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<p>This dissertation compares four programs to create equal employment opportunity on the trans Alaska oil pipeline construction project in order to demonstrate the ruptures and continuities between manpower programs to end poverty and affirmative action to eradicate race and sex discrimination. These four programs posited different subjects and strategies for equal employment opportunity, including a statewide affirmative action plan supporting minority men in the construction industry, federal hiring goals for Alaska Natives, a state "Local Hire" law establishing hiring preference for residents of Alaska, and corporate affirmative action plans for women and minorities. I use archival records and original oral histories with pipeline employees to examine the methods government officials and agencies, corporations, trade unions, social movements, and nongovernmental organizations used to fulfill their visions of equality in employment on the 800-mile long, $8 billion pipeline project. I bridge the gender history of welfare with the history of civil rights in order to show how liberal ideals of economic citizenship in the late 1960s that prioritized creating male workers and breadwinners served as the foundational impetus for equal employment opportunity. I challenge the standard historical narrative of equal employment opportunity in the US, which has attributed affirmative action for women to a logical, if hard won, expansion of positive liberal rights first demanded by the black civil rights struggle, then legislated by the state and implemented by state bureaucrats and corporate personnel. What this narrative does not account for is how the gendered dimensions of liberalism underlying affirmative action for male minorities were able to so abruptly accommodate women as workers and economic citizens by the mid-1970s. I find that, over the course of construction of the pipeline, women in nontraditional jobs on the "Last Frontier" emerged as symbols of the success of equal employment opportunity and the legitimacy of American exceptionalism.</p> / Dissertation

This qualitative study addresses teacher perceptions of indigenous peoples representation in United States history. This phenomenological study was conducted within a school district in East Tennessee. For the purpose of this study, teacher perceptions of indigenous representations in history were defined as teacher beliefs towards the inclusion and representation of indigenous peoples in United States history. To gather data, both one-on-one and focus group interviews were conducted from a purposeful sample of United States history teachers from the high schools in the school district. Through an analysis of data derived from interviews and qualitative documents the researcher was able to identify themes such as systemic challenges to multiculturalism within state course standards and textbooks, teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching their students using indigenous perspectives, and the perpetuation of indigenous stereotypes. Furthermore, the qualitative data derived from the study reveals that U.S. history courses in the district perpetuate both the notion of indigenous peoples as historical bystanders and the racial stereotypes of Native Americans. Findings from this study will be useful in evaluating both teacher training and instructional practice in regard to indigenous representations in history.

The situation in the U.S. domestic politics has by media been presented that large groups of citizens are divided in the political arena. Today many scholars in the field of international relations tend to describe the political climate in the United States, between democrats and republicans as polarized and towards confrontation. The ongoing situation has heavily escalated due to the fact of the Trump administrations incapability to restore former order in the political system. This makes it easy for radical political groups to follow an agenda which has helped to create a favourable breeding ground for escalating violence, which currently raising large-scale concerns among senior executives, media and citizens. The aim of this thesis is therefore to introduce a perspective that could offer a complementary understanding of some identified elements that affects the current political situation. By using Ty Solomons theoretical framework of emotions this study seeks to identify the fundamental elements of Master signifiers in political contexts. A use of this theory can be a helpful tool for political leaders, when trying to restore balance and unifying people for a common political cause.

Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study seeks to illustrate how Donald Trump’s Inauguration Address incorporates elements of power which are embedded in various forms of American exceptionalism. Since the American myth of exceptionalism does not necessarily reveal itself at first glance, this thesis traces its variety of roots back in American history. By doing so, it explains how this myth emerged, how it became infused with power and how Trump’s rhetoric keeps it alive. The theoretical framework of this study is built on Michel Foucault’s writing on power and van Dijk’s concept of ideology. In addition, this study introduces the idea of legitimising myths in the context of Social Dominance Theory to highlight the effect ideologies have on societies. This thesis finds that some references to American exceptionalism in Trump’s speech can be attributed to the Colonial era. More specifically, Trump’s call for social cohesion, his allusions to predestination, his image of civilisation and his language on American labour bear close resemblance to Puritan discourses. Further, the theme of nationalism and limited government run through his speech, both of which are integral to American history and the myth of exceptionalism. In line with the general goals of CDA, this study exemplifies how ideologically charged language needs to be contextualised socio-historically to expose its relationship with power.

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This project examines the foreign policy rhetoric of Bill Clinton in the post-Cold War world. My reading of Clinton’s rhetoric reveals that a change/order binary underwrote his oratory. Clinton defined change as being the underlying guidepost of the post-Cold War international setting. Order was defined through how he could guide, shape, direct, and manage American foreign policy in a sea of change, represented through his use of what I call America’s foreign policy vocabulary. This lexicon is based on three rhetorical components—the definitions of America’s role in the world, identification of the enemies we face, and the grand strategy we use to achieve American interest—have been a resource for presidential foreign policy discourse since America’s founding. Clinton’s use of this vocabulary maintained continuity in its use with his predecessors, but he also modified it in key ways to deal with the changes of the global environment. These modifications positioned Clinton to direct and manage the change to serve American interests which offered a semblance of order for American foreign policy in a sea of international disorder.

abstract: The historiography of the Vietnam War's effect on American society and culture often focuses on the public image of its veterans. Historians and other scholars credit liberal and apolitical Vietnam veterans for reshaping Americans' opinions of those who served. These men deserve significant recognition for these changes; however, historians consistently overlook another aspect this topic. Conservative Republicans in the mid-1970s through the early 1990s made a concerted effort to alter how Americans viewed Vietnam veterans and their performance in the conflict. The few scholars who have examined this issue suggest conservatives wanted to quell Americans' distaste for military endeavors after the loss in Southeast Asia, a concept known as the Vietnam Syndrome. This dissertation argues conservatives' efforts were more complex than simply wanting to break down the syndrome. The war and its loss threatened their understandings of the exceptional nature of the United States. This notion of exceptionalism stemmed from the immense success of the country territorially, economically, and in the international system, accomplishments realized with the assistance of the American military. The performance of the military establishment and its soldiers in the Vietnam War and the negative international and domestic opinions of the country in the wake of this loss threatened those elements of American success that conservatives viewed as imperative to maintaining the idea of exceptionalism and the power of the United States. As a result, a disparate group of conservative Republicans in the post-Vietnam era attempted to alter American understandings of the nation's martial tradition and the concept of martial masculinity, both ravaged by the war. This dissertation adds another layer to the historiography of the effects of the Vietnam War by arguing that conservatives not only shored up Americans' belief in the martial tradition and reshaped the definition of martial masculinity, but that they also significantly influenced Americans' newfound positive opinions of Vietnam veterans. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2014

Image of religion in Bioshock: Infinite computer game Master's thesis - Bc.Jiří Kothera Few mainstream computer games have caused such controversy as Bioshock: Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013). The third installment of the Bioshock series is set in the fictional city of Columbia in an alternate history of early twentieth century, which at first glance appears to be a perfect social utopia. After a while, however, the narrative begins to uncover the multilayered problems of society oppressed by a fraction of the white elite and religious fanaticism embodied by the character of Z.H.Comstock, the charismatic leader of the whole community. The popularity of the game and its stable position at the top of the various popularity charts are not only due to the attractive audiovisual processing and complex game mechanics. It is primarily a story that uses (for a mass audience product) an unprecedented amount of religious symbolism - especially Christian, historical references, polysemic story elements and the story based on the concepts of Frontier myth and American exceptionalism. This work deals with the analysis of narrative and religious-social phenomena appearing in the game, especially those that are directly related to the religious and nationalistic topics in the United States.