Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-170).

Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2007. / Thesis advisor: Louis Auld. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in French." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-92). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boise State University, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-206). Also available online via the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database.

The outmanoeuvring of Allied forces in May 1940 led to the eventual evacuation of the BEF from the continent in June 1940. Fearing an invasion, GHQ Home Forces set about the rapid re-militarisation of the UK to oppose, arguably, the first very real threat to this country’s sovereignty since the Norman conquest of 1066 AD. Constructing a series of anti-invasion defences throughout the countryside, a network of defensive fieldworks and concrete gun emplacements were erected, with linear stop lines forming part of the overall stratagem for a countrywide defence in depth. Examining one particular linear stop line, GHQ Line Green, despite previous research into its archaeological route through the landscape several questions still remain unanswered - Did the proposed wartime route for the stop line match the documented archaeology? Did the defensive fieldworks conform to 1940 WO specifications, or were they similar in design to the linear fieldworks of the First World War? Did GHQ Line Green dismiss the defensive ‘folly’ notion of the Maginot Line by being strategically sited in the Bristol hinterland? A prepared battlefield that never faced the unpredictable test of conflict, evidence offered by original cartographic, archaeological and GIS ‘Fields-of- Fire’ analysis concluded that the GHQ Line Green was strategically placed in the landscape. In ideal conditions GHQ Line Green could have had limited success in slowing down an invasion force. This dismisses the notion that the stop line was a defensive ‘folly’. With its origins found to lay in First World War fortifications, the research undertaken for this thesis will further our understanding of an often forgotten Second World War landscape.

This thesis investigates the changes in the Israeli and Jewish-American public perception of Holocaust memory in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and offers an elaborate comparative analysis of public reactions to art about the Holocaust. Created by the inheritors of Holocaust memory, second and third-generation Jews in Israel and America, the artworks titled Your Colouring Book (1997) and Live and Die as Eva Braun (1998), and the group exhibition Mirroring Evil. Nazi Imagery/Recent Art (2002) were hosted at art institutions emblematic of Jewish culture, namely the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Jewish Museum in New York. Unlike artistic representation by first generation, which tends to adopt an empathetic approach by scrutinizing experiences of Jewish victimhood, these artworks foreground images of the Nazi perpetrators, and thus represent a distancing and defamiliarizing approach which triggered intense media discussions in each case. The public debates triggered by these exhibitions shall constitute the domain for analyzing the emergent counter-positions on Holocaust memory of post-war generations of Jews and for delineating their ideological views and divergent identity stances vis-à-vis Holocaust memory. This thesis proposes a critical discourse analysis of public debates carried out by leading Jewish intellectuals, politicians and public figures in Israel and in America. It suggests that younger generations developed a global discourse which challenges a dominant meta-narrative of Jewish identity that holds victimization and a sacred dimension of the Holocaust as its fundamental tenets.

What is the influence that state-level nationalism exerts on dynamics of threat perception? The primary goal of this research is to investigate in what ways and to what extent state-level nationalism is used as an indicator of states’ intentions by governments in order to reduce uncertainty about the possible motivations and behaviors of other countries, informing their processes of threat assessment. The main objective of this research is to investigate if the type of state-level nationalism displayed by a specific state (civic/cultural/ethnic) affects the perceptions of threat developed by other countries. The hypothesis advanced here is that the further away a country is from the civic variety of nationalism, the higher the level of threat perception developed by others. In order to assess this hypothesis, a strategy that allies case-study qualitative research with large-scale quantitative analysis is applied. Three comparative case studies are performed, focusing on how the United States, France and Great Britain perceived the changes in the nationalisms of Germany and Italy from 1934 to 1938, and if these changes informed in any way their assessment of threat during the interwar period. In addition to this, the final part of this dissertation encompasses a quantitative analysis designed to look into the main question addressed by this project from a different perspective, in an attempt to seek for the possible objective basis of the threat perceptions investigated in the case studies.

This thesis is concerned with the origins and developments of a British-initiated force, known as "The Iraq Levies", which was raised during the Mesopotamian campaign of the First World War. This is a subject which had previously received very little rigorous historical study. The Force began with some forty mounted Arab scouts, recruited from Zubair in southern Mesopotamia by the Field Intelligence unit of the Imperial Expeditionary Force (I.E.F. 'D') in July 1915. By May 1922, the Force had expanded to approximately 6,000 officers and men, as against a planned 7,500 at the Cairo Conference. A survey of the performance and military background of several British officers who served with the Levies, was considered worthy of study. Mostly they came from the Indian Army, and thus were experienced in what may be described as "political soldiering" - an invaluable qualification for their service in Iraq. It was felt important that the different ethnic backgrounds and political aspirations, as well as religious loyalties represented in the ranks of the Levies required investigation to assist in an understanding of their motivation and service. Without a detailed review of these factors, it would be difficult to comprehend how a force which could be considered to owe its allegiance to its pay-masters, could undertake the task of internal security in so volatile a region as that of Iraq, especially during and after the First World War. When its political problems, both internal and external, had to be resolved by the British government which became the mandatory power. This thesis ends with the achievement of Iraq's independence in 1932. The Levies, however, were not finally disbanded until May 1955. That final section of their history was not to be without drama and incident; but it awaits the attention of another student who is interested in the nature and evolution of British Imperial Forces in the Middle East. Their day has now ended, but this thesis hopes to illuminate a little of their history and significance.

The thesis will demonstrate that the various uses of jazz music as propaganda in World War II were determined by an evolving relationship between Axis and Allied policies and projects. The limited previous scholarship in the area, however, has been restricted to ‘single-country studies’ which present only national perspectives with little reference to the broader international context. Within a comparative framework, the thesis will trace and contextualise the international development of ‘propaganda jazz’, from early isolated broadcasts to consolidation in the form of regular programming and dedicated musical ensembles. A wide range of English- and German-language sources including Mass Observation, oral history, trade magazines and archive material from Britain, Germany, the USA and Canada will be utilised and cross-referenced to provide an unprecedented perspective on wartime uses of broadcast propaganda. Although a significant number of British and German documents relating to propaganda were destroyed during and after the war, the breadth of the research will allow reconstruction and analysis of various propaganda programmes from a multitude of standpoints. The thesis will also explore contemporary cultural, social and political considerations in Britain, Germany and the USA, thus not only increasing the scope and perspective of the discourse, but also reflecting the diversity of the interrelated factors which influenced wartime popular culture and propaganda. The thesis will make a number of significant contributions to the historiography of the field. Analyses of previously overlooked Allied and Axis propaganda projects will highlight the diversity of the methodologies regarding the use of music for propaganda purposes. Moreover, the international scope will facilitate an imperative reappraisal of British ‘black’ propaganda radio stations of Sefton Delmer and the Political Warfare Executive (PWE), which were hugely successful and yet have been unjustifiably neglected by prior historiography. The popularity and psychological adroitness of PWE’s broadcasts will be juxtaposed with the demonstrably inferior quality and effectiveness of German ‘black’ programming for Britain and the USA, which exposed considerable limitations to Joseph Goebbels’ abilities. The thesis will also explore Goebbels’ attempts to nurture an ‘indigenous’ New German Entertainment Music, and demonstrate that the Propaganda Minister’s inability to come to terms with jazz, both for German audiences and as a tool for propaganda broadcasts to the enemy, ceded an extremely important advantage to the Allies. A radical revision of the character and work of Hans Hinkel, an influential figure in the Nazi cultural apparatus who has nonetheless been the subject of very little scholarly attention, will also be provided. While a central component of the thesis is the assertion that Goebbels was far less pragmatic than has been acknowledged by prior historiography, Hinkel’s reputation as an ideologically rigid reactionary will be challenged by cross-referencing oral history sources and documentary evidence. Furthermore, the comparative framework will be used to show conclusively that the problems of appropriate musical programming for the Forces, which fell within Hinkel’s remit, were not restricted to Germany but were part of a broader international discourse regarding music’s role in the maintenance of morale. It will facilitate a wide-ranging exploration of the uses of music and broadcasting to manipulate Forces and civilian morale for both benevolent and malevolent purposes.

Concerted efforts to debunk popular myths about the Great War have resulted in cant attention being paid to the purpose and value of the lost generation myth within British society, particularly during times of further conflict such as the Second World War. This thesis reveals the benefits of reflecting on the previous conflict in ways connected with the concept of a lost generation during the years 1939-45. These benefits boiled down to the fact that myths exist for their utility as means of comprehending both past and present. This applied to the myth in its strictest sense as an explanatory narrative used to interpret demographic issues as well as psychological, spiritual and material ones. Notions of a missing generation and visions of the living lost are therefore used to demonstrate how the concept of a lost generation was used to make sense of the world. Also examined are the myth's wider discursive effects. Other handy devices used to understand the past and to approach the present were powerful symbols and commemorative narratives closely connected to visions of a lost generation. Analysis of the myth-making power of major poets demonstrates how engagement with the iconic status and visions of Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sasoon was used to outline contemporary concerns. A detailed examination of the language surrounding the British Legion's Poppy Appeal and the observance of Armistice Day also shows how these rituals were used not only to frame loss but also to understand and explain the renewal of international conflict. By exposing the utility of these related discourses and practices, as well as of the myth in its own right, this thesis ultimately illuminates a crucial phase in the myth's endurance as a popular definition of what happened between 1914 and 1918.

abstract: At the beginning of the 20th century, the introduction of the motion picture as a medium changed the way people disseminate information between each other and to the masses. The magnitude of this change was supplemented and amplified first by, the addition of sound, then color, and finally (possibly most importantly) the invention of the technology to send and receive motion picture signals along with their corresponding sound tracks. This would eventually all be combined in the production of the first television sets. Some of the most stunning illustrations of the power brought about by this medium can be observed in the way that Germany was able to utilize film during (and before) World War II. The idea of using cinema as a propaganda tool led to the creation of UFA during WWI (1914-1918). Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' fascination with film and its propaganda potential led to the development of many successful public communication techniques and numerous tactics used to influence the people's thoughts and actions. This thesis provides background information pertaining to the outbreak of World War II including the German propaganda machine, and examines the role that motion pictures played in the distribution of anti-Polish messages before and during the early stages of the war. It focuses specifically on the film Feuertaufe as an example illustrating six major tenants of Nazi film propaganda namely: oversimplification, appeal to emotions, harnessing the power of the visual image, intentional blurring of lines between entertainment and facts, repetition, and the use of graphics combined with music. Next, this essay explores how each of the abovementioned characteristics were used by the Poles and the British in their pro-Polish film This is Poland in order to sway public opinion and spread messages aligned with their political views respectively. This thesis concludes by stressing the importance of being aware of these techniques so that one may be able to separate fact from hype, and by looking at the possible utilization of the six tenants in the years to come as smart mobile-devices usher in yet another metamorphosis of the art of information distribution. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. German 2014