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War by Other Means - the Development of United States Army Military Government Doctrine in the World Wars

Description: Occupation operations are some of the most resource and planning intensive military undertakings in modern combat. The United States Army has a long tradition of conducting military government operations, stretching back to the Revolutionary War. Yet the emergence of military government operational doctrine was a relatively new development for the United States Army. During the World Wars, the Army reluctantly embraced civil administration responsibilities as a pragmatic reaction to the realiti… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Musick, David C.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Patton's Iron Cavalry - The Impact of the Mechanized Cavalry on the U.S. Third Army

Description: The American military experience in the European Theater of Operations during the Second World War is one of the most heavily documented topics in modern historiography. However, within this plethora of scholarship, very little has been written on the contributions of the United States Cavalry to this era. The six mechanized cavalry groups assigned to the Third Army served in a variety of roles, conducting screens, counter-reconnaissance, as well as a number of other associated security missi… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Nance, William Stuart
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Cattle Capitol: Misrepresented Environments, Nineteenth Century Symbols of Power, and the Construction of the Texas State House, 1879-1888

Description: State officials, between 1882 and 1888, exchanged three million acres of Texas Panhandle property for construction of the monumental Capitol that continues to house Texas government today. The project and the land went to a Chicago syndicate led by men influential in business and politics. The red granite Austin State House is a recognizable symbol of Texas around the world. So too, the massive tract given in exchange for the building, what became the "fabulous" XIT Ranch, also has come to symb… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Miller, Michael M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert: Father of the Grande Armée

Description: The eighteenth century was a time of intense upheaval in France. The death of Louis XIV in 1715 and the subsequent reign of Louis XV saw the end of French political and martial hegemony on the continent. While French culture and language remained dominant in Europe, Louis XV's disinterested rule and military stagnation led to the disastrous defeat of the French army at the hands of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). The battle of Rossbach marked the nadir of th… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Abel, Jonathan, 1985-
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Significance of Feudal Law in Thirteenth-Century Law Codes

Description: Although developments in feudal law in the thirteenth century influenced the legal environment of Europe for centuries, much of past and current historical research of feudalism examines the social system anthropologically but neglects an in-depth analysis of feudal law codes. My research combines the social-anthropological approach with relevant customary codes to demonstrate the importance of feudal law to a thirteenth-century society plagued by war, economic and social instability, and compe… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Sijansky, Adam Wayne
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Portrait of a southern Progressive: The political life and times of Governor Pat M. Neff of Texas, 1871-1952

Description: Pat M. Neff was a product of his political place and time. Born in Texas in 1871, during Reconstruction, he matured and prospered while his native state did the same as it transitioned from Old South to New South. Neff spent most of his life in Waco, a town that combined New South Progressivism with religious conservatism. This duality was reflected in Neff's own personality. On moral or religious issues, he was conservative. On economic and social issues, he was Progressive. He thus was a typi… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Stanley, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Southern Attitudes Toward the West, 1783 to 1803

Description: This dissertation argues that the strong relationship that historians see between the South and West in the early 19th century, which allowed them to form what scholars have termed the Old South, had its origins in the twenty-year period after the American Revolution when a group of far-sighted southerners worked to form a political bond between the two regions. They did so by tirelessly defending the West and westerners against political and economic attacks, often from northerners but someti… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Zemler, Jeffrey Allen
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Art-Union and Photography, 1839-1854: The First Fifteen Years of Critical Engagement between Two Cultural Icons of Nineteenth-Century Britain

Description: This study analyzes how the Art-Union, a British journal interested only in the fine arts, approached photography between 1839 and 1854. It is informed by Karl Marx’s materialism-informed commodity fetishism, Gerry Beegan’s conception of knowingness, Benedict Anderson’s imagined community, and an art critical discourse that was defined by Roger de Piles and Joshua Reynolds. The individual chapters are each sites in which to examine these multiple theoretical approaches to the journal’s and phot… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Boetcher, Derek Nicholas
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Cosmology, Extraterrestrial Life, and the Development and Character of Western European Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Description: Cosmology, as an all-encompassing theoretical construction of universal reality, serves as one of the best indicators for a variety of philosophical, scientific, and cultural values. Within any cosmological system, the question of extraterrestrial life is an important element. Mere existence or nonexistence, however, only exposes a small portion of the ideological significance behind the contemplation of life outside of earth. The manners by which both believers and disbelievers justify thei… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Simpson, Emily
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Ruinous Pride: The Construction of the Scottish Military Identity, 1745-1918

Description: Following the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46 many Highlanders fought for the British Army in the Seven Years War and American Revolutionary War. Although these soldiers were primarily motivated by economic considerations, their experiences were romanticized after Waterloo and helped to create a new, unified Scottish martial identity. This militaristic narrative, reinforced throughout the nineteenth century, explains why Scots fought and died in disproportionately large numbers during the … more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Matheson, Calum Lister
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Beyond the Cabinet: Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Expansion of the National Security Adviser Position

Description: The argument illustrated in the thesis outlines Zbigniew Brzezinski’s ability to manipulate himself and his agenda to top priority as the national security advisor to President Carter. It further argues that Brzezinski deserves more blame for the failure of American foreign policy towards Iran; not President Carter. The sources include primary sources such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and President Jimmy Carter’s memoirs as well as information from President Carter’s library in Atlanta, Georgia. Seco… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: McLean, Erika
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Texas Confederate Home for Men, 1884-1970

Description: Founded in 1886 by a local veteran’s organization, the Texas Confederate Home for Men served thousands of veterans throughout its tenure. State-run beginning in 1891, the facility became the center of controversy multiple times, with allegations of mistreatment of residents, misappropriation of funds, and unsanitary conditions in the home. Despite these problems, for several decades the home effectively provided large numbers of needy veterans with a place where they could live out their remain… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Kirchenbauer, Amy Sue
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A Champion for the Chicano Community: Anita N. Martínez and Her Contributions to the City of Dallas, 1969-1973

Description: Much has been published in Chicano studies over the past thirty to forty years; lacking in the historiography are the roles that Chicanas have played, specifically concerning politics in Dallas, Texas. How were Chicanas able to advance El Movimiento (the Mexican American civil rights movement)? Anita Martínez was the first woman to serve on the Dallas City Council and the first Mexican American woman to be elected to the city council in any major U.S. city. She served on the council from 1969 t… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Cloer, Katherine Reguero
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Prison Productions: Textiles and Other Military Supplies from State Penitentiaries in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War

Description: This thesis examines the state penitentiaries of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas that became sources of wartime supplies during the Civil War. A shortage of industry in the southwest forced the Confederacy to use all manufactories efficiently. Penitentiary workshops and textile mills supplied a variety of cloth, wood, and iron products, but have received minimal attention in studies of logistics. Penitentiary textile mills became the largest domestic supplier of cloth to Confederate quartermaste… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Derbes, Brett J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Toward an Ecological Understanding of the Vendée: Old Myths and New Paradigms

Description: This work explores the motivations of the two major parties in the civil war in the Vendée from 1793 to 1796. It suggests that traditional understandings overemphasize simplistic notions of the idealistic crusade; the Revolutionaries fought for Republican ideals, while the locals fought to defend traditional Catholicism. This thesis suggests that the major motive for both sides was a fight for survival that was framed and expressed in political and religious terms rather than motivated by them.… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Strietelmeier, Paul
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District: A Case Study in Texas Groundwater Conservation

Description: This thesis examines the history of groundwater management through the development of groundwater conservation districts in Texas. Political, economic, ideological, and scientific understandings of groundwater and its regulation varied across the state, as did the natural resource types and quantities, which created a diverse and complicated position for lawmakers and landowners. Groundwater was consistently interpreted as a private property right and case law protected unrestricted use for the… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Teel, Katherine
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Fields and Armor: A Comparative Analysis of English Feudalism and Japanese Hokensei

Description: Fields and Armor is a comparative study of English feudalism from the Norman Conquest until the reign of King Henry II (1154-1189) and Japan’s first military government, the Kamakura Bakufu (1185- 1333). This thesis was designed to examine the validity of a European-Japanese comparison. Such comparisons have been attempted in the past. However, many historians on both sides of the equation have levied some serious criticism against these endeavors. In light, of these valid criticisms, t… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Garrison, Arthur Thomas
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The “Dallas Way” in the Gayborhood: The Creation of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community in Dallas, Texas, 1965-1986

Description: This thesis describes the creation of the gay and lesbian community in Dallas, the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States. Employing more than seventy-five sources, this work chronicles the important contributions the gay men and lesbians of Dallas have made in the struggle for gay civil rights. This thesis adds to the studies of gay and lesbian history by focusing on a region of the United States that has been underrepresented, the South. In addition, this work addresses the … more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Wisely, Karen S.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Martial Arts of Medieval Europe

Description: During the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, fighting books—Fechtbücher—were produced in northern Italy, among the German states, in Burgundy, and on the Iberian peninsula. Long dismissed by fencing historians as “rough and untutored,” and largely unknown to military historians, these enigmatic treatises offer important insights into the cultural realities for all three orders in medieval society: those who fought, those who prayed, and those who labored. The intent of this dissertatio… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Price, Brian R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Failed Bombing Offensive: A Reexamination Of The Combined Bomber Offensive In 1943

Description: For decades nations have debated how to successfully employ air power. In 1943 the United States and Great Britain launched a massive strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The two sides agreed to a flawed plan due to the fundamental differences on bombing doctrine. As a result, the campaign was fraught with issues that remained largely unresolved in 1943. Without a clearly defined plan, the Allies were unable to determine which commands or targets received priority throughout the offensi… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Truxal, Luke W.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A General Diffusion of Knowledge: Republican Efforts to Build a Public School System in Reconstruction Texas

Description: From the early days as a Spanish colony Texas attracted settlers with the promise of cheap fertile land. During the period of Mexican control the population of Texas increased and a desire for public education manifested among the people. Through the end of the Civil War government in Texas never provided an adequate means for educating the children of the region. Even when funds became available with the Compromise of 1850 the state only established a school fund to help offset the costs of ed… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Hathcock, James A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Skiddy Street: Prostitution and Vice in Denison, Texas, 1872-1922

Description: Prostitution was a rampant and thriving industry in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Texas. Due to the arrival of the M.K. and T. Railroad, the city of Denison became a frontier boomtown and prostitution as well as other vice elements grew alongside the town. Skiddy Street was one road south of Main Street in Denison and housed the most notorious brothels and saloons in the city. In the late nineteenth century, few national laws were present to regulate red-light districts and tho… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Bridges, Jennifer
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Economic Mobility into the Planter Class in Texas, 1846-1860

Description: This study examines upward economic mobility into the planter class in Texas during the antebellum statehood period, 1846-1860. Using quantitative methods to analyze data from census and tax records, this study addresses several questions regarding the property owning experience of Texas planters. Did any of the 1860 planters, men or women, rise to that status from another class? If so, how many rose from small slaveholder or small planter origins, and how many advanced from plain folk origins?… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Nelson, Robert Nicholas
Partner: UNT Libraries
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“Campaigns Replete with Instruction”: Garnet Wolseley’s Civil War Observations and Their Effect on British Senior Staff College Training Prior to the Great War

Description: This thesis addresses the importance of the American Civil War to nineteenth-century European military education, and its influence on British staff officer training prior to World War I. It focuses on Garnet Wolseley, a Civil War observer who eventually became Commander in Chief of the Forces of the British Army. In that position, he continued to write about the war he had observed a quarter-century earlier, and was instrumental in according the Civil War a key role in officer training. Ind… more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Cohen, Bruce D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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