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The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security StateBessner, Daniel January 2013 (has links)
<p>What accounts for the rise of defense intellectuals in the early Cold War? Why did these academics reject university life to accept positions in the foreign policy establishment? Why were so many of German origin? "The Night Watchman" answers these questions through a contextual biography of the German exile Hans Speier, a foreign policy expert who in the 1940s and 1950s consulted for the State Department and executive branch, and helped found the RAND Corporation, Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the program in international communication at MIT's Center for International Studies. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, witnessing ordinary Germans vote enthusiastically for Adolf Hitler engendered a skepticism of democracy in Speier and a cohort of social democratic intellectuals. Once Hitler assumed power in 1933, Speier and his colleagues were forced to flee Central Europe for the United States. In America, a number of these left wing exiles banded together with U.S. progressives to argue that if democracy was to survive as a viable political form in a world beset with "totalitarian" threats, intellectual experts, not ordinary people, must become the shapers of foreign policy. Only intellectuals, Speier and others argued, could ensure that the United States committed its vast resources to the defeat of totalitarianism.</p><p>World War II provided Speier and his academic cohort with the opportunity to transform their ideas into reality. Called upon by government officials who required the services of intellectuals familiar with the German language and culture, hundreds of social scientists joined the Office of War Information, Office of Strategic Services, and other new organizations of the wartime government. After the war, this first generation of defense intellectuals, uninterested in returning to the relative tranquility of academia, allied with government and military officials to create a network of state and corporate institutions that reproduced the wartime experience on a permanent basis. Speier himself became chief of RAND's Social Science Division and a consultant responsible for advising the Ford Foundation on where to direct its resources. In the latter capacity, he counseled the foundation to fund institutions that provided a home to intellectuals concerned with refining the methods of social science to improve policy-relevant knowledge.</p><p>Speier's interwar experiences with Nazism and postwar understanding of Joseph Stalin's actions in Eastern Europe and West Berlin led him to conclude that all totalitarian societies, be they fascist or communist, were run by elites who did not wish to reach détente with the United States. For this reason, Speier declared, U.S. decision-makers should treat all Soviet diplomatic overtures as feints designed to trick the western alliance into weakening its international standing. He further argued that because totalitarian states were autocracies in which the public had no say in foreign affairs, the United States should not use propaganda to win ordinary people living in the Soviet Union to its side, but should instead employ methods of psychological warfare to disrupt the personal and professional networks of Soviet elites. Speier's position at RAND and his relationship with the State Department provided him with opportunities to disseminate his opinions throughout the foreign policy establishment. By virtue of his central location in this institutional matrix, Speier influenced a number of key U.S. foreign policies, including the inflexible negotiating position adopted by U.S. delegates at the Korean War armistice talks; the tactics of U.S. psychological warfare directed against East Germany and the Soviet Union; and President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Open Skies" proposal at the 1955 Geneva Summit.</p><p>By the 1960s, Speier had helped institutionalize both a system in which intellectuals had direct access to foreign policymakers and a policy culture that privileged expertise. His trajectory demonstrates that the Cold War national security state, broadly defined to include governmental, nongovernmental, and university-associated research centers, was not solely a proximate reaction to the perceived Soviet threat, as historians have argued, but was also the realization of a decades-old, expert-centered political vision formed in response to the collapse of the Weimar Republic.</p> / Dissertation
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Beyond Facts and Formality: How Different Genres Remember Japanese American Experiences During World War IIIshizuka, Midori 01 January 2015 (has links)
This thesis will compare and contrast how different genres tell the stories of Japanese American experiences during World War II. In the 1980s and 1990s the emergence of different genres such as memoirs, historical fiction, and documentaries, inspired a fresh approach to portraying history. Using the traditional historical monograph as a foil, this thesis will analyze how these newer genres can deepen our understanding of historic events and peoples on a personal, psychological, and emotional level. Topics of medium, authorship, affect, influence, and authenticity are commonly discussed in the comparisons of these genres. Each chapter will focus on one genre and analyze two works. Chapter 1 on memoirs examines Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Nisei Memories by Paul Howard Takemoto. Chapter 2 on historical fiction will compare David Guterson’s narrative fiction novel Snow Falling on Cedars and Alan Parker’s narrative film Come See the Paradise. Chapter 3 on documentaries will discuss Ken Burns’ The War and Steven Okazaki’s Unfinished Business. Ultimately, while each work and each genre is unique, the significant commonality among them is their ability to expose the intimate and emotional aspects of historical experiences. This, in turn, prompts our engagement and emotional connection to the portrayed stories, which heightens our understanding of history in a more holistic way.
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INSTRUMENTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: THE INTERSECTIONS OF BLACK POWER AND ANTI-VIETNAM WAR ACTIVISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1964-1972Higgins, Amanda L 01 January 2013 (has links)
Instruments of Righteousness investigates the class-, race-, and gender-based identities and intersections of women and men in the Black Power movement and their various organizing activities to gain certain and defined concessions from federal, state, and local governments. It argues that the intersections of Black Power and anti-Vietnam War activism created changing definitions of black masculinity and femininity, expressed through anti-draft and anti-war work. Black Power and anti-war activism cannot and should not be investigated separate from one another. The experiences of Black Power soldiers, antiwar members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the Third World Women’s Alliance, and exiled black Americans highlight the ways the anti-Vietnam War and Black Power activism depended on each other for rhetorical, theoretical, and personnel needs. Additionally, it explores the ways that Black Power organizations articulated “Third World” mentalities in their anti-war battles. By espousing a shared identity with people of color throughout the world, Black Power organizations placed themselves in a transnational conversation among radical, decolonizing nation-states. Black Power’s advocates’ roles as non-governmental actors in the Third World strengthened ties with and presented new images of United States citizens throughout the decolonizing world.
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Honor, Reputation, and Conflict: George of Trebizond and Humanist Acts of Self-PresentationAlexander, Karl R. 01 January 2013 (has links)
The present study investigates the verbal strategies of self-presentation that humanist scholars employed in contests of honor during the early fifteenth century. The focus of this study is George of Trebizond (1395-1472/3), a Cretan scholar who emigrated to Italy in 1416, taught in Venice, Vicenza, and elsewhere, served as an apostolic secretary in Rome, and composed the first major humanist treatise on rhetoric, his Rhetoricorum libri quinque, in 1433/34. Trebizond feuded with many prominent humanists during his career, including Guarino of Verona (1374-1460) and Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459). His quarrels with both men illustrate how humanist conflicts were the sites upon which Quattrocento scholars won or lost honor via literary activities designed to appeal to a public audience of peers and patrons. Humanists wrote to denigrate publicly their competitors, casting them as ignorant and morally corrupt, and to praise themselves as eloquent and virtuous. Although Renaissance scholarship has long acknowledged the humanist pursuit of glory, the linguistic means by which humanists contested honor remains understudied. The present study contends that Quattrocento contests of honor were conducted using standard sets of oppositional categories, themes, and literary models. Additionally, I argue that an analysis of the linguistic strategies of self-presentation provides a more complex and complete picture of Quattrocento humanism and of individual humanists as historical figures.
Following an introductory discussion of George of Trebizond and Quattrocento humanism in Chapter One, the next three chapters of this dissertation address individual themes evident in Trebizond’s correspondence. Chapter Two examines the anti-Greek language that dominated Trebizond’s dispute with Guarino in 1437. Chapter Three explores the language of restraint and rational self-control in Trebizond’s feud with Poggio between 1452 and 1453. Chapter Four evaluates humanist concepts of masculinity in Trebizond’s feuds with both men. Chapter Five steps back from a deep thematic reading of Trebizond’s correspondence to consider invective as a literary genre that was a preferred vehicle for humanist self-presentation. This final chapter studies two additional feuds, between Guarino and Niccolò Niccoli, and Poggio and Lorenzo Valla, to understand better Trebizond’s experiences as a reflection of the broader culture of which he was a part.
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GASTRONOMY AND OTHERNESS IN ALPHONSO X’S WORKS: FOOD IDENTITIES IN CARTOGRAPHYMoneypenny, Dianne Burke 01 January 2011 (has links)
This thesis investigates Alphonso X's General Estoria, Estoria de Espanna, Cantigas de Santa María, Siete Partidas, and other writings in the alphonsine corpus to illustrate the concept of classification through diet. The work of this thesis is to reveal the gastronomic connections between central and peripheral relations in cartography. Through food symbolism and dietary behaviors, cuisine functions as the purveyor of an unrivalled sketch of a text’s characters and the social conditions of the text’s production. Once unraveled, these highly socialized norms of consumption confirm that diet and identity are inextricably linked and lead to a greater understanding of medieval Iberian cultural relations and attitudes revolving around food and the perception of the civility of the world.
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Rabindranath Tagore, John Dewey, and the Unity of Mind and CultureHoughteling, James L 01 January 2014 (has links)
What role does education play in a democratic society? How can the right sort of education help foster a free, responsible, and caring citizenry? How can education begin to reconcile and incorporate intellectually complicated and seemingly opposite ideas and theories, such as idealism and pragmatism, localism and globalism, thought and action? In my thesis, I aim to reveal, and perhaps begin to answer, these larger ideas pertaining to the role of education in society. Moreover, I address these questions through the lens of Rabindranath Tagore and John Dewey, two thinkers and practitioners at the turn of the twentieth century who sought to use education to find solutions to problems facing their respective local communities, but also the global community.
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Madrid Me Mata: Regional Identity Politics and Community Building Through the Music of La Movida MadrileñaBechte, Winona A 01 January 2014 (has links)
Chapter 1: Formation and Early Beginnings of music in la Movida-In the first chapter I am writing about how the early development of la Movida runs very much alongside political initiatives to stimulate cultural development in Madrid. Specifically I am writing about how popular songs and musicians at the time translated these messages of regional pride and identity that was being heavily stimulated by the government into a way that the general public could understand and support. Citing specific song lyrics and early bands of la Movida, I also track the years leading up to 1975 and how music has long been used in Spain as a political tool. Chapter 2: The peak commercialization of Movida music and its slow dissolve-In the second chapter I explore the height of la Movida's popularity, namely in the form of full-blown institutional support surrounding concerts, radio stations, publications and music marketing. I then explore the question of authenticity surrounding la Movida and whether or not its development was ever really "authentic" because of the long period of political involvement. I also shift the idea that la Movida musicians and music just suddenly stopped being produced to one that favors a more gradual expansion of the music into the world that changed its form over time. This chapter focuses heavily on how outside influences and increased dialogue with the rest of the world led to a perspective that heavily favored a classic Spanish capital over a highly regional one. Chapter 3: Traces and reception of la Movida in Madrid today-In the third chapter I will focus more pointedly on the interviews I have conducted, most of which maintain the viewpoint that "nothing of la Movida exists in Spain today." I will examine the influences music of la Movida has had on contemporary music, as well as the role of current exhibitions focusing on the music and art scene of la Movida. This chapter is primarily an exploration into where the place Movida music exists in contemporary history.
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A 'civilized' drink and a 'civilizing' industry: wine growing and cultural imagining in colonial New South WalesMcIntyre, Julie Ann January 2009 (has links)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My starting point for this thesis was the absence of a foundation history of Australian wine growing conducted by an historian rather than researchers in other disciplines or the media. I have used existing work on wine history in New South Wales from 1788 to 1901 alongside a significant body of new research to create an historical argument suitable for incorporation into more broadly-themed narratives of Australian history and to inform studies of wine growing in other academic fields. My main argument is that although wine growing proved of little economic value in colonial primary production compared with nation-building commodities - such as pastoralism, wheat growing and gold - advocates of the cultivation of wine grapes believed wine growing embodied beneficial, even transformative, cultural value so they persisted in attempting to create a ‘civilizing’ industry producing a ‘civilized’ drink despite lacklustre consumption of their product and very modest profits. Several times, from 1788 to 1901, these advocates spoke out or wrote about wine and wine growing as capable of creating order in a wild or ‘savage’ landscape and within a settler society shaped culturally by shifting adaptations to both imported and ‘native’ influences in agriculture as well as alcohol production, consumption and distribution. While the methodological framework employed here falls mainly within cultural and economic history, sociological theories have contributed to findings on causation. The result is a comprehensive narrative of colonial wine growing in New South Wales enriched by links to key developments in Australian colonial history and with reference to wine growing in other British colonies or former territories.
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A 'civilized' drink and a 'civilizing' industry: wine growing and cultural imagining in colonial New South WalesMcIntyre, Julie Ann January 2009 (has links)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My starting point for this thesis was the absence of a foundation history of Australian wine growing conducted by an historian rather than researchers in other disciplines or the media. I have used existing work on wine history in New South Wales from 1788 to 1901 alongside a significant body of new research to create an historical argument suitable for incorporation into more broadly-themed narratives of Australian history and to inform studies of wine growing in other academic fields. My main argument is that although wine growing proved of little economic value in colonial primary production compared with nation-building commodities - such as pastoralism, wheat growing and gold - advocates of the cultivation of wine grapes believed wine growing embodied beneficial, even transformative, cultural value so they persisted in attempting to create a ‘civilizing’ industry producing a ‘civilized’ drink despite lacklustre consumption of their product and very modest profits. Several times, from 1788 to 1901, these advocates spoke out or wrote about wine and wine growing as capable of creating order in a wild or ‘savage’ landscape and within a settler society shaped culturally by shifting adaptations to both imported and ‘native’ influences in agriculture as well as alcohol production, consumption and distribution. While the methodological framework employed here falls mainly within cultural and economic history, sociological theories have contributed to findings on causation. The result is a comprehensive narrative of colonial wine growing in New South Wales enriched by links to key developments in Australian colonial history and with reference to wine growing in other British colonies or former territories.
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Gympie, "The Town That Saved Queensland": Popular Culture and the Construction of Identity in a Rural Queensland TownMr Robert Edwards Unknown Date (has links)
No description available.
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