This work examines the nature of the community of the German Agrarian League (Bund der Landwirte). In particular, it focuses on the interactions of the elite, Junker membership and the peasant membership. An examination of previous work reveals a theme of Junker domination of the League. This work challenges that theme by examining one possible avenue for agency within the League: the associated newspapers. Using Benedict Anderson's theory of printcapitalism and Marshall Sahlins' definitions of community interactions and space definition, it becomes possible to reveal a non-coerced peasant voice within the League by searching for rhetorical shifts in the newspapers that correspond with shifts in peasant membership and political focus of the League. This allows for a model of community that is more interactive for all participants, not just the elite membership, and fundamentally alters the basic concept of conservatism in the German Empire. Avenues of further research to examine this model in greater detail are provided.

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that the late Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus used his portrayal of the emperor Constantius II (r. 337-361) as a response to Christian polemic against the pagan emperor Julian (r. 361-363). It argues that, based on the similarities between Ammianus’ account of Constantius and some Christian polemical accounts of Julian, the Res Gestae should be seen as part of the broader discourse between Christians and pagans that began after the death of Valens at Adrianople in 378. By examining the narrative similarities Ammianus shares with several of his prominent Christian contemporaries—notably Gregory of Nazianzus, Ephrem, and John Chrysostom—this thesis shows by accumulation of evidence that a relationship between the two is probable.

The purpose of this study is to examine how healing occurred in postwar Knoxville. The central idea is that no single facet, whether economic, political, or social, was responsible for the successful attainment and maintenance of peace in the city. That being said, the importance of economics to the peace process cannot be overstated. Knoxville was evenly divided between Northern and Southern sympathizers just before and during the war. In the immediate postwar period the prevalence and proximity of former enemies led to an eruption of violence on the city’s streets. By 1866, however, peace reigned over the city as businesses boomed and people went to work. This thesis focuses on how this transition from violence to peace took place and flourished in Knoxville during the five years following the end of the American Civil War.

This project argued that the leadership of the Irish middle classes was essential in providing relief to the destitute during the Great Irish Potato Famine, 1845-1851. It further argued that middle class leadership in the Famine period translated into a greater class consciousness and subsequent political leadership. Records from the transactions of relief projects from the Society of Friends, pamphlets written by contemporary British and Irish men of the middle and upper classes, and workhouse records illuminated the role of the middle classes in relief efforts. This project joins that primary research to secondary scholarship on the growing political role of the middle classes in the two decades following the end of the Famine. The evidence showed that the middle classes stepped into a void of leadership created by landlord absenteeism and provided crucial local structures for effective organization distribution of relief. Further the middle classes gained a sense of identity forged in the shared experience of leadership in the Famine. With this common history, the middle classes were able to imagine themselves as a class with similar political interests and goals which they expressed through increasingly powerful national lobbying organizations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the ideological impetus to the founding of the second British Empire. The loss of the thirteen North American colonies left the British Empire in a state of crisis. Yet, by the early nineteenth century, the British Empire was once again in a position of global dominance. Many historians have theorized over how Britain united to face and overcome this period of crisis. One historian, C.A. Bayly, has argued that British elites rallied behind a progressive conservative ideology, which became the prerequisite to the founding of the second British Empire. To test this theory, this thesis will examine a case study in imperial service, Lord Charles Cornwallis's service in America, India, and Ireland. Why was Lord Cornwallis, who met so much failure in America, appointed to the crisis points around the empire? What does he symbolize to the empire? How did Lord Cornwallis stabilize the empire and play a significant role in the imperial revival? This thesis will use official and personal correspondence, government documents, and historical research to illuminate these questions.

In this study, I have examined the use of the Latin translation of the Arabic Apology of al-Kindi,, regarded as the most influential source of information about Islam for Latin readers in the Middle Ages, by some of its readers from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. My work is divided into three parts, beginning with an analysis of the writings of the man who commissioned the translation, Peter the Venerable, and Peter of Poitiers, the secretary of the first Peter and a member of the translation team. I argue that, for Peter the Venerable, the Latin translation of the Apology was the most important of all the Arabic-to-Latin translations that he sponsored and that it represented the first step in a project that he hoped would culminate in the conversion of Muslims. Second, I discuss the adaptation of the Apology by Matthew Paris and Vincent of Beauvais, two historians who used it to create narratives of early Islam, an area in which other Latin texts failed them. The final section of the thesis is devoted to the annotators who clarified the many words and references in the text likely to confuse uninitiated readers and who conveyed their own thoughts on the text's author and his arguments. I found that these reader-writers were deeply invested in representing Islam accurately, a characterization not often associated with medieval Christian scholars' relationships to the non-Christian religions that they studied. Zeal for accuracy led readers to the Apology in the first place and motivated them to excavate the textual clues that justified its standing, as well as to sidestep or challenge what they deemed inaccurate.

Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was a central figure in the FDR administration in more than just fiscal matters. Morgenthau also worked from the 1930’s onward in several arenas to aid the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust. My research updates and revises the existing historiography by revealing this activism was the logical culmination of years of interest in the fates of Jewish refugees. Furthermore, this activism was affected by several factors beyond Morgenthau’s own control. The administrative style of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, relationships between Morgenthau and other members of the cabinet, and influential undercurrents within the cabinet all limited Morgenthau’s options for rescue and helped determine the outcomes of his actions on behalf of refugees. While Morgenthau has often been a neglected character in the history books, this thesis places him at the center. In doing so, I argue that his involvement both came earlier than most historians assert, and was influenced by factors that have not been previously analyzed as they apply to Morgenthau’s particular historical situation.

This paper has been written in a sincere attempt to give a perception in depth to the scene of the famous trial. The history of the area has been studied, many of the leading characters have been interviewed personally, and a large amount of reading has been done in the records relating ot the events. Although greater emphasis has been placed upon those aspects of the case which were purely local, a number of larger factors contributing to its background and meaning have been presented briefly.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X of Castile in the context of two historiographical assertions: that Alfonso was a revolutionary monarch who consciously anticipated the developments surrounding the rise of the nation-state, and that the Siete Partidas represent a mere compilation of older legal traditions with little creative manipulation by Alfonso. To test these assertions, I selected three samples of the legal code and analyzed the extent to which they conformed to these historiographical claims. My analysis concluded that these sections of the Siete Partidas do not support the prevailing historiographical assertions about both Alfonso and the Siete Partidas. Rather, these sections of the code suggest that Alfonso was as much a medieval ruler, deeply concerned with the particular situation of thirteenth-century Castile, as he was a visionary anticipating a centralized Castilian nation-state. As a result, my thesis suggests that a reinterpretation of Alfonso X’s character may be in order. At least in these sections of the Siete Partidas, the traditional perspective of Alfonso X does not seem valid, and a deeper analysis seems warranted.

This thesis explores the ways communities of ex-slaves and free blacks in Appalachian Tennessee mobilized to build schools in the five years after the Civil War. Historians have long asserted that black schools were central institutions in the movement by Southern blacks to create an autonomous culture following the Civil War. And scholars have traditionally used the creation of cultural institutions (such as schools) to demonstrate the collective efforts by freedpeople in their pursuit of common aspirations. But the question remains what the school-building process can tell historians about how freedpeople understood themselves and their communities within local, regional, state, and national contexts. The school-building process is here used as a lens into the power structure of black communities and their relationships with the Freedmen‟s Bureau, northern aid groups and missionary societies, native white Radicals, and themselves. Appalachian freedpeople did indeed find strength in their commitments to kith and kin, in the creation of civil self-help groups, and in religious fervor, and they used such obligations to erect schoolhouses and hire teachers independent of any external aid. Just as often, however, rampant poverty and limited resources required that they appeal to external aid groups for assistance. The paternalism of northern aid groups clashed with the self-determinism of freedpeople and prevented either side from dictating the terms of their relationship to the other. The resulting school-building negotiations underscored their attempts to find mutually accommodating solutions. While some of these extended conversations engendered ready solutions, in other instances conflicting black agendas and competing definitions of black self-determinism factionalized black communities. School-building was ultimately a highly politicized exercise in which freedpeople constructed grassroots political allegiances that often reflected their larger political ideology.