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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
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Date: August 2020
Creator: Furgerson, Terrance, 1960-
open access

Military Religio: Caesar's Religiosity Vindicated by Warfare

Description: Gaius Julius Caesar remains one of the most studied characters of antiquity. His personality, political career, and military campaigns have garnered numerous scholarly treatments, as have his alleged aspirations to monarchy and divinity. However, comparatively little detailed work has been done to examine his own personal religiosity and even less attention has been paid to his religion in the context of his military conquests. I argue that Caesar has wrongly been deemed irreligious or skeptica… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Adkins, Austin L
open access

The Making of a Princeps: Imperial Virtues in Monumental Propaganda

Description: This thesis demonstrates key imperial virtues communicated on Roman Imperial triumphal monuments. A closer examination of monuments located in Rome reveals the presentation of personality traits such as military valor, piety, and mercy through symbolism, nature scenes, and personifications of abstract qualities. Each monument is dedicated to an emperor and exemplifies his virtues. The representation of imperial virtues conveys an emperor's worth to the public by communicating his better qualiti… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Wetzel, Julia L
open access

The Forging of a Nation: Cultural and Political Scottish Unity in the Time of Robert the Bruce

Description: While Scotland was politically unified before the First Scottish War of Independence (1296-1328), it was only nominally so. Scotland shared a rich cultural unity amongst the clans, and it was only through the invasion from England, and the war that followed, that Scotland found a true political unity under King Robert the Bruce. This thesis argues that Scotland had a shared cultural identity, including the way it waged war, and how it came to be united under one king who brought a sense of na… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Lowrey, Brian

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
open access

In the Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan

Description: The aim of this thesis is to narrate and analyze lynching and atypical violence in Denton County, Texas, between 1920 and 1926. Through this intensive study of a rural county in north Texas, the role of law enforcement in typical and systemic violence is observed and the relationship between Denton County Officials and the Ku Klux Klan is analyzed. Chapter 1 discusses the root of the word lynching and submits a call for academic attention to violence that is unable to be categorized as lynching… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Crittenden, Micah Carlson

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
open access

Public Order and Social Control through Religion in the Roman Republic

Description: Rome was among the largest cities in Europe during the Republic era, with a population that was diverse in social status and ethnicity. To maintain public order and social control of such a large, continually growing and shifting population that encompassed mixed cultures and Roman citizens, the Roman elites had to use various methods to keep the peace and maintain social stability. As religion was so deeply ingrained into every aspect of Roman life, it is worth taking a deeper look into how th… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Williams, Sheri
open access

Creeks and Open Spaces: Ned Fritz's Environmental Crusades

Description: Edward C. Fritz was one of the most influential environmentalists in Texas history. Although he took a circuitous route to environmental activism, Fritz evolved into a powerful force fighting on behalf of Texan nature. Participating in substantial actions throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Fritz's contributions to environmental activism resulted in the successful preservation of thousands of acres and multiple wildlife species. Fritz parlayed his legal background into effectiv… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Ingram, Jared S.
open access

Australian Mateship and Imperialistic Encounters with the United States in the Vietnam War

Description: This thesis attempts to prove the significance of the relationship between the United States and Australia, and how their similar cultures and experiences assisted creating that shared bond throughout the twentieth century. Chapter 2 examines the effects of the Cold War on both the United States and Australia, as well as their growing relationship during that period. There is some backtracking chronologically in order to make connections to important historical legacies such as the ANZAC Legend… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Wos, Nathaniel

The Rise and Fall of the Greenback Party in Texas: Economic Change and Political Dissent in the Post-Civil War Era

Description: In 1873, a financial crisis plunged the United States into a deep economic depression that exacerbated a number of post-war economic issues. By the late 1870s, political dissent centered primarily on financial issues merged into the Greenback movement, which represented a loose coalition of reformers calling for economic relief based on the expanded use of greenbacks (paper currency issued by the United States Treasury during the Civil War). The Greenback Party emerged as a direct response to f… more
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Date: December 2019
Creator: Sinclair, Cameron L.
open access

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Racial Dynamics: The Importance of SNCC's Arkansas Project, 1962-1966

Description: In this thesis I look at the Arkansas Project and more specifically the racial dynamics within the project and the surrounding communities in Arkansas where SNCC engaged to assist the residents fight for their civil rights. In addition, I analyze how the differences in the urban and rural communities were affected by the racial dynamics of the project's leadership. The Arkansas project was led by William Hansen, a white man, which made him and the project unique from not only other SNCC project… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Lacy, David Aaron
open access

Famine Fighters: American Veterans, the American Relief Administration, and the 1921 Russian Famine

Description: This study argues that the American Relief Administration (ARA) operationally and culturally was defined by the character and experiences of First World War American military veterans. The historiography of the American Relief Administration in the last half-century has painted the ARA as a purely civilian organization greatly detached from the military sphere. By examining the military veterans of the ARA scholars can more accurately assess the image of the ARA, including what motivated their … more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Huebner, Andrew Brooks
open access

Creating the Character of North Texas: Demographics and Geography, 1841-1861

Description: Several historians have identified North Texas as constituting a unique cultural region in antebellum Texas, due to the more limited cotton and slave economies and greater opposition to secession. Different settlement patterns have been put forward as an explanation for the distinct "character" of North Texas, with North Texas being portrayed as being settled largely by migrants from the Upper South while the rest of the state was primarily settled by Lower Southerners. The argument rests on th… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Stites, Russell
open access

Women in the Foreign Service: A Case Study of Margaret Parx Hays, 1942-1964

Description: This project seeks to include the historical significance of women in the Foreign Service and subsequently the United States Department of State between 1942 and 1964. Using the life and experience of Margaret Parx Hays, one of fewer than three hundred female foreign service officers before 1960, this study explores the importance of examining women at the "ground level." This narrative examines the life of Hays at several different duty stations and her experience navigating a male-dominant wo… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Craig, Maddison L.
open access

Origins of Roman Infantry Equipment: Innovation and Celtic Influence

Description: The Romans were known for taking technology and advancements from other peoples they encountered and making them their own. This pattern holds true in military affairs; indeed, little of the Roman military was indigenously developed. This dissertation looks at the origins of the Roman's mainline weapons systems from the beginning of Roman Republic expansion in the fourth century BC to the abandonment of Western-style armaments in favor of Eastern style ones beginning in the late-third century A… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Martin, Ian A.

Uncle Sam Does Not Want You: Military Rejection and Discharge during the World Wars

Description: In the United States, rapid military mobilization for the world wars marked a turning point in the national need to manage and evaluate manpower. To orchestrate manpower needs for the military, industry, and those relating to familial obligations, Woodrow Wilson's administration created the Selective Service System during the First World War. In categorizing men, local Selective Service boards utilized rapid physical and psychological diagnostic techniques and applied their assessments to curre… more
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Date: August 2019
Creator: Smith Chamberlain, Tiffany Leigh

Weapons of Mass Deception: Opacity and the Israeli Nuclear Program

Description: Access to nuclear technology and growing concern over the spread of nuclear weapons triggered an international debate in the 1960s that led to the creation of the Nonproliferation Treaty. Ratified in 1970, NPT was designed to prevent the horizontal spread of nuclear weapons and limit destructive uses of nuclear energy. At the same time, it also normalized the arsenals of existing nuclear states and encouraged exchanges of nuclear information, technology, and materials for peaceful purposes. Non… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: August 2019
Creator: Beattie, Kathleen E
open access

Weaponized Nature: How the Environment Saved the Allies at Bastogne, December 16-23, 1944

Description: Many histories written by professional historians discuss the Battle of the Bulge; however, none of them incorporate the growing field of environmental history as a lens of analysis. This paper aims to address that hole in the scholarship by evaluating the impact that environmental factors exerted on the American army's ability to fight in and around Bastogne and St. Vith, Belgium during the first week of the battle. Had it not been for the environmental factors and the Americans' ability to … more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Reader, Darrell Ray
open access

The Civilian Conservation Corps in Big Bend National Park

Description: During the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put young men to work in state and national parks across the United States. One of such parks, Big Bend National Park, is the focus of this study. The CCC had two camps within the park, one from 1934 to 1937 and another from 1940 to 1942. During their time in Big Bend, the CCC constructed many projects including a road, trails, cabins, and other various structures. The purpose of this study is to delineate the role of the CCC in creatin… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Jackson, Kimberly
open access

Health on the Homestead: Women Physicians and the Search for Professional Medical Authority in the American West, 1870-1930

Description: This project seeks to clarify the historical significance of women in the American West between 1870 and 1930 through the education, careers, and personal lives of western women physicians. The narratives presented in the work provide alternative roles for western women aside from the stereotypical images found in popular culture and history, such as the "Bad Woman," the prostitute, and the obedient homesteading wife. This collective biography additionally demonstrates how women participated in… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Doak, Kate Lynn
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