The goal of this thesis is to advance understanding of the ways in which discourses of reading, literacy and culture were used to reify class stratification in mid-twentieth-century America. This project uses the examples of The Reader’s Digest magazine and Classics Illustrated comic books to assess the adaptation and the ideologies surrounding textual form. It examines the efforts of self-proclaimed cultural elites to identify and denigrate middlebrow reading habits through dismissive critiques of texts and audiences as one moment in an on-going historical process of domination and exclusion. These avenues of exploration will reveal the complexity and variance of class definition in a pluralist democracy which, it turns out, are still very much a part of contemporary culture. [Pages 101 and 102 are missing.) / Le but de cette thèse est de faire progresser la connaissance des manières dont les contexts discursifs de la lecture, de l’alphabétisation et de la culture étaient utilisés en Amérique, au milieu du vingtième siècle, afin de réifier la stratification sociale. Des exemples tels que la revue The Reader ‘s Digest et la bande dessinée Classics Illustrated seront utilisés, dans ce projet, pour illustrer l’adaptation et les idéologies autour de la forme textuelle. Cet ouvrage examine comment ceux qui proclamés par eux-mêmes élites culturelles, ont tenté d’identifier et de dénigrer les habitudes de lecture du lecteur moyen par des critiques dédaigneuses des textes et du public, en un procédé historique persistant de domination et d’exclusion. Ces voies d’exploration révèleront la complexité et la diversité des définitions du concept de classes à l’intérieur d’une démocratie pluraliste, lesquelles, somme toute, cotinuent de faire partie intégrante de la culture contemporaine. [Il manque de pages 101 et 102.]

This dissertation examines Richard Owen Roberts’s (1931-) life and ministry to present his theology of revival. Chapter 1 examines the need for clarity in the topic of revival for the church today. It discusses my background in the topic area, and the process which guided the study. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the research questions explored during the research and writing process of this dissertation. Chapter 2 contains a biography of the significant points of Roberts’s life and ministry. It presents some background of the time period in which he grew up, his early childhood, conversion, call to ministry, family life, preaching and bookstore ministries, and his legacy. A personal interview provides the content and support for the chapter. Chapter 3 surveys Roberts’s published works and sermons to develop a complete theology of revival. In particular it examines his teachings on the following topics as the topic relates to revival: definitions, God, man, conversion, the church, the community, results, hindrances, and true revival. Through the study of these areas the reader is presented with a thorough examination of Roberts’s theology of revival. Chapter 4 focuses on two significant connection points that Roberts has made in his ministry in revival—repentance and history. The chapter explores how and why Roberts has made these two connections. It examines his publications and teachings on the topics to demonstrate that from Roberts’s perspective one cannot have revival without repentance. Additionally, his ministry demonstrates that the church is best equipped for revival by examining the ways in which God has moved among his people in the past. Chapter 5 demonstrates the need for Roberts’s theology of revival in the church today. It examines the shift that the church underwent in its understanding and practices of revival over the last century and a half, and it discusses how Roberts’s understanding of revival can bring helpful changes in this area. The chapter concludes with some critique of Roberts’s theology and practice of ministry. Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation with final thoughts on Roberts’s theology of revival and its impact on the church. It also includes with several areas in which further study of Roberts and revival could be undertaken by other researchers.

Using a combination of public institutional records and private personal records, this thesis explores how a newly emerging America constructed its ideas of physical disability in the era of the War for Independence. In the colonies, physical disability never stood alone as an independent category of difference, but was anchored in discourses of poverty and morality. However, the tumultuous events that occurred during the period 177 5 to 1818 forced this developing nation to confront physical disability to an extent that had not previously been required. The result was a conceptual and legislative shift, which caused the understanding of physical disability to be fundamentally redefined and become something identifiable in its own right. To analyse how, and why, this happened, this thesis looks at the public, cultural discourse of disability through this period, and examines the legal developments and the lived experiences that were occurring alongside it. By considering how disability was used in public commentaries to allegorise the split with Britain, it highlights the complicated environment and conceptual tumult which faced disabled Revolutionary War veterans on their return. Analysis of the trajectory of disability pension legislation suggests an infant nation testing the waters with early welfare programmes, often with limited success. However, these early initiatives were the progenitors of the first. national pension program. These developments created a distinct legal construction of disability that was seemingly at odds with the negative representation of disability in the public arena and, through medical and legal classifications, created a more formal platform for the conceptualisation of disability to emerge. To complement the institutional perspective, this thesis explores the lives of 523 disabled Revolutionary War veterans, using information they gave in their applications for a disability pension. This experiential approach expounds the ways in which disability was managed, how it shaped - and was shaped by - pre-existing expectations of gender roles, and how these experiences were often determined by class. Pertinent topics include family life, work life, and the ways in which veterans understood and employed their identities as disabled pensioners. Unlike the post-Civil War period a Revolutionary War disability never became the symbol of patriotism and bravery that the empty sleeve of the Civil War amputee did. Using the experiences of disabled former Revolutionary servicemen and contrasting this with the public discourse and national memory of the war, this thesis presents the reasons why this was the case.

The development of American liberty and war songs from a few themes during the pre-Revolutionary period to a distinct form of American popular music in the Civil War period reflects the growth of many aspects of American culture and thought. This study therefore treats as historical documents the songs published in newspapers, broadsides, and songbooks during the period from 1765 to 1865. Chapter One briefly summarizes the development of American popular music before 1765 and provides other introductory material. Chapter Two examines the origin and development of the first liberty-song themes in the period from 1765 to 1775. Chapters Three and Four cover songs written during the American Revolution. Chapter Three describes battle songs, emphasizing the use of humor, and Chapter Four examines the figures treated in the war song. Chapter Five covers the War of 1812, concentrating on the naval song, and describes the first use of dialect in the American war song. Chapter Six covers the Mexican War (1846-1848) and includes discussion of the aggressive American attitude toward the war as evidenced in song. Chapter Six also examines the first antiwar songs. Chapters Seven and Eight deal with the Civil War. Chapter Seven treats derivative war songs, including "Dixie" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Chapter Eight treats prominent composers of popular war songs during the Civil War: Stephen F. Foster, George F. Root, and Henry Clay Work. Chapter Nine concludes the study with observations on the development of war songs from 1765 to 1865.

Historical studies of Theodore Roosevelt's views about labor and labor unions are in conflict. This was also true of contemporary disagreements about the meaning of his labor rhetoric and actions. The uncertainties revolve around whether or not he was sincere in his support of working people and labor unions, whether his words and actions were political only or were based on a philosophical foundation, and why he did not propose comprehensive labor policies. Roosevelt historiography has addressed these questions without considering his stated admiration for Octave Thanet's writings about "labor problems." Octave Thanet was the pseudonym of Alice French, a popular fiction writer during Roosevelt's adult years. Roosevelt on several occasions praised her knowledge of factory conditions and discussions of labor problems, and he invited her to the White House. The thesis analyzes her labor stories, Roosevelt's comments about her labor writings, and their relevance to how he responded to the growth and tactics of organized labor. It also addresses the influence on Roosevelt of contemporary writing on labor unions by John Hay, Henry George, and Herbert Croly, as well as his relationship with labor leader Samuel Gompers. The thesis concludes that Roosevelt was sincere about improving the social and industrial conditions of workers, primarily through government action. It further concludes that his support of labor unions in principle was genuine, but was contingent on organized labor's repudiation of violence and attempts to justify violence; and that he opposed union boycotts and mandatory union membership as inimical to his vision of a classless society. The thesis additionally considers the extent to which Roosevelt's views were embodied in national labor legislation after his death.

During the period of the late 1920s through the late 1940s, a most remarkable event in the history of American social work emerged: the development of a vital radical trade union organizing effort known as the ''rank and file movement." Born within the growing economic crisis of the 1920s and maturing in the national economic collapse and social upheaval heralded by the Great Depression, the rank and file movement would attract the support and membership of thousands of professional social workers and uncredentialed relief workers in efforts to organize social service workers along the lines of industrial unionism. Within its relatively short life span, the rank and file movement would grow in sufficient number and influence to challenge both the prevailing definitions of social work as a profession - its form and identity and the essence of its function - its practice. It is the thesis of this study that an understanding of the rank and file movement is central to a modem understanding of our profession. The origin, development and demise of the rank and file movement reflects more than the historical curiosity of a momentary tendency in the evolution of a profession; rather, it reveals the enduring legacy of individuals, organizations and collective intellectual discourse in common struggle for the possibilities of a more just and democratic social order. And, perhaps unlike any other profession, the domain of social work is historically one uniquely born of this struggle, encompassing the self-imposed imperatives and paradoxes of morality, socially purposive service and scientific rationality. Consequently, this study seeks to inform the terms of this enduring legacy within the dynamic world of social work. It does so by: 1) locating the history of the rank and file movement within the context of an evolving profession; 2) analyzing this specific history of a profession within the context of broader social and political forces that defined both the limits and potentials of that evolution; and 3) assessing the implications of this history for social work in terms of its past, present and future.

Wilderness Rivers explores America's treatment of rivers in the context of the social and political climate of the 1960s. The decades following the Second World War brought about significant changes in the way Americans perceived their environment. Higher levels of affluence and education, continued urbanization, and the popularization of ecology converged to promote an environmental awakening that increased steadily throughout the decade. The conservation movement broadened to include issues of quality of life and ecological protection. Rivers emerged as a central issue in relation to outdoor recreation, pollution, and freshwater shortages. As part of the general idea of wilderness preservation that came to fruition in the Wilderness Act of 1964, river advocates forwarded proposals to establish a protective federal system of wild rivers. To this end, the federal government experimented with a variety of river protection programs before arriving at the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 which established a nationwide system of representative river preserves. Despite strong support for the idea, the resulting system secures only marginal protection for rivers based largely on recreational considerations. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is most significant for providing a symbolic acknowledgement of the need to restrain further development and prevent despoilation of America's rivers. / Master of Arts

Using Richmond as a case study, this thesis seeks to answer the following question: what was the effect of the First World War on elite white Richmond women's roles as southern women? This thesis argues that, while white southern women's roles had been changing since the Civil War, it was not until World War I that southern women's traditional roles were challenged by ideas of national patriotism and citizenship. This thesis traces the trajectory of change from the last decades of the nineteenth century, when Richmond women began to join women's organizations and participate more fully in public life, through World War I. This thesis argues that during the war, national organizations that formed chapters in Richmond challenged the predominant ideas about women's public responsibilities, which had focused on their city, state, and region. This war relief work with the Red Cross and governmental programs like Liberty Loan drives encouraged women to work beyond traditional domestic roles and challenged conceptions of southern womanhood. This thesis contends that, while some women adapted more fully to these changes, all Richmond women integrated new ideas about national womanhood into their identities, creating a new southern woman who was both southern and American. / Master of Arts

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

After the American Revolution a number of Loyalists, those colonial Americans who remained loyal to England during the War for Independence, did not relocate to the other dominions of the British Empire. Instead, they sought to return to their homes and restart their lives. Despite fierce opposition to their return from all across the Confederation, their attempts to become part of a newly independent America were generally successful. Thus, after several years of struggle most former Loyalists who wanted to return were able to do so. Various studies have concentrated on the wartime activities of Loyalists, but few have examined their post-war return to America. This dissertation corrects this oversight by tracing the process of the reintegration of the Loyalists. It analyzes this development from a primarily American perspective, although former Loyalists are consistent members of the story. The work considers the emotional significance families and friends played in affecting the desire to return. On the American reception of their former enemies, this work explains that the nascent idea of federalism required the process to occur on a state-by-state basis. Also important to Loyalist assimilation was a critical shift from the republican ideological belief in the necessary of virtue to the survival of the community to a growing awareness, tolerance, and respect for individual rights, for those who held views perhaps inimical to the polity. Critical to the process of reintegration was a jurisprudential transformation from an older, English common law understanding of the law to a more modern view that law is commanded by a sovereign. It is my contention that popular sovereignty drove this transformation and allowed for the wartime legal persecution of the Loyalists, but in order for former Loyalists to peacefully co-exist, popular sovereignty had to be reined in by the very same and new legal ideology that it had helped develop. Finally, the process of reintegration required Americans to permit citizenship to their former traitors. Thus, the dissertation closes by showing the procedure former English subjects underwent to renounce their allegiance to England and become republican citizens.