This thesis aims to test the assumption that Progressive Era social reform was a product of "a generation" of reformers. It applies theoretical formulations advanced by socialists and historians, to a specific group of women progressive social reformers who have been characterised as a generation in a fashion common to the treatment of generations in the historiography on progressivism in general. The working hypothesis is that the concept of generation has no meaningful application to the period and has simply been used for rhetorical and literary effect by commentators within and following the Progressive Era. The methodology adopted consists of the following: the selection of a "prime generation candidate" i.e. a tight homogeneous grouping of reformers, of the same sex, roughly the same age, bound together by a dense interlocking network of agencies and institutions, and portrayed as members of a "progressive generation" by historians; the application to this group of generational criteria established by theorists: the subsequent examination of the limitations of the generational criteria to explain important aspects of the individual members' motivation, similarities, differences, decisions, preferences and actions. Chapter one surveys the use of the concept of "generation" by historians of the Progressive Era, and examines theoretical formulations of the concept of "generation" that have been advanced by social scientists and historians; the object being to establish that a "generational question" does indeed loom over Progressive Era social reform and over women's social reform in particular. In chapter two the sample of women social reformers to whom these theoretical formulations are to be applied is selected and the criteria on which the selection is made is justified.

Typically, historians have written about the US-PRC rapprochement of 1972 as a policy that was predicated on a geopolitical balance-of-power approach and conceived, developed, and executed during the first Nixon administration (1969-72). This dissertation examines the evolution and development of US China policy during the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and suggests that Nixon's two immediate predecessors laid significant foundations for rapprochement. Although no dramatic policy changes occurred between1961 and 1963, a significant process of debate and rethinking about the People's Republic of China did take place and the desirability and necessity of a China policy departure gained increased acceptance among US policymakers during the Kennedy administration. This continued during the Johnson administration and by 1966 "revisionist" officials had persuaded the President to authorise a series of rhetorical and small changes to US policy. At the same time, political figures in Congress, the business community, and public opinion poll data indicated that the administration's efforts to reduce Sino-American tensions had wide support. A large number of policy proposals to establish contact and communication were ready for implementation once the Chinese signalled their readiness to respond the American actions. At the beginning of 1969, the time appeared to be ripe for change in the US-PRC relationship as the Vietnam peace talks began and the Cultural Revolution was toned down. The chapters on Nixon focus on the important continuities between the policies developed in the Kennedy-Johnson years and those implemented by Nixon. They outline and analyse the steps that the United States and the PCR undertook during the transitional phase of Sino-American relations between 1969 and 1971, which climaxed in Henry Kissinger's secret flight to Beijing in July 1971. Thereafter, the dissertation explains and assesses the Nixon administration's aims and objectives of the Kissinger trip, the substance and implications of the Kissinger-Zhou conversations for the short- and long-term development of US China policy and US-PRC relations.

The transition of activism in the late 1960s from a non-violent, citizenship-based appeal for Civil Rights to a Nationalist, potentially violent call for revolution, marked a shift to a more radical and confrontational politics of social change. Hidden in this history are the narratives of women’s participation which dramatically revise the current historical record in these ground-breaking social movements. During this period, women and men organised for social change, often around identity-based issues, and challenged the status quo. This work examines two organisations which emerged in the late sixties as vanguards of an era defined by the self-determined chants of ‘black and red power’, a time of social and political rebellion against the leaders of the waning Civil Rights movement and an increasingly repressive government. This thesis seeks to foreground the hitherto unknown involvement of women in male-identified organisations such as the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. It will highlight previously untold stories of key women activists in these two organisations. Not only will it demonstrate that women comprised a majority of the participants, but also that they performed all manner of functions ranging from high-level negotiations to meal preparation. Contemporary coverage of both organisations in the media obscured such involvement. The majority of the groups that defined themselves as revolutionary or radical were unable to deal with issues of gender inequality within their ranks. Many of these groups espoused a rhetorical philosophy of equality yet they were frequently unable to match such ideals in practice. This was certainly the case for the BPP and AIM. By equating liberation with manhood, women in these groups found themselves not only struggling for the cause but also competing with oppressive notions of masculinity. Women’s liberationists failed to offer any common cause, focusing on race-specific issues and advocating the separation of sexes which alienated women of color.

In the sixteen century, New Granada (modern Colombia) attracted more European settlers than any region of Central America and, with the exception of Peru, more than any part of the mainland South America. This dissertation is the story of the first one hundred years of Spanish rule in the Province of Tunja in Colombia's Eastern Highlands, a period that in many ways was dominated by attempts to establish and maintain control over the region's most valuable resource, its people. And it is they who are the main subject of this work, how they responded and reacted to the various challenges and opportunities under Spanish rule, how their society changed, and how they helped influence the historical development of the province. It is a story of resistance and alliances, successes and failures, and change and continuity. As such, the main purpose of this study is to examine Tunja's Indian peoples as active participants in the evolution of colonial society, not simply as passive "objects" of colonial rule. It is based primarily on archival material from the Archivo General de Indians in Seville Spain, the Archivo General de la Nación in Santa Fe de Bogota, Colombia, and the Archivo Regional de Boyaca in Tunja, Colombia. The arrival of the Spaniards ushered in a series of fundamental changes to the inhabitants of Tunja. But for those who survived the steady onslaught of deadly diseases, the transformation of colonial society was a gradual process, and did not always follow along the path envisioned by Spanish officials, <I>encomenderos</I> or priests. Furthermore, it was a transformation in which the Indians themselves played an active, and one might argue, more significant role.

The dissertation is a cultural and intellectual study of anticommunism in the United States before the Cold War. The thesis comprises two cases studies, one examining early efforts to uncover Soviet agents operating in the United States, the other looking at varieties of anticommunism in the city of Detroit, examined through print, radio, and in art and architecture. The first case study examines interwar efforts to expose Soviet espionage activities. In order to support the American policy of non-recognition towards Soviet Russia (before 1933), to attack the Roosevelt government for recognising Russia (after 1933), and to lobby for a substantial enlargement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, anticommunists undertook a series of private efforts to expose Soviet espionage activities in America, almost all of which relied upon forged, libellous and sometimes defamatory material. The thesis looks at accusations made against progressive US Senators, and Russian Amtorg Trading Corporation and allegations regarding supposed Russian espionage networks operating in the United States. It addresses the impact these false claims had upon the anticommunist movement in the United States in the 1930s and beyond. The second case study, a social, cultural and intellectual examination of currents of anticommunist thought in Detroit in the interwar period, seeks to examine the interaction of conflicting interpretation of the Communist menace, in traditional venues for the advocacy of programmatic action (the press, the pulpit, and the political sphere), and in cultural venues, such as architecture, aesthetics, personal philosophy and social behaviour. Structured around an examination of the personal fiefdom set up by industrial Henry Ford after the then of the First World War, this section discuses currents of anticommunist thought in business, labour, and the churches, and argues that the depression encouraged a significant reformulation of anticommunism along largely national and liberal lines.

This dissertation analyses the development of slave laws in Louisiana from 1724 to 1834 and focuses on the factors that influenced the development of slave laws under French and Spanish colonial rule, and United States jurisdiction. This period represents the promulgation of the first slave code for French Louisiana during the frontier period when slavery was in its nascent stages, up to when Louisiana had already become one of the leaders in the consolidation of slavery in the South, at the very time abolitionists were adopting a more aggressive anti-slavery approach. Louisiana experienced important economic and social changes towards the end of the Spanish colonial period. These changes were in part responsible for the rebirth of slavery in the South. Socio-economic changes are used to illustrate that, while laws retain much of their heritage and foundation, they also respond to, and develop in accordance with other changes in the society. Louisiana’s civil law tradition, as opposed to English common law, has traditionally been used to characterise Louisiana’s slavery as benign and humane. My study seeks to refute this notion and concludes that any harshness in slave laws after 1803 was related more to the socio-economic development of territory, than to United States rule, and extension English common law. Chapter one examines the promulgation of the first slave law for the Louisiana territory and examines the changes that took place in French slave laws through a comparative analysis of the 1685 French Caribbean slave code with the 1724 Louisiana <i>code noir</i>. In a brief review, the general role of the catholic church in the development of slave laws in early French colonial Louisiana is examined. The second chapter examines the evolution of slave laws under Spanish colonial rule and the socio-economic conditions that brought about these changes. Chapter three traces the development of the law under the United States administration from 1803 to 1834 and examines the changes that took place from the time of the French and throughout Spanish rule. Protective laws and their role in Louisiana slave society are examined under the three regimes. This study deals specifically with the laws themselves as promulgated, and not with their practical administration.

The dissertation examines the development of labour organisation during a period of transition from a tradition of mutualism to one of trades unionism. The transition took place against a largely unfavourable economic background and in the context of considerable political upheavals associated with the fall of the 'Republica Aristocratica', the establishment of the dictatorship of Leguia, and the rise of Peru's first avowedly left-wing political parties. The essay begins with an examination of the response of labour organisations to a period of sharp price inflation between 1915 and 1919. The decline of the mutual-aid societies and the influence of the anarcho-syndicalists, students and socialists upon the formation of trades unions during the early 'twenties are discussed in detail. Since the State was so frequently drawn into industrial conflicts, its approach to labour problems comprises one of the central themes of the essay. The principal aim of the essay is to examine patterns of organisation and political behaviour established during the 'twenties and their influence during the political crisis of 1930/1. It is the central concern of the second half of the essay, therefore, to examine the significance of the foundation in the late 'twenties of APRA and the Peruvian Socialist Party (later the Peruvian Communist Party), both of which sought to articulate the interests of the working class but from markedly different perspectives. The question of relations with workers in the provinces receives relatively little attention since contacts of any substance or significance were rarely made. Traditions of organisation and behaviour established in Lima reflected conditions peculiar to the capital. In 1931, those traditions were largely incompatible with the political trajectories of both APRA and the PCP.

The dissertation attempts to identify the rationales behind the policy selections made by U.S. presidents in the early phases of their presidency and to identify common themes among those rationales. Specifically, the study attempts to identify the reasons behind the initial domestic policy choices of John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan during their transition periods and the first one hundred days of their administration. The four case studies are based upon materials drawn from the appropriate presidential libraries in the United States and interviews with administration participants. Each study approaches presidential choices in a similar manner, looking at presidential ideology, the political conditions of the incoming chief executive, political strategies, the structure of administration and mechanisms of programme design. The case studies also include specific policy studies over the transition and honeymoon periods to explain the motivations behind particular legislative proposals. The dissertation provides new interpretations of each president's early actions. Particularly, Nixon is shown to have had an initial domestic agenda before the announcement of welfare reform in August 1969, and Carter and his staff are revealed to have focused initially on a narrow domestic agenda in 1977. Overall, the dissertation concludes that presidents work within a framework set by institutional and policy contexts. Presidents plan how to pursue their goals within these contexts, setting a series of policy and non-policy goals which agglomerate into strategies. Presidential policy selections can only be understood when they are seen to be made within parameters set by these wider strategic decisions. The administrative process of policy planning then functions to reconcile strategy and public policy. Policy specialists and political strategists approach the policy-making process with differing needs, and together attempt to identify policy compromises suited to both of those sets of needs.

Ethiopia, seen as the most important nation in the Horn strategically, broke its ties with the United States in 1977 and formed an alliance with the Soviet Union. With the USSR already firmly ensconced in Ethiopia's neighbour, Somalia, the potential existed for an expansion of the communist sphere of influence. However, Jimmy Carter, determined to emphasise issues such as regionalism and human rights in his foreign policy rather than traditional Cold War and East-West concerns, ignored the Soviet presence in the Horn and condemned the government-sponsored violence in Ethiopia. He applied the same principles when the Somali leader, Mohammed Siad Barré, launched an attack on neighbouring Ethiopia, hoping to annex the Somali-inhabited Ogaden. Despite Soviet and Cuban support for Ethiopia, Carter insisted that the United States remain neutral, refused to support Somalia in its territorial quest, and called for a negotiated solution to the war. However, the early success enjoyed by the Carter administration in basing policy towards Ethiopia and Somalia on regionalism and human rights did not continue. From 1979, both the rhetoric and policies of the administration began to emphasise American national security within a Cold War perspective, with a corresponding deprioritisation of human rights and regionalism in policy formulation. The Ethiopian alliance with the Soviet Union became increasingly unacceptable, and by 1980 both military and economic aid had been terminated, and the American ambassador recalled. The administration also decided that an American military presence was necessary in the Horn to counter the presence of the USSR in Ethiopia. Having previously refused to form an alliance with Somalia because of Siad's violations of human rights and international law, in August 1980 the United States reached an agreement for the use of Somali military facilities in return for American aid. By the end of the Carter administration, the Horn of Africa had become a microcosm of the Cold War, with the Soviets and Cubans in Ethiopia and the Americans supporting Somalia. It appeared that national security concerns had taken precedence over issues of human rights, and globalism had triumphed over regionalism.

No description available.