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open access

Horses Against Tanks: Historical Memory and the German Invasion of Poland

Description: The entrance of the German Invasion of Poland and depiction thereof into modern historiographical conversations offers historians superior articulation of the creation of historical memory, mythos, and identity ‒ especially in wider terms of European Imperialism. By utilizing the current trends in gendering of empire, the use of auto-biography and life writing to understand felt realities and obfuscated truths, and the attempts by empire to queer and utilize labeled deviations to control and g… more
Date: December 2023
Creator: Palmer, Matthew Steven

Ready for Primetime: The American First Army at St. Mihiel, 1918

Description: The American's battle of St. Mihiel in September 1918 has long been a marginalized battle in an almost forgotten war. In the historiography of American World War I involvement, the battle is relegated to a side-show that was little more than a distraction from the Meuse-Argonne. This stance needs to be re-evaluated as St. Mihiel proved an essential training ground for the US Army. The army rapidly expanded and participated in a major offensive, completed the complicated planning process, undert… more
This item is restricted from view until August 1, 2028.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Jameson, Sarah

The Governor and the Gangster: Dewey, Luciano, Commutation, and Controversy

Description: Thomas E. Dewey and Charles "Lucky" Luciano became household names during a 1936 vice trial in which Dewey successfully prosecuted Luciano, a prominent Mafioso, who received a thirty-to-fifty-year prison sentence. Later, Dewey became the Governor of New York and a perennial Republican presidential candidate while Luciano, still in prison, took part in a joint Navy-Mafia intelligence operation in World War II. In 1946, Governor Dewey commuted Luciano's sentence on the condition that he be depo… more
This item is restricted from view until August 1, 2028.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Rzeppa, Joseph

The Multigenerational Development of Oklahoma City's African American Community as an Urban Ethnic Enclave

Description: This dissertation examines the history and importance of Oklahoma City's Black Ethnic Enclave. It focuses on how this community developed over generations and the role of its leaders in shaping its identity, despite facing segregation. The settlement in this region began in 1889 when unassigned lands in central Indian Territory were opened for homesteaders by the US government. As a result, Oklahoma City became one of the major towns and eventually the state's capital. Most historical accounts … more
This item is restricted from view until August 1, 2028.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Ritt-Coulter, Edith Mae
open access

The Arsenal of the Red Warriors: U.S. Perceptions of Stalin's Red Army and the Impact of Lend-Lease Aid on the Eastern Front in the Second World War

Description: Through the U.S. Lend-Lease program, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to keep Joseph Stalin's Red Army fighting Adolf Hitler's forces to prevent a separate peace and Nazi Germany's colonization of Soviet territory and strategic resources during the Second World War. Yet after the Red Army's 1943 counterattacks, Roosevelt unnecessarily increased Soviet Lend-Lease aid, oversupplying Stalin's soldiers with more armament than they required for the Soviet Union's defense and enabling their su… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Fancher, James Reagan

The First Lady of Washington City: Margaret Bayard Harrison Smith, Family, and Politics in the Early Republic

Description: Margaret Bayard Harrison Smith was a prominent member of early Washington City society from the time she and her husband, Samuel Harrison Smith, moved to the blossoming capital in 1800 until her death in 1844. As a longtime resident of Washington, Margaret spent most of her adult life navigating the unique socio-political waters of the capital and developing friendships with many of the most prominent politicians of her time. Mrs. Smith's writings provide firsthand accounts of several important… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2028.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Thweatt, William Denton
open access

The Way of Change and Surprise: A Strategic Cultural Analysis of China's South China Sea Policies from the 1930s to 2010s

Description: This dissertation aims to discover the hidden pattern and rationales behind China's South China Sea policies over the last one hundred years from the perspective of Chinese strategic culture. A historical-cultural approach is a powerful tool in uncovering deeper understandings of the Chinese way of policy making and strategy on issues such as the South China Sea. The key research questions include: first, is there any historical legitimacy in China's sovereignty claim over the South China Sea i… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Zhong, Wenrui

Beyond Moses, Circumcision, and Pork: What Romans Knew about Jews and How That Knowledge Shaped Imperial Rule

Description: Previous researchers of Jewish history in the Roman Empire have imperfectly employed Greco-Roman sources to describe Roman perceptions of Jews and Judaism by relying on a handful of Greek and Latin written and visual components without attempting to quantify or comprehensively explore this abundant material. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this dissertation analyzes the vast array of Greco-Roman written and visual sources about Jews and Judaism from the first century … more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2028.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Bocchine, Kristin Ann
open access

Professor Carl A. Helmecke and Nazism: A Case Study of German-American Assimilation

Description: Carl A. Helmecke, like many German Americans marginalized by the anti-Germanism of the First World War and interwar period, believed that democracy had failed him. A professor with a doctoral degree in social philosophy, he regularly wrote newsletter columns declaring that the emphasis on individualism in the United States had allowed antidemocratic forces to corrupt the government, oppress citizens, and politicize schools and institutions for propaganda purposes. Moreover, widespread hunger an… more
Date: December 2022
Creator: Collins, Steven Morris

III Corps during the Surge Campaign: Operational Art and Counterinsurgency Myths

Description: The role of Odierno's III Corps as MNC-I has failed to receive sufficient attention from studies of the 2007-2008 surge of U.S. forces in Iraq. However, was Odierno's employment of military force in time, space, and purpose based on the logic of conventional military operations that laid the groundwork for the successes gained in 2007 and 2008. III Corps's achievements as an operational headquarters were rooted in the successful application of operational art. Operational art is a way to conc… more
This item is restricted from view until January 1, 2025.
Date: December 2022
Creator: Blythe, Wilson Clinton, Jr.
open access

Desertion and Defection in Roman Republican Warfare

Description: Despite their many successes, Roman leaders continually struggled with indiscipline in their own ranks as they battled Rome's opponents. Desertion and defection were steps that soldiers often undertook to avoid their obligated service. Previous scholarship has largely overlooked this aspect of Roman warfare. This dissertation analyzes why Roman soldiers began turning to desertion and defection throughout the Republican period. Such cases were generally rare in early Rome, but the expanding … more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Stampher, Matthew Joseph

Goering's Boys in Blue: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions, 1942-1945

Description: 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 pristin… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2024.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Stout, Michael John
open access

(Those Were the) Good Times: The Disco Experience in Four Parts

Description: 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… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Barber, Zacharie

The United States Occupation of Mexico City, 1847-1848

Description: 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… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Onyon, David E

The Balkan Imbroglio: The Diplomatic, Military, and Political Origins of the Macedonian Campaign of World War I

Description: The Macedonian Campaign of World War I (October 1915-November 1918) traditionally remains one of the understudied theatres of the historiography of the conflict. Despite its vital importance in the outcome of the war, it is still considered as a mere sideshow compared to the Western Front and the Gallipoli Campaign. This dissertation presents a much-needed re-evaluation of the Macedonian Campaign's diplomatic and political origins within the war's early context. In doing so, this study first co… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Broucke, Kevin R.

Benevolent Assimilation: The Evolution of United States Army Civil Affairs Operations in the Philippines from 1898 to 1945

Description: The history of the United States' occupation and administration of the Philippines is a premiere example of the evolution of the American military's civil administrative approach as it evolved from simple Army security in 1898, through an evolving ‘whole-of-government' method, to what was practically the full military administration of the country by March 1945. The second liberation and subsequent administration of the Philippines by the United States Army was unique, not simply because of the… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Musick, David C.

Between Coalition and Unilateralism: The British War Machine in the Mediterranean, 1793-1796

Description: In 1793, the British government embarked on a war against Revolutionary France that few expected would last twenty-five years and engulf all of Europe. Radical French policies provided an opportunity for William Pitt, the British prime minister, to endeavor to cobble a European alliance, including a number of Mediterranean states. These efforts never progressed beyond theory and negotiations because of conflicted policy and tension between the British diplomatic corps and Royal Navy over the … more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Baker, William Casey
open access

Democracy of Death: US Army Graves Registration and Its Burial of the World War I Dead

Description: The United States entered World War I without a policy governing the burial of its overseas dead. Armed only with institutional knowledge from the Spanish-American War twenty years prior, the Army struggled to create a policy amidst social turmoil in the United States and political tension between France and the United States.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Hatzinger, Kyle

The Dallas Story: The North American Aviation Plant during World War II

Description: During the Second World War the United States mobilized its industrial capacity to become the great "Arsenal of Democracy," as vehicles, ships, and small arms flowed out of American factories. Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment was the mobilization of the aviation industry, which grew rapidly after the war began in Europe. In 1940 the United States produced 24,600,000 pounds of airframe. By 1943 this figure had grown exponentially, with 760,926,600 airframe pounds produced. This was ac… more
This item is restricted from view until September 1, 2027.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Furgerson, Terrance, 1960-

Eagles Overhead: The History of US Air Force Airborne Forward Air Controllers, from the Muese-Argonne to Mosul

Description: Eagles Overhead provides a critical history of US Air Force Forward Air Controllers and examines their role, status, and performance in the Air Force's history. It begins by examining the US's initial adoption of air power, and American participation in aerial combat during World War I and traces the FACs' contributions to every US Air Force air campaign from the Marne in 1918 to Mosul in 2017. However, since 2001 FACs' contributions have been sporadic. Eagles Overhead asks why, despite the cri… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Dietz, J. Matthew

'The Marshall System' in World War II, Myth and Reality: Six American Commanders Who Failed

Description: This is an analysis of the U.S. Army's personnel decisions in the Second World War. Specifically, it considers the U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall's appointment of generals to combat command, and his reasons for relieving some generals while leaving others in place after underperformance. Many historians and contemporaries of Marshall, including General Omar N. Bradley, have commented on Marshall's ability to select brilliant, capable general officers for combat command in the war… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Carlson, Cody King

Fire Eater in the Borderlands: The Political Life of Guy Morrison Bryan, 1847-1891

Description: From 1847 to 1891, Guy Morrison Bryan was a prominent Texas politician who influenced many of the policies and events that shaped the state. Raised in his Uncle Stephen F. Austin's shadow, he was a Texas nationalist who felt responsible for promoting the interests of his state, its earliest settlers, and his family. During his nineteen years in the Texas Legislature and two years in the United States House of Representatives, he safeguarded land grants, supported internal improvements and educa… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Kelley, Ariel Leticia

The Administration of Unemployment Relief by the State of Texas during the Great Depression, 1929-1941

Description: During the Great Depression, for the first time in its history, the federal government provided relief to the unemployed and destitute through myriad New Deal agencies. This dissertation examines how "general relief" (direct or "make-work") from federal programs—primarily the Emergency Relief and Construction Act (ERCA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)—was acquired and administered by the government of Texas through state administrative agencies. These agencies included the … more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Park, David B.

Passing as Gray: Texas Confederate Soldiers' Body Servants and the Exploitation of Civil War Memory

Description: This dissertation is an examination of the interactions of enslaved body servants with their Texas Confederate masters from the American Civil War through the early twentieth century. The seven chapters of this study follows the story of these individuals from the fires of the Civil War, through the turbulence of Reconstruction in Texas, the codification of "Lost Cause" memory in the American South, and the exploitation of that memory by both former body servants and their ex-Confederate counte… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Elliott, Brian Alexander
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