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This thesis begins by situating the work of Walter Benjamin in its historical complexity and examining the conceptual underpinnings of his phantasmagoria. Benjamin's Arcades Project is considered in light of his attempts to resituate primary structuring dichotomies in a fluid and dynamic configuration. These dichotomies include the political and the apolitical, the material and the immaterial, and the past and the present. The phantasmagoria-as-metaphor is then employed as a methodological framework for analyzing the ever-circulating images of John F. Kennedy. / This thesis is primarily concerned with the conceptual tools necessary to argue that an image is more "real" than its real-life counterpart, that is, real enough to carry resonances that extend beyond both its diminutive "artifice", and its original context. The relations between the immaterial image and its material referent are discussed as complementary and shifting, rather than oppositional and static. This thesis explores the possible and the actual convergence of the image and its material counterparts.

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Reading of the poetics of Beppe Fenoglio in relation to the philosophical and religious systems of the ancient Celts, a people who dominated the territory of Piedmont from the IV century BC to the I century AD. / A brief explanation of the history of Piedmont from prehistoric times, through Ligurian and Celtic domination, to Roman conquest and the consequent partial romanization of the territory will introduce the subject. / Certain aspects of the religion of the Celts, as described both by classical authors and modern scholars, will be examined in the context of beliefs, customs, and traditions of modern rural Piedmont using interviews (See Appendix ) conducted in Beppe Fenoglio's homeland, the Langhe. / Rural Piedmontese traditions and beliefs will be identified in the works of Fenoglio, particularly in Il partigiano Johnny and La malora, in order to describe the nexus that ties the concept of nature and the view of life and death expressed in the works with the naturalism of the ancient Celts.

This study examines the use of graduated escalation in Vietnam under the Administration of President Lyndon Johnson and attempts to discover the underlying causes that led to the enactment and the continuation of this policy throughout his administration.Factors studied include Johnson's perception of his place in history, his personal style of control, his dual loyalties to expanding "The Great Society" as well as stopping communism through military pressure, and his limited cultural understanding of the needs of the Vietnamese people and the intentions of their leaders.The conclusion is that, while Johnson was a canny politician in his own arena, his controlling personality probably prevented him from considering all of the options open to him in resolving the Vietnam problem and his simplistic, frontier type of diplomacy closed other doors and forced him along a path of frustration and defeat. / Department of Political Science

In the mid-1960's, the American people were gripped by a certain nameless fear brought on by America's military failure in Viet Nam, racial tension, student unrest, crumbling cities, and the nuclear arms race. This fear caused many to turn to a new conservatism, for the Democratic Party, symbolized by Lyndon Johnson, seemed to be the cause of many of these frightening problems. The Democrats were believed to be responsible for Viet Nam, for the growing racial confrontations, and for the overgrowing federal bureaucracy. This new conservatism benefited the Republican Party, and between 1964 and 1968, this party became ascendant. Throughout American history, a realignment of party identification has occurred every thirty to thirty-five years, and now the time was ripe. This thesis attempts to prove that there was a realignment in the partisan identifications of the electorate's support for the two parties, and that in the last half of the past decade realignment did take place.