I am working to illuminate a connection between the pervasive anxiety regarding "traditional" gender roles that permeated Cold War culture during the mid-twentieth century and the advertising industry's messages to women during the same period. By examining women's magazines, a particularly important piece of cultural media for the period, and their advertisements, I seek to examine patterns that develop in the way advertisers expressed their messages to women. Tracing the development of these messages through a narrative that examines the varying prescribed roles women were expected to assume will lead to a discussion that flows from advertisers targeting brides, wives, and mothers. This narrative strategy will help create an accessible, clearly organized discussion of this topic. This project relies heavily on an examination of primary sources including advertising images from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Much scholarship has been written regarding gender, advertising, consumerism, and the postwar/Cold War era. While most of these works focus on only a few of these aspects, my work attempts to present a discussion of this period with these aspects at the forefront. By examining how advertisers spoke to women through their images in a period that was unquestionably influenced by an all-permeating anxious culture of the Cold War, I hope to prove that issues of gender, consumerism, and Cold War political efforts were inextricably connected. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 27, 2012. / advertising, Cold War, consumerism, housewife, postwar / Includes bibliographical references. / Suzanne Sinke, Professor Directing Thesis; Kristine Harper, Committee Member; Jennifer Koslow, Committee Member.

This thesis examines and analyzes the Soviet Union's religious policies through a comparison of policy toward the Russian Orthodox Church and that toward Islam. It explains the differences in religious policy between each Soviet leader, while further breaking down each leader's policies for both religions. It argues that a universal Soviet religious policy did not exist, each Soviet leader instead creating his own religious policy. It furthermore argues that the Soviet ideology of Leninist-socialism was not the motivating factor in the formation of policy, but that the personal goals of each leader, as well as the inherent need to protect the state's power and image, comprised the main factors in policy creation. The scope of this thesis is the entire span of the Soviet Union's existence. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2012. / April 6, 2012. / Islam, Religious Policy, Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet / Includes bibliographical references. / Jonathon Grant, Professor Directing Thesis; Peter Garretson, Committee Member; George Williamson, Committee Member.

The Second Seminole War (1835-1842) has confounded recent scholars who have struggled to connect this history with the emerging recognition that the Seminole Indians had a complex relationship with African communities within Florida. This thesis addresses this issue by demonstrating how United States political and military leaders' strategies toward Indians and African maroons changed in accordance with their understanding of the African-Indian relationship. The thesis first argues that in the decades leading up to the war, the United States Government believed that it could convince the Florida Indians to remove peacefully. It also shows how the African populace in Florida (also referred to as Black Seminoles or "Indian Negroes") complicated and shaped the Government's desire and ability to remove the Seminoles west of the Mississippi River. Second, the thesis shows how American military and political leaders' attitudes evolved. Government leaders perceived the Seminoles and their African counterparts as one thing before the war, and as the war drew nearer, perceptions changed. Perceptions shaped government strategy and military tactics toward the two groups. Africans' importance to the Seminoles, and their dominant influence over the native Indians caused American leaders' perceptions to change. New attitudes resulted in a new strategy toward the Indians and Africans, one where the government put less emphasis on trying to convince Indians to remove and more on coercion. Indians, American officials proclaimed, needed to go west of the Mississippi River and Africans needed to be returned to their plantations. Third, this thesis explores the connections between American policy and the changing understanding of the Indian-African relationship during the war. Tensions that the Seminole-African relationship caused, and both groups' adamant desire to resist efforts to move them west or re-enslave them, ultimately caused the initiation of hostilities in Florida in December 1835. Seminoles and Africans maintained a relationship before and during the war that United States leaders could only break apart by continual war and negotiations that would favor each group individually. Although Africans and Seminoles worked together on and off the battlefield, they did not do so out of purely mutual reasons. This thesis shows how Indian and African participants based their actions on their own community's needs and desires, and it argues that the wartime cooperation fulfilled their own separate needs. American officials recognized these distinctions prior to the war, but they became more apparent when the war began as they shaped how they fought and negotiated during the war. This recognition led American leaders in 1837 to negotiate separately with influential African leaders, who, on a large scale, severed their ties with the Seminoles. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2010. / November 1, 2010. / African, Seminole, American Policy / Includes bibliographical references. / Andrew K. Frank, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael Creswell, Committee Member; Ronald E. Doel, Committee Member.

During the Edwardian Era British and Canadian society and political circles fought a spirited battle about the nature of Canada's involvement and contributions to imperial defense. These debates were interconnected to other movements which were important during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. The movements for imperial preference, tariff reform and imperial federation were the primary predecessors of the movement for greater defense unity in the period before World War I. Supporters of greater imperial defense cooperation in both Canada and in Great Britain used a language of "Britishness" to undergird their arguments. "Britishness" was used in various ways to develop an imperial identity that could be used to connect the far flung corners of the Empire. These included citizenship and Anglo-Saxon naval supremacy. Another major feature of this movement was its non-partisan and eclectic membership. One of the main ideologies developed by supporters of imperial defense cooperation was "National Efficiency." Efficiency was a new mode of organization for the British state that emphasized military preparedness as a reaction to British failures during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) These ideologies and languages of "Britishness" and "National Efficiency" did not go unchallenged. Henri Bourassa and the French Canadian Ligue Nationaliste Canadienne built their own ideology that opposed these imperialist impulses. French Canadian nationalist was primarily a rejection of centralization and of militarism based on the long history of British radical and liberal politics. Bourassa and the Ligue Nationaliste were squarely within the mainstream of British Liberal opinion in their opposition to the Second Boer War and of a naval buildup in the Edwardian Era. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2015. / December 8, 2014. / British Empire, Canada, civil society, defense / Includes bibliographical references. / Jonathan Grant, Professor Directing Thesis; Charles Upchurch, Committee Member; Michael Creswell, Committee Member.

This dissertation documents the collective impact of military bases on civilian communities in the American South during World War II. The presence of a military base had a variety of social, economic, and political influences on the communities their neighbored. In documenting these influences, this dissertation explores the politics of base location, and how southern politicians, civic leaders, and business leaders lobbied to bring over a thousand military bases to the region during the war, in the hopes of an economic revival brought by federal investment and military payrolls. While southern elites hoped to reap the economic benefits of the bases, their rural neighbors often paid the price of community prosperity. The establishment of military bases in the region led to the displacement of southern farmers from their lands by the use of eminent domain, resulting in an estimated 50,000 citizens evicted from their homes and lands by the federal government. While the construction of the bases forced some residents to leave their communities, the jobs brought by the massive construction projects often brought tens of thousands of workers to rural communities unprepared for the sudden influx. As construction workers left and were replaced by military personnel and their families, communities enjoyed an economic recovery that effectively ended the Great Depression. While military bases brought significant economic opportunity, they also brought considerable social problems to the communities they neighbored. Among the most volatile problems concerned the presence of African American soldiers in southern communities. The prevailing racial norms of the South resulted in African American military personnel suffering widespread discrimination and racial violence. This dissertation concludes by examining the shifts in the military base infrastructure after World War II, and the postwar legacies of the military base experience during World War II. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2011. / June 24, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Maxine D. Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Maxine L. Montgomery, University Representative; James P. Jones, Committee Member; Jonathan A. Grant, Committee Member; Robert Gellately, Committee Member.

Pearling provided the basis for economic prosperity for the port cities in the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today. However, in the light of oil wealth, pearling has been relegated to the distant past. It is overshadowed by the pace and scale of change that accompanied the distribution of oil wealth and maligned as part of the traditional economy, often with negative implications. The reasons for the denigration of this industry lay partially in the conception of the past promoted in the UAE today and in the belief that there are simply too few sources to really begin to examine social and political relations in the past. This dissertation takes these very misconceptions and demonstrates that there are resources sufficient to examine pearling in the past and that pearling's memory is constructed by the present national narrative, which situates independence as the harbinger of wealth, and the complications brought on by the breakdown in pearling in the middle of the twentieth century. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2011. / April 8, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Peter P. Garretson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Rebecca Miles, University Representative; Jonathan Grant, Committee Member; Frederick Davis, Committee Member; Will Hanley, Committee Member; Adam Gaiser, Committee Member.

Florida's child welfare movement, a broad coalition of clubwomen, legislators, labor activists, and civic reformers, worked tirelessly to ensure that the right to a protected childhood was guaranteed to all of Florida's future citizens. These Progressive reformers, embracing new ideas about charity, the causes of poverty, and family life, turned to legislation to protect children when society could not, and their efforts culminated in the passage of Florida's comprehensive Child Labor Law in 1913. Florida's child labor campaign was part of both a regional and a national movement to eradicate the practice of manipulating children in industry and the street trades. Despite its inclusion in this broader movement, Florida's anti-child labor coalition was unique. Unlike their Southern neighbors, Floridians shied away from the rhetoric of 'race suicide.' Speaking on behalf of child labor legislation, they emphasized the social and moral disadvantages of child labor rather than its repercussions for race relations. This grew out of Florida's distinct pattern of economic development: Florida was among the last Southern states to industrialize, and that industrial sector did not include the textile mills notorious for child labor abuses across the South. Florida's child laborers primarily consisted of African Americans and Southern and Eastern European immigrants working in canneries along the Gulf Coast and Cuban and Italian immigrants laboring in the cigar industry of South Florida. Both of these industries employed a much smaller number of child workers than manufacturers in Florida's neighboring states. Florida's child labor legislation thus served two distinct purposes: it was both a preventative measure designed to protect Florida's children from the kinds of exploitation taking place in neighboring states and a means of pressuring those states to pass similar legislation. This thesis, an examination of the politics of Florida's child labor movement, highlights the ways in which the national child labor platform could be adapted to succeed in different states, while it reaffirms the diversity of both Progressive reform and Progressive reformers in the early twentieth-century South. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2009. / June 25, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. / Elna Green, Professor Directing Thesis; Maxine Jones, Committee Member; Jennifer Koslow, Committee Member.

This thesis examines Malta's symbolic role in the Second World War. Then a British-held colony, the archipelago fell under heavy Axis bombardment from mid 1940 ' early 1943. Incessant Italian and German air raids plagued the islands and the Maltese, making Malta the most heavily bombed area of the entire war. In June 1940, just weeks before the first attack, London's War Cabinet deemed the isles indefensible and withdrew their forces. Despite this initial abandonment, the British permanently returned to their colony just a few months later and expended a considerable amount of manpower and materiel in its defense. Tactical reasons alone cannot explain this drastic reversal in British policy. The missing explanation lies with Malta's role in British propaganda. Whether by choice or ignorance, this crucial aspect of Malta's wartime purpose is absent from the historiography. Through an examination of official papers and popular periodicals, this thesis aims to correct this imbalance. To provide proper context, the work first analyzes Anglo-Maltese relations and the empire's position in the latter half of the 1930s. The subsequent chapters analyze the media's role in the War Cabinet's return, and how Prime Minister Winston Churchill used the gallant tale of Malta to bolster morale at home and elicit the cooperation of the United States. Paired with strategic objectives around the Mediterranean basin, these propagandistic concerns ensured Britain's continued defense of the archipelago. Through the war's end, Malta served as both a physical and ideological bastion for the British Empire. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 28, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / James P. Jones, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael Creswell, Committee Member; Jennifer Koslow, Committee Member.

This dissertation analyzes the career of Henry Howard, Elizabethan courtier, and his principle intellectual work, "A Dutifull Defence of the Lawful Regiment of Women," in order to better understand the politics of Elizabethan court culture, the nature of political loyalty in the face of confessional pluralism, and the ways in which gender difference was theorized in the early modern period. Henry Howard's career constitutes one of the most remarkable success and survival stories of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Born into the most prominent Catholic family in England, Howard saw his father, two cousins, and his brother be executed for treason. During his life he constantly remained under suspicion for being a practicing Catholic, consorting with Jesuits, and participating in conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth. Howard was deprived of his income and position, arrested and imprisoned numerous times, and was forced to survive on the periphery of the court. Yet remarkably, he survived. At the accession of James I he was awarded the title Earl of Northampton, and by the time of his death in 1614 he was the wealthiest man in England. The story of the "Dutifull Defence" is no less extraordinary. Several authors wrote defenses of Queen Elizabeth in response to John Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet. However, Henry Howard had the advantage of not only being a nobleman, but he was also a graduate of Cambridge University. He had the education and ability to respond to Knox. "Dutifull Defence" contains over 400 sources, which Howard used to reject Knox's arguments against women based on Aristotelian biology. Instead he proposed a Platonic understanding of gender difference. By combining Platonic ideas of gender with his extensive knowledge of the Church fathers, Scripture, and English Civil law, Howard was able to construct an intellectually consistent and sound defense of queenship. Previous historians have usually only looked at aspects of Howard's life, and only superficial fragments of the "Dutifull Defence," and none have tried to integrate the study of the two. This dissertation combines the dynamic of Henry Howard's life and his composition of "Dutifull Defence" in order to reveal the importance of the manuscript. In composing "Dutifull Defence" he contributed a significant work to the gender debate based on his own personal experiences and a genuine belief that a woman was capable of ruling a country. In analyzing the content, production, and circulation of the "Dutifull Defence" in conjunction with Howard's experiences as a courtier, this dissertation, following the model of early modern public spheres developed in the work of by Peter Lake and Steven Pincus, demonstrates the ways in which identities, ideas, and publics could be successfully manipulated to create stability in the tumultuous world of Elizabethan court politics. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / April 18, 2013. / Dutifull Defence, Henry Howard / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles Upchurch, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gary Taylor, University Representative; Darrin McMahon, Committee Member; Jonathon Grant, Committee Member; Peter Garretson, Committee Member.

This dissertation is intended as a contribution to historical studies of antiwar and anti-interventionist movements as well as domestic influences on U.S. foreign policymaking in general. It presents a comprehensive account of the organized efforts of U.S. citizens to stop the U.S.-directed counterrevolutionary war against Sandinista Nicaragua and to develop transnational connections to Nicaragua. Unlike the Eisenhower administration's covert operation against the Guatemalan government in 1954, the Reagan administration's attempt to achieve 'regime change' in Nicaragua was not allowed to proceed quietly. Opponents of the war lobbied Congress, protested in the streets, organized hundreds of local organizations and committees, and conducted continual educational programs, extending the debate in Washington to communities across the United States. Anti-Contra War groups, in cooperation with Nicaraguan groups and agencies, facilitated the travel of some 100,000 U.S. citizens to Nicaragua during the 1980s. Dozens of sister city programs and humanitarian aid projects were created, aiding the very communities under attack by the U.S.-supported Contras. The anti-Contra War campaign was ultimately unsuccessful in ending the war, but it lent support to Congressional limitations imposed on the administration and it presented an obstacle to the administration's contingency plans for a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua. Notwithstanding its role as a dissident movement, the campaign was in line with international opinion and the diplomatic efforts of European and Latin American leaders to halt the war. This dissertation provides historical background on the Sandinista Revolution and the Contra War; analyzes the arguments of both the Reagan administration and its opponents; examines the development of the transnational 'solidarity' relationships along with the Reagan administration's contention that U.S. groups were party to a 'Sandinista disinformation campaign;' critiques the campaign's organizational structure and the relationships between religious, leftist, and peace activists; investigates a sample of local and state organizations; charts the progress of the eight-year campaign from 1982 to 1990; and offers an assessment of the campaign's influence and significance. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2007. / October 11, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. / Max Paul Friedman, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Johnson, Outside Committee Member; Valerie Jean Conner, Committee Member; Matt Childs, Committee Member.