This thesis examines the dynamic change the market revolution had on social and cultural institutions in the American West. Specifically, it investigates how market forces influenced rural life patterns for farmers, urban mercantile culture and regional commercial interests. Davenport, Iowa is the focus for the narrative’s hinge, as this midsized western marketplace represented a link between its farmers and the regional markets in Chicago. This project uses wheat and the prairie region in antebellum Iowa and Illinois as a case study and examines the cultural and social development of farmers and merchants in the marketplace. Following wheat from farm to market, both locally and regionally, helps to explain how Americans understood the commodity at each economic level. Time and place were central to the American West's economic, social, and cultural development and this thesis considers just a moment in its history. A intersect of rural, agricultural, technological, and environmental histories are at the project's core, but it also attempts to make sense of frontier capitalism and the ramifications it had on farming and the grain industry. The market revolution gradually influenced and shaped the nation’s agricultural economy and the people that preformed its labor and production. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar como os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001 foram representados em uma série de histórias em quadrinhos (HQs) do Capitão América, escrita por John Ney Rieber e desenhada por John Cassaday, publicadas entre junho e dezembro de 2002, nos EUA. Essas HQs dialogam com diversos problemas que incomodavam a sociedade norte-americana no período pós-atentados como, por exemplo, os sentimentos de medo, insegurança, vingança e a recém-lançada Guerra ao Terror. Estes são discutidos e interpretados, partindo de dois pontos de vista diferentes, o do Capitão América e o dos terroristas, ou seja, as HQs procuraram expor as justificativas dos dois lados envolvidos. Elas expõem diversas críticas às ações bélicas dos Estados Unidos e também dos terroristas e têm um forte caráter pacifista. Além disso, divulgam uma mensagem de esperança pautada nas ideias do Sonho Americano, que deve ser entendido como uma força de união e mobilização nacional, visando à superação de todos os problemas causados pelos atentados de 11 de setembro / This study aims to analyze how the attacks of September 11, 2001 were represented in a series of Captain America comics, written by John Ney Rieber and drawn by John Cassaday, published between June and December 2002 in USA. These comics dialogue with various problems that bothered the American society in the post-attack period, for example, the feelings of fear, insecurity, revenge and the newly launched War on Terror. These are discussed and interpreted, from two different points of view, that of Captain America and the terrorists, in other words, the comics sought to expose the reasons on both sides involved. They expose several criticisms of the military actions of the United States and also the terrorists and have a strong pacifist character. Moreover, disseminate a message of hope ruled by ideas of the American Dream, which must be understood as a force for unity and national mobilization, aimed at overcoming all the problems caused by the September 11 attacks

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar como os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001 foram representados em uma série de histórias em quadrinhos (HQs) do Capitão América, escrita por John Ney Rieber e desenhada por John Cassaday, publicadas entre junho e dezembro de 2002, nos EUA. Essas HQs dialogam com diversos problemas que incomodavam a sociedade norte-americana no período pós-atentados como, por exemplo, os sentimentos de medo, insegurança, vingança e a recém-lançada Guerra ao Terror. Estes são discutidos e interpretados, partindo de dois pontos de vista diferentes, o do Capitão América e o dos terroristas, ou seja, as HQs procuraram expor as justificativas dos dois lados envolvidos. Elas expõem diversas críticas às ações bélicas dos Estados Unidos e também dos terroristas e têm um forte caráter pacifista. Além disso, divulgam uma mensagem de esperança pautada nas ideias do Sonho Americano, que deve ser entendido como uma força de união e mobilização nacional, visando à superação de todos os problemas causados pelos atentados de 11 de setembro / This study aims to analyze how the attacks of September 11, 2001 were represented in a series of Captain America comics, written by John Ney Rieber and drawn by John Cassaday, published between June and December 2002 in USA. These comics dialogue with various problems that bothered the American society in the post-attack period, for example, the feelings of fear, insecurity, revenge and the newly launched War on Terror. These are discussed and interpreted, from two different points of view, that of Captain America and the terrorists, in other words, the comics sought to expose the reasons on both sides involved. They expose several criticisms of the military actions of the United States and also the terrorists and have a strong pacifist character. Moreover, disseminate a message of hope ruled by ideas of the American Dream, which must be understood as a force for unity and national mobilization, aimed at overcoming all the problems caused by the September 11 attacks

This thesis explores the complexities of race relations in the nineteenth century American West. The groups considered here are African Americans, Anglo Americans, Chinese, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans. In recent decades historians of the West have begun to tell the narratives of racial minorities. This study adopts the aims of these scholars through a new lens--music. Ultimately, this thesis argues that historians can use music, both individual songs and broader conceptions about music, to understand the complex and contradictory race relations of the nineteenth century west. Proceeding thematically, the first chapter explores the ways Anglo Americans used music to exert their dominance and defend their superiority over minorities. The second chapter examines the ways racial minorities used music to counter Anglo American dominance and exercise their own agency. The final chapter considers the ways in which music fostered peaceful and cooperative relationships between races. Following each chapter is a short interlude which discusses the musical innovations that occurred when the groups encountered the musical heritage of one another. This study demonstrates that music is an underutilized resource for historical analysis. It helps make comprehensible the complicated relations between races. By demonstrating the relevance of music to the history of race relations, this thesis also suggests that music as a historical subject is ripe for further analysis.

The myth of the West is still very much alive in contemporary America. Lately, there has been a resurgence of new Western movies, TV series, and fiction. Until recently the West has been the exclusive domain of the quintessential masculine man. Women characters have featured only in the margins of the Western hero's tale. Contemporary Western fiction by women, however, offers new perspectives. Women's writing about the Old and New West introduces strong female protagonists and gives voice to characters that are muted or ignored by traditional Western literature and history. Western scholarship has largely been polarized by two approaches. First, the myth and symbol school of Turner, Smith, and followers celebrated American exceptionalism and rugged male individualism on the Western frontier. Second, the reaction against these theories draws attention to the West's legacy of racism, sexism and violence. The purpose of the present study is to collapse these theoretical fences and open a dialogue between conflicting theoretical positions and contemporay Western fiction. Molly Gloss's 1989 The Jump-Off Creek and Karen Joy Fowler's 1991 Sarah Canary selfcritically re-write the Old West. This study has attempted to explore the following questions: How can one re-write history in the context of a postmodern culture? How can "woman," the quintessential "Other" escape a modernist history (and thus avoid charges of essentialism) when she has not been in this history to begin with? In this study I analyze how these two contemporary feminist authors, Molly Gloss, and Karen Joy Fowler, face the dual challenge of writing themselves into a history that has traditionally excluded them, while at the same time deconstructing this very historical concept of the West. Fowler's and Gloss's use of diverse narrative strategies to upset a monolithic concept of history-- emphasizing the importance of multiple stories of the Old West-- is discussed in detail.

Between 1960 and 1968 the United States conducted intensive psychological operations (PSYOP) in Vietnam. To date, no comprehensive study of the psychological war there has been conducted. This dissertation fills that void, describing the development of American PSYOP forces and their employment in Vietnam. By looking at the complex interplay of American, North Vietnamese, National Liberation Front (NLF) and South Vietnamese propaganda programs, a deeper understanding of these activities and the larger war emerges. The time period covered is important because it comprises the initial introduction of American PSYOP advisory forces and the transition to active participation in the war. It also allows enough time to determine the long-term effects of both the North Vietnamese/NLF and American/South Vietnamese programs. Ending with the 1968 Tet Offensive is fitting because it marks both a major change in the war and the establishment of the 4th Psychological Operations Group to manage the American PSYOP effort. This dissertation challenges the argument that the Northern/Viet Cong program was much more effective that the opposing one. Contrary to common perceptions, the North Vietnamese propaganda increasingly fell on deaf ears in the south by 1968. This study also provides support for understanding the Tet Offensive as a desperate gamble born out of knowledge the tide of war favored the Allies by mid-1967. The trend was solidly towards the government and the NLF increasingly depended on violence to maintain control. The American PSYOP forces went to Vietnam with little knowledge of the history and culture of Vietnam or experience conducting psychological operations in a counterinsurgency. As this dissertation demonstrates, despite these drawbacks, they had considerable success in the period covered. Although facing an experienced enemy in the psychological war, the U.S. forces made great strides in advising, innovating techniques, and developing equipment. I rely extensively on untapped sources such as the Foreign Broadcast Information Service transcripts, Captured Document Exploitation Center files, and access to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Archives. Additionally, I have digitized databases such as the Hamlet Evaluation System and Terrorist Incident Reporting System for Geographic Information System software analysis. The maps provide examples of the possibilities available to the historian using these datasets.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 260 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-256).

In this thesis, I argue that twenty-first century American war films are constructed in dialogue with the past, repurposing earlier forms of war representation by evoking the visual and narrative memory of the past that is embedded in genre form—what Mikhail Bakhtin calls 'genre memory.' Comparing post-9/11 war films with Vietnam War films, my project examines how contemporary war films envision war's impact on culture and social space, explore how war refashions ideas about race and national identity, and re-imagine war's rewriting of the human psyche. My research expands on earlier research and departs from traditional approaches to the war film genre by locating the American Civil War at the origin of this genre memory, and, in doing so, argues that nineteenth century documentation of the Civil War serves as a rehearsal for the twentieth and twenty-first century war film. Constructed in explicit relation to the Vietnam film, I argue that post-9/11 war films rehearse the history of war representation in American culture while also emphasizing the radically different culture of the present day. Rather than representing a departure from past forms of war representation, as has been argued by many theorists, I show that contemporary American war films can be seen as the latest chapter in a long history of reimagining American military and cultural history in pictorial and narrative form.

This dissertation is a study of the subassistant commissioners of the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas from late 1865 to late 1868. Its focus is two-fold. It first examines who these men were. Were they northern born or southern? Did they own slaves? Were these men rich, poor, or from the middle-class? Did they have military experience or were they civilians? How old was the average subassistant commissioner in Texas? This work will answer what man Freedmen's Bureau officials deemed qualified to transition the former slave from bondage to freedom. Secondly, in conjunction with these questions, this work will examine the day-to-day operations of the Bureau agents in Texas, chronicling those aspects endemic to all agents as well as those unique to certain subdistricts. The demand of being a Bureau agent was immense, requiring long hours in the office fielding questions and long hours in the saddle inspecting subdistricts. In essence, their work advising, protecting, and educating the freedmen was a never ending one. The records of the Freedmen's Bureau, both the records for headquarters and the subassistant commissioners, serve as the main sources, but numerous newspapers, Texas state official correspondences, and military records proved helpful. Immense amounts of information arrived at Bureau headquarters from field personnel. This work relies heavily on reports and letters in the Bureau agents' own words. This dissertation follows a chronological approach, following the various Bureau administrations in Texas. I believe this approach allows the reader to better glimpse events as they happened.

"The Great Hanging" is a documentary film that tells the story of the largest extra-legal mass hanging in U.S. History. This story is told through stage play recital of "October Mourning" written by historian and professor Dr. Pat Ledbetter. Using the stage play as a vehicle, the film showcases cinematic re-enactments based in the events in Gainesville, Texas during October 1862. These events show how a small community became overwhelmed by the fog of war and delved into madness as the Civil War crept closer and closer to their doorstep.