This dissertation is an analysis of the history of the modern bilingual education movement of the 1960s, the older bilingual tradition of schooling in this nation since the nineteenth century, and the early to middle years of the twentieth century when English-Only pedagogy appeared as a, dramatic aberration to the American bilingual tradition. The historiography and interpretive battles of this subject are examined and explained in the Introduction. Chapter One offers a brief historical sketch of bilingual schooling in Texas during the nineteenth century. Chapter Two evaluates the role of the Progressive Education Movement in Texas and the destruction of the long-held practice of bilingual schooling. Chapters Three through Five demonstrate the influence of the Americanization Movement in Texas, the practice of English-only pedagogy, and the role of intelligence testing in the education of Mexican Americans. Chapter Six examines the developments in language instruction during World War II and the post-war changes in pedagogy. Chapter Seven analyzes the Mexican American response to the English-only language policies of Texas and relates that response to the community's sense of cultural identity. Finally, Chapter Eight documents the birth in the 1960s of the official bilingual education movement. This study has several important implications for the controversial issue of bilingual education and the study of education in American history. Too often, the judgments of respected historians and the opinions of nativists virtually agree on the same assumptions and complaints regarding bilingual education. This is largely because historians have neglected to write the history of bilingual education and the development of public school language policy and pedagogy. This work, largely through the case study of Texas offers a glimpse of bilingual instruction that demonstrates its former rich acceptance and widely disseminated practice in everyday American life. The bilingual tradition was not an aberration; rather, the more recent practice of English-only is the true fluke in American education history. With this massive reorientation in historical conceptualization, perhaps attitudes regarding modern bilingual instruction can become more reflective and sophisticated, and less based on misinformation and passion. Also, the tolerance, spirit of democratic localism, and implicit multiculturalism inherent in the practice of bilingual instruction all offer new ways in which to view the American past, causing a re-evaluation of the validity of the American melting-pot metaphor, the traditional myth arguing for rapid and relatively painless immigrant assimilation.

<p> After the United States entered World War II, the nation began a technical assistance program and a military aid program in Paraguay as part of its Latin American foreign policy. The U.S. rooted its technical assistance program in an idealized narrative of U.S. agricultural history, in which land-grant colleges and the agricultural reforms of the New Deal had contributed to prosperity and democracy. The extension of this American Way to other countries would strengthen prosperity, encourage democratic reforms, and prevent fascist and Communist subversion. The U.S. also extended military aid to Paraguay to draw Paraguay's military away from its fascist sympathies. Over the next twelve years, policymakers debated the relationship between technical assistance and military aid, their effects on Paraguay, and their compatibility with U.S. foreign policy. Initially, U.S. policymakers saw the programs as mutually reinforcing. By the mid-1950s, however, the promise of agrarian democracy remained unfulfilled in Paraguay.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines the role of the Federal Reserve System in the formation and conduct of American foreign relations between the Second World War and the Korean War. Specifically, it seeks to understand why Fed officials willingly subordinated monetary policy to the priorities of war finance during the former conflict, but actively fought for greater policy autonomy during the latter. Using a constructivist bureaucratic politics approach it examines how American central bankers understood the economic and political implications of both domestic and international policy developments. Drawing upon the perceived lessons of the interwar years, Fed officials believed that economic prosperity was a critical feature of a stable and peaceful international system. At the same time, however, they believed the situation was more complicated than a simplistic causal relationship whereby greater domestic growth resulted in greater international peace and prosperity. Instead, central bankers recognized that events in either the domestic or international political or economic arenas, if improperly handled, threatened to upset the delicate balance between prosperity and peace. The belief in these fundamental interconnections, while often not explicitly expressed, provided a coherent and logical guide to Fed policy, during the era, informing many of its internal debates and positions. This dissertation, therefore, represents the first attempt to understand the role of the American This dissertation examines the role of the Federal Reserve System in the formation and conduct of American foreign relations between the Second World War and the Korean War. Specifically, it seeks to understand why Fed officials willingly subordinated monetary policy to the priorities of war finance during the former conflict, but actively fought for greater policy autonomy during the latter. Using a constructivist bureaucratic politics approach to foreign policy analysis it examines how American central bankers understood the economic and political implications of both domestic and international policy developments. Drawing upon the perceived lessons of the interwar years, Fed officials believed that economic prosperity was a critical feature of a stable and peaceful international system. At the same time, however, they believed the situation was more complicated than a simplistic causal relationship whereby greater domestic growth resulted in greater international peace and prosperity. Instead, central bankers recognized that events in either the domestic or international political or economic arenas, if improperly handled, threatened to upset the delicate balance between prosperity and peace. The belief in these fundamental interconnections, while often not explicitly expressed, provided a coherent and logical guide to Fed policy, during the era, informing many of its internal debates and positions. This dissertation, therefore, represents the first attempt to understand the role of the American Federal Reserve System as an active participant in foreign policy-making, including its involvement in the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, as well as discussions over the 1946 British Loan, and the Marshall Plan. Additionally, this study bridges the gap between domestic and foreign affairs, demonstrating the critical interrelationships between those two areas. </p>

<p> This dissertation explores the concerns and discussions about lessons of Irish identity for the children of Irish immigrants in mid to late nineteenth-century New York and New England. The author argues that there were recurrent efforts to maintain Irish identity by ensuring the young would understand their Irish and Catholic heritage and that adults often based this identity on the themes of Irish nationalism. Yet Irish-Americans understood that they had to demonstrate Irish loyalty to the United States, so they attempted to blend Irish and American identities in their progeny, articulating an early vision of cultural pluralism for American society. This research contributes to understandings of the invention of ethnicity and ethnic endurance in the United States and how immigrants use conceptions of the meaning of "American" with their national backgrounds as they create identities for their descendants. This dissertation also illuminates the importance of children and ideas about childhood to the development of ethnicity in the United States. But it also has broader meanings for the ways in which religion, ethnicity, and nationality affect the transition of immigrant progeny from the world of their parents to that of the United States and how the children of immigrants eventually become American ethnic groups.</p>

Like many institutions of high education throughout the United States, the University of North Texas requires all students to pass introductory United States History courses. While the purpose of these courses should be to create a population well versed in U.S. history and sociopolitical and economic context, the foundational textbooks utilized in these courses promote American exceptionalism and U.S. supremacy. Their omission of the complex and controversial history of the United States creates a false master narrative based on an idealized version of U.S. history. Even textbooks that include diversity continue to uphold a progressive master narrative that ignores issues of systemic racism, sexism, and homophobia. My theoretical analysis of the required textbooks, Exploring American Histories: A Survey with Sources, is applicable to all introductory U.S. history textbooks. Decolonialism, critical race, and intersectional feminism are theoretical lenses that disentangle and highlight otherwise invisible aspects of American exceptionalism and the serious consequences of the subjugation of subaltern historical narratives. This thesis applies theory with examples of how textbooks or supplemental teaching can expose foundational oppression, violence, and discrimination to teach students critical thinking and help them see connections between the past and their present.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2529. Adviser: R. Barry Lewis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-215) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Southern California, 2005. / (UnM)AAI3219852. Adviser: Steven J. Ross. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2281.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 2006. / (UMI)AAI3254008. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0741. Advisers: Neil Fligstein; Trond Petersen.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1938. Adviser: James D. Anderson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-155) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4334. Adviser: Kimberly Shinew. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-198) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.