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open access

Missionary Millennium: The American West; North and West Africa in the Christian Imagination

Description: During the 1890s in the United States, Midwestern YMCA missionaries challenged the nexus of power between Northeastern Protestant denominations, industrialists, politicians, and the Association's International Committee. Under Kansas YMCA secretary George Fisher, this movement shook the Northeastern alliance's underpinnings, eventually establishing the Gospel Missionary Union. The YMCA and the GMU mutually defined foreign and domestic missionary work discursively. Whereas Fisher's pre-millennia… more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Garrett, Bryan A.
open access

A Tuscan Lawyer, His Farms and His Family: The Ledger of Andrea di Gherardo Casoli, 1387-1412

Description: This is a study of a ledger written by Andrea di Gherardo Casoli between the years 1387 and 1412. Andrea was a lawyer in the Tuscan city of Arezzo, shortly after the city lost its sovereignty to the expanding Florentine state. While Andrea associated his identity with his legal practice, he engaged in many other, diverse enterprises, such as wine making, livestock commerce, and agricultural management. This thesis systematically examines each major facet of Andrea's life, with a detailed assess… more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Grover, Sean Thomas
open access

The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Relationship: George Washington and Thomas Paine, 1776-1796

Description: This study is a cultural and political analysis of the emergence and deterioration of the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Paine. It is informed by modern studies in Atlantic history and culture. It presents the falling out of the two Founding Fathers as a reflection of two competing political cultures, as well as a function of the class aspirations of Washington and Paine. It chronologically examines the two men's interaction with one another from the early days of the Am… more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Hamilton, Matthew K.
open access

Cathedral of Hope: A History of Progressive Christianity, Civil Rights, and Gay Social Activism in Dallas, Texas, 1965 - 1992

Description: This abstract is for the thesis on the Cathedral of Hope (CoH). The CoH is currently the largest church in the world with a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation. This work tells the history of the church which is located in Dallas, Texas. The thesis employs over 48 sources to help tell the church's rich history which includes a progressive Christian philosophy, an important contribution to the fight for gay civil rights, and fine examples of courage through social activism. This work make… more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Mims, Dennis Michael
open access

What has Damascus to do with Paris? A Comparative Analysis of Ibn Taymiyya and Gregory of Rimini: A Fourteenth Century and Late Medieval Rejection of the Use of Aristotelian Logic in the Legitimization of Divine Revelation in the Christian and Islamic Traditions

Description: This thesis is a comparative analysis of Ibn Taymiyya of Damascus and Gregory of Rimini within their respective religious and philosophical traditions. Ibn Taymiyya and Gregory of Rimini rejected the use of Aristotelian logic in the valorization of divine revelation in Islam and Christianity respectively. The translation movements, in Baghdad and then in Toledo, ensured the transmission of Greek scientific and philosophical works to both the Islamic world during the 'Abbasid Caliphate and the… more
Date: December 2009
Creator: Chelvan, Richard D.
open access

The Debate over the Corporeality of Demons in England, c. 1670-1700

Description: According to Walter Stephens, witch-theorists in the fifteenth century developed the witchcraft belief of demon copulation in order to prove the existence of demons and therefore the existence of God. In England, during the mid-seventeenth century, Cartesian and materialist philosophies spread. These new philosophies stated there was nothing in the world but corporeal substances, and these substances had to conform to natural law. This, the philosophers argued, meant witchcraft was impossible. … more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Patterson, Patrick
open access

Grayson County, Texas, in Depression and War: 1929-1946

Description: The economic disaster known as the Great Depression struck Grayson County, Texas, in 1929, and full economic recovery did not come until the close of World War II. However, the people of Grayson benefited greatly between 1933 and 1946 from the myriad spending programs of the New Deal, the building of the Denison Dam that created Lake Texoma, and the establishment of Perrin Army Air Field. Utilizing statistical data from the United States Census and the Texas Almanac, this thesis analyzes the ro… more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Park, David
open access

Interweaving History: The Texas Textile Mill and McKinney, Texas, 1903-1968.

Description: Texas textile mills comprise an untold part of the modern South. The bulk of Texas mills were built between 1890 and 1925, a compressed period of expansion in contrast to the longer developmental pattern of mills in the rest of the United States. This compression meant that Texas mill owners benefited from knowledge gained from mill expansion elsewhere, and owners ran their mills along the same lines as the dominant southeastern model. Owners veered from the established pattern when conditions … more
Date: August 2009
Creator: Kilgore, Deborah Katheryn
open access

Negotiating Interests: Elizabeth Montagu's Political Collaborations with Edward Montagu; George, Lord Lyttelton; and William Pulteney, Lord Bath

Description: This dissertation examines Elizabeth Robinson Montagu's relationships with three men: her husband, Edward Montagu; George Lyttelton, first baron Lyttelton; and William Pulteney, earl of Bath to show how these relationships were structured and how Elizabeth Montagu negotiated them in order to forward her own intellectual interests. Montagu's relationship with her husband Edward and her friendships with Lord Lyttelton and Lord Bath supplied her with important outlets for intellectual and politic… more
Date: December 2009
Creator: Bennett, Elizabeth Stearns
open access

Polemics in Medieval Sufi Biographies

Description: The eleventh and twelfth centuries represent a critical formative period for institutions and practices that characterized later Islam. Sufism also emerged during the same period as a distinct mode of piety that gained widespread acceptance in the aftermath of Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century. Using early Sufi biographies produced in Khorasan during that period, this study will argue that the early Sufis were not only preoccupied with locating their own tradition within the Islamic or… more
Date: December 2009
Creator: Ghafoori, Ali
open access

Slaves and Slaveholders in the Choctaw Nation: 1830-1866

Description: Racial slavery was a critical element in the cultural development of the Choctaws and was a derivative of the peculiar institution in southern states. The idea of genial and hospitable slave owners can no more be conclusively demonstrated for the Choctaws than for the antebellum South. The participation of Choctaws in the Civil War and formal alliance with the Confederacy was dominantly influenced by the slaveholding and a connection with southern identity, but was also influenced by financial … more
Date: May 2009
Creator: Fortney, Jeffrey L., Jr.
open access

Cracking the Closed Society: James W. Silver and the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi

Description: This thesis examines the life of James Wesley Silver, a professor of history at the University of Mississippi for twenty-six years and author of Mississippi: The Closed Society, a scathing attack on the Magnolia State's history of racial oppression. In 1962, Silver witnessed the campus riot resulting from James Meredith's enrollment as the first black student at the state's hallowed public university and claims this was the catalyst for writing his book. However, by examining James Silver's p… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Fox, Lisa Ann
open access

United States Psychological Operations in Support of Counterinsurgency: Vietnam, 1960 to 1965.

Description: This thesis describes the development of psychological operations capabilities, introduction of forces, and the employment in Vietnam during the period 1960-1965. The complex interplay of these activities is addressed, as well as the development of PSYOP doctrine and training in the period prior to the introduction of ground combat forces in 1965. The American PSYOP advisory effort supported the South Vietnamese at all levels, providing access to training, material support, and critical advice.… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Roberts, Mervyn Edwin, III
open access

Administrative Problems of W. C. C. Claiborne, First Anglo-American Governor of Louisiana

Description: This study attempted to depict and portray the problems which confronted W. C. C. Claiborne in his governing of Louisiana. From the time of Lousiana purchased in 1803 until 1812, when the territorial governor and from 1812 until 1816 he served as the first state governor. These problems have been summarized from reading the personal letters of Governor Claiborne written during his term of office.
Date: August 1937
Creator: Lowe, Ellene
open access

The Relations Between the United States and Honduras, 1825-1933

Description: This study attempts to assess inter-American relationships with particular emphasis on the relations between the United States and Honduras. The study provided detailed data (maps, tables, and figures) that depicted distrubution of trade between the two countries and investments of United States in Hundrashe from 1825 to 1933.
Date: August 1937
Creator: Dillard, Edna Hendrix
open access

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

Description: 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 in… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Welch, M. Courtney
open access

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

Description: 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 Regi… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Ball, Gregory W.
open access

The Concept of Purgatory in England

Description: It is not the purpose of this dissertation to present a history of Purgatory; rather, it is to show through the history the influence of purgatorial doctrine on the English lay community and the need of that community for this doctrine. Having established the importance this doctrine held for so many in England, with an examination of the chantry institution in England, this study then examines how this doctrine was stripped away from the laity by political and religious reformers during the… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Machen, Chase E.
open access

Bad Blood: Impurity and Danger in the Early Modern Spanish Mentality

Description: The current work is an intellectual history of how blood permeated early modern Spaniards' conceptions of morality and purity. This paper examines Spanish intellectuals' references to blood in their medical, theological, demonological, and historical works. Through these excerpts, this thesis demonstrates how this language of blood played a role in buttressing the church's conception of good morals. This, in turn, will show that blood was used as a way to persecute Jews and Muslims, and ultimat… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Pyle, Rhonda
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