John Dwyer (1856-1934) was a London docks foreman who emigrated to Australia in 1888. Leaving his London employment on his 'own accord', Dwyer embarked upon a quest for recognition - recognition of his rights as a worker and his identity as an individual. Dwyer and his family arrived in New South Wales to be greeted by the economic depression of the 1890s, and state and employer mobilisation against organised labour and working class radicals. Dwyer was soon reduced to scraping together a living as a boarding house manager in Sydney's poorest districts, as he helped organise the Active Service Brigade, which agitated on behalf of the unemployed. Dwyer's surviving papers - twenty-one boxes of correspondence, manuscripts, minutes, handbills, tracts and newspaper clippings, plus several other volumes - document the life of a working class political radical and autodidact who embraced temperance, and who was fascinated by new ideas in religion and science - Darwinism, Theosophy and occult spiritualism. This thesis places Dwyer in the context of the intense ideological ferment of new ideas in politics, theology and science that characterised the period 1890-1914. Ideas that aggressively challenged the old certainties, and which Dwyer embraced in his project to 'change the face of the world.' Changing the world contested with the need to endure its conditions. Theosophy and temperance appealed to Dwyer's notion of duty, and an instinct to rationalise the social and economic roles he seemed unable to escape. The fragmented nature of his papers, and stop-start bursts of public activism - in politics, theosophy and temperance - reflect the tension between an urge to fight, to understand, to create - struggling against the daily demands of making a living and feeding a family. The thesis explores Dwyer's relationship with fellow radicals and workers, the labour movement and members of Sydney's social and political elite - men and women who shared and contested with his vision. Dwyer's complex and at times apparently contradictory values can be found amongst radicals and labourites alike - for example, William Lane, W.G. Spence and Bernard O'Dowd. Nor was Dywer's interest in theosophy or the occult as unusual as it might seem to modern readers. Dwyer's papers provide important insights into dilemmas that have challenged historians: the problem of alienation, the role of the individual in the historical process, the nature of working class radicalism. Issues often analysed in theoretically abstract terms, or at a broad level of historical inquiry, across a national or class-wide scale. Broad analyses of social forces or ideologies tend to distort their historical impact and meaning, failing to capture the complex relationship of phenomena such as class or ideology with individual experience. Working from Dwyer's experience, this thesis argues that it is possible to build a complex picture of working class life in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia.

Irish-born Sir John Winthrop Hackett (1848-1916) achieved substantial political and social standing in Western Australia through his editorship and part-ownership of the West Australian newspaper, his position as a Legislative Council member and as a layman in the Anglican Church. The thesis illustrates his strong commitment to numerous undertakings, including his major role in the establishment of Western Australia's first University. This thesis will argue that whatever Hackett attempted to achieve in Western Australia, his philosophy can be attributed to his Irish Protestant background including his student days at Trinity College Dublin. After arriving in Australia in 1875 and teaching at Trinity College Melbourne until 1882, his ambitions took him to Western Australia where he aspired to be accepted and recognised by the local establishment. He was determined that his achievements would not only be acknowledged by his contemporaries, but also just as importantly be remembered in posterity. After a failed attempt to run a sheep station, he found success as part-owner and editor of the West Australian newspaper. Outside of his business interests, Hackett’s commitment to the Anglican Church was unflagging. At the same time, he was instrumental in bringing about the abolition of state aid to church schools in Western Australia, which he saw as advantaging the Roman Catholic Church. He was a Legislative Council member for 25 years during which time he used his editorship of the West Australian, to campaign successfully on a number of social, industrial and economic issues ranging from divorce reform to the provision of economic infrastructure. As a delegate to the National Australasian Conventions he continually strove to improve the conditions under which Western Australia would join Federation. His crowning achievement was to establish the state’s first university, which he also generously provided for in his will. One of the most influential men in Western Australian history, his career epitomised the energy and ambition of the well-educated immigrant.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-346). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1948. / Typescript. Title from title screen (viewed Nov. 8, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-137). Online version of the print original.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--La Trobe University, 2004. / Research. "A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, [to the] School of European and Historical Studies, Faculty of Humanities, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-197). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-110). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, March, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of History, June 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iii, 152 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-152).

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Mikhail Tsypkin, Hans-Eberhard Peters. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-58). Also available online.