The first diamond mine in North America was discovered in 1906 when John W. Huddleston found two diamonds on his farm just south of Murfreesboro in Pike County, Arkansas. Experts soon confirmed that the diamond-bearing formation on which Huddleston made his discovery was the second largest of its kind and represented 25 percent of all known diamond-bearing areas in the world. Discovery of the field generated nearly a half century of speculative activity by men trying to demonstrate and exploit its commercial viability. The field, however, lacked the necessary richness for successful commercial ventures, and mining was eventually replaced in the early 1950s by tourist attractions that operated successfully until 1972. At that time the State of Arkansas purchased the field and converted it to a state park. Thus this work tell the rich and complicated story of America'a once and only diamond field, analyzes the reasons for the repeated failures of efforts to make it commercially viable, and explains how it eventually succeeded as a tourist venture.

This dissertation provides a history of Spanish-Comanche relations during the era of Spanish Texas. The study is based on research in archival documents, some newly discovered. Chapter 1 presents an overview of events that brought both people to the land that Spaniards named Texas. The remaining chapters provide a detailed account of Spanish-Comanche interaction from first contact until the end of Spanish rule in 1821. Although it is generally written that Spaniards first met Comanches at San Antonio de Béxar in 1743, a careful examination of Spanish documents indicates that Spaniards heard rumors of Comanches in Texas in the 1740s, but their first meeting did not occur until the early 1750s. From that first encounter until the close of the Spanish era, Spanish authorities instituted a number of different policies in their efforts to coexist peacefully with the Comanche nation. The author explores each of those policies, how the Comanches reacted to those policies, and the impact of that diplomacy on both cultures. Spaniards and Comanches negotiated a peace treaty in 1785, and that treaty remained in effect, with varying degrees of success, for the duration of Spanish rule. Leaders on both sides were committed to maintaining that peace, although …

This study analyzes the once great medieval Tuscan capital of Lucca's struggle for survival at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This was the age of the rise of regional states in Italy, and the expansionistic aims of Milan, Florence and others were a constant challenge to city-states such as Lucca which desired a political and cultural status quo. Yet, it was a challenge that was successfully met; unlike Pisa, Siena, Perugia, and various other major Tuscan cities, Lucca did not succumb to Milanese or Florentine aggression in the early Quattrocento. Why it did not is a major topic of discussion here. One of the means in which the Lucchese faced the new political and military realities of the time was the establishment of a monarchial system of government in the signoria of Paolo Guinigi (r. 1400-1430). The Guinigi Signoria was not characterized by the use of intimidation and violence, but rather by clientage, kinship and neighborhood bonds, marriage alliances, and the general consent of the people. Paolo garnered the consent of the people at first because his wealth allowed him to protect Lucca and its contado to a greater extent than would have been possible otherwise, and because of …