Frederick Jones, Minister of Defence during World War II, was responsible for the transportation to New Zealand of the foreign-born wives and fiancées of New Zealand servicemen. Between 1942 and 1948 servicemen returning from theatres of war in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific brought over 3000 wives and 700 fiancées to New Zealand. Portrayed as homogeneous, young, working-class British housewives who made hasty ill-considered marriages, war brides, in fact, proved to be varied in origin, age, occupation and education. Whirlwind romances and short courtships were not the norm. This thesis examines the consequences of the decision to marry a New Zealander and migrate and the impact of the journey and settlement. The full glare of publicity that greeted war brides on arrival focused attention on their compatibility with, and adaptability to, the receiving society. Adjustment was however fraught with difficulties. Memory and loss are implicit in the experience of migration. War brides expressed this in terms of the rift with their pasts and a lack of shared memories. On arrival in New Zealand war brides dispersed around the country in an extreme 'pepper-potting' pattern. When their only connection with New Zealand was their locally-born husband they suffered social isolation and sometimes a devastating sense of loneliness. The resulting marginalisation they experienced was evident in their oral history narratives. Ambivalence and recourse to serendipity as an explanation for past actions were elements of the dis-composure discernable in narratives. In spite of their varied religious, social and class backgrounds, this diverse cohort formed a war bride identity based on shared experience rather than national or ethnic origin. Far from dissipating, their war-bride identity has been consolidated into an enduring image most tangibly expressed in the extant war brides' clubs, although club attendance is not a prerequisite of war bride identity.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1941. Adviser: Antoinette Burton. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-261) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1984. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 3, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Edward Schapsmeier (chair), Charles Gray, Paul Holsinger, L. Moody Simms, Walter Kohn. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-275) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4462. Adviser: James R. Barrett. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 336-369) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 14, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4519. Adviser: Ruth M. Stone.

Frederick Jones, Minister of Defence during World War II, was responsible for the transportation to New Zealand of the foreign-born wives and fiancées of New Zealand servicemen. Between 1942 and 1948 servicemen returning from theatres of war in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific brought over 3000 wives and 700 fiancées to New Zealand. Portrayed as homogeneous, young, working-class British housewives who made hasty ill-considered marriages, war brides, in fact, proved to be varied in origin, age, occupation and education. Whirlwind romances and short courtships were not the norm. This thesis examines the consequences of the decision to marry a New Zealander and migrate and the impact of the journey and settlement. The full glare of publicity that greeted war brides on arrival focused attention on their compatibility with, and adaptability to, the receiving society. Adjustment was however fraught with difficulties. Memory and loss are implicit in the experience of migration. War brides expressed this in terms of the rift with their pasts and a lack of shared memories. On arrival in New Zealand war brides dispersed around the country in an extreme 'pepper-potting' pattern. When their only connection with New Zealand was their locally-born husband they suffered social isolation and sometimes a devastating sense of loneliness. The resulting marginalisation they experienced was evident in their oral history narratives. Ambivalence and recourse to serendipity as an explanation for past actions were elements of the dis-composure discernable in narratives. In spite of their varied religious, social and class backgrounds, this diverse cohort formed a war bride identity based on shared experience rather than national or ethnic origin. Far from dissipating, their war-bride identity has been consolidated into an enduring image most tangibly expressed in the extant war brides' clubs, although club attendance is not a prerequisite of war bride identity.

This dissertation examines the evolution of federal government in the German Empire from the unification in 1871 to the collapse of the monarchy in 1918. The story of how the imperial federal state changed over the years has hitherto been hidden from view by disciplinary biases and methodological limitations. While concentrating on how Germany’s peculiar form of government oscillated between a Western-style constitutional monarchy and a semi-absolutist autocracy, historians have failed to make sense of deeper systemic issues. In order to move these to the centre of analysis, the thesis combines different perspectives from history, law, and political theory. This approach exposes an extraordinary development. The 1871 constitution left Germany’s organisational nature largely undefined. The new national state possessed only very few institutions and competences. There was not even a national government. The Reich completely depended on the constituent states. This weakness was no coincidence. Bismarck’s plan was to secure the dominance of the Prussian monarchy by giving the union enough flexibility to develop either into an integrated composite state or a loose cooperative assembly of states. But the decades after unification turned out differently. By seizing control over the Prussian administration, the federal bureaucracy gradually acquired so many competences that by the outbreak of the First World War Germany had changed into a centralised state. Rather than by the collaboration of the monarchical state governments, national decision-making was now shaped by the competition and cooperation of the federal parliament – the Reichstag – and the newly emerged federal government around the Chancellor. This transformation came about, the thesis argues, because both monarchical and democratic actors – above all the Prussian government, the federal bureaucracy, and the national parliament – saw federal structures primarily as an instrument of power to be manipulated for their own purposes, namely for the preservation of princely prerogatives or for the expansion of parliamentary rights. There was little respect for federalism as an organisational principle that was beneficial per se. Rather, most executives, administrators, and parliamentarians understood Germany’s federal organisation – albeit for different reasons – as a necessary evil and a means to an end. This attitude had a lasting impact on German political culture, with federal structures remaining at the mercy of power interests throughout the twentieth century. The dissertation is woven from three different strands. By combining them, it can draw connections that would not come into view if it concentrated on just one of these themes. First, it is a history of German federalism that focuses on the key question of the political history of the Empire: who or what actually governed Germany? As it thus exposes the anatomy of power in the imperial state, it is also a contribution to one of the biggest controversies in modern European history, namely the debate on Germany’s alleged ‘special path’: where did Germany go wrong? Thirdly and lastly, the thesis offers a systemic analysis of federal structures whose observations are relevant for federal orders – such as the European Union – more generally.