Although prevailing racial ideas in the nineteenth-century South severely limited cooperation between blacks and whites, unionized Southern workers, such as the waterfront workers of Galveston, Texas, formed alliances across racial boundaries to combat efforts of employers to silence their political voices and restrict their economic power. The struggle to forge these alliances reveals how ideas about race were perpetuated and modified over time as they interacted with ideas about class, gender, and the political process and as Galveston emerged as one of the nation's leading cotton ports. This study traces race relations between black and white waterfront workers in Galveston from the city's founding in 1838 through 1920, when employers and the state broke union power. The first chapter outlines the historiographical arguments over the extent of interracial cooperation in the South in the nineteenth-century. Chapter Two sets the stage by tracing Galveston's commercial and population growth from 1838 to 1920. Chapter Three focuses on antebellum interaction between black slaves and white, mostly immigrant, wage earners and the responses of the city's slaveholding elite. Chapter Four examines the formation of racially exclusive white waterfront unions in Galveston, the efforts of African-Americans to secure work on the docks, and the limited class solidarity that emerged in the late 1890s. A brief epilogue examines relations between black and white unionists in the city in the first twenty years of the twentieth century.

During the twentieth century, American amateur astronomers attempted to form national organizations with structures and intents similar to the British Astronomical Association (BAA), an amateur organization dedicated to the advancement of astronomy and widely admired by American amateurs and professionals alike. The Society for Practical Astronomy (1910), the American Amateur Astronomers Association (1935), and the National Astronomical Association (1945) were each intended to facilitate amateur scientific contributions in BAA-like topical sections, but each of these societies failed. Founded in 1911, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) and the American Meteor Society (AMS) provided an alternative for amateur astronomers who were interested in those specific topics. However, it was not until 1947, when the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) formed, that another large segment of amateur astronomers found a home for their interests. A second mode of national organization succeeded at mid-century and grew to include most avocational astronomers. Founded in 1947, the Astronomical League consists of regional associations of local societies, and is oriented largely towards recreational astronomy. The League sponsors annual national and regional conventions, but contributes little to scientific programs. This study concludes that avocational astronomy cannot simply be compared with professional astronomy, and instead must be viewed on its own terms as a complex and variegated field. Although the failure of American amateurs to form a BAA-like organization was at first disappointing, the specialized associations of observers, together with a separate and larger organization devoted to recreational astronomy, have served the American astronomical community well. Professional support for both types of activity was facilitated in this mode of organization. The style in which professional support is rendered appears to be important, with strong volunteer member leadership more effective than a benevolent dictatorship by professionals. A journal in which amateur astronomers may publish observations, discuss techniques and share insights is critical for scientifically oriented associations, and provided a driving force for organizing and maintaining such associations.

This study examined the tensions between the military and the media; the need for governments to articulate clear war aims, win public, and international support; and the public's power to hold a government accountable in a democracy for actions during wartime in a fifty-year period. The long view of history demonstrated the complex and multidirectional. interactions among the government, the military, the media, and the people of a democracy during wartime. In the past, historians and scholars have focused almost exclusively on the relationship between the military and media during wartime. Talking that approach as a starting point, this thesis expanded upon those earlier studies and moved beyond technical disagreements between officers and journalists to examine the broader context of national unity during times of conflict. By looking at the level of national unity during the major conflicts that the United States was involved between 1941 and 1991---and examining the British experience during the Falkland Islands War---the interaction between government leaders and the public overshadowed the relationship between the military and the media. Government leaders were most successful in building and sustaining public support when they clearly articulated war aims, and maintained those aims throughout the period of the conflict. This study also suggested a correlation between the successful building of domestic support for war and the government's prior acquisition of the international community's support for its actions. These findings showed that the relationships among the government, the military, the media, and people have been very nuanced and complex during times of war between 1941 and 1991. The struggles on the homefront and in the international community have been just as heated as clash of armies on the battlefield. While not always victorious, democratic nations have fought and re-fought battles to build and maintain support for during times of war---an element essential for any hope of victory in modern warfare.

This dissertation is a study of organized, professional history in the American South centered on two formal associations: the Southern History Association (1896--1907) and the Southern Historical Association (1934--present), which sponsors the Journal of Southern History. The professional historians who led these associations emerged from the memorialization culture of the Lost Cause at the turn of the twentieth-century and formed the historical wing of the resurgent intellectual commitment to regional identity that fostered the so-called Southern Renaissance. As participant intellectuals in sectional reconciliation, constitutional disfranchisement, the Great Depression, World War II, and the incipient civil rights movement, these historians often found themselves at the center of important debates about regional identity and social change in the South. This dissertation follows the protracted intellectual and political battle first to segregate and then to integrate the southern historical profession and indeed the idea of "southern history" itself. Though largely white, these historians intended to be neither pro-Confederate, sectionally chauvinistic, nor nostalgic in motivation. Instead, they constantly negotiated between their regional devotion and their national ambition, and also between their sense of their own racial integrity and the counter-claims southern African Americans and reform-minded whites made over "the South" and the meaning of its past. These historical associations were not wholly reactionary but instead fostered both a real dedication to and substantive critiques of the South and its historical practice. This dissertation keeps in focus the subtleties of change in emphasis and in interpretation that enabled more radically activist historians to lay claim to the fractures in the South's "past" and put it to use to justify change in the present. Few historians abandoned the discourse of "southern history" when its definitions became too restrictive or untrue. Instead, white and black American historians transformed the field.

Over the past half century the name Planned Parenthood has become a household term. As its leadership has struggled to create and maintain its identity and to keep it financially afloat, the organization has evolved. This is the story of one local affiliate: Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. Planned Parenthood of Houston had its origins in the philanthropy of Houston's "white-gloved elite," and in the poverty of the Great Depression. It also found support in the courts, which by the 1930s were beginning to re-define the law of obscenity (to exclude contraceptives) and by the 1960s to define the right of privacy as broad enough to encompass the right of marital privacy. These judicial decisions would be crucial precedents to the landmark abortion case, Roe v. Wade, which legalized the right of abortion. Neither Planned Parenthood of Houston nor its parent organization, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, evolved in a social or legal vacuum. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the history of one affiliate as it grew from a tiny clinic for the poor to a large, powerful urban organization with an eclectic clientele and a number of satellite clinics, an organization in the vanguard of reproductive rights and technology. It also attempts to place Planned Parenthood's legal, institutional, and social history in the context of state and national public policies, and to illuminate ways that the innate federalism of the Planned Parenthood organization, individual's rights to privacy, and government policies intersected and sometimes clashed.

This thesis aims at clarifying the situation of supplying to the French colonies of North America, during the 18th century. It attempts to redefine what can be construed as "supplying" and in the process, identifies its various sources. The study of one of these sources, the direct contribution of France, constitutes the second part of the thesis, as seen through the example of Pierre-Jacques Lemoyne, supplier to the colonies from 1734 to 1762. This stance permits to go further than the better-known world of the merchants carrying the King's goods. Suppliers to the colonies are thus revealed to be split between adjudicataires who obtain their contracts through public procedures, and a handful of specialized merchants, who contact or are contacted by the Navy's administration. The selection of these merchants seem to stem from their capacity to fulfill adequately the Navy's needs---although the influence of "cronyism" should not be discarded.

<p>This thesis contributes to the historiography on President Ronald Reagan, political rhetoric, U.S.-Soviet Relations, 1980s politics, and religion in foreign policy. It examines the consistency and purpose of Reagan&rsquo;s religious and moral rhetoric in an attempt to gain an understanding of Reagan&rsquo;s rhetoric as it pertained to his Soviet policies. It draws largely from speeches, articles, summit meetings, interviews, personal correspondences, radio broadcasts, press conferences, political insider&rsquo;s memoirs, and Reagan administration documents that laid out foreign policy strategies for dealing with the Soviet Union. </p><p> I argue that throughout his two terms as president, while there was variance over time in some aspects of his rhetoric (i.e., his characterization of the Kremlin), Ronald Reagan&rsquo;s rhetoric consistently pointed to religion and morality as central aspects of the Cold War and central causes of East-West tensions. He also consistently pointed to the Soviet system as the greatest moral evil facing the world, and his Soviet policies and interactions with Soviet leaders reflected his perception that religion and morality were at the heart of the Cold War and East-West relations. This thesis intends to provide a better understanding of the worldview Reagan presented in his public rhetoric and of the ways his foreign policy actions were, overall, consistent with that worldview. This study defines Reagan&rsquo;s public rhetoric as a tool of persuasion that sought to reshape public and private perceptions of the East-West relationship, the Cold War, and America&rsquo;s role in it. </p>

<p> This article will discuss the ways in which modern identity politics have encouraged us to label the sexuality of American authors of the past and the effects of those labels. Specifically discussing Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, I will discuss the history of nineteenth-century American sexuality, the assumptions placed upon Dickinson and Whitman with regard to their sexual identities, the political and social implications, and modern media consumption and presentation of those identities.</p>

<p> This dissertation traces the history of cattle grazing at Saguaro NP, Organ Pipe Cactus NM and Fort Bowie NHS in southern Arizona. This collection of studies examines the factors affecting that use, the ranchers who made their living from the landscape, and the federal land managers responsible for sustaining the natural and cultural resources. </p><p> A dominant industry on arid public lands since the Civil War, grazing was altered by a variety of influences: environmental and human-derived. Ranching communities developed from homesteading settlements. Success was determined by climate, topography, and natural resources; social and cultural pressures; economic events and political legislation; and later federal regulations and decisions. </p><p> The first agency to oversee grazing, USFS was under constant pressure to maximize short-term human benefits. The NPS Organic Act of 1916 mandated conservation of natural resources "by such means as will leave them unimpaired for future generations" and yet approved cattle grazing, an extractive use, under USFS management. Park managers were frustrated by grazing practices not under their control. Parks were at a cultural and social disadvantage. Residents and politicians often expressed displeasure at park reservations; communities feared that parks would interfere with local industries. </p><p> Park employees supervised visitors and developed recreation infrastructure; they came with little experience to manage livestock. Lack of funding for research, limited manpower, and political and administrative interference allowed cattle grazing to continue unregulated for decades altering vegetation and enhancing erosion. In the 1960s, changing values from the environmental movement, the waning power of the livestock industry, and the rise of activist scientists impelled NPS to act. Without monitoring data, NPS turned to legal opinions to terminate grazing. </p><p> Now grazing is regulated and carefully monitored. NPS is mandated to incorporate research results into management decisions. Older grazing permits are being retired, but land acquisitions for park additions add new management challenges. Purchasing permits offers a new but financially limited opportunity to protect sensitive lands. Grazing has ended at all three parks, yet ecological changes and historic structures remain. As cultural and administrative legacies, those remnants offer opportunities to interpret a significant regional tradition and an untold controversy.</p>

<p> This thesis explores the transformative effects of immigration from the 1960s through the 2010s among women from Taiwan living in the County of Santa Clara. The study focused on three substantive areas: (1) early life experiences and factors leading to immigration; (2) shifts in social identities after leaving Taiwan (e.g., political, national, and ethnic self-concepts in various contexts); and (3) practices of child-rearing. Several methodological tools were employed during the data collection phase of the research process, including interviews, surveys, and participant observations. The findings of this study suggested a dynamic process of change in which informants adapted to, were affected by, and influenced their new milieus to varying degrees. Although a number of patterns were evident in the broader experiences of participants, the actual decisions (e.g., how to raise children) and individual changes (e.g., the choice of ethnic identification) were often unique. These findings add to the body of scholarly knowledge concerning the lived experiences of Taiwanese Americans and their distinct challenges, but they also suggest the need to extend theoretical discussions related to transnationalism, ethnogenesis, and parallel dual frame of reference for a clearer understanding of immigrant experiences in a rapidly changing American suburbia.</p>