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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

John Buchan (1875-1940) and the First World War: A Scot's Career in Imperial Britain

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This dissertation examines the political career of Scottish-born John Buchan (1875-1940) who, through the avenue of the British Empire, formed political alliances that enabled him to enter into the power circles of the British government. Buchan's involvement in governmental service is illustrative of the political and financial advantages Scots sought in Imperial service. Sources include Buchan's published works, collections of correspondence, personal papers, and diaries in the holdings of the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Letters and other documents pertaining to Buchan's life and career are also available in the Beaverbrook papers, Lloyd George papers, and Strachey papers at the House of Lords Record Office, London, and in the Liddle Hart Collection at King's College, London. Documents concerning Buchan's association with the War Cabinet, the Foreign Office, and the Department of Information are among those preserved at the Public Record Office, London. References to Buchan's association with the British Expeditionary Force in France are included in the holdings of the Intelligence Corps Museum, Ashford, Kent. The study is arranged chronologically, and discusses Buchan's Scottish heritage, his education, his assignment on Lord Alfred Milner's staff in South Africa, and his appointment as Director of the Department of Information during World War …
Date: December 1999
Creator: Mann, Georgia A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
His, Hers, and Theirs: Domestic Relations and Marital Property Law in Texas to 1850 (open access)

His, Hers, and Theirs: Domestic Relations and Marital Property Law in Texas to 1850

Texas law regarding the legal status of women and their property rights developed from the mingling of Spanish and English laws. Spanish laws regarding the protection of women's rights developed during the centuries-long Reconquest, when the Spanish Christians slowly took back the Iberian Peninsula from the Moorish conquerors. Women were of special importance to the expansion of Spanish civilization. Later, when Spain conquered and colonized the New World, these rights for women came, too. In the New World, women's rights under Spanish law remained the same as in Spain. Again, the Spanish were spreading their civilization across frontiers and women needed protection. When the Spanish moved into Texas, they brought their laws with them yet again. Archival evidence demonstrates that Spanish laws in early Texas remained essentially unchanged with regard to the status of women. Events in the history of England caused its legal system to develop in a different manner from Spain's. In England, the protection of property was the law's most important goal. With the growth of English common law, husbands gained the right to control their wives's lives in that married women lost all legal identity. When the English legal system crossed the Atlantic and took root …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Stuntz, Jean A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A.P. Giannini, Marriner Stoddard Eccles, and the Changing Landscape of American Banking (open access)

A.P. Giannini, Marriner Stoddard Eccles, and the Changing Landscape of American Banking

The Great Depression elucidated the shortcomings of the banking system and its control by Wall Street. The creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 was insufficient to correct flaws in the banking system until the Banking Acts of 1933 and 1935. A.P. Giannini, the American-Italian founder of the Bank of America and Mormon Marriner S. Eccles, chairman of Federal Reserve Board (1935-1949), from California and Utah respectively, successfully worked to restrain the power of the eastern banking establishment. The Banking Act of 1935 was the capstone of their cooperation, a bill that placed open market operations in the hands of the Federal Reserve, thus diminishing the power of the New York Reserve. The creation of the Federal Housing Act, as orchestrated by Eccles, became a source of enormous revenue for Giannini. Giannini's wide use of branch banking and mass advertising was his contribution to American banking. Eccles's promotion of compensatory spending and eventual placement of monetary control in the hands of the Federal Reserve Board with Banking Act of 1935 and the Accord of 1951 and Giannini's branch banking diminished the likelihood of another sustained depression. As the Bank of America grew, and as Eccles became more aggressive in …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Weldin, Sandra J.
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Reformation-Era Church Courts of England: A Study of the Acta of the Archidiaconal and Consistory Court at Chester, 1540-1542

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Much work has been done over the last fifty years in the study of the English ecclesiastical courts. One court that thus far has escaped much significant scholarly attention, however, is the one located in Chester, England. The author analyzes the acta of that court in order to determine what types of cases were being heard during the years 1540-42. His analysis shows that the Chester court did not deviate significantly from the general legal and theological structure and function of Tudor church courts of the period.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Mitchener, Donald Keith
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
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
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
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
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

Victims of Hope: Explaining Jewish Behavior in the Treblinka, Sobibór and Birkenau Extermination Camps

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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

The Apologist Tradition: A Transitional Period in Southern Proslavery Thought, 1831-1845

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Early antebellum defenders of slavery acknowledged that slavery created problems for southern society. They contended, however, that slave society was better and more natural than other forms of social organization. Thomas R. Dew, William Harper, and James Henry Hammond each expressed a social philosophy in which slavery had a crucial role in preserving social order. They argued from the basis of social organicism, the idea that society should have an elite that controlled the masses. For all three men, slavery represented a system of order that helped balance the dangers of democracy. Significantly, however, all three men recognized that the slave system was not perfect, and despite their defense of slavery, argued that it was a human institution and therefore corruptible.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Austin, Clara
System: The UNT Digital Library

Sarah T. Hughes: Her Influence in Texas Politics

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Conservative males traditionally dominated Texas politics. In 1930, however, Sarah T. Hughes, a liberal woman from Maryland, began a spectacular career in state politics despite obstacles because of her gender and progressive ideas. First elected to the Texas Legislature in 1930, she remained active in politics for the next fifty years. Hard work, intelligence, and ability allowed her to form solid friendships with Texas's most powerful politicians. She became the first woman in Texas to hold a district judgeship, the first woman from Texas appointed to the federal bench, and the only woman to swear in a U.S. president. Hughes profoundly influenced state politics, challenging the long-standing conservative male domination. She helped to create a more diverse political field that today encompasses different ideologies and both genders.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Justiss, Charnita Spring
System: The UNT Digital Library
Singing for Blaine and for Logan! Republican Songs as Campaign Literature in the 1884 Presidential Race (open access)

Singing for Blaine and for Logan! Republican Songs as Campaign Literature in the 1884 Presidential Race

During the presidential contest of 1884, Republicans used singing as a campaign tactic at rallies, meetings, and parades. Their songs may be divided into several categories, such as rally songs, songs of praise for the party and its candidate, "bloody shirt" songs, mudslinging songs, and issue-based songs. Songs provide a perspective on the overall tenor of the campaign, while a lack of songs on certain topics, such as temperance, reflects the party's reluctance to alienate voters by taking a strong stand on controversial issues. Although the campaign has often been called one of the dirtiest in American history, this negativity is not reflected in the majority of the songs.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Madding, Carol Ann
System: The UNT Digital Library
Spanish Relations with the Apache Nations East of the Río Grande (open access)

Spanish Relations with the Apache Nations East of the Río Grande

This dissertation is a study of the Eastern Apache nations and their struggle to survive with their culture intact against numerous enemies intent on destroying them. It is a synthesis of published secondary and primary materials, supported with archival materials, primarily from the Béxar Archives. The Apaches living on the plains have suffered from a lack of a good comprehensive study, even though they played an important role in hindering Spanish expansion in the American Southwest. When the Spanish first encountered the Apaches they were living peacefully on the plains, although they occasionally raided nearby tribes. When the Spanish began settling in the Southwest they changed the dynamics of the region by introducing horses. The Apaches quickly adopted the animals into their culture and used them to dominate their neighbors. Apache power declined in the eighteenth century when their Caddoan enemies acquired guns from the French, and the powerful Comanches gained access to horses and began invading northern Apache territory. Surrounded by enemies, the Apaches increasingly turned to the Spanish for aid and protection rather than trade. The Spanish-Apache peace was fraught with problems. The Spaniards tended to lump all Apaches into one group even though, in reality, each band …
Date: May 2001
Creator: Carlisle, Jeffrey D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
By Air Power Alone: America's Strategic Air War in China, 1941-1945 (open access)

By Air Power Alone: America's Strategic Air War in China, 1941-1945

During World War II, the Army Air Force waged three strategic air offensives in and from China against Japan. At first, the Flying Tigers and 10th Air Force constituted the whole of American aid to China, but the effort soon expanded. Supported by Chiang Kai-shek, Claire Chennault and his 14th Air Force waged an anti-shipping campaign, to which the Japanese Imperial Army responded with Operation Ichigo and against which Joseph Stilwell accurately warned. 20th Bomber Command used B-29s to wage Operation Matterhorn, failed, and later conducted PACAID missions. 14th Air Force then waged a counterproductive transportation campaign as The Pacific War, also known as the Greater East Asian War, ended. Events in the China-Burma-India and China Theaters provide lessons in logistics, targeting, training, and air-ground cooperation that are applicable in the post-Cold War era.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Jahnke, Todd Eric
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jacksonian Democracy and the Electoral College:  Politics and Reform in the Method of Selecting Presidential Electors, 1824-1833 (open access)

Jacksonian Democracy and the Electoral College: Politics and Reform in the Method of Selecting Presidential Electors, 1824-1833

The Electoral College and Jacksonian Democracy are two subjects that have been studied extensively. Taken together, however, little has been written on how the method of choosing presidential electors during the Age of Jackson changed. Although many historians have written on the development of political parties and the increase in voter participation during this time, none have focused on how politicians sought to use the method of selecting electors to further party development in the country. Between 1824 and 1832 twelve states changed their methods of choosing electors. In almost every case, the reason for changing methods was largely political but was promoted in terms of advancing democracy. A careful study of the movement toward selecting electors on a general ticket shows that political considerations in terms of party and/or state power were much more important than promoting democratic ideals. Despite the presence of a few true reformers who consistently pushed for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that all states used the same method, the conclusion must be that politics and party demanded a change. This study relies heavily on legislative records at both the state and national level and newspapers throughout t the country from the period. Beginning with a …
Date: May 2001
Creator: Thomason, Lisa
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Break-up of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Army, 1865

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Unlike other Confederate armies at the conclusion of the Civil War, General Edmund Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi Army disbanded, often without orders, rather than surrender formally. Despite entreaties from military and civilian leaders to fight on, for Confederate soldiers west of the Mississippi River, the surrender of armies led by Generals Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston ended the war. After a significant decline in morale and discipline throughout the spring of 1865, soldiers of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department chose to break-up and return home. As compensation for months of unpaid service, soldiers seized both public and private property. Civilians joined the soldiers to create disorder that swept many Texas communities until the arrival of Federal troops in late June.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Clampitt, Brad R.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Southland, The Completion Of a Dream: The Story Behind Southern Newsprint's Improbable Beginnings

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The purpose of this thesis is to explore the creative process behind Southland Paper Mills, the South's first newsprint factory. The thesis describes the conditions leading to the need for southern newsprint. It then chronicles, through the use of company records, the difficult challenges southern newsprint pioneers faced. The thesis follows the company history from the gem of an idea during the mid 1930's through the first decade of the Southland's existence. The paper concludes with the formative years of the company in the 1940's.
Date: May 2001
Creator: McGrath, Charles
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Rio Grande Expedition, 1863-1865 (open access)

The Rio Grande Expedition, 1863-1865

In October 1863 the United States Army's Rio Grande Expedition left New Orleans, bound for the Texas coast. Reacting to the recent French occupation of Mexico, President Abraham Lincoln believed that the presence of U.S. troops in Texas would dissuade the French from intervening in the American Civil War. The first major objective of this campaign was Brownsville, Texas, a port city on the lower Rio Grande. Its capture would not only serve as a warning to the French in Mexico; it would also disrupt a lucrative Confederate cotton trade across the border. The expedition had a mixed record of achievement. It succeeded in disrupting the cotton trade, but not stopping it. Federal forces installed a military governor, Andrew J. Hamilton, in Brownsville, but his authority extended only to the occupied part of Texas, a strip of land along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The campaign also created considerable fear among Confederate soldiers and civilians that the ravages of civil war had now come to the Lone Star State. Although short-lived, the panic generated by the Rio Grande Expedition left an indelible mark on the memories of Texans who lived through the campaign. The expedition achieved its greatest …
Date: May 2001
Creator: Townsend, Stephen A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Lost Cause to Female Empowerment: The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1896-1966 (open access)

From Lost Cause to Female Empowerment: The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1896-1966

The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organized in 1896 primarily to care for aging veterans and their families. In addition to this original goal, members attempted to reform Texas society by replacing the practices and values of their male peers with morals and behavior that UDC members considered characteristic of the antebellum South, such as self-sacrifice and obedience. Over time, the organization also came to function as a transition vehicle in enlarging and empowering white Texas women's lives. As time passed and more veterans died, the organization turned to constructing monuments to recognize and promote the values they associated with the Old South. In addition to celebrating the veteran, the Daughters created a constant source of charity for wives and widows through a Confederate Woman's Home. As the years went by, the organization turned to educating white children in the “truth of southern history,” a duty they eagerly embraced. The Texas UDC proved effective in meeting its primary goal, caring for aging veterans and their wives. The members' secondary goal, being cultural shapers, ultimately proved elusivenot because the Daughters failed to stress the morals they associated with the Old South but because Texans never embraced …
Date: August 2001
Creator: Stott, Kelly McMichael
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

Texas Annexation and the Presidential Election of 1844 in the Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, Newspaper

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This thesis examines the issue of Texas annexation from the viewpoints of two southern cities: Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. It looks primarily at four major newspapers, two in each city: the Richmond Enquirer and the Richmond Whig; and the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the New Orleans Whig. These four newspapers were examined thoroughly from January 1844 to July 1845. In addition to the above newspapers, the Congressional Globe and national voting patterns on Texas annexation were examined. Analysis of the editorial articles in the above newspapers offers the best possibility of understanding public sentiment toward Texas annexation and the presidential election of 1844. The evidence examined in this study indicates that Texas annexation became a decisive issue in the presidential election of 1844. It also shows that, although the press and elements within both Democratic and Whig parties were aware that the slavery question was intricately linked to the Texas annexation issue, slavery and sectional politics were not the primary factors influencing annexation. Ultimately, fundamental concerns regarding western expansion in general, especially for the Whigs, and political party loyalty proved the decisive factors in the presidential election of 1844 and Texas annexation. The evidence gathered in this study …
Date: December 2001
Creator: Short, Steven W.
System: The UNT Digital Library