To many Americans Duncan Hines (1880-1959) is just a name on a cake mix package. Few would suspect that in the 1940s and 1950s Duncan Hines was the most trusted name in the food industry. In the early twentieth century Hines was a traveling salesman of printing wares who was keenly interested in discovering safe places to eat during the course of his business excursions. He eventually became well-known among the public for his specialized knowledge of the locations of superior dining facilities. In 1936 he began publishing this information annually in a restaurant guide. By the end of the decade, Hines had become the best known and most trusted dining authority in America. Hines used his influence to reform the restaurant industry, particularly in the area of sanitation. In an era when Americans dined out infrequently, Hines popularized the idea that Americans should eat more of their meals outside the home. He also shaped the American expectation that dining out should be seen as a form of entertainment. For a host of reasons, the experience of the Second World War expanded his influence throughout America. After World War II researchers discovered that in all matters of food-not just restaurants-housewives trusted Hines more than any other authority. This discovery led Hines to form a partnership with businessman Roy Park. Together they established Hines-Park Foods, which eventually distributed over two-hundred Duncan Hines products. The company was highly successful and was purchased by the Procter and Gamble Corporation in 1956, leaving Duncan Hines a lasting legacy, if in name only.

As a railroad executive for the Louisville and Nashville and then publisher for the Nashville Banner, Edward Bushrod Stahlman, a German immigrant, made many enemies. Stahlman's constant feuding with Luke Lea, who owned the rival Nashville Tennessean, led to an investigation of his citizenship during World War I. Hatred of Germans was at a fever pitch and not only did the Department of Justice examine Stahlman, who actually had been naturalized as a child, but the Tennessean also accused him of being a German propagandist. This thesis serves as an example of the scrutiny German-Americans underwent during the war. Organizations such as the American Protective League harassed him, too. Based primarily on Department of Justice files and newspaper accounts, the thesis also gives a brief biography of Stahlman and survey of Nashville and Tennessee politics during the first twenty years of the twentieth century.

While this thesis focuses almost entirely on the German-American experience in late-antebellum Kentucky, it will, from time to time, make comparisons to immigrants elsewhere in America, especially the Irish. In addition, the thesis will explore the rich story of the strengths and weaknesses, the harmony and divisiveness, and the moderation and radicalism of Kentucky's German-born settlers. The question of cultural assimilation among immigrant groups has frequently fascinated social historians. One of the central themes of inquiry continues to be the relative speed with which various early arriving groups blend into mainstream American society, losing their former culture while making their own distinctive cultural contributions to the new society.1 Regarding the Germans specifically, historian Kathleen Neils Conzen has produced some superb work in recent years on the subject of ethnicity and assimilation.2 In a seminal article, Conzen poses the question: "How did so highly structured and sophisticated an ethnic culture disappear so completely?"3 This thesis will try to shed light on the beginning of that process using the microcosm of Kentucky's antebellum experience with German immigrants.

The present work investigates the often cited, but poorly supported, notion that Founding Father George Mason was a wealthy, slave-owning Virginian who vehemently opposed slavery. Utilizing Mason's state papers, letters, and other documents, as well as contemporaries' accounts of his speeches, this work will analyze those records' contextual construction, and it will deconstruct both Mason's written and spoken words and his actions and inactions relative to slavery. The goal of this effort is to determine whether Mason, who ostensibly played such an instrumental role in the development of the "rights" of Americans, and who remained a slaveholder—thereby trampling the rights of others—was truly opposed to slavery. Included in this work are chapters relating to the development of chattel slavery in the Tidewater, Virginia region from its inception and to the Mason family's mounting economic and political prominence, particularly the role of slaves in their attainment of that prominence. Two chapters analyze Mason's state papers, his writings on public matters, his public speeches, and other related material with a view towards determining their nexus with slavery and his role in their development. The final chapter focuses narrowly on Mason's personal relationship with slavery, and it includes both Mason's documents and his personal actions, with his documented actions concerning his own slaves meriting special attention. A portion of the chapter compares and contrasts Mason, Washington, and Jefferson on the matter of slave manumission. The argument is made that despite his consequential role in the development of some of America's revered founding documents, relative to his more prominent Virginia political peers, George Mason has garnered on rudimentary evaluation from the collective pens of more than two centuries of historians. Not only has Mason largely missed the genuine accolades befitting a Founding Father, some historians have simply ignored the contradictions of Mason's slave owning and his presumed abhorrence of slavery. Others have offered little more than a passing mention of Mason's slaveryrelated conundrum. Some have noted his slave-holding status, but then mistakenly considered anti-slavery and anti-slave trade as fungible positions and then proceeded to extol Mason's abhorrence of, and fight against, chattel slavery. Still others have claimed the institution was simply an unwelcome legacy entailed upon him. Mason, as an historical subject, stands under-reported, under-analyzed, often embellished, and generally carelessly considered. In spite of the effusive hyperbole of some Mason historians, this thesis argues Mason's apparently strong condemnations of the slave trade and of slavery were themselves strongly nuanced, and his actions (and, perhaps more importantly, his inactions) toward his own slaves run counter to the conclusive judgment of Mason as a slavery opponent. Nevertheless, Mason's statements and political actions—however tepid, and however nuanced—represent important work against the pernicious problem of slavery by a thoughtful, respected, and politically well-positioned Founding Father. This work will demonstrate Mason was likely neither the prescient anti-slavery advocate, as he is generally regarded among historians, nor fully a self-serving demagogue. Indeed, the definitive judgment of George Mason as a slave owning, Virginia planter, and Founding Father who served as a slavery opponent remains elusive.

This study examines the importance of transportation routes and internal improvements as factors in treaty negotiations and the removal of the Cherokees. Covering a period from approximately 1779 to 1838, the date of forced Cherokee removal from east of the Mississippi, it argues that the Cherokees opposed the construction of military roads and turnpikes and interfered with travel through Cherokee country. Safe passage clauses in Cherokee treaties, issues dealing with passports through Cherokee country, and disputes over ferries and taverns on transportation routes are reviewed. The plans of Southern leaders such as John C. Calhoun and Wilson Lumpkin to build canals and railroads through the Cherokee Nation are explored. Euro-Americans perceived the Cherokee Nation as an obstacle to economic trade and commercial transportation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 253-266). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Raymond E. Franck, John E. Mutty. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-74). Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.