Statesman from Texas, Roger Q. Mills (open access)

Statesman from Texas, Roger Q. Mills

This is a biography of Roger Quarles Mills and his contributions to Texas history.
Date: August 1954
Creator: Purifoy, Russell Albritton, Jr.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Changes in the Status of Texarkana, Texas, Women, 1880-1920 (open access)

Changes in the Status of Texarkana, Texas, Women, 1880-1920

This study concentrates on the social status of women in one southern town during the late nineteenth century and the Progressive Era.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Rowe, Beverly J.
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
A History of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879-1928: from Levees-Only to a Comprehensive Program of Flood Control for the Lower Mississippi Valley (open access)

A History of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879-1928: from Levees-Only to a Comprehensive Program of Flood Control for the Lower Mississippi Valley

In 1879 Congress created the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) to develop and coordinate federal flood control policy for the Lower Mississippi River. Through 1927, that Commission clung stubbornly to a "levees-only" policy that was based on the mistaken belief that levees alone could be effective in controlling the flood waters of the Mississippi River. When the levees failed--and they occasionally did--the MRC responded by raising and strengthening the system but refused to adopt a more comprehensive program, one which would include outlets and reservoirs. Finally, a disastrous flood in 1927 forced the abandonment of levees-only and the adoption of a comprehensive plan for the Lower Mississippi River. Predictably, the MRC faced heavy criticism following the failure of its highly-touted levee system in 1927. While certainly the Commission was culpable, there was plenty of fault to go around and a plethora of mitigating circumstances. Developing a plan for achieving adequate flood control along the lower Mississippi River constituted what was probably the most difficult and complex engineering problem ever undertaken by the U. S. Government. Additionally, there were innumerable political and financial constraints that worked to shape MRC policy. This study will endeavor to tell the story of the MRC from …
Date: August 1996
Creator: Pearcy, Matthew Todd, 1967-
System: The UNT Digital Library
David Lefkowitz of Dallas: A Rabbi for all Seasons (open access)

David Lefkowitz of Dallas: A Rabbi for all Seasons

This dissertation discusses the impact David Lefkowitz and his ministry had on Dallas during the years of his ministry (1920-1949) at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas Texas, and the years following his death in 1955. The focus is on his involvement in civic activities, although his pastoral activities are also discussed. Sources include interviews with family members, friends and acquaintances, newspaper articles, journals, internet sources, unpublished theses and dissertations about Dallas and related subjects, minutes of the Temple's Board of Directors' meetings, minutes of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, minutes of the Board of Directors' Meetings of the Dallas Jewish Welfare Federation, the Temple Emanu-El Bulletins, and selected sermons, speeches and letters of David Lefkowitz. David Lefkowitz was an important figure in the history of Dallas. He taught, by precept and example, that Jews could participate fully in the civic life of Dallas. Because of his teachings, Jews made a positive difference in the development of Dallas. He has left a lasting impression on Dallas, and through his ministry and hard work, he made Dallas a better place for all its citizens.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Guzman, Jane Bock
System: The UNT Digital Library
Military-diplomatic Adventurism:  Communist China's Foreign Policy in the Early Stage of the Korean War (1950-1951) (open access)

Military-diplomatic Adventurism: Communist China's Foreign Policy in the Early Stage of the Korean War (1950-1951)

The thesis studies the relations of Communist China's foreign policy and its military offensives in the battlefield in Korean Peninsula in late 1950 and early 1951, an important topic that has yet received little academic attention. As original research, this thesis cites extensively from newly declassified Soviet and Chinese archives, as well as American and UN sources. This paper finds that an adventurism dominated the thinking and decision-making of Communist leaders in Beijing and Moscow, who seriously underestimated the military capabilities and diplomatic leverages of the US-led West. The origin of this adventurism, this paper argues, lays in the CCP's civil war experience with their Nationalist adversaries, which featured a preference of mobile warfare over positional warfare, and an opportunist attitude on cease-fire. This adventurism ended only when Communist front line came to the verge of collapse in June 1951.
Date: August 2013
Creator: Zhong, Wenrui
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
Dr. Richard Price, the Marquis de Condorcet, and the Political Culture of Friendship in the Late Enlightenment (open access)

Dr. Richard Price, the Marquis de Condorcet, and the Political Culture of Friendship in the Late Enlightenment

The eighteenth century saw many innovations in political culture including the rise of the public sphere where political ideas were freely and openly discussed and criticized. The new public sphere arose within the institutions of private life such as the Republic of Letters and salons, so the modes of behavior in private life were important influences on the new political culture of the public sphere. By studying the lives and careers of Richard Price and the Marquis de Condorcet, I examine the role that the private institution of friendship played in the new political culture of the late Enlightenment. During the 1780s, friendship became an important political symbol that represented the enlightened ideals of equality, reciprocity, liberty, and humanitarianism.
Date: August 2001
Creator: Kruckeberg, Robert Dale
System: The UNT Digital Library
Southern Promise and Necessity:  Texas, Regional Identity, and the National Woman Suffrage Movement, 1868-1920 (open access)

Southern Promise and Necessity: Texas, Regional Identity, and the National Woman Suffrage Movement, 1868-1920

This study offers a concentrated view of how a national movement developed networks from the grassroots up and how regional identity can influence national campaign strategies by examining the roles Texas and Texans played in the woman suffrage movement in the United States. The interest that multiple generations of national woman suffrage leaders showed in Texas, from Reconstruction through the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, provides new insights into the reciprocal nature of national movements. Increasingly, from 1868 to 1920, a bilateral flow of resources existed between national women's rights leaders and woman suffrage activists in Texas. Additionally, this study nationalizes the woman suffrage movement earlier than previously thought. Cross-regional woman suffrage activity has been marginalized by the belief that campaigning in the South did not exist or had not connected with the national associations until the 1890s. This closer examination provides a different view. Early woman's rights leaders aimed at a nationwide movement from the beginning. This national goal included the South, and woman suffrage interest soon spread to the region. One of the major factors in this relationship was that the primarily northeastern-based national leadership desperately needed southern support to aid in their larger goals. Texas' ability to …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Brannon-Wranosky, Jessica S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Evolution, Not Revolution: The Effect of New Deal Legislation on Industrial Growth and Union Development in Dallas, Texas (open access)

Evolution, Not Revolution: The Effect of New Deal Legislation on Industrial Growth and Union Development in Dallas, Texas

The New Deal legislation of the 1930s would threaten Dallas' peaceful industrial appearance. In fact, New Deal programs and legislation did have an effect on the city, albeit an unbalanced mixture of positive and negative outcomes characterized by frustrated workers and industrial intimidation. To summarize, the New Deal did not bring a revolution, but it did continue an evolutionary change for reform. This dissertation investigated several issues pertaining to the development of the textile industry, cement industry, and the Ford automobile factory in Dallas and its labor history before, during, and after the New Deal. New Deal legislation not only created an avenue for industrial workers to achieve better representation but also improved their working conditions. Specifically focusing on the textile, cement, and automobile industries illustrates that the development of union representation is a spectrum, with one end being the passive but successful cement industry experience and the other end being the automobile industry union efforts, which were characterized by violence and intimidation. These case studies illustrate the changing relationship between Dallas labor and the federal government as well as their local management. Challenges to the open shop movement in Dallas occurred before the creation of the New Deal, but …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Welch, M. Courtney
System: The UNT Digital Library
Soldier Boys of Texas: The Seventh Texas Infantry in World War I (open access)

Soldier Boys of Texas: The Seventh Texas Infantry in World War I

This study first offers a political, social, and economic overview of Texas during the first two decades of the twentieth century, including reaction in the Lone Star state to the declaration of war against Germany in April, 1917; the fear of saboteurs and foreign-born citizens; and the debate on raising a wartime army through a draft or by volunteerism. Then, focusing in-depth on northwest Texas, the study examines the Texas National Guard unit recruited there, the Seventh Texas Infantry Regiment. Using primarily the selective service registration cards of a sample of 1,096 members of the regiment, this study presents a portrait of the officers and enlisted soldiers of the Seventh Texas based on age, occupation, marital status, dependents and other criteria, something that has not been done in studies of World War I soldiers. Next, the regiment's training at Camp Bowie, near Fort Worth, Texas, is described, including the combining of the Seventh Texas with the First Oklahoma Infantry to form the 142nd Infantry Regiment of the Thirty-Sixth Division. After traveling to France and undergoing nearly two months of training, the regiment was assigned to the French Fourth Army in the Champagne region and went into combat for the first …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Ball, Gregory W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Muse of Fire: Liberty and War Songs as a Source of American History (open access)

The Muse of Fire: Liberty and War Songs as a Source of American History

The development of American liberty and war songs from a few themes during the pre-Revolutionary period to a distinct form of American popular music in the Civil War period reflects the growth of many aspects of American culture and thought. This study therefore treats as historical documents the songs published in newspapers, broadsides, and songbooks during the period from 1765 to 1865. Chapter One briefly summarizes the development of American popular music before 1765 and provides other introductory material. Chapter Two examines the origin and development of the first liberty-song themes in the period from 1765 to 1775. Chapters Three and Four cover songs written during the American Revolution. Chapter Three describes battle songs, emphasizing the use of humor, and Chapter Four examines the figures treated in the war song. Chapter Five covers the War of 1812, concentrating on the naval song, and describes the first use of dialect in the American war song. Chapter Six covers the Mexican War (1846-1848) and includes discussion of the aggressive American attitude toward the war as evidenced in song. Chapter Six also examines the first antiwar songs. Chapters Seven and Eight deal with the Civil War. Chapter Seven treats derivative war songs, including …
Date: August 1984
Creator: Bowman, Kent A. (Kent Adam), 1947-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Petroleum in Saudi-American Relations: The Formative Period, 1932-1948 (open access)

Petroleum in Saudi-American Relations: The Formative Period, 1932-1948

This dissertation is an examination of the American oil industry in Saudi Arabia and its influence on United States foreign policy. The study examines the Americans who went to Saudi Arabia, the effect of the oil companies on Saudi- American relations, and the American government's response to oil company actions. There is an attempt to answer such questions as: Did the oil companies exert pressure on the American government to influence governmental policy? How effective was this pressure? And, what benefits did the oil companies have from their relationship with the government? The study concludes that Aramco was instrumental in bringing official and nonofficial contact and representation between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Moreover, Aramco was instrumental in involving the American government directly in Saudi Arabia through the extension of lend-lease aid to that country. American government involvement thwarted potential British ambitions in the Saudi oil resources and resulted in the American dominance of oil interests in that kingdom. In addition, Senate investigations showed that the oil companies grossly overcharged the United States Navy on oil purchases and that the financial assistance to Saudi Arabia was made for the protection of Aramco's oil concession.
Date: August 1978
Creator: Nairab, Mohammad Mahmud
System: The UNT Digital Library
A New Way of Statecraft: The Career of Elton Mayo and the Development of the Social Sciences in America, 1920-1940 (open access)

A New Way of Statecraft: The Career of Elton Mayo and the Development of the Social Sciences in America, 1920-1940

Considered "the father of the science of human relations," Elton Mayo was instrumental in the development of industrial psychology and sociology in America. The career of Elton Mayo and his attraction to influential figures like John D. Rockefeller, Jr., provide a chronological order and interpretive force to understand this development. Mayo's concern about human behavior in the modern industrial world and management's concern over the future of industrial relations, found common ground in their support for the development of a science of human relations. It is not a coincidence then, that the social sciences developed at a time when industrial capitalism shifted its energies from organizing material resources to organizing human resources. The development of modern social science can best be understood, thus, as a phase of the social history of corporate capitalism. The career of Elton Mayo and his attraction to influential figures like John D. Rockefeller, Jr., provide a chronological order and interpretive force to understand this development.
Date: August 1992
Creator: Cullen, David O'Donald, 1951-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Evolution of Gentility in Eighteenth-Century England and Colonial Virginia (open access)

The Evolution of Gentility in Eighteenth-Century England and Colonial Virginia

This study analyzes the impact of eighteenth-century commercialization on the evolution of the English and southern American landed classes with regard to three genteel leadership qualities--education, vocation, and personal characteristics. A simultaneous comparison provides a clearer view of how each adapted, or failed to adapt, to the social and economic change of the period. The analysis demonstrates that the English gentry did not lose a class struggle with the commercial ranks as much as they were overwhelmed by economic changes they could not understand. The southern landed class established an economy based on production of cash crops and thus adapted better to a commercial economy. The work addresses the development of class-consciousness in England and the origins of Virginia's landed class.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Nitcholas, Mark C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Robert Boyle and the Significance of Skill and Experience in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy (open access)

Robert Boyle and the Significance of Skill and Experience in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy

The purpose of this study is to examine how English natural philosophers of the seventeenth century—in particular, Robert Boyle (1627-1691) considered and assessed the personal traits of skill and experience and the significance of these characteristics to the practice of seventeenth-century science. Boyle's writings reveal that skill and experience impacted various aspects of his seventeenth-century experimental natural philosophy, including the credibility assessment of tradesmen and eyewitnesses to natural phenomena, the contingencies involved in the making of experiments, and Boyle's statements about the requisite skills of experimental philosophy in contrast to other traditions. Subtopics explored include the popularization of science and Boyle's expectations concerning the future improvement of natural philosophy.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Chipman, Gary V.
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
Interests Eternal and Perpetual:  British Foreign Policy and the Royal Navy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936 - 1937 (open access)

Interests Eternal and Perpetual: British Foreign Policy and the Royal Navy in the Spanish Civil War, 1936 - 1937

This thesis will demonstrate that the British leaders saw the policy of non-intervention during the Spanish Civil War as the best option available under the circumstances, and will also focus on the role of the Royal Navy in carrying out that policy. Unpublished sources include Cabinet and Admiralty papers. Printed sources include the Documents on British Foreign Policy, newspaper and periodical articles, and memoirs. This thesis, covering the years 1936-37, is broken down into six chapters, each covering a time frame that reflected a change of policy or naval mission. The non-intervention policy was seen as the best available at the time, but it was shortsighted and ignored potentially serious long-term consequences.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Sanchez, James
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Significance and Impact of Women on the Rise of the Republican Party in Twentieth Century Texas (open access)

The Significance and Impact of Women on the Rise of the Republican Party in Twentieth Century Texas

During the early twentieth century, the Democratic party dominated the conservative political landscape of Texas. Through the 1920s, members of the Republican party focused on patronage and seemed content to maintain the position of minority party. A growing dissatisfaction with the liberal policies of the New Deal during the 1930s created opportunities for state Republicans to woo dissenting Democrats to their side. With a change of leadership within the state GOP after 1950, the Republicans waged serious campaigns for offices for the first time. Republican men exercised their political yearnings through leadership positions. Women, on the other hand, were shut out of the leadership ranks, and, as a consequence, they chose a traditional female strategy. They organized clubs in order to support the new leadership and rising candidates. Against formidable odds, Republican women acted as foot soldiers and worked diligently to attain their objectives. As early as 1920, Texas Republican women began to organize. In 1938 they joined the newly chartered National Federation of Republican Women. In 1955 Texas women organized the Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW). Working through the TFRW, the women became the catalysts that broke the Republican party from its state of inertia, and they significantly …
Date: August 2000
Creator: Strickland, Kristi Throne
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
Male Army Nurses: The Impact of the Vietnam War on Their Professional and Personal Lives (open access)

Male Army Nurses: The Impact of the Vietnam War on Their Professional and Personal Lives

As American involvement in Vietnam escalated in the 1960s, the military's need for medical personnel rose as well. A shortage of qualified nurses in the United States coupled with the requirements of providing adequate troops abroad meant increased opportunity for male nurses. To meet the needs of Army personnel, the Army Nurse Corps actively recruited men, a segment of the nursing population that had previously faced daunting restrictions in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC). Amidst mounting tension, the Army Student Nurse Program began accepting men and provided educational funding and support. Additionally, Congress extended commissions in the Regular Army to previously excluded male nurses. Men answered the call and actively took advantage of the new opportunities afforded them by the demands of war. They entered the educational programs and committed to serve their country through the ANC. Once admitted to the corps, a large percentage of male nurses served in Vietnam. Their tours of duty proved invaluable for training in trauma medicine. Further, these men experienced personal and professional growth that they never would have received in the civilian world. They gained confidence in their skills and worked with wounds and diseases seldom seen at home. For many, the opportunities …
Date: August 2000
Creator: Hess, Lucinda Houser
System: The UNT Digital Library