The importance of Canadian and French Canadian demography in Florida, as well as the annual number of tourists that reaches two million in 1990, requires that researchers take a look at the significance of migrations to and, in many cases, settlement in Florida. This study explores the first days of Canadian visits to Florida in the early 20th century, the settlement of a mass of immigrants during the 1930s, and after the Second World War, through the case of Palm Beach County. This thesis describes the formation of an ethnic community, and the changes brought about by the arrival of many snowbirds during the 1970s, which strengthen its links with French Canadian society. The constant mobility between Canada and Florida, as well as the settlement of French Canadians in two communities, make Florida quite a particular francophonie that enlightens us on the very nature of French Canada.

This dissertation examines state-level efforts to mandate the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, especially following 9/11. Despite longstanding Supreme Court precedent declaring mandatory flag salutes unconstitutional, various state legislatures sought to institute or strengthen pledge mandates irrespective of students’ civil liberties. Driven by personal conceptions of patriotism, fears about cultural unity, and desires for political advantage, legislators pushed to institute new pledge mandates or defend existing ones without substantive consideration of their impact on students and schools. While the full impact of these laws has not yet been seen, some students have experienced harsh discipline and bullying due to pledge mandates, school personnel have needed to negotiate constitutionally questionable state law, and legislative persistence has yielded political victories and also resulted in an 11th Circuit-endorsed qualification of students’ civil liberties regarding compelled pledging. Using historical methods, this dissertation examines efforts to mandate and/or enforce pledging primarily following 9/11. Case-study locations include Minnesota, which experienced a three-year battle over its mandate legislation; Colorado, which attempted to curtail opt-out rights of both students and teachers; and Pennsylvania and Florida, both of which undertook court cases to protect state laws that constrained students’ rights to freedom of expression regarding the pledge. In designing this study, I expected mandate supporters to be advocating a form of civic education labeled by scholar Joel Westheimer as "authoritarian patriotism" and mandate opponents to be advocating a different form of civic education, labeled by Westheimer as "democratic patriotism." I assumed the debate over mandated pledging would largely be a debate over the best form of civic education that was already occurring in schools. While echoes of these debates occasionally occurred, legislators rarely addressed the educational aspects of this issue or its relationship to citizenship development. Instead, legislators emphasized broader concerns about threats to the culture and unity of the nation and focused frequently on gaining political advantage. In essence, little consideration was given to the effects of these laws on students and schools; instead, these legislative debates and laws served more as symbolic ammunition in what other scholars have identified as the "culture wars.” / Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice

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The Ku Klux Klan has been active in North America for 139 years and organizations like the Klan have existed in North America since before the United States and Canada became independent nations. The white supremacy advocated by the Klan mimics the justifications used by colonial powers, and though the United States and Canada have espoused egalitarian ideals for quite some time, the Klan continues to attract members. Mircea Eliade and Claude Levi-Strauss have argued that history and myth share many characteristics, and that sometimes history can act as myth. Understanding how North American history can be a mythic model for the religious formation of North American people one can better explain the long-term viability of the Klan and its ability not only to inspire violence, but to articulate a particular kind of white North American identity. This study examines how the religiosity and action of the Klan has been informed by mytho-historical influences in the United States and Canada and, consequently, how these influences affect other people formed in this context.

This dissertation examines the historical progression of the Rush-Bagot Agreement through the fundamental change versus transitory modernization debate that has emerged in North America as a result of the reorganization of continental security and defence since 2001. The Agreement, which was signed by Britain and the United States in 1817 and subsequently embraced by Canada upon its independence, has acted as a stable measure of the security and defence relationship on the continent throughout its entire history. It has persisted through nearly two centuries of industrialization, expansionism, war, and modernization, and remains relevant in governing security and defence relations on the Great Lakes. By tracing the development of this Agreement and relations on the Lakes through previous periods of continental and international discord, this paper suggests that the changes to continental security and defence since 2001 represent little more than the refurbishing of relations to address a new threat, and thus are consistent with past defence modernizations during periods of continental vulnerability.

Canadian-American relations between 1964 and 1968 were dominated by the Vietnam War in the foreign policy arena. The title of my thesis reflects the respective roles Canada and America assumed in Vietnam throughout the period under examination. President Lyndon Johnson reluctantly fought a war in Vietnam that continuously overshadowed his vision for far reaching domestic reform embodied in his Great Society Program. Canada, never a troop contributor, had maintained a diplomatic presence in Indochina on the International Control Commissions established by the 1954 Geneva Accords. Canada continued in this capacity throughout the conflict, consistently seeking a negotiated settlement, while maintaining its national image as a middle-power, peace-maker in the Cold War. My thesis examines these national roles and how they complimented or more usually combated each other. While Canada's and America's Vietnam policies forms the core of my thesis, I also examine the impact these policies had on Canadian-American relations generally.

The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project, built cooperatively between 1954 and 1959 by Canada and the United States, is the largest navigable inland waterway in the world and the largest borderlands project ever undertaken jointly by two countries. This thesis combines diplomatic, political, and environmental history to chart the course of domestic and international negotiations, particularly in the 1945-1954 period, that resulted in the bilateral 1954 agreement to build the seaway. The focus is on the Canadian federal government and to a lesser extent the U.S. federal government, as well as involved state and provincial governments and their public power utilities. These negotiations are extremely revealing in terms of the history of Canadian-American relations, and this thesis also examines issues connected to North American attitudes toward water resources, state-building, high modernism, and technology in the early Cold War period. After a number of failed attempts at a cooperative waterway, in the late 1940s the Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent began to explore the possibility of an all-Canadian seaway, and backed by widespread public support, had adopted this as policy by 1952. The drive for an all-Canadian seaway stemmed from various forms of nationalism which framed the St. Lawrence as an exclusively "Canadian" resource that was intimately tied to Canadian identity. However, the Truman administration and different American interests deemed a unilateral Canadian waterway to be an economic and national security threat to the United States, and delayed the requisite power licenses needed for Canada to undertake the transborder St. Lawrence project. Canada partly contributed to this situation by repeatedly making vague offers to leave the door open project. The Eisenhower administration also stalled Ottawa's efforts to "go it alone" until American participation was finally sanctioned by Congress in 1954 and the requisite licenses were granted. The St. Laurent government then reluctantly acquiesced to the American desire for a joint endeavour in order to maintain harmonious Canada-U.S. relations, although Canada did extract key concessions from Washington about the shape and placement of the project.

Edward C. Fritz was one of the most influential environmentalists in Texas history. Although he took a circuitous route to environmental activism, Fritz evolved into a powerful force fighting on behalf of Texan nature. Participating in substantial actions throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Fritz's contributions to environmental activism resulted in the successful preservation of thousands of acres and multiple wildlife species. Fritz parlayed his legal background into effective activism, beginning his career with a successful lobbying campaign for protection of Harris Hawks. He led the campaign to stop a decades old plan for canalization of the Trinity River. The creation of COST combined Fritz's environmental focus with the concerns of economic conservatives to prevent a billion dollar government funded project that would have significantly altered the river. Fritz then led a cadre who took over efforts to establish a preserve in the Big Thicket national forest. He oversaw the foundation of a protected area far larger than original expectations, capitalizing on the growing awareness of environmental issues in the 1970s. Fritz's interest in the Big Thicket led to a fight against the Forest Service's practice of clearcutting and its effect on Red Cockaded Woodpeckers. Through litigation and legislation, Fritz fostered a grassroots movement aimed at reforming management of the national forests, saw the establishment of the state's first wilderness, and saved the declining population of the woodpeckers. For his tireless approach and lifelong achievements, Fritz was given the title of "Father of Texas Conservation."