This thesis explores the growth of antislavery sentiment in the English-speaking world during the eighteenth century. I examine the institutional processes, transatlantic discourses, and ideological schema with which individuals and groups reformulated their identities as a means of extricating themselves from slavery's various social, economic, and ethical implications. I argue that abolitionism in England is best understood as the cumulative outcome to a series of identity reconstructions, and that a Histoire des Mentalités, as drawn from the Annales School, is an apt methodology for unmasking the structural underpinnings of an antislavery identity.

Starbucks' success following Howard Schultz's purchase of the company in 1987 was largely the product of a particular historical moment, one rooted in the social and economic changes that manifested themselves in the built environment of the American metropolis from the 1970's to the present. Most contemporary observers saw Starbucks as a symbol of these changes – particularly those that fell under the complicated heading of gentrification – rather than recognizing it as an agent of change. This thesis reveals the development of Starbucks' character and expansion model from its humble beginnings in 1971. It offers an overview of the various theories of gentrification and neighborhood change, relating them to Seattle, and placing Starbucks within this narrative. Chapter three examines Starbucks as a commodity, a place, and a neighbor. As a commodity, the history and preparation of specialty coffee made it a de facto consumption choice for the rich, famous, and educated. Starbucks appropriated, packaged and marketed the drink's sophisticated characteristics toward its own ends. Meanwhile, Starbucks' claims of community centered on its perception and presentation as a "third place" – the public place of a new age. Finally, as a neighbor, Starbucks has been courted and rejected by communities, developers, and city governments seeking or spurning the changes – increased foot traffic, wealthier clientele, etc. – that often accompany the coffee giant's arrival to a neighborhood. Lastly, this thesis focuses on metropolitan areas, perhaps the most tangible places to think about capitalism and capitalist enterprises, with an emphasis on Seattle, Starbucks' native city.

Arthur Ingram and Lionel Cranfield were part of the early modern phenomenon of social mobility, rising from humble merchants to titled gentlemen in one generation. Cranfield, especially, reached significant heights in a matter of years. Despite the fact both men have merited biographies which chart their commercial and political careers, little attention has been paid to their lives outside of the political sphere leaving room for an analysis of their family and personal estates and the extent to which they utilised their houses in their self-projection. The originality of this thesis lies in its comparison of the two men which not only highlights their dependency on each other and mutual advertisement of each other’s image, but also opens up the question of regional disparity in house building as Ingram’s country estates were situated in Yorkshire whereas Cranfield’s were mainly close to London. The first chapter introduces the issues of social mobility, self-fashioning, and regionality, provides a literature review and explains the methodology employed. Chapter 2 looks at the careers and families of Ingram and Cranfield before examining the ways in which they furthered their ascent through the fashioning of their attire, education and learning, and social networks. The thesis then focuses on the houses of both men, with Chapters 3 and 4 considering how they built and styled their houses. Chapter 5 examines the craftsmen and materials employed by Ingram and Cranfield on their building programmes and in particular the geographical location of their houses. Chapter 6 discusses the way Ingram and Cranfield furnished their residences and how their households were related to the local community, particularly in terms of hospitality. The gardens and grounds that surrounded their houses are the subject of Chapter 7. The thesis concludes with an evaluation of the significance of Ingram’s and Cranfield’s houses in the self-projection of their image and how far the geographical location of their residences affected how successful this was.

From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, a minority conservative faction took over the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). This project seeks to answer the questions of how a fringe minority within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination could undertake such a feat and why they chose to do so. The framework through which this work analyzes these questions is one of competing worldviews that emerged within the SBC in response to decades of societal shifts and denominational transformations in the post-World War II era. To place the events of the Southern Baptist “crisis” within this framework, this study seeks to refute the prevailing notion put forth in earlier works that the takeover was an in-house event, driven purely by doctrinal disputes between conservative Southern Baptists and SBC leadership. Illustrating the differences between rhetoric and action on both sides of this intra-denominational conflict, this work seeks to provide perspective to the narrative of the Southern Baptist “crisis” by asserting that the worldviews guiding the opposing factions diverged not only on doctrine, but culture and politics as well. Placing the events of the “crisis” within the context of broader worldviews, this project highlights and examines the intertwined nature of religion, culture, and politics in modern American society.

In the middle of the California Desert is an inland desert sea, called the Salton Sea. Its existence is curious, nearly magical. It is California’s largest lake, it is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, it is slowly dying, and its existence is a complete accident. This thesis breaks down the historical narrative of the Salton Sea from a white settler perspective, using theories posed by Yi Fu Tuan about distinctions between space and place. The temporality of spatial locations, the construction of the binaries natural/built, and the moralizing of landscapes all provide further understanding of the Salton Sea’s existence. Throughout history, the white settlers of the Imperial Desert have projected, their morals and desires upon the desert landscape, reforming the space into their vision of the future as a result of their abilities to tame and control rivers. Instead of a future, they produced a place replete with the past: a place considered worthless and potentially dangerous. Through looking at the constructions of space, place, memory, and history, we are better able to understand the birth of this desert sea.

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian-Jewish author and intellectual who fled Austro-fascism and Nazi Germany, and took his own life in Brazil in early 1942. The resurgence of interest in Zweig’s life in the last few decades has introduced new methods of interpretation of his life as a refugee. But many scholars have not acknowledged Zweig’s relationships he formed with South American intellectuals while in exile there. Instead, the primary focus has been on his identity as a European, and his subsequent suicide. This paper will argue that Zweig’s identity as a refugee included a radical re-interpretation of history and perspective of the world outside of Europe, which had been previously based upon nationalistic and Euro-centric interpretations. Zweig’s exile was one of not only spatial displacement, but was also one of historical displacement, and the physical and political realities in Brazil contributed to this aspect of his life as a refugee.

This research examines the changes over time in British Newspaper reports covering the Jamaican rebellions of 1760, 1832 and 1865. The uprisings: Tacky’s Rebellion, the Baptist War and the Morant Bay Rebellion respectively, represented three key moments in the history of race, slavery and the British Empire. Though all three rebellions have been studied, this work compares the three events as moments of crisis challenging the British public discourse on slavery, race and subjecthood as it related to the changing Atlantic Empire. British newspapers provided the most direct way in which popular readers and the growing literate public examined and explored distant relations with colonial peoples. This research sheds light on the significant impact these rebellions had on rhetorical choices regarding race and slavery, and establishes that by forcing a public discourse on the topics of subjecthood and race, the rebellions in Jamaica had a dramatic trans-Atlantic impact.

Comment l’Egypte ancienne s’inscrit-elle dans la mémoire collective ? La constitution d’un imaginaire de l’Egypte ancienne est à inclure dans un courant culturel et artistique parfois fait d’emprunts sélectifs au répertoire antique, tout en étant simultanément redevables à d’autres traditions artistiques et notamment à l’égyptomanie. L’égyptomanie acquiert alors dans la bande dessinée une dimension propre, caractérisée par des codes et un vocabulaire tout à fait spécifiques, favorisant l’invention narrative et graphique. Saisir les mystères de l’Egypte ancienne dans la bande dessinée revient à composer une « grammaire de la civilisation » des pharaons. Ainsi, la construction d’un cadre signifiant permet de dresser les lieux de mémoires (signifiants, significatifs, moins évocateurs ou carrément absents), le topos exotique (mytho-géographie, image de l’autre, références bibliques comme marqueur d’une distinction), l’image d’une société hiérarchisée (prédominance de Pharaon et des puissants sur le peuple de la vallée) et le tableau d’une religion et de croyances fascinantes (attraction du polythéisme et de l’univers des mythes égyptiens, illustration des rites funéraires, de la mort et de l’au-delà) comme autant de rouages structurels dans l’agencement d’une mémoire de l’Egypte ancienne. Cependant, il convient de ne pas négliger l’intégration dans la fabrique de l’imaginaire de l’Egypte ancienne des processus dynamiques qui s’opèrent dans la constitution d’un laboratoire d’imageries plus ou moins stéréotypées. Réfléchir sur la généalogie des images et distinguer les sources d’influences sur lesquels s’appuient les auteurs (sources héritées de l’Egypte ancienne et/ou sources puisées dans l’histoire des arts) démontre que les représentations qui nourrissent l’imagination des artistes ne naissent pas ex-nihilo mais sont le fait d’un long cheminement historique. Les auteurs recréent et réinterprètent l’Histoire avec des référents et des attitudes mentales qui leur appartiennent tout en laissant libre cours à des fantasmes parfois difficiles à décrypter. / How does ancient Egypt remain etched on the collective memory ? The construction of an imagination of ancient Egypt is to be included in an artistic and cultural trend which is sometimes made of selective borrowings from the repertoire of antiquity as well as being indebted simultaneously to other artistic traditions, in particular egyptomania. Egyptomania acquires, then, in comics, a dimension of its own which is characterized by codes and very specific vocabulary, favouring narrative and graphic inventiveness. Grasping the mysteries of ancient Egypt in comics comes down to working out a “ grammar of the civilization” of Pharaohs. Thus, the construction of a signifying framework allows us to list places of memories (which are signifying, significant, less evocative or altogether lacking ), exotic topos (mytho-geography, image of otherness, biblical references as marker of distinction), the image of a society organized into a hierarchy ( the predominance of the Pharaohs and the mighty over the people in the valley) and the depiction of a religion as well as fascinating beliefs ( attraction to polytheism and to the universe of Egyptian myths, illustrations of funerary rituals, death and the beyond), all these structuring the construction of a memory of ancient Egypt. However, one must not neglect the integration of dynamic processes in the construction of the imagination of ancient Egypt. Those dynamic processes are at work in the building up of more or less stereotyped imagery. Reflecting on the genealogy of images and distinguishing the sources of influence on which the authors rely (sources inherited from ancient Egypt and / or sources out of the history of the arts) demonstrate that the representations that nurture the artists’ imagination are not born out of nothing but are the result of long historic development. Authors re-create and reinterpret History with reference points and mental attitudes of their own while giving free rein to a fantasy world which is sometimes difficult to decipher.

In this thesis, the emergence of pachucos and their later influence on Chicano movement ideology is examined. By visually challenging accepted racial identities, pachucos protested the discrimination of their time. Later on, Chicanos would take the figure of the pachuco and combine it with other aspects of Chicano ideology to form a synthesized symbol of resistance to inspire their fight for equal rights.

Despite the black cowboy's considerable achievement, the history of their lives remains largely uncovered. Most historiographies present a sympathetic picture, but what is missing is the voice of the black cowboys. Using the views and ideologies of Booker T. Washington, black cowboys were able to become self-sufficient men. This thesis will present a comparison and contrast between the historiography and autobiographies of black cowboys. Furthermore, giving black cowboys a voice through the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and presenting an argument on why the stories and histories of black cowboys have only recently been resurrected, largely because popular media in the progressive era did not include their stories.