This thesis is an examination of the importance of army supply in deciding the success and failure of the frontiers of the Roman Empire with particular emphasis on those frontiers in the Rhine-Danube provinces. It will look at logistics as the reason for the end of expansion of the Roman Empire and the frontiers forming where they did. It will also argue that the failure of logistics was a major factor in the collapse of those same frontier defences and the ultimate fall of the western part of the empire. The need to feed and supply large numbers of troops and their dependents dictated where they could be based. Because of the impossibility of supplying the whole army with imported goods, the suitability of local land for food production was also paramount. The need to have reliable sources of supply locally was met by placing veterans on retirement in villae rusticae in frontier zones. This had the effect of controlling those local sources of supply and also satisfying the increasingly expensive needs of the army praemia militiae. The increased warfare and periodic invasions from the reign of Marcus Aurelius especially on the upper Rhine and upper Danube made supply more difficult. The army placed an increasing number of beneficiarii consularis on important points on the transport network to control and direct the flow of army supplies. The more frequent invasions across the frontiers from the third century caused greater dislocation to the agricultural infrastructure not only on the frontiers but deeper into the more settled and richer provinces. This destroyed the sources of local supply and also often the source of imported supply, forcing Roman armies to stay well inside the imperial boundaries more often than before. The loss of their logistic superiority spelt the loss of their military advantage, and the loss of empire.

The role of London in forming New Zealand’s culture and identity is a significant feature of New Zealand’s cultural history that has, until now, been overlooked. Ties with London and with ‘Home’ generally, have received little study, and ‘Britishness’ in New Zealand is largely considered a legacy of demography to be eventually outgrown. This thesis suggests something different. During the period 1890-1940, technology changed cultural perceptions of time and space, and it changed the relationship between metropole and former colony too. These technologies drew New Zealand and London closer together. London was constructed as an active part of the New Zealand cultural landscape, rather than as a nostalgic remnant of a predominantly British-born settler population. London was New Zealand’s metropolis too, with consequences for the way New Zealand culture was shaped. This thesis considers the cultural impact of London using four tropes linked to those changing perceptions of time and space. ‘Greater New Zealand’ is concerned with space, whilst ‘“New” New Zealand’ is concerned with time. ‘London’s Farm’ and the ‘Imaginative Hinterland’ consider propinquity and simultaneity respectively. Each theme draws from different bases of evidence in order to suggest London’s broad impact. Collectively, they argue for a shift away from a core and periphery relationship, towards one better described as a city and hinterland relationship. This approach draws upon existing national, imperial, and cultural historiography, whilst at the same time questioning some of their conventions and conceptions. New Zealand as hinterland challenges the conceptual borders of ‘national history’, exploring the transnational nature of cultural formations that otherwise have been considered as autochthonous New Zealand (or for that matter, British) developments. At the same time, whilst hinterlands may exist as part of empire, they are not necessarily products of it. Nor are they necessarily formed in opposition to the metropole, even though alterity is often used to explain colonial relationships. ‘New Zealand’s London’ is, instead a reciprocal creation. Its shared cultural landscape is specific, but at the same time, it offers an alternative means for understanding other white settler colonies. Like New Zealand, their cultural histories may be more complex cultural constructions than national or imperial stories allow. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

This thesis studies Friendly Societies of New Zealand from 1842, when the first lodge was established, to l94l when the Social Security Amendment Bill, allowing for the implementation of the general medical benefit, was enacted. It is the study of how, through the formation of mutual aid societies, a significant group of working people protected themselves against hardship. At the same time, it is the study of how Friendly Societies, by means of social activity and ritual, bonded their members together and synthesised their welfare role with the values of respectability, thrift and independence. The establishment of lodges throughout the nineteenth century is explored and it is shown how lodges, as well as providing for their members' welfare needs, were also effective community institutions of social integration, facilitating the adaptation of immigrants to their new environment. By the twentieth century very few New Zealand settlements were without a lodge. As an integral part of their communities, they were cross-class institutions, drawing together and mixing people from different classes, occupations and social groups. Traced also is the transformation of Friendly Societies from small, financially insecure, local lodges, combining conviviality with limited welfare benefits, to the large financially sound consolidated Societies of the 1930s providing their members with access to modem health care. Effective insurance became the primary focus of Friendly Societies. Although social life remained active, as the twentieth Century progressed, people increasingly joined lodges only for the health and medical benefits offered. Because of their wide range of benefits and because there was little else in the way of welfare relief at the time, Friendly Societies were relevant and significant suppliers of welfare. The state recognised this role and supported them with legislation and help, at least until 1910. However, as the state increasingly ventured into the welfare arena its support for the Societies waned, until finally friendly Society sickness benefits were replaced by the 1938 Social Security Act and their medical benefits by the Social Security Amendment Act of 1941. Friendly Societies were sidelined. Because welfare historiography has tended to focus on the state, it has neglected Friendly Societies. This study intends to redress the balance, and show that welfare did not start with tie state - that many people were making effective provision against sickness, disability and death for themselves long before the introduction of the welfare state.

This thesis is an examination of the importance of army supply in deciding the success and failure of the frontiers of the Roman Empire with particular emphasis on those frontiers in the Rhine-Danube provinces. It will look at logistics as the reason for the end of expansion of the Roman Empire and the frontiers forming where they did. It will also argue that the failure of logistics was a major factor in the collapse of those same frontier defences and the ultimate fall of the western part of the empire. The need to feed and supply large numbers of troops and their dependents dictated where they could be based. Because of the impossibility of supplying the whole army with imported goods, the suitability of local land for food production was also paramount. The need to have reliable sources of supply locally was met by placing veterans on retirement in villae rusticae in frontier zones. This had the effect of controlling those local sources of supply and also satisfying the increasingly expensive needs of the army praemia militiae. The increased warfare and periodic invasions from the reign of Marcus Aurelius especially on the upper Rhine and upper Danube made supply more difficult. The army placed an increasing number of beneficiarii consularis on important points on the transport network to control and direct the flow of army supplies. The more frequent invasions across the frontiers from the third century caused greater dislocation to the agricultural infrastructure not only on the frontiers but deeper into the more settled and richer provinces. This destroyed the sources of local supply and also often the source of imported supply, forcing Roman armies to stay well inside the imperial boundaries more often than before. The loss of their logistic superiority spelt the loss of their military advantage, and the loss of empire.

This thesis addresses pervasive ways in which New Zealanders thought about Jesus during the years from approximately 1900 to 1940. In particular, it considers ways that he appeared within discourse, contexts in which he was especially invoked, and ends for which he was employed. It examines Jesus as a religious icon, but also as a reflexive tool for examining the place of religion in New Zealand culture and society. In this sense, it addresses Jesus as a phenomenon of social and cultural history. The thesis draws on a wide range of sources and methodologies, and is organised thematically into chapters that highlight predominant images of Jesus and important contexts that helped shape them. It considers Jesus in the languages of doctrine and devotion, social reform, and for children. It further assesses images of Jesus' masculinity, and representations of him as an 'anti-Church' prophet. The overarching argument is that Jesus constituted an increasingly important focal point in New Zealand religiosity during the period under investigation. Especially within Protestant Christianity, Jesus became a more important discursive focus and acquired new status as a source of authority. This movement reflected wider social and cultural shifts, particularly related to understandings of the nature of society and notions of personality. The increasingly Jesus-centred orientation of Protestant religiosity was fundamentally an attempt to modernise Christianity and extend its reach into the community. In particular, Jesus was invoked as the simple core of Christianity - the attractive essence of 'true religion'. Jesus-centred religiosity provided evidence of a changing social and cultural situation, demonstrating that religious language and ideals could be sensitive indicators of such shifts. The rise of Jesus as a focal point in religion was a response to change that reoriented Protestant Christianity in the process.

This thesis is an examination of the importance of army supply in deciding the success and failure of the frontiers of the Roman Empire with particular emphasis on those frontiers in the Rhine-Danube provinces. It will look at logistics as the reason for the end of expansion of the Roman Empire and the frontiers forming where they did. It will also argue that the failure of logistics was a major factor in the collapse of those same frontier defences and the ultimate fall of the western part of the empire. The need to feed and supply large numbers of troops and their dependents dictated where they could be based. Because of the impossibility of supplying the whole army with imported goods, the suitability of local land for food production was also paramount. The need to have reliable sources of supply locally was met by placing veterans on retirement in villae rusticae in frontier zones. This had the effect of controlling those local sources of supply and also satisfying the increasingly expensive needs of the army praemia militiae. The increased warfare and periodic invasions from the reign of Marcus Aurelius especially on the upper Rhine and upper Danube made supply more difficult. The army placed an increasing number of beneficiarii consularis on important points on the transport network to control and direct the flow of army supplies. The more frequent invasions across the frontiers from the third century caused greater dislocation to the agricultural infrastructure not only on the frontiers but deeper into the more settled and richer provinces. This destroyed the sources of local supply and also often the source of imported supply, forcing Roman armies to stay well inside the imperial boundaries more often than before. The loss of their logistic superiority spelt the loss of their military advantage, and the loss of empire.

Literature within the field of Comparative Education often cautions against the transfer of foreign policies from one context to another. Despite this warning, Ontario’s public education system is said to have been based on an eclectic mix of foreign examples: teacher training institutes replicating Prussian Seminaries, school financing and the role of the chief superintendent and board of education as in the states of Massachusetts and New York, and using the Irish curriculum. This study conceptualises the manner in which these foreign elements became part of the 1846 school law and the reaction of stakeholders in and outside of government. The period covered by this study, 1844 – 1876, corresponds to Egerton Ryerson’s time as Chief Superintendent of education in Ontario. Extensive archival research of incoming and outgoing correspondence from the department of education, district council meeting minutes, newspapers, and local superintendent, inspector and trustee reports revealed contrasting opinions. On the one hand, sources indicated favourable results: increased pupil attendance, number of facilities and money raised to fund schools. There is also evidence that many foreign educationalists not only requested resources from Ontario’s board but aspired to emulate features of the province’s reformed education system in their own nations. This study’s finding of a ‘reverse cross-national attraction’ is a new contribution to Canadian historical studies. However, many resented features of the school bill. Critics called the superintendent and board’s method of organisation ‘Prussian despotism’ in Canadian schools; others argued the injustice of property tax to fund free schools and the cost burden of importing Irish textbooks. An original conceptual framework has been produced to review the manner in which Ryerson defended the new bill and the internalisation of these foreign policies and practices. This framework may serve as an analytical device for those engaged in researching educational policy borrowing.

Why did black southern migrants during the Great Migration not get off the train along the migratory corridor that connected the points of departure and arrival, i.e. the Jim Crow South and the urban North? How did midwestern small-towns and black America come to be understood as polar opposites? Based on archival and ethnographic research, this project answers these questions by disrupting grand narratives about the Great Migration and the Midwest: 1) it disrupts the idea of predefined destinations of southern black migrants by illustrating that not all wanted to settle in big cities; 2) it disrupts the midwestern whiteness by displaying resilience and resistance of minorities in the same landscape; and 3) it disrupts stereotypes of midwestern friendliness by uncovering the self-perceived understanding of midwestern hospitality of Hoosier communities that stands in stark contrast with the unwelcoming environment as experienced by outsiders. Together, the chapters in this dissertation record the racialized geographies of Indiana and provide a nuanced understanding of identity and belonging in the Midwest. Analysis of the data identifies cultures of exclusion prevalent in midwestern small towns.

When we talk about the Civil War, we often describe it in terms of battles that took place in small towns or in the countryside: Antietam, Gettysburg, Bull Run, and, most tellingly, the Battle of the Wilderness. One reason this picture has persisted is that few urban historians have studied the war, even though cities hosted, enabled, and shaped Southern society as much as they did in the North. Confederate Cities, edited by Andrew L. Slap and Frank Towers, shifts the focus from the agrarian economy that undergirded the South to the cities that served as its political and administrative hubs. The contributors use the lens of the city to examine now-familiar Civil War–era themes, including the scope of the war, secession, gender, emancipation, and war’s destruction. This more integrative approach dramatically revises our understanding of slavery’s relationship to capitalist economics and cultural modernity. By enabling a more holistic reading of the South, the book speaks to contemporary Civil War scholars and students alike—not least in providing fresh perspectives on a well-studied war. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1011/thumbnail.jpg

This thesis examines the origins, deployment, operations and demise of 3NZ Division. It argues that the forces that became the Division were sent to Fiji because of a perceived strategic threat, particularly from airpower, if the islands were seized by the Japanese. The Division was relieved in Fiji by the Americans but returned to the Pacific in 1943 because New Zealand wanted to earn a place at the peace table and the Americans lacked troops in the theatre. Whether the Division was primarily an offensive or garrison unit remained unclear throughout its existence and influenced its constitution. Major General Harold Barrowclough, its commander from 1942 to 1944, had somewhat different strengths from his fellow divisional commander Major General Bernard Freyberg, and operated in a very different environment, with amphibious operations at brigade level. Furthermore, his division operated in an area dominated by the United States Navy rather than the more familiar culture of the British Army. More generally, the relationship between the New Zealanders and the Americans in the South Pacific was complex, generally symbiotic but occasionally unfriendly and even lethal. The perception in New Zealand that service in the South Pacific was less onerous than service in the Mediterranean ignores the often unpleasant and even deadly conditions faced by the soldiers of 3NZ Division. The Division’s combat operations contributed significantly to the neutralisation of the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul. Except for a brief period in 1942, 3NZ Division took second place in New Zealand’s war effort to 2NZ Division. This reflected Wellington’s general inclination to favour Commonwealth over local defence, and, despite some wavering, New Zealand declined to follow Australia and focus its efforts in the Pacific. Lack of manpower to field two divisions resulted in 3NZ Division having only two brigades and growing demands from the Air Force, industry and agriculture ultimately led to its disbandment. Thereafter it faded from the public consciousness and its contribution disregarded. The men and women of 3NZ Division have undeservedly become New Zealand's forgotten warriors.