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This thesis investigates the political thought of the well known British 20th Century political activist and writer Vera Brittain (1893-1970), who is acknowledged as one of the most important feminists and pacifists of her era. It was undertaken in response to the continuing success of her most widely known work, 'Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-1925, first published in 1933, and her increasing importance since her death to modem feminists, pacifists, and to the study of the First World War (1914-1918). It draws extensively on Vera Brittain's own writings, published, and unpublished, and includes material never before used in previous research. It provides a comprehensive review of the secondary literature on Vera Brittain, showing that the power of her arguments has been undermined by studying each area of her life and literary work in isolation. Although Vera Brittain's work and life have been frequently cited for specific purposes, this thesis is the first to identify her political thought in its totality. In particular, this thesis identifies for the first time the importance in Vera Brittain's political thought of her Christian beliefs, particularly after 1940; and the way in which this related to her two other major political beliefs, her feminism which she adopted very early in her life, and her pacifism, which she adopted in 1937. The emphasis placed in previous secondary literature on Testament of Youth and Vera Brittain's role in the First World War has also obscured the importance of her later political thought, particularly during the Second World War (1939-1945), and in her role in the early years of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The argument made in this thesis is that Vera Brittain's mature political thought was based on her faith in individuals, which acted like a 'thread' upon which the three 'pearls' or 'circles' of her political thought, those of Christianity, feminism and pacifism, were strung, each interacting with the other at various times, and finally joining to become the 'necklace' of her political thought. The thesis concludes that Vera Brittain's political thought did not constitute a coherent political theory of which she was herself aware; she developed a personal ideology or belief-system, but although she also held a world-view throughout most of her life, this was not original or unique to her. Her political writings and actions reflected the issues of her own time, including Equality Feminism, and the Christian Pacifist opposition to war. But she also drew on earlier political theories of the relationship between. the state and the individual, such as those of Mary Wollstonecraft and John Locke. In her political thought, she also acknowledged the importance of the issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, which would later become central to Second Wave Feminism. In sum, this thesis describes the political thought of Vera Brittain, its importance in the history of political thought, and its continuing relevance for today.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Regent College, 1989. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-111).

<p> The global marketing of the racial slur &ldquo;nigger&rdquo; / &ldquo;nigga&rdquo; has been a steady stream of business for the entertainment industry for decades. Entertainment is the United States&rsquo; second biggest export. The racial slur &ldquo;nigger&rdquo; / &ldquo;nigga&rdquo; is at the core of America&rsquo;s savage history. However, many young people and adults have no knowledge of the history and negative connotations of the derogatory racial slur.</p><p> This study focused on whether the workshops presented to 30 high school students in three schools in the northern United States would impact their understanding of the racial slur &ldquo;nigger&rdquo;/ &ldquo;nigga&rdquo; and if they would report that they are using the racial slur less or not at all after attending these workshops. Would the workshops give high school students a better understanding of the legacy of this debilitating racial slur and the impact it continues to have on the mindset of millions of people? Did the workshops help the high school students understand the negative effects of the use of the racial slur &ldquo;nigger&rdquo; / &ldquo;nigga&rdquo; through not only news, but also films/movies, music, video, song, and dance?</p><p> Data were collected using pre- and post-intervention anonymous questionnaires with all of the participants and videotaped post-intervention interviews with two students from each of the three high schools.</p><p> The results supported the hypothesis that after attending the workshops, students did have more knowledge of the origins of the racial slur &ldquo;nigger&rdquo; / &ldquo;nigga&rdquo; and they reported that they would use the term in its historical context as opposed to using it as a term of endearment.</p>

Based on Halbwachs’ theory of collective memory and Connerton’s notion of collective forgetting, this thesis contends that the history of the British transatlantic slave trade has been deliberately omitted from British collective remembrance, replaced by a stylised image of the campaign for its abolition, in the interests of maintaining a consistent national identity built around notions of humanitarian and philanthropic concern. This thesis examines the way that this collective amnesia was addressed during the bicentenary of the passage of the Slave Trade Act in 2007 in museological display and the media, alongside its interrogation in novels published during the last seventeen years. The exploration of the bicentennial commemoration provided a unique opportunity to examine the way in which the nation presented its own history to the British public and the international community, and the divergent perspectives at play. Analysis of the artefacts and panel text featured at the International Slavery Museum, the Uncomfortable Truths exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Chasing Freedom exhibition at the Royal Naval Museum reveals an emerging desire amongst curators to reduce attention garnered on the previously-lionised British abolitionists in favour of an increased representation of the experiences of the enslaved, including instances of their resistance and rebellion. Examination of neo-slave narratives scrutinises the way that postcolonial novelists draw attention to the process by which eighteenth-century slave narratives came to be published, demonstrating their unsuitability to be considered historical texts. S. I. Martin’s Incomparable World (1996), David Dabydeen’s A Harlot’s Progress (2000), Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (2009), Bernadine Evaristo’s Blonde Roots (2009) and Andrea Levy’s The Long Song (2010) re-write the slave experience and the process of writing, reframing abolitionist motivations around self-interest and political necessity rather than humanitarian concern. Media engagement was analysed through newspaper articles reporting on the bicentenary, the output of the BBC’s Abolition Season, and the representation of slavery in film, revealing a surface-level engagement with the subject, furthering the original abolitionist imagery, with any revisionist output needing to be specifically sought-out by the consumer. The thesis concludes that a revisionist approach to the history of the slave trade is becoming more apparent in challenges to collective memory occasioned by the bicentenary of its abolition; novelists make this challenge unavoidably clear to their readers, whilst those visiting museums are presented with an opportunity to reassess their understanding of this history by engaging with exhibits; the media, however, provides this revisionism but only in small ways, and has to be sought out by audiences keen to engage with it.

<p> This study examines and analyzes displacement, under the guise of redevelopment, in urban Mexican communities in Los Angeles-- Ch&aacute;vez Ravine (1944-1959) and Boyle Heights (2000-2015). This investigation also chronicles and interprets the urban renewal process as a systematic attack on the Mexican working- class and disenfranchisement of their communities. This analysis presents qualitative evidence to show the individual impacts associated with involuntary displacement. Furthermore these cases of displacement blocked the economic mobility of displaced residents of Ch&aacute;vez Ravine and Boyle Heights and the impact extends beyond those directly displaced. Beyond gentrification, a review of these cases, within approximately seven decades of displacement patterns, reveal the broader politics of contesting Mexican social and economic status in Los Angeles. Redevelopment maintains an economic and social order that intergenerationally disadvantages Mexican populations.</p>

<p> This research investigates the social organization of Corvette clubs and their membership in order to examine the wind of social change in community structures in American society during the period following industrial expansion. Specifically, this project examines the decline of traditional communities based on social ties formed through locale or productive work that have been replaced with communities based on common interests centered on consumption and leisure practice. Fragmentation of social ties among neighbors, families, and work, combined with the decline of participation in voluntary associations, reflect intensifying individualism. In spite of this age of social disconnection, the desire to find meaning and purpose through collective life remains. Today, much of the American individual&rsquo;s social life occurs in relationships that are mediated by markets and products that are consumed individually and collectively. This ascendance of leisure and the expansion of consumer markets as core social institutions in modern life offer opportunity structures for social connections and involvement for informal groups of people with similar interests. Building off America&rsquo;s preoccupation with cars as status symbols that are representative of progress, mobility, and individuality, this research explores the social world of Corvette owners. The cultural significance of the Corvette as America&rsquo;s sports car is reflected in this mixed methods study of a brand community and its role in creating social capital and civic engagement for its members. The Corvette community reflects a strong social network built around the mystique and history of the car and is organized by rituals of consumption and productive activity that construct identity and cement relationships among fellow car enthusiasts. Early life experience and sentiments of nostalgia and patriotism are important in this car culture as they are a means by which the car becomes valuable to the owner as an individual, and in turn, strengthen the social ties that knit this community together. The subjective meaning of the car as related to generational influence, consumer advertising, aspirations, and collective identity will be explored in order to understand the consumer&rsquo;s relationship with this cultural icon. Membership based around the emotional affect and sentiments produced by the Corvette will serve as a basis of analysis for consumer objects as potential liaisons for renewed civic engagement and social forms of citizenship in broader society. </p><p>

<p> This dissertation seeks to explain why large segments of the Jewish community, after working with blacks for decades, often quite radically towards expanding the boundaries of citizenship at City College, rejected the legitimacy of the 1970 Open Admissions policy? While succeeding in radically transforming the structure of City College and CUNY more broadly, the Black and Puerto Rican Student Community's late 1960&rsquo;s political mobilization failed as an act of citizenship because its claims went broadly unrecognized. Rather than being remembered as political action that expanded the structure and content of citizenship, the Open Admissions crisis and policy are remembered as having destroyed a once great college. The black and Puerto Rican students who claimed an equal right to higher education were seen as unworthy of the forms of inclusion they demanded, and the radical democracy of Open Admissions was short lived, being decisively reformed in the mid 70&rsquo;s in spite of what subsequent research has shown to be remarkable success in educating thousands who previously had no hope of pursuing a college degree. This dissertation places this question in historical context in three ways. </p><p> First, it historicizes the political culture at City College showing it to be an important incubator and index of the changing political imaginaries of the long civil rights movement by analyzing the shifting and evolving publics on the college&rsquo;s campus, tracing the rise and fall of different political imaginaries. Significantly, the shifting political imaginaries across time at City College sustained different kinds of ethical claims. For instance, in the period from the 1930 to 1950, Jewish and black City College students tended to recognize each other as suffering from parallel forms of systemic racism within U.S. society. Understanding each other to be similarly excluded from a social system that benefitted a largely white-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant elite, enabled Jewish and black City College students to position themselves and each other as the normative subjects of American democracy. However, in the 1960&rsquo;s, political imaginaries at City College had come to be anchored in more individualistic idioms, and ethical claims tended to be made within individualistic terms. Within such a context, when the BPRSC revived radically democratic idioms of political claims making, they tended to be understood by many whites as pathologically illiberal. </p><p> Second, it historicizes the ways in which City College constructed &ldquo;the meritorious student&rdquo; by analyzing the social, political and institutional forces that drove the college to continuously reformulate its admissions practices across its entire history. It shows that while many actors during the Open Admissions crisis invested City College&rsquo;s definitions of merit with sacred academic legitimacy, they were in fact rarely crafted for academic reasons or according to a purely academic logic. Regardless, many ignored the fact the admissions standards were arbitrarily based, instead believing such standards were the legitimate marker of academic ability and worthiness. By examining the institutional construction of the &ldquo;meritorious&rdquo; student the dissertation shows the production of educational citizenship from above while also revealing how different actors and their standpoints were simultaneously constructed by how they were positioned by this institutional process. </p><p> Finally, the dissertation examines two significant historical events of student protest, the Knickerbocker-Davis Affair of the late 1940's and the Open Admissions Crisis of the late 1960's. In these events, City College students challenged the content of &ldquo;educational citizenship.&rdquo; These events were embedded in the shifting political culture at City College and were affected by the historically changing ways different groups, especially Jews and blacks, were positioned by the structure of educational citizenship. </p><p> While Jews had passed into whiteness by the late 1960&rsquo;s in the U.S, there was no objective reason for many to claim the privileges of whiteness by rejecting a universal policy such as Open Admissions. Yet, many Jews interpreted Open Admissions as against their personal and group interests, and rejected the ethical claim to equality made by the BPRSC. By placing the Open Admissions crisis in deep historical and institutional context, and comparing the 1969 student mobilization to earlier student actions, the dissertation shows how actors sorted different political, institutional and symbolic currents to interpret their interests and construct their identities and lines of action. </p>

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Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1987. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-94).