Since the introduction of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the United States has maintained a sphere of influence in Latin America. This hegemony has yielded beneficial results, such as the Panama Canal, and at times, has caused more harm than good. The later result has been the dominant outcome beginning with 1954 and the Central Intelligence Agency's foray into Guatemala. U.S. foreign policy has enabled or sanctioned actions resulting in human rights abuses. This can be easily viewed through the Reagan Administration's re-ignition of Cold War politics based on realist international relations theory This particular foreign policy blueprint is based on one geo-political thought: Communist Rollback. Due to this, other concerns, such as human rights, were relegated to a lesser priority. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the extent to which U.S. foreign policy undermined human rights in Central America during the decade of the Reagan Administration. By understanding the effects of Reagan's singular focus, this thesis seeks to bring clarity to the deficiencies of current or potentially future foreign policy models. To understand the impact of U.S. foreign policy this thesis will explore three key case countries: Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. These crossroads of policy between the Reagan Administration and their Central American counterparts will dictate decisions made publicly and secretly that will be the impetus of human rights abuses that are still being uncovered thirty years later. What we will discover is that, ultimately, containment policy failed to slow socialism as an alternative to capitalism and democracy in some of these states at the expense of the human rights of native citizens. / Master of Arts / This study was conducted with the purpose of evaluating the effects of U.S. Foreign Policy upon human rights in Central America during the 1980s. The study first reviews both the Carter and Reagan Administrations' formulation of foreign policy in regard to Central America and Communist expansion. The methodology used to explore this topic is a historical review of events in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The importance of such a study is to ascertain whether a single-issue foreign policy focus can negatively impact the rights of ordinary citizens. By understanding how foreign policy is created and executed in this manner can bring accountability and transparency for the consequences that follow such a strategy.

This study examines the socioeconomic lives of artisans of German descent who worked within Wythe County, Virginia from 1780 to 1830. It is particularly concerned with how a distinct German-American culture manifests over time as seen through these artisans' produced materials and structures. This thesis traces this manifestation through a careful examination of Wythe material culture, wills, probates, inventories, court records, account books, receipts, invoices, census records, personal correspondence, and personal property tax assessments. Scholars of early America and the southern backcountry have often narrated German cultural identity transformations along the lines of language and marriages. This work diverts from those tendencies, thereby complicating prior understanding of German-Americans settlement and development patterns in early America. Beginning in the 1780s entire German families, neighborhoods, and communities left their prior American homes and settled within a relatively unsettled area of southwest Virginia. These predominately second-generation German descendants brought with them to the backcountry a culturally-constructed material culture lexicon passed onto them by their ancestors. This thesis argues that artisans of Wythe County operated as major agents of economic and social development while also providing a hybridized cultural resource for their neighbors and surrounding Great Road communities. These German families and congregations, composed of farmers, hausfrauen (housekeepers), and craftsmen by trade, sought to maintain a familiar and distinct cultural landscape and ethos through the many wares and structures they produced. These German neighborhoods accommodated and diversified their trades to fit within a burgeoning early-American society while still aware of their predominately German community's cultural character and needs. / Master of Arts

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jan. 19, 2010). "Program in American Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-109).

Thesis (LL. M.)--University of Manitoba, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Vanderbilt University, 1934. / Without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 128-131.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2002. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 448-464). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ75206.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 414-447).

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