This thesis explores the debates surrounding the status of Cherokee freedpeople in the final four decades of the nineteenth century. Despite being granted full citizenship in the 1866 Reconstruction Treaty signed by the United States and the Cherokee Nation in 1866, the nature of these rights remained constantly under debate as the Cherokee Nation attempted to limit their obligation to freedpeople. In contrast, the federal government insisted freedpeople and their descendants be awarded the full rights of Cherokee citizens. Repeated federal intervention on behalf of Cherokee freedpeople led to jurisdictional disputes and tensions between the two nations as the Cherokee Nation insisted that they held final authority over the boundaries of its citizenry and the nature of citizenship awarded to freedpeople. Scholars have questioned the apparent polarity between the equal rights of freedmen and Cherokee sovereignty and, in 2013, Barbara Krauthamer identified the necessity of exploring how these two concerns became constructed as oppositional. In the twenty-first century, high profile legal battles over the exclusion of individuals descended from freedpeople from the Cherokee Nation have highlighted the lasting importance of this issue. This thesis builds on previous research by reconsidering how Cherokee freedpeople pushed for full and equal inclusion in the forty years following their emancipation. It argues that Cherokee freedpeople were not pawns in the disputes between the Cherokee Nation and the United States. Instead, freedpeople were active agents who exploited the differing interpretations of citizenship held by Cherokee and federal officials to secure their own interests. Furthermore, this thesis argues that the federal government only supported Cherokee freedpeople when it served their larger agenda of damaging the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation.

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This thesis investigates socialist ideas of race and ethnicity in the US during the Gilded Age. By charting the attempts of the Socialist Labor Party to defend the economic and social rights of racial minorities such as African Americans, Chinese immigrants, and Native Americans, it explores the tension between the struggle for class emancipation on the one hand and the demand for racial equality on the other. Focusing on a group of little-investigated newspaper sources, in many cases involving new translations from German-language local socialist press, this thesis challenges the idea held by many historians of American radicalism that late-nineteenth century socialists were apparently uninterested in race. On the contrary, American socialists of the Gilded Age actively engaged with the specific interracial and inter-ethnic composition of the US working class. Applying both methods of institutional and intellectual history, this thesis argues that the Socialist Labor Party between 1876-1899 was divided into two main areas of opinion: the first, defined in this work as “colour-blind internationalist,” held that class solidarity – rather than race and ethnicity – should be used to unite workers and fight for their rights. The second, here termed “scientific racialist,” used a variety of intellectual approaches, which spanned from pseudo-scientific theories of race to Darwinism and anthropology, to demonstrate the existence of a hierarchy of human groups with different levels of physical, cultural, and social development. From the late 1870s to the end of the 1880s the scientific racialist position was prominent in the Socialist Labor Party, but was contested by colour-blind assertions. Indeed, when Daniel De Leon became the party’s leader in the 1890s, he imposed colour-blind socialism as the sole approach. This moved American socialism away from anti-egalitarian outlooks, but created a blind spot in which socialists stopped recognising race as a key element that shaped the social dynamics of the country – a situation that made it hard for them to successfully implement anti-racist policies. This, in turn, helps to explain the relative historic weakness of socialism in the US.

This thesis examines the relationship between Henry George and the Irish on both sides of the Atlantic and, detailing the ideological interaction between George’s republicanism and Irish nationalism, argues that his uneven appeal reveals the contours of the construction of Gilded Age Irish-America. The work assesses the functionality and operation, in both Ireland and the US, of Irish culture as a dynamic but discordant friction within the Anglophone world. Ireland’s unique geopolitical position and its religious constitution nurtured an agrarianism that shared its intellectual roots with American republicanism. This study details how the crisis of Irish land invigorated both traditions as an effective oppositional culture to the processes of modernity. The Land War placed Ireland at the centre of a briefly luminous political upheaval that extended far beyond its own shores and positioned the country as a site of ideological conflict at a critical juncture in the history of political thought. Irish nationalism helped to perpetuate a specific aggregation of moral and economic principles, and, in equating British imperial force with the worst depredations of capital, Irish-Americans tapped into a powerful seam in American political culture that universalised the struggle of the Irish tenant farmers. Just as many contemporaries framed Irish politics with the ideals of the American republic, this thesis argues that Irish politics during the Land War, ever more interdependent on its diaspora, is better understood in relation to American political discourse than British.

Widespread popular fascination with America, and an appreciation of American culture, was not introduced by Hollywood cinema during the early decades of the 20th century, but emerged during the late-Victorian period and was driven by the popular press. By the 1880s, newspaper audiences throughout the country were consuming fragments of American life and culture on an almost daily basis. Under the impulses of the so-called ‘new journalism’, representations of America appeared regularly within an eclectic range of journalistic genres, including serialised fiction, news reports, editorials, humour columns, tit-bits, and travelogues. Forms of American popular culture – such as newspaper gags – circulated throughout Britain and enjoyed a sustained presence in bestselling papers. These imported texts also acted as vessels for the importation of other elements of American culture such as the country’s distinctive slang and dialects. This thesis argues that the late-Victorian popular press acted as the first major ‘contact zone’ between America and the British public. Chapter One tracks the growing presence of America in the Victorian press. In particular, it highlights how the expansion of the popular press, the widespread adoption of ‘scissors-and-paste’ journalism, the development of transatlantic communications networks and technologies, and a growing curiosity about life in America combined to facilitate new forms of Anglo-American cultural exchange. Chapter Two explores how the press shaped British encounters with American modernity and created a pervasive sense of a coming ‘American future’. Chapter Three focuses on the importation, circulation, and reception of American newspaper humour. Finally, Chapter Four unpacks the role played by the press in the importation, circulation, and assimilation of American slang. It makes an original contribution to a number of academic disciplines and debates. Firstly, it challenges the established chronology of Anglo-American history; America gained a significant foothold in British popular culture long before the twentieth century. Moreover, this was not a result of a forcible American ‘invasion’ but a form of voluntary transatlantic exchange driven by the tastes and desires of British newspaper readers. Secondly, it argues that America’s presence in late-Victorian popular culture has been underestimated by historians who have focused instead on domestically produced culture, engagements with Western Europe, and the cultural dimensions of Empire. Whilst the full extent of America’s significance cannot be mapped out in one study, this thesis establishes the extent of America’s cultural presence and makes the case for its insertion into future Victorian Studies scholarship. Thirdly, this thesis contributes to the growing field of press history. It maps out connections between British and American newspapers, exploring how the press served to move information between the old world and the new. Finally, this project acts as an early example of born-digital scholarship; a study conceived in response to the development of digital archives. As such, it contributes to discussions on digital methodologies and debates within the field of Digital Humanities. In particular, it demonstrates that digitisation allows researchers to research and write do new kinds of history; to ask new questions, make new connections, and develop new projects – to do things that we couldn’t do before.

Plusieurs études de la « couverture » médiatique accordée à la vie personnelle, publique et privée, de Théodore Roosevelt montrent qu’il attira plus d’attention journalistique que nombre de ses successeurs. L’on ne saurait sous-estimer la contribution capitale des caricaturistes, même les plus sévères, à l’inaltérable popularité de Roosevelt pendant quelque trente ans. Il y a lieu de penser que nul autre président ne fut pour eux une source d’inspiration aussi constante et aussi réjouissante. Le but de la présente thèse est de replacer l’émergence de l’image caricaturée de Roosevelt dans le contexte d’une prise de conscience globale du pouvoir de la caricature sur l’opinion publique. L’humour devenant un formidable outil d’opposition ou de propagande lorsqu’il est associé à la politique, il convient d’explorer les caractéristiques de l’humour politique à l’époque de Roosevelt, et notamment en quoi il se distingue d’autres formes de critique du pouvoir en place. Est proposé dans un premier temps une rétrospective historique de la caricature politique en Europe et son émergence aux États-Unis, suivie de l’analyse en détail du « moment décisif », avec le très célèbre Thomas Nast, de l’histoire de la caricature américaine. Vient ensuite une évaluation de l’impact des caricatures sur la carrière politique de Théodore Roosevelt au moyen de plusieurs études de cas, identifiés comme les moments clés, dont la finalité est de vérifier s’il existait une véritable corrélation entre les actions du président et son image médiatique : cow-boy légendaire, homme politique au destin national, héros militaire, chef de l’exécutif controversé. / Several studies of the media coverage of Theodore Roosevelt’s personal, public and private life reveal that he attracted more media attention than many of his successors. The importance of the contribution of even the most caustic cartoonists to his enduring popularity for thirty years should not be underestimated. There are reasons to believe that no other president offered a more constant and delightful source of inspiration. The objective of this dissertation is to contextualize several cartooned images of Roosevelt within the growing awareness of the power of cartoons on public opinion. When combined with politics, humor becomes a tremendous tool for the spreading of official propaganda or of the opposition’s creed. We will therefore assess the characteristics of political humor during Roosevelt’s age and how it is distinct from other types of criticism of the establishment. We will first present a brief history of political cartoons in Europe and their rise in the United States, followed by a detailed assessment of the legacy of the famous cartoonist Thomas Nast, which represents a « defining moment » in the history of American political cartoons. This will be followed by an evaluation of their impact on Theodore Roosevelt’s political career by means of several case studies of decisive moments. The objective will be to determine whether there is a correlation between Roosevelt’s actions and his media image: mythical cowboy, politician with a national destiny, war hero, controversial chief executive.

L'environnementalisme américain est un mouvement dont la première vague surgit à la fin du 19e siècle face à l'exploitation excessive des ressources naturelles. Théodore Roosevelt a mis en place des mesures pour assurer la gestion avisée de la nature au bénéfice des générations présentes et futures. A côté de la conservation du gouvernement, un autre courant appelé préservation mit l'accent sur les valeurs esthétiques et spirituelles de la nature. Les deux conceptions de la relation de l'homme à la nature suscitèrent des conflits à propos de la façon dont on devait utiliser et protéger le patrimoine naturel. Le fort développement économique après 1945 puisa dans les ressources et généra de la pollution ainsi que des dangers posés par les industries atomiques et chimiques. "Printemps Silencieux" de Rachel Carson, paru en 1962, démontra que ces risques pesaient sur l'humanité elle-même et lança le mouvement environnemental moderne. Désormais, l'aspect éthique de la protection environnementale rivalise avec l'intérêt économique. Le succès du mouvement, canonisé par une série de lois environnementales, en fit la cible du contre-mouvement conservateur qui se développe depuis les années 1980. Les valeurs écologiques représentent une menace au credo américain, ainsi créant des tensions qui caractérisent le débat depuis le début du mouvement aux États-Unis. / American environmentalism is a movement that grew out of concerns over wilderness and wildlife depletion evident in the late 19th century. Theodore Roosevelt initiated conservation measures designed to manage natural resources wisely to ensure their sustainability for the benefit of present and future generations. Preservation, another current of American ideas that stressed the esthetic and spiritual values of nature, existed concurrently. The two visions of humans' relationship to nature gave rise to conflicts over how the nation's natural resources should be used. By the 1960s rapid development had led to heightened resource use and pollution, as well as new threats posed by the chemical and atomic industries. Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" published in 1962, demonstrated that humans themselves were in peril and launched the modern environmental movement. The ethical dimension of preserving nature and human health came to rival economic concerns. The success of the movement, canonized in a series of major environmental protection laws, made it the target of the conservative countermovement from the 1980s onward. Ecological values threaten the dominant values of the American creed, causing tensions that have characterized the debate since the advent of environmental protection in the United States.