The public history project described herein was performed at Blakeley Historic Park, Alabama. The project included the preparation of survey maps depicting the location, size and directional orientation of Confederate and Union earthworks, which were used during the siege and battle of Fort Blakely in April 1865. The project also included historical research and documentation of findings relative to the design, construction and use of the Confederate fortifications at Blakeley Park. This research attempts to answer the questions; who ordered or directed the earthworks to be built, who designed them and supervised their construction, when were they built, and who provided the labor for their construction? Recommendations are made for the acquisition potential of earthworks found that were outside of present park boundaries. In addition, recommendations are made for preservation of existing earthworks within the park. The historical essay on the Confederate fortifications advances the argument that the design and construction effort was beset with shortages of engineers needed for design and supervision, shortages of labor needed for construction, and a shortage of troops to man the fortifications. Because this project combined modern day Global Positioning System surveying and Geographic Information System mapping technology with historical research methodology, collaboration with faculty experts in the College of Engineering and Computer Science was essential.

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<p>The Smith’s Knoll collection is composed of the disarticulated, fragmentary, and commingled remains of battle dead from the War of 1812. Historical and archaeological context of this site can be well established, making it particularly valuable in helping to unveil the conditions experienced by individuals in the past. In this thesis, the Smith’s Knoll collection was analyzed for evidence of postcranial perimortem traumatic skeletal lesions. Further context for these injuries was provided through comparison with contemporaneous skeletal and surgical collections, historical documentary sources, and other bioarchaeological studies on violence and warfare in the past.</p> <p>Injuries associated with fractures, sharp force, and musket trauma were observed in the postcranial elements of the collection. Although the overall prevalence of lesions is low, the majority of observed lesions can be attributed to sharp force trauma. Sharp force injuries are present in fourteen of the ribs as well as one fibula, one femur, one carpal, one vertebra, and one ulna. Musket injuries are present in three innominates and one scapula, and perimortem fractures are present in one rib and one scapula. The sharp force injuries can be further differentiated into those most likely caused by the bayonet, found in the torso, and those most likely caused by the sword, found in the extremities. Musket trauma is present in the form of impact from both musket balls and buckshot. Importantly, this is the first study to identify buckshot lesions on archaeological skeletal material.</p> <p>The results of the analysis of Smith’s Knoll demonstrate the value of examining postcranial lesions in relation to violence in the past, which has frequently been overlooked in bioarchaeology. As well, this collection illustrates that fragmented, disarticulated, and commingled collections, despite their limitations, have much to contribute to knowledge of interpersonal violent conflicts, both in prehistory and in the more recent past.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis uses newly available archival material from the Arehivio Storieo del Ministero degli Affari Esteri, especially Ciano's Gabinetto, the Foreign Ministry office under which Mussolini and Ciano successively centralized and tightened Fascist control of foreign policy, as well as the Serie Affari PolWei, copies of telegrams from embassies abroad plus the diplomatic traffic sent from the Gabinetto to various embassies. This research represents the most comprehensive archival study to date. It also adds a substantially new interpretive cast to the historical debate. It considers but rejects the writings of recent revisionist Italian historians, especially the late Renzo De Felice and several of his students. Their work inaccurately presents a picture of Italy balanced between England and Germany, hoping to play the role of the 'decisive weight' in European affairs.</p> <p>This study argues instead that Benito Mussolini was the primary animator of Italian foreign policy during the 1930s. He was a programmatic thinker, whose ultranationalist mentalite included contempt for democracies, Bolshevism in Western Europe, and for the international Masonic order. More seriously, he held profoundly racist, militarist and social Darwinist beliefs, and routinely acted on these impulses. This complex of irrational beliefs led Mussolini to align Italy with Germany to expand the Italian Empire in East and North Africa at the expense ofBritain and France.</p> <p>From June 1936 to early February 1939, Mussolini clearly tightened Italian ties with Germany. These links allowed the Duce to challenge the Western democracies on a broad number of issues. Although Mussolini hoped to achieve many concessions through a process of alternate intimidation and conciliation, he ultimately knew that he could realize his main territorial goals only through war with France and Britain. Only an alliance with Hitler's Germany offered Mussolini the chance to achieve his grandiose imperial plans, though at the profound risk ofdomination by Germany and military defeat against Britain.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation explores the development of America’s infantry forces between 1918-1945. While doing so, it challenges and complicates the traditional narrative that highlights the fierceness of the rivalry between the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. During the First World War, both commissioned and enlisted Marines attended U.S. Army schools and served within Army combat formations, which brought the two closer together than ever before. Both services became bonded by a common warfighting paradigm, or way of battle, that centered upon the infantry as the dominant combat arm. All other arms and services were subordinated to the needs and requirements of the infantry. Intelligent initiative, fire and maneuver by the smallest units, penetrating hostile defenses while bypassing strong points, and aggressive, not reckless, leadership were all salient characteristics of that shared infantry way of battle. After World War I, Army and Marine officers constructed similar intellectual proposals concerning the ways to fight the next war. Although there were differences in organizational culture, the two were more alike in their respective values systems than historians have realized. There was mutual admiration, and targeted attempts to replicate each other’s combat thinking and spirit. They prepared for battle by observing each other’s doctrine, and sharing each other’s conception of modern combat. When preparation turned to execution in World War II, they created solutions for battlefield problems that evolved from their near-identical way of battle. At the conclusion of the war, the common bonds between the Army and Marine Corps were all but forgotten. This, ultimately, led to increased friction during the Congressional defense unification battles in 1946. / History

On 16 December 1941, Adolf Hitler issued his controversial Haltbefehl (halt order). As Germany’s Army Group Center reeled under the Soviet counterattack during the battle for Moscow, the Haltbefehl forbade the army to retreat. Scholars have argued that this order ended the Prussian-German method of command called Auftragstaktik. Under this concept, German field commanders enjoyed wide command discretion within the intent of their superiors. This thesis argues that Auftragstaktik did survive at and below the German Army’s divisional level during its defensive struggles in the battle for Moscow. The case studies illustrate that field commanders kept their command independence and withdrew their units against Hitler’s halt order. / History

According to Paul Bensimon, the retranslation hypothesis advocates for a pattern between the first and second translation of a literary work. The hypothesis runs that the second translation (also called “retranslation”) tends to be closer to the original text and more foreignized, while the first translation is farther away from the original and more domesticated to better fit with the norms of the target audience. This paper intends to test this view of the retranslation hypothesis on the two English translations of the Japanese novel バトル・ロワイアル (“Battle Royale”). The study compared proper names and cultural terms from both translations in semantic similarity and from the perspective of the domestication/foreignization theory. The results show that the retranslation has more foreignizing tendencies concerning the translations and the translation strategies of cultural terms, and a closer semantic similarity to the original work regarding proper names. On the other hand, the first translation has a more frequent tendency of using foreignizing translation strategies for proper names. Thus, the results show a partial agreement with the retranslation hypothesis.