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A Study of the Anti-Catholic Bias Contained Within Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (open access)

A Study of the Anti-Catholic Bias Contained Within Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

This work examines the anti-Catholic bias of Jacob Burckhardt as he employed it in the Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. A biographical chapter examines his early education in the Lutheran seminary and the influence of his educators at the University of Berlin. The Civilization is examined in three critical areas: Burckhardt's treatment of the popes in his chapter "The State as a Work of Art," the reform tendencies of the Italian humanists which Burckhardt virtually ignored, and the rise of confraternities in Italy. In each instance, Burckhardt demonstrated a clear bias against the Catholic Church. Further study could reveal if this initial bias was perpetuated through later "Burckhardtian" historians.
Date: May 1996
Creator: Kistner, Michael P. (Michael Patrick)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Power of One: Bonnie Singleton and American Prisoners of War in Vietnam (open access)

The Power of One: Bonnie Singleton and American Prisoners of War in Vietnam

Bonnie Singleton, wife of United States Air Force helicopter rescue pilot Jerry Singleton, saw her world turned upside down when her husband was shot down while making a rescue in North Vietnam in 1965. At first, the United States government advised her to say very little publicly concerning her husband, and she complied. After the capture of the American spy ship, the U.S.S. Pueblo by North Korea, and the apparent success in freeing the naval prisoners when Mrs. Rose Bucher, the ship captain's wife, spoke out, Mrs. Singleton changed her opinion and embarked upon a campaign to raise public awareness about American prisoners of war held by the Communist forces in Southeast Asia. Mrs. Singleton, along with other Dallas-area family members, formed local grass-roots organizations to notify people around the world about the plight of American POWs. They enlisted the aid of influential congressmen, such as Olin "Tiger" Teague of College Station, Texas; President Richard M. Nixon and his administration; millionaire Dallas businessman Ross Perot; WFAA television in Dallas; and other news media outlets worldwide. In time, Bonnie Singleton, other family members, and the focus groups they helped start encouraged North Vietnam to release the names of prisoners, allow mail …
Date: August 1999
Creator: Garrett, Dave L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Intellectuals and National Socialism: The Cases of Jung, Heidegger, and Fischer (open access)

Intellectuals and National Socialism: The Cases of Jung, Heidegger, and Fischer

This thesis discusses three intellectuals, each from a distinct academic background, and their relationship with National Socialism. Persons covered are Carl Gustav Jung, Martin Heidegger, and Eugen Fischer. This thesis aims at discovering something common and fundamental about the intellectuals' relationship to politics as such. The relationship each had with National Socialism is evaluated with an eye to their distinct academic backgrounds. The conclusion of this thesis is that intellectuals succumb all too easily to political and cultural extremism; none of these three scholars saw themselves as National Socialists, yet each through his anti-Semitism and willingness to cooperate assisted the regime.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Stewart, Richard M. (Richard Matthew)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Echoes of Eugenics : Roe v Wade (open access)

Echoes of Eugenics : Roe v Wade

Traces the inter-related histories of the eugenics movement and birth control, with an emphasis on abortion. Discusses Sarah Weddington's arguments and the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v Wade. Straws the eugenic influences in the case and asserts that these influences caused the decision to be less than decisive.
Date: August 1995
Creator: Wunderlich, Jo (Jo Parks)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Anti-Semitism and Der Sturmer on Trial in Nuremberg, 1945-1946: The Case of Julius Streicher (open access)

Anti-Semitism and Der Sturmer on Trial in Nuremberg, 1945-1946: The Case of Julius Streicher

The central focus of this thesis is to rediscover Julius Streicher and to determine whether his actions merited the same punishment as other persons executed for war crimes. Sources used include Nuremberg Trial documents and testimony, memoirs of Nazi leaders, and other Nazi materials. The thesis includes seven chapters, which cover Streicher's life, especially the prewar decades, his years out of power, and his trial at Nuremberg. The conclusion reached is that Streicher did have some influence on the German people with his anti-Semitic newspaper Der Sturmer, but it is difficult to ascertain whether his speeches and writings contributed directly to the extermination of the Jews in World War II or simply reflected and magnified the anti-Semitism of his culture.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Bridges, Lee H. (Lee Hammond)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Booker T. Washington and the Myth of Accommodation (open access)

Booker T. Washington and the Myth of Accommodation

Since his rise to fame in the late nineteenth century, Booker T. Washington has been incorrectly labeled a compromiser and power-hungry politician who sacrificed social progress for his own advancement. Through extensive research of Washington's personal papers, speeches, and affiliations, it has become apparent that the typical characterizations of Washington are not based exclusively in fact. The paper opens with an overview of Washington's philosophy, followed by a discussion of Washington's rise to power and consolidation of his "Tuskegee Machine," and finally the split that occurred within the African-American community with the formation of the NAACP. The thesis concludes that, while Washington's tactics were different from and far less visible than those of more militant black leaders, they were nonetheless effective in the overall effort.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Brennan, Douglas C. (Douglas Carl)
System: The UNT Digital Library
"The Best Stuff Which the State Affords": a Portrait of the Fourteenth Texas Infantry in the Civil War (open access)

"The Best Stuff Which the State Affords": a Portrait of the Fourteenth Texas Infantry in the Civil War

This study examines the social and economic characteristics of the men who joined the Confederate Fourteenth Texas Infantry Regiment during the Civil War and provides a narrative history of the regiment's wartime service. The men of the Fourteenth Infantry enlisted in 1862 and helped to turn back the Federal Red River Campaign in April 1864. In creating a portrait of these men, the author used traditional historical sources (letters, diaries, medical records, secondary narratives) as well as statistical data from the 1860 United States census, military service records, and state tax rolls. The thesis places the heretofore unknown story of the Fourteenth Texas Infantry within the overall body of Civil War historiography.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Parker, Scott Dennis
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Sorrow Whispers in the Winds" : the Republic of Texas's Commanche Indian Policy, 1836-1846 (open access)

"Sorrow Whispers in the Winds" : the Republic of Texas's Commanche Indian Policy, 1836-1846

The Comanche Indians presented a major challenge to the Republic of Texas throughout its nine-year history. The presence of the Comanches greatly slowed the westward advancement of the Texas frontier, just as it had hindered the advancing frontiers of the Spaniards and Mexicans who colonized Texas before the creation of the Republic. The Indian policy of the Republic of Texas was inconsistent. Changes in leadership brought drastic alterations in the policy pursued toward the Comanche nation. The author examines the Indian policy of the Republic, how the Comanches responded to that policy, and the impact of Texan-Comanche relations on both parties.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Lipscomb, Carol A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Marine Defense Battalions, October 1939 - December 1942: their Contributions in the Early Phases of World War II (open access)

Marine Defense Battalions, October 1939 - December 1942: their Contributions in the Early Phases of World War II

This thesis explores the activities of the U.S. Marine defense battalions from October 1939 to December 1942. More specifically, it explains why Headquarters Marine Corps (HQMC) decided to continue the defense battalions as separate entities when, by mid-1943, it needed additional men to replace its combat losses and to create new divisions. In this process HQMC disbanded other special units, such as the raider battalions, parachute battalions, barrage balloon squadrons, and the glider squadrons. It retained, however, the defense battalions because of their versatility and utility as demonstrated during the various operations they conducted in Iceland and the Central and South Pacific. In these locations defense battalions performed as: (a) island garrisons, (b) antiaircraft artillery units, and (c) landing forces. Their success in carrying out these missions led to their retention as separate entities throughout World War II.
Date: December 1996
Creator: Maynard, Stephen Ronald
System: The UNT Digital Library
"But a Mournful Remedy": Divorce in Two Texas Counties, 1841-1880 (open access)

"But a Mournful Remedy": Divorce in Two Texas Counties, 1841-1880

Little scholarship has been dedicated to nineteenth-century Texas family life and no published scholarship to date has addressed the more specific topic of divorce. This study attempts to fill that gap in the historiography through a quantitative analysis of 373 divorce actions filed in Washington and Harrison Counties. The findings show a high degree of equity between men and women in court decisions granting divorces, and in property division and custody rulings. Texas women enjoyed a relatively high degree of legal and personal autonomy, which can be attributed, in part, to a property-rights heritage from Spanish civil law.
Date: May 1999
Creator: Pruitt, Francelle LeNaee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Americans who did not wait: the American Legion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1917 (open access)

Americans who did not wait: the American Legion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1917

This study examines the five American Legion battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force formed in 1915 specifically to recruit American volunteers for the Canadian overseas contingent of the First World War. This study reviews the organization of Canada's militia and Anglo-American relations before examining the formation of the American Legion, the background of its men, and the diplomatic repercussions it sparked. This study is based largely on material in the Public Archives of Canada including war records and the personal papers of several participants. During its brief existence, the American Legion precipitated constitutional, diplomatic, and political problems. The issues the American Legion raised were mostly solved by America's entry in the war. The episode hastened the maturity of Canada as a nation.
Date: May 1996
Creator: Smylie, Eric
System: The UNT Digital Library
Daniel's Battery: A Narrative History and Socio-Economic Study of the Ninth Texas Field Battery (open access)

Daniel's Battery: A Narrative History and Socio-Economic Study of the Ninth Texas Field Battery

This thesis combines a traditional narrative history of a Confederate artillery battery with a socio-economic study of its members. A database was constructed using the Compiled Service Records, 1860 census, and county tax rolls. The information revealed similarities between the unit's members and their home area. Captain James M. Daniel organized the battery in Paris, Texas and it entered Confederate service in January 1862. The battery served in Walker's Texas Division. It was part of a reserve force at the Battle of Milliken's Bend and was involved in the battles of Bayou Bourbeau, Mansfield, and Pleasant Hill. The battery also shelled Union ships on the Mississippi River. Daniel's Battery officially surrendered at Natchitoches, Louisiana, in May 1865.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Perkins, John Drummond
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
The Development of IAM District Lodge 776 in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942-1946: A Case Study in the Growth of Organized Labor During World War II (open access)

The Development of IAM District Lodge 776 in Fort Worth, Texas, 1942-1946: A Case Study in the Growth of Organized Labor During World War II

This thesis concentrates on a local union of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), District Lodge 776, of Fort Worth, Texas, during the war years. The main argument of the thesis runs along three basic lines. First, it demonstrates that the experiences of the Fort Worth Machinists clearly fit into the national labor movement during the war years. Second, it argues that the existence, survival, and strength of the union depended greatly on outside forcesan expanding national economy, a powerful national union, and a generally labor-friendly government. Third, it shows that union officers and rank-and-file members used their bases of strengththe national economy, the national IAM, and the federal governmentto build an effective local labor organization.
Date: August 1999
Creator: White, Kirk
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of Pragmatism in the Essays of Randolph Bourne (open access)

The Influence of Pragmatism in the Essays of Randolph Bourne

This study traces the influence of the American philosophy of pragmatism in the writing of the Progressive Era intellectual Randolph Bourne (1886-1918),. In courses with John Dewey at Columbia University and through the books of William James, pragmatism became a major intellectual factor in Bourne's social and cultural criticism. The philosophy remained so to the end of his brief career. From pragmatism, Bourne learned a method of challenging a restrictive status quo. In his essays, Bourne sought harmony between analytical reasoning and the imagination in order to promote self-growth along with the creation of a more humane society. Bourne promoted individualism and the need for transcendent values in modern industrial society.
Date: May 1993
Creator: Brown, Byron D. (Byron Delano)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dante, Machiavelli, and Luther: The Evolution of the Modern State (open access)

Dante, Machiavelli, and Luther: The Evolution of the Modern State

The evolution of the State was a process which went through many stages. Analysis of the modern State tends to begin with the Enlightenment; however, Dante Alighieri, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Martin Luther each represented early phases of this evolution. The theories of these men were closely tied to their evaluation of man's nature. Their main objectives were separation of the State from the Church and the definition of the rulers obligations to his subjects. Although humanism influenced all of them to varying degrees, each developed unique views of the State. Elements of these views can be detected in more modern theorists.
Date: May 1991
Creator: Peterson, Rebecca C. (Rebecca Carol)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bolshevik Britain: An Examination of British Labor Unrest in the Wake of the Russian Revolution, 1919 (open access)

Bolshevik Britain: An Examination of British Labor Unrest in the Wake of the Russian Revolution, 1919

The conclusion of the First World War brought the resumption of a struggle of a different sort: a battle between government and labor. Throughout 1919, government and labor squared off in a struggle over hours, wages, and nationalization. The Russian Revolution introduced the danger of the bolshevik contagion into the struggle. The first to enter into this conflict with the government were the shop stewards of Belfast and Glasgow. The struggle continued with the continued threats of the Triple Alliance and the police to destroy the power of the government through industrial action. This thesis examines the British labor movement during this revolutionary year in Europe, as well as the government's response to this new danger.
Date: August 1993
Creator: Mitchell, John A., 1966-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Texas Response to the Mexican Revolution: Texans' Involvement with U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Mexico During the Wilson Administration (open access)

The Texas Response to the Mexican Revolution: Texans' Involvement with U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Mexico During the Wilson Administration

The Mexican Revolution probably affected Texas more than any other state. As the Revolution intensified, Texans responded with increased efforts to shape the Mexican policies of the Woodrow Wilson administration. Some became directly involved in the Revolution and the U.S. reaction to it, but most Texans sought to influence American policy toward Mexico through pressure on their political leaders in Austin and Washington. Based primarily on research in the private and public papers of leading state and national political figures, archival sources such as the Congressional Record and the Department of State's decimal file, major newspapers of the era, and respected works, this study details the successes and failures that Texans experienced in their endeavors to influence Wilson's Mexican policies.
Date: May 1994
Creator: Snow, L. Ray (Livveun Ray)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Humphrey Duke of Gloucester and the Introduction of Italian Humanism in Fifteenth Century England (open access)

Humphrey Duke of Gloucester and the Introduction of Italian Humanism in Fifteenth Century England

Duke Humphrey of Gloucester is often given credit for the renaissance of English learning in the fifteenth century. It is true that the donations of books he made to Oxford, his patronage of English and Italian writers, and his patronage of administrators who had humanist training resulted in the transmittal of humanist values to England. But is it also true that these accomplishments were mainly the by-product of his self-aggrandizing style, rather than a conscious effort on the duke's part to promote learning. The duke, however, does deserve recognition for what he unwittingly may have done.
Date: December 1991
Creator: Doyle, John F. (John Francis)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Political Philosophy of Sam Houston (open access)

The Political Philosophy of Sam Houston

Although most Americans view Sam Houston as a military leader and practical politician with little understanding of intellectual issues, he actually possessed a complex moral and political philosophy which he elaborated and demonstrated during a fifty-year public career. He based his philosophy on a mixture of Christian idealism and pragmatic realism, with duty, honor, and strict morality serving to restrain his love of reality, reason, and physical pleasures. The dual nature of his moral beliefs extended into his politics, which mixed Jeffersonian republicanism, individual rights, and limited government, with Jacksonian democracy, the needs of society, and the will of the people. Throughout most of his career he kept those conflicting sets of ideals successfully in balance, with only the turmoil of the 1850s leading him into extreme positions.
Date: December 1990
Creator: Daniels, John D. (John David), 1946-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Eugéne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) and the Romantic Reform Movement In Architecture (open access)

Eugéne-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) and the Romantic Reform Movement In Architecture

This thesis examines French architect Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), who combined eighteenth-century Rationalism with the historicist, anti-academic message of Romanticism, which was impelling the nineteenth-century architectural reform movement into the industrial age. Sources used include Viollet-le-Duc's architectural drawings and published works, particularly volume one of his Entretiens sur l'Architecture. The study is arranged chronologically, and it discusses his career, his restoration work, and his demands for reform of architectural education. One chapter contains a detailed analysis of his Entretiens. This thesis concludes that Viollet-le-Duc was as much a historian as he was an architect, and it notes that his hopes for reform were realized in the twentieth century.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Mann, Georgia M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Communist Party and Soviet Literature (open access)

The Communist Party and Soviet Literature

The Communist Party's control of Soviet literature gradually evolved from the 1920s and reached its height in the 1940s. The amount of control exerted over Soviet literature reflected the strengthening power of the Communist Party. Sources used in this thesis include speeches, articles, and resolutions of leaders in the Communist Party, novels produced by Soviet authors from the 1920s through the 1940s, and analyses of leading critics of Soviet literature and Soviet history. The thesis is structured around the political and literary developments during the periods of 1917-1924, 1924-1932, 1932-1941, and 1946-1949. The conclusion is that the Communist Party seized control of Soviet literature to disseminate Party policy, minimize dissent, and produce propaganda, not to provide an outlet for creative talent.
Date: May 1994
Creator: Clark, Rhonda (Rhonda Ingold)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Class and Freedom of Choice in the Marriage Patterns of Antebellum Texas Women (open access)

Class and Freedom of Choice in the Marriage Patterns of Antebellum Texas Women

Little scholarly analysis has been devoted to the hypothesis that antebellum Texas women generally married within their own socioeconomic (slaveholding) class, and thus had only limited choice in the selection of marriage partners. This quantitatively based investigation suggests that the popular image should be carefully qualified. This study reveals that although a majority of Texas women who married during the early 1850s chose men who had the same slaveholding status, a significant minority crossed class lines. By using marriage records of the period in correlation with information gleaned from the census, conclusions were reached. Contemporary women's diaries, letters and reminiscences were investigated, in addition to a historiography of marriage in the South, which created the background for this study.
Date: December 1991
Creator: Brown, Lisa (Lisa Christina)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Charles Beard versus the Founding Fathers: Property Concepts in the Eighteenth Century (open access)

Charles Beard versus the Founding Fathers: Property Concepts in the Eighteenth Century

This thesis deals with the role of property in the formation of the American Constitution and government. Charles Beard's views on property are compared with writings from the eighteenth century. Beard's writings on property and his critics are examined in the first two chapters. Then, the thesis's two historical contexts are evaluated. Concentrating on the Enclosure Acts, the fourth chapter looks at the importance of land to the former Englishmen. The eighteenth century view of property is the focus of the fifth section. The last chapter contrasts the two different views of property. Beard believed that the Constitution was a conservative document that protected the property of the few over the many. The Founding Fathers actually included liberal protections for property in the eighteenth century.
Date: May 1992
Creator: Breaux, Rhonda J. (Rhonda Janise)
System: The UNT Digital Library