washington's Development as an Espionage Chief (open access)

George Washington's Development as an Espionage Chief

The American Revolution was a war of movement over great distances. Timely intelligence regarding the strength and location of the enemy was vital to the commanders on both sides. Washington gained his early experience in intelligence gathering in the wilderness during the French and Indian War. By the end of the American Revolution, Washington had become a skilled manager of intelligence. He sent agents behind enemy lines, recruited tory intelligence sources, questioned travelers for information, and initiated numerous espionage missions. Many heroic patriots gathered the intelligence that helped win the War for Independence. Their duties required many of them to pose as one of the enemy, and often incur the hatred of friends and neighbors. Some gave their lives in helping to establish the new American nation. It is possible that without Washington's intelligence service, American independence might not have been won.
Date: May 1993
Creator: Ritchey, David (David Benjamin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Anglo-American Relations and the Problems of a Jewish State, 1945- 1948 (open access)

Anglo-American Relations and the Problems of a Jewish State, 1945- 1948

This thesis is concerned with determining the effect of the establishment of a Jewish state on Anglo-American relations and the policies of their governments. This work covers the period from the awarding of the Palestine Mandate to Great Britain, through World War II, and concentrates on the post-war events up to the foundation of the state of Israel. It uses major governmental documents, as well as those of the United Nations, the archival materials at the Harry S. Truman Library, and the memoirs of the major participants in the Palestine drama. This study concludes that, while the Palestine problem presented ample opportunities for disunity, the Anglo-American relationship suffered no permanently damaging effects.
Date: May 1987
Creator: Peterson, Jody L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Black-White Relations in Texas, 1874-1896 (open access)

Black-White Relations in Texas, 1874-1896

"This thesis proposes to investigate the theory posed by Comer Vann Howard in 'The Strange Career of Jim Crow.' Woodward claims that complete physical segregation of Negroes was not legally established in the Southern states until the turn of the century. He further contends the period from Reconstruction until the 1890s was an era when Negroes participated in many activities with whites. This work investigates Woodward's theory in its applicability to Texas between 1874 and 1898. The study begins with redemption, which came to Texas in 1874 with the election of the first Democratic governor since the Civil War. The concluding year of 1896 was chosen because the last Negro to serve in the Texas Legislature ended his term that year."-- leaf [i].
Date: December 1970
Creator: Irvin, Bobbye Hughes
System: The UNT Digital Library
Constitutional Change in Texas During the Reconstruction, 1865-1876 (open access)

Constitutional Change in Texas During the Reconstruction, 1865-1876

In the decade following the Civil War the Texas political scene was dominated by revisionist activity with regard to the state's constitution. In that period the organic law of the state was altered three times, twice because of the exigencies of National Reconstruction and a third time to satisfy the retrenchment impulses partially stimulated by the Reconstruction experiment. None of the three constitutions written during this ten year period can be properly understood in isolation from the other two, nor can any of them be correctly interpreted separate from the serious post-war political, social, and economic issues faced by the entire nation. Hence, a uniform study of the three constitutions in their local context and their relations to national problems of the period provides a field of significant research and evaluation. It is the purpose of this study to analyze the constitutional changes of the Reconstruction era in Texas in their historical perspective, giving special attention to both the internal political structures and the socio-economic considerations dominant during that period.
Date: August 1967
Creator: Carrier, John Pressley
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Public Opinion During Crises in Japanese-American Relations in the Early Twentieth Century (open access)

American Public Opinion During Crises in Japanese-American Relations in the Early Twentieth Century

Throughout the period following Pearl Harbor, as one crisis in Japanese-American relations followed another, the American public opinion was divided. Some newspapers and personalities feared that there would be war over the San Francisco school board crisis, while others believed that talk of war was ridiculous. Partisan politics often affected the course of affairs on the Japanese question.
Date: August 1968
Creator: Nelson, Donald Fowler.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Fashoda Crisis: a Study in European Imperialism and Diplomacy (open access)

The Fashoda Crisis: a Study in European Imperialism and Diplomacy

In this thesis the author attempts to answer the questions: What was there in the Egyptian Sudan that rival colonial powers wanted, and why would they consider war as a means of getting it? Under what circumstances did Britain go into Egypt and lay a claim to the Egyptian Sudan? How did France expect to gain and hold territory in the Egyptian Sudan with a mere handful of men under Jean Baptiste Marchand in competition with the much greater force of the British leader, Sir Herbert Kitchener? What happened when these forces met at a Shilook village on the Nile, and what was the reaction in Europe? To what extent was the Fashoda Crisis and its settlement responsible for a treaty of friendship between the two rival powers that was to place them side by side in World War I?
Date: 1951
Creator: Goode, James H., Jr.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert: Father of the Grande Armée (open access)

Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert: Father of the Grande Armée

The eighteenth century was a time of intense upheaval in France. The death of Louis XIV in 1715 and the subsequent reign of Louis XV saw the end of French political and martial hegemony on the continent. While French culture and language remained dominant in Europe, Louis XV's disinterested rule and military stagnation led to the disastrous defeat of the French army at the hands of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). The battle of Rossbach marked the nadir of the French army in the Seven Years War. Frederick's army routed the French infantry that had bumbled its way into massed Prussian cavalry. Following the war, two reformist elements emerged in the army. Reformers within the government, chiefly Etienne François, duc de Choiseul, sought to rectify the army's poor performance and reconstitute France's military establishment. Outside the traditional army structure, military thinkers looked to military theory to reinvigorate the army from within and without. Foremost among the latter was a young officer named Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte de Guibert, whose 1772 Essai général de tactique quickly became the most celebrated work of theory in European military circles. The Essai provided a new military constitution for France, proposing wholesale …
Date: May 2011
Creator: Abel, Jonathan, 1985-
System: The UNT Digital Library