<p> John Adams and Thomas Jefferson proposed that in order for republican values to flourish in the republic virtue must be cultivated in society. They believed a reasonable religion was the necessary foundation to uphold this virtue. The letters they shared suggested a rationally critiqued faith that would provide the necessary foundation for the republic, one at odds with the rising evangelical religion so popular in the republic. The first goal of this project is to examine their correspondence to show how they used enlightened principles of reason and debate to provide an intellectual inquiry into the historical perversions they perceived in their "Christian" society. For Adams and Jefferson, a properly constructed religion emerged from a series of discussions about its content. The language that they used with each other revolved around three intellectual suppositions about religion. First, the essence of understanding religion, for them, was to examine and critique religious writers, materials, and doctrines. Second, such a critique led them to question specific points of religious doctrine and to determine the accuracy or inconsistency in their faith. Third, this questioning of doctrine led them to an enlightened, well-reasoned, and reformed religious belief. </p><p> While this study speaks to the current historiography and the "culture wars" regarding religion during the Revolution presently debated in American politics, it also provides the ancient and colonial religious context into which Adams's and Jefferson's discussion may be placed. Historians must recover the theological meaning behind the religious conversations these men had with one another to explain what they meant when they chose to define themselves as "Christian." The process of recovering their faith by contextualizing the correspondence of Adams and Jefferson is the second goal of this project. </p><p> By contextualizing their correspondence, historians may decipher Adams's and Jefferson's intentions about religion. The language they use in their letters demonstrates four things. First, they viewed themselves as "real Christians," not as "Deists" or "Unitarians" or "Atheists" as they have been labeled at various stages in their lives and by historians since. Second, they were willing&mdash;though privately and only with each other&mdash;to use reason and rationality as the basis for their faith. Third, having reason and rationality as the basis for their faith, they critiqued commonly held beliefs of "Christian" society at the time discovering many of those beliefs to be corrupt. Finally, these letters indicate what they believed was an accurate understanding of the religion of their culture without any doctrinal corruption. Interpreting their letters in this context Adams and Jefferson defined religion very differently in their era: they implemented revolutionary enlightenment thinking to reassess their religious beliefs to arrive at a "rational Christianity" which, to them, represented a "purified and enlightened Christianity." Both men understood that this religion was highly contentious and problematic. The faith that emerged was a very different and unorthodox "Christianity," one that would be wholly unrecognizable and unacceptable to not only their culture, but to the cultures that followed.</p>

The annexation of Texas by the United States brought to a close the nine year period of independent existence which the Republic of Texas had enjoyed. During this short era, which began in 1836 and reached its conclusion in 1845, Texas enjoyed all the attributes of a sovereign nation. This work is concerned with the political history of the Republic. It is true that political parties and divisions existed prior to the Revolution, and in this period political differences were based upon distinct principles. The faction led by William H. Wharton in the early stages of the trouble with Mexico was eager for a complete break; the faction led by Austin counseled a moderate program, and did not agree on the wisdom of independence until late in 1835. However, the political divisions on the basis of principles did not continue in the period of the Republic. Politics were almost wholly of a personal nature in the period, 1836--1845. The personality of Sam Houston dominated Texas in that era, and was responsible for the two Houston administrations, as well as the election of Anson Jones, who was Houston's chosen candidate. Also it can be said that the election of Lamar was nothing more than a reversion from the first Houston term in office. Finally, there were no political parties in Texas comparable to the Whigs or Democrats in the United States. There were political techniques, appropriate to a developing, more sophisticated, nation, but politics in the Republic were primarily of a personal nature. In conclusion, the individual citizen of the Republic was much like his counterpart in the United States. His principles were in the Jacksonian mold, and his devotion to agrarian pursuits, resulted in a distrust of any type of corporate monopoly. Texas was akin to any other Southern state in the ante-bellum period, with cotton the chief source of wealth, and with slavery a recognized institution. The development of the Republic continued along these lines, so that the state of Texas naturally became a part of the Confederacy at the time of the Civil War. Also social historians have asserted that the germination of the distinct Texas character and tradition had its origin in the period of the Republic.

Divorce in nineteenth-century Texas was rooted in social customs as much as law, with class, gender, and race serving as strong influences on marital experiences and decisions to divorce. Legal divorce took place primarily at the local level, with the option of appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. Under Mexican rule, Anglo settlers had no option for divorce, and marital status was itself often uncertain, resulting in the practice of bond marriage (marriage by contract). For a short time under the Republic of Texas, a few Texans sought legislative divorce. However, judicial divorce soon became the standard practice and remained so throughout the century. This study is based on a reading of 1,578 local divorce cases from Harrison and Washington Counties. An extensive database including all available information on the litigants of each case provides insight into the influences of class, race, gender, kinship, and community on divorce. Although culturally very southern, Texas was also a western frontier and a community-property state. A combination of property protections based on Spanish law, frontier attitudes, and southern paternalism assured Texas women of a relatively high legal status. The Texas divorce law of 1841 remained intact throughout the nineteenth century with only minor changes. With remarkable legal persistence, social factors were the most evident influences on marital expectations and divorce. Chapters are laid out chronologically. Chapter One examines the statutory context of Texas divorce. Chapter Two addresses marital dissolution in the earliest phase of Anglo settlement and under the Republic of Texas, with an emphasis on frontier circumstances and changing political identities. Chapter Three examines divorce under antebellum statehood with an eye toward social hierarchy. Chapter Four discusses the impact of the Civil War and the actions of divorce seekers in postwar Texas, with emphasis on kinship and community influences as well as changing expectations for marriage. Chapter Five deals with the unique experiences of African American divorce seekers in Texas after 1865.

This dissertation is a cultural and intellectual history of black education, nationalism, and empire. I argue that educational philanthropy played an indispensable role in the construction of Anglo-Christian nationalism in the nineteenth century, and Anglo-American empire in the twentieth. The Tuskegee idea, as embodied in the educational philosophy of Booker T. Washington and underwritten by corporate philanthropy, enabled advances in African American literacy, economic development, and land ownership. However, it packaged these advances in such a way that they accommodated disfranchisement and segregation as the dominant organizing principles of the southern and the national political order. Moreover, the principles of the Tuskegee idea proved adaptable to educating colonial subjects in Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and other imperial settings across the globe. Tuskegee Institute became a laboratory for the working out of race relations in the South. The Tuskegee idea---a complex of theories regarding racial differentialization, progress, and the gradual accrual of citizenship rights for African Americans---played a prominent role in the regional unification of the North and South into a modern nation-state, the exclusion of African Americans from the national family, and an entry point for the U.S. into the family of nations. As such, it played a key role in Gilded-Age contests over the meaning of citizenship for African Americans, for women, and for poor whites. Those who participated in these contests helped define the meaning of American nationalism in the modern era.

The image of our metropolis is the product of our economy. Commercial vernacular architecture in the United States since 1950 has become increasingly generic and anonymous. This is the direct result of a shift in proprietorship from individual to joint ventures in ownership of built form. Joint ventures in ownership, in turn, allow for an increase in the scale of built form, or 'bigness,' which dislodges or shifts the fundamental architectural volume or unit. This new unit appears on frontage roads across the nation, and Houston's own 'feeder' roads are a prime example of this changing space of American cities.

Since its founding in London in 1844 and its arrival in Houston in 1886, the Young Men's Christian Association has always been a social service agency, attending to the needs of its clientele. Though the types of services the YMCA has offered have changed over time, its commitment to social service has not. In the first one hundred years in Houston, the association's emphasis on the spiritual, physical, mental, and social aspects of life has remained steadfast. This study will attempt to demonstrate that while applications of the aims have changed, the basic goal has not.

Recent textbook studies find the human religious heritage curiously absent from public school history textbooks, an absence perhaps explainable through the development of an ideology of progress, lying at the heart of the modern public educational establishment. This ideology achieves dominance after the Civil War. Antebellum texts, containing a fusion of classical and Judeo-Christian historical outlooks, show no consensus upon overarching historical notions of progress. These texts contain strong Biblical content, including miraculous and supernatural elements, and serve to impress upon the reader moral values of the classical/Judeo-Christian heritage, while justifying the Protestant Reformation. Progressive notions, when present, are usually derived from Christian, post-millennial outlooks. Post-bellum textbooks adopt increasingly secular notions of progress. Biblical and moral content diminish; the miraculous and supernatural virtually disappear. The theme of progress becomes the prime determinant for selecting historical content, a theme increasingly separated from religious development and increasingly linked to political and especially technological advancement.

Sociologist William Fielding Ogburn's hypothesis of "cultural lag" was popular from the 1920's through the 1950's. The cultural lag hypothesis holds that an innovation in one part of culture, usually in science or technology, creates the need for adjustment in another part. The period between the innovation and subsequent adjustment is known as a cultural lag. Ogburn used lag analysis to explain a variety of problems in modern industrial society. Although the lag concept was soundly criticized for its subjectivity, many intellectuals continued to regard it as a valid form of social analysis. This continued plausibility of "cultural lag" was due to its ability to express both historicist social critique and an image of objective social measurement. Ogburn's hypothesis thus fulfilled the desire of many social scientists to appear ideologically impartial while actually taking sides on many social issues. The decline of progressivist social theory, however, eventually exposed the theoretical weaknesses of "cultural lag"--except for a brief revival of the concept which accompanied the advent of atomic power.

By the 1840s medical men felt they were in the midst of an unprecedented malpractice epidemic. For the first time, American patients began to sue their physicians on a wide scale. Focusing on mid-century this dissertation describes, explains, and analyzes the origins of American medical malpractice. Patients sued their physicians in the 1840s because of immediate social, medical, and technological developments. The anti-status, anti-professional sentiment of the Jacksonian period antagonized the lay public. Americans had a long tradition of home remedies and had little patience with doctors who demanded respect and privilege but offered few cures. Intra-professional competition also generated conflict and many medical men incited suits against fellow practitioners. Dramatic advances in several areas of medicine crated unrealistic expectations in both physicians and patients and blurred standards of care. However, these immediate causes would not have engendered widespread suits without fundamental cultural changes. Many Americans changed their views on divine providence in the first half of the nineteenth century. This transformation allowed individuals to seek earthly causes for their misfortunes, assign blame, and demand compensation. At the same time a variety of forces combined to make Americans dramatically more concerned about their physical well-being. Finally, the erosion of traditional community customs inhibiting litigation and a transformation in individualism allowed patients to attack their physicians in court. These cultural developments did not cause malpractice suits, but without them widespread litigation would not have been possible. Malpractice law in the early part of the nineteenth century was in flux. American judges and lawyers relied on British precedents but altered them. Many scholars have claimed that legal relationships evolve from status-based responsibilities to contract-based responsibilities. I argue that this process occurred in malpractice law but was ultimately incomplete. The patterns set in the first half of the century continued through 1900. Many of the inciting causes of the 1840s disappeared. However new technological, social, professional, and legal factors arose to take their place. Most importantly, the underlying cultural trends that made the suits possible continued to develop and provided an increasingly hospitable social environment for malpractice suits.

The confidence of Confederate evangelicals in the support of providence inspired southern clergymen to demand the transformation of the independent South into a nineteenth-century covenant nation--a "Confederate Israel." Such a Confederate Israel was needed to impede the spread of liberalism in the South and in the world, and also to serve as prelude to the establishment of the millennial kingdom. Nevertheless, disillusionment--due to military defeat, the spread of moral and political corruption in the Confederate States, and the failure of attempts to reform slavery--compelled clergymen to announce the establishment of a "new covenant" based upon redemptive communal suffering and an eschatological--rather than a political and temporal--vindication of the South in the plans of providence. Such an interpretation permitted the evangelical Confederate Israel to survive Appomattox and was also to provide the ultimate theological basis of the post-war cult of the Lost Cause.