On the one hand, using a traditional narrative approach, this dissertation examines disco's historical trajectory from an underground movement to a mainstream phenomenon, and analyzes its relationships to American cultural and racial tensions during the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand, this dissertation also departs from traditional historical approaches by emphasizing an archive of personal experiences, memories, and reflections produced over the last four decades by individuals, living and dead, whose creative expressions help give disco its definition. Each chapter is organized around the story of an individual DJ whose work and play reflected the broader disco landscape. Together, the anecdotal experiences of these DJs help to conjure a collective biography of disco, emphasizing the significance of disco not only as a "genre" of pop music, but as a larger reference point for shared, and sometimes contested, cultural experiences.

This thesis examines the changes Spain was forced to make toward their colonial patterns due to Nahua resistance. Each chapter assesses different periods during the colonial era, tracing how the Virgin of Guadalupe's meaning changed according to Spanish colonial needs.

The expansionist agenda of the Polk administration culminated in the War with Mexico. The capture of Mexico City in September 1847 left the United States Army with the unprecedented task of occupying an enemy capital for an extended period. After the initial theaters of operation proved unable to secure a peace, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott commenced a campaign to take central Mexico including the capital city. In March 1847, an army of 11,000 soldiers under Scott landed at Vera Cruz. In six months, Scott's army marched over 250 miles and won five major battles. In mid-September, Scott took Mexico City. Throughout the campaign, Scott attempted to implement a pacification plan in an effort to prompt Mexico to open peace negotiations. Concern for his army weighed heavily on him as he faced unprecedented challenges in occupying Mexico City after its capture. The United States simply had almost no experience in the ramifications of fighting a foreign war, other than a few brief small-scale incursions onto foreign soil at Tripoli in 1805 and in British Canada. The difficulties that arose for Scott from the situation in Mexico were frustrating. Scott pacification plan used conciliation, coercion, and force on Mexico's army and people …

The Luftwaffe Field Divisions have remained on the periphery of World War II historiography for over seventy years, overshadowed by the myth of German military excellence during the conflict. The Heer is still known for lightning-quick attacks, brutal firepower, ably trained soldiers, and formidable success on the battlefield; an army of almost faceless, remorseless pain that grimly and efficiently faced down the Allies until the very end. Only recently, flaws have begun opening in this pristine picture as historians have examined how quickly the quality of the German army deteriorated from 1942-onward. Despite the vast landscape of scholarship on the war and the recent historical analysis of the weaknesses the Germans suffered, serious study on the creation and management of the Luftwaffe Field Divisions has been sparse. What has been written about them since 1945 has done little to offer a full picture of the units, their creation, or their significance to the German war effort. The purpose of this study was to fulfill this need by answering the necessary questions about the divisions, provide a complete history of the units, and place the LwFDs properly within the historiography of the Second World War.