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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

Classical Gynecology: A History of Unrealistic Expectations Defined by Realistic Sexism

Description: Ancient gynecology is a field with a large number of contradictions. Women were expected to have full awareness of their bodily functions but were not trusted as authoritative experts on the subject. In Rome, the majority of midwives were uneducated slave women, yet the expectations held for a proper midwife required formal education. The ability to give birth made women powerful in the eyes of the Greeks but was also used by Greek men (chiefly Athenians) as an excuse to oppress women. Studying… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Trammell, Dana
open access

Pierre Daru and the Professionalization of the French Bureaucracy during the French Revolution

Description: Far from the frontlines, the destiny of armies and generals has been considerably influenced by anonymous public servants working long hours behind a desk. On many occasions, these bureaucrats were the actual organizers of victory or the root cause of defeat. Count Pierre-Antoine Bruno Daru (1767-1829), Intendant Général de la Grande Armée, was one such man. The research concerns the critical nature of logistics and military administration in the performance of modern armies. It challenges the … more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Man, Abraham Claudio
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

From Juno to the Virgin of Guadalupe: Gender and Race in Colonial Mexico

Description: This thesis examines the changes Spain was forced to make toward their colonial patterns due to Nahua resistance. Each chapter assesses different periods during the colonial era, tracing how the Virgin of Guadalupe's meaning changed according to Spanish colonial needs.
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2024.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Garza, Jesus Mauricio

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.
open access

Restore, Reform, React, Revolt: Leopold II and the Risorgimento in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, 1814-1859

Description: The Risorgimento or "resurrection" of Italy united a collection of independent Italian kingdoms, duchies, and principalities under the auspices of the Piedmontese House of Savoy. No longer was Italy a mere expression géographique, as Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich snidely remarked in 1847, but a united nation state. Studies of the Risorgimento successfully highlight the role of famous Piedmontese and Italian nationalists in demonstrating the success of the movement. However, the sma… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Parkey, Rachel E.

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

The Austrian Army in the War of the Sixth Coalition: A Reassessment

Description: The Austrian army played a crucial role in Napoleon's decisive defeat during the War of the Sixth Coalition. Often considered a staid, hidebound institution, the army showed considerable adaptation in a time that witnessed a revolution in the art of war. In particular, changes made after defeat in the War of the Fifth Coalition demonstrate the modernity of the army. It embraced the key features of the new revolutionary way of war, including mass mobilization, a strategy of annihilation, and … more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Messman, Daniel M
open access

Testing the Narrative of Prussian Decline: 1778-1806

Description: The story of Prussia's defeat at the Battles of Jena and Auerstedt and subsequent reform has dominated the historiography of Napoleonic Prussia. While Napoleon has received the vast majority of historical attention, those who have written on Prussia have focused on the Prussian reform movement or the Prussian army's campaigns against Napoleon. These historians present the Prussian army before 1807 as an ossified relic, a hopelessly backward and rigid army commanded by a series of septuagenarian… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Soefje, Ethan K
open access

A Study of Conwy and Caernarvon Castles in Wales: A Colonial Reexamination of the Conquest of Wales, 1284

Description: King Edward I of England's castle building program in Wales from 1282 to 1295 provides a unique event that can be studied in further detail. Edward's castle building program turns the conquest of Wales into an early example of what future English colonization would become. By examining the building of Conwy and Caernarvon in Wales and the accompanying social programs we are better able to understand how the English viewed conquest and colonization. The conquest spent approximately £35,000 on th… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Liberty, Samuel Joseph
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-
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
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