<p> Contrary to Texas Ranger myth, Stephen F. Austin's settlers were not the first Texas Rangers to ride across Texas. As early as the 1540s, almost three hundred years before Austin arrived in Texas, mounted Spanish subjects on the frontiers of northern New Spain ranged, scouted, pursued, and waged offensive war against Chichimeca enemies. These methods were employed and accepted actions on the hostile frontier, and were also the characteristics Texans so highly revere in Ranger traditional lore. Several of these colonial military and ranching families from Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, settled Texas in the first half of the 18^th century. They intermarried and developed kinship bonds and were community leaders. In the 1820s, and 1830s Spanish surnamed descendants of early military men and ranchers became acquainted with newly arrived Anglo-European settlers. Friendships and alliances were forged based on political ideology and even kinship. As the winds of rebellion blew, several of the leading military and ranching families chose to fight for Independence in the Army of the Republic. They also joined the ranks of the Republic of Texas Rangers, and finally the Texas Rangers. Despite their loyalty, they lost political powers as more Anglo-Europeans arrived. Tejanos lost property, status and ultimately their right to be identified as Texas Rangers. The object of this work is to contribute a small piece to the literature regarding the development and evolution of ranging traditions from a southern to northern frontier perspective. The military and law enforcement traditions of colonial era New Spanish soldiers and ranchers were passed on to their Tejano descendants through continuous participation in ranging and ranching activities within their communities. Tejanos participated in the Independence of Texas, the Republic Rangers and the Texas Rangers throughout the 19^th century, and based on connections with Anglo settlers may have taught Anglos mounted ranging technique, and how to survive on the Texas frontier.</p>

The rising popularity of country music in the United States since WWII is a cultural phenomenon intimately related to the ascendance of conservative values, leaders, and movements over the same period. By routinely celebrating themes like heterosexual love, the patriarchal nuclear family, hard work, individualism, freedom, patriotism, religion, and small-town life, country music provided the soundtrack for the insurgent conservatism of politicians like George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. In the sixties and seventies, while other forms of popular music (rock, folk, soul) articulated the values of liberals, socialists, hippies, war protestors, feminists, and civil rights activists, country music alone stood for the "traditional" values cherished by the so-called "silent majority" that powered the rise of the Right. The spread of both country music and conservatism is also a reflection of the "southernization" of America---the diffusion across the nation of cultural and political traits long associated with the South.

The United States Supreme Court placed the major Hollywood studios in violation of antitrust laws in 1948, leading to the end of the classical Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s. Subsequent changes in the corporate organization and mode of production of the major studios signaled the end of the traditional B-movie as a product of block-booking policies. / B-movies became a distinctly different entity in the 1950s, however. From the institutional effects of the antitrust ruling, to changing audience demographics, the emergent patterns in production, distribution and exhibition had a profound effect on the evolution of the B-movie from its origins in the early 1930s to its new role in the cinematic marketplace of the 1950s. Increasingly the result of newly formed independent companies, B-movies innovated such industrial components as new genre cycles and demographic patterns. / This dissertation takes a political economy approach to examining the B-movie in the 1950s as an economic product, with a specific emphasis on independent filmmaking. The implication for film studies lies in answering questions about the unique nature of the B-movie filmmaking process: how is the mode of production of a B-movie different from that of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking? How does the low-budget nature of independent cinema determine its mode of production? How is a B-movie limited and/or defined by the low budget nature of its mode of production, and how does this affect the film's aesthetics? How do B-movies function in, and what is their value to, the film marketplace? Changes in film production, distribution and exhibition will be examined, as will patterns in film spectatorship in relation to the changing institutional landscape of the film industry in the 1950s. / The B-movie was a volatile entity during the 1950s, with both major and minor studios questioning the economic viability of low-budget production. B-movies existed in opposition to the cinematic mainstream in the 1950s, a legacy that was passed on to independent filmmakers of subsequent decades. Analyzing the mode of production of these B-movies is essential in understanding their aesthetics, as well as their historical role in the film industry.

This thesis argues that Charles W. Chesnutt's writings challenged the central assumptions of his America's racial thinking. An important part of this challenge is the difference between the two discourses which dominate The Conjure Woman. The first uses ethnographic discourse to create "the Other;" the second effaces the differences between himself and other Americans. Unlike most of the other writers of his period, Chesnutt shows African-American men and women to be fully developed moral, ethical and emotional individuals; in his works slave-holders and those who sought to "redeem" the South were morally and ethically underdeveloped. Both his writings and his career demonstrate that African-Americans were capable of prospering as independent actors in a free labor market. While critical of the actions of America's legal system, unlike many of his contemporaries, Chesnutt believed that injustice began when racial thinking led legal actors to deviate from the established rules of common law.

Cold Warriors in the Sunbelt studies the ways in which the Cold War experience shaped the attitudes, values, and beliefs of white evangelicals in the South. It argues that for Southern Baptists in particular—the region’s most dominant religious majority—the Cold War provided a cohesive and unifying fabric that informed the world views Southern Baptists constructed, shaping how they interpreted everything from global communism, the black freedom movement, the Vietnam War, and controversies regarding the family and gender. This dissertation further contends that the Cold War experience, and the formative influence it had over several decades, laid the groundwork for the political realignment of the South, gradually entrenching Southern Baptists within the Republican Party.

To date, the scholarship covering the Black Codes has centered on these laws' role as the predecessor of Jim Crow. Little study has been given to the laws as a whole--the one encompassing work being Theodore Wilson's Black Codes of the South. Other studies have examined the Black Codes' effect on specific states; however, no specific study has been done on the Black Codes of Kentucky and Tennessee nor has any study been made of these laws' relation to the antebellum Slave Code. This project therefore will represent an attempt to show that the Black Codes of Tennessee and Kentucky bear a direct relation to those states' antebellum Slave Code. The Black Codes of Tennessee and Kentucky were in many instances revised Slave Codes. Often this revision entailed only the removal of the word slave. In other instances, laws applying to free blacks remained on the law books following Reconstruction since they did not apply specifically to slaves and the federal government did not demand their repeal. Both states attempted to pass additional laws which applied to solely freedmen following the Civil War; however, due to Tennessee's position as a former Confederate state, its efforts were thwarted. These aspirations show Kentucky and Tennessee's desire to maintain the antebellum status quo and do not represent the beginning of Jim Crow law. This project will rest mainly on sources from the 1865-1866 period, primarily codes Tennessee and Kentucky's General Assemblies passed during these years. It will also include Slave Codes passed between 1800 and 1860 which were either revised or still in effect during the Black Code era, 1865 to 1866. Whenever secondary sources are used it will be the intent of the author to utilize the primary quotations from within those texts. Finally, it will be seen that the Black Codes of Kentucky and Tennessee owe their form as well as their function to the Slave Code. Likewise it will be clearly seen that the Black Codes were an attempt by Southern legislatures to hold on to the social and racial hierarchy of the antebellum South.

This thesis outlines the early developmental history of concrete block in America with special attention being placed on the years leading up to the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. In general, the history of concrete block in contemporary building material histories begins with the innovations in block machinery that took place at the turn of the 20th century. However, the history of concrete block begins much earlier than these innovations. Harmon S. Palmer invented the first commercially successful concrete block machine in 1900, but there were many reasons why concrete block became widely used during the first half of the 20th century. The establishments of a domestic Portland cement industry, the innovations in concrete block machinery, and the marketing and promotion of concrete and concrete block at the 1904 St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition, are all major reasons why concrete block began to be widely used in America. / Concrete : primer -- Concrete : a brief history -- Concrete block : an early history -- Portland cement -- The commercialization of concrete block -- Concrete block on the world stage : the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. / Department of Architecture

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

This Creative Project is a slide-tape presentation titled A Historical Survey of United States Architecture, with Emphasis on the Nineteenth Century. The presentation includes 273 slides of American buildings and their European prototypes and covers the evolution of distinctive architectural styles in this country from the seventeenth century to the present time. The nineteenth century is treated in depth and 167 of the 273 slides included in the presentation cover this time period. The tape is synchronized with the slide presentation.