The historiography of tuberculosis, TB, covers four periods in the United States. During the Victorian Age, TB was classified as consumption. After Robert Kochs discovery of the tubercle bacillus in the 1882, the germ theory took precedence. The early 1900s saw the rise of the Sanatorium Age, and finally, the antibiotic revolution of the 1940s and 1950s began the current understanding of the disease. Missing from this periodization is an era in which surgery took precedence as the preferred treatment for tuberculosis. This study corrects the historiography by arguing for a recognizable Surgical Age in the 1930s and 1940s. With the benefits of hindsight, historians have dismissed the Surgical Age. Many fail to make any mention of it at all. Those scholars who do tend to lump surgery in with the Sanatorium Age, assuming surgical treatment was simply an extension of the rest cure. The few who do recognize the Surgical Age as a distinct era mistakenly dismiss it as a negligible blip before the discovery of antibiotics. All of these scholars miss the crucial importance of the Surgical Age and the interplay of politics, medicine, and the public in shaping it. This study examines the Mississippi State Sanatorium as a case study of the Surgical Age. In hindsight, we can see that surgery did not produce the most favorable results in treating tuberculosis, but the fact is, surgeons and physicians at the time thought that it did. Politicians promoted it to their constituents. And the public, in turn, demanded it. For two decades, surgical therapy dominated the pioneering techniques for pulmonary tuberculosis treatment. To correct the historical narrative, the Surgical Age needs to be recognized as a separate era that rose out of the sanatoriums search for legitimacy during the Great Depression. As this thesis shows, this legitimacy was contingent upon the ongoing support of the public, politicians, physicians, and patients.

The official English church in the mid-sixteenth century vacillated back and forth between Catholicism and Protestantism, the two rivals of European Christianity. As these changes engendered a broad array of disagreements over issues such as liturgical practices, clerical attire, and church ornamentation, this thesis focuses on the most provocative of these debates-presbyterianism-and its proliferation among the men and women of Elizabethan London. Despite the propagation of presbyterian-style nonconformity in several regions of Elizabeth's realm, London functioned as the epicenter of this challenge to religious orthodoxy. From their location at the economic, religious, and cultural heart of the nation, Elizabethan Londoners could not avoid encountering the overblown rhetoric and impassioned opining of the various characters of the religious drama that played out in their streets, making the capital one of the most radically-inclined areas in England. Throughout Elizabeth I's reign, the city remained firmly situated at the center of the tension that characterized English religion. Although the conflict between the established Church of England and the presbyterians climaxed under Elizabeth's Stuart successors, it began to emerge during her reign, and noticeably affected the religious climate of the era. Rather than focusing on specific theological questions, this thesis examines the way in which the various orders of presbyterian Londoners interacted and formed a functional movement. Ultimately, London presbyterianism not only flourished, but also represented a serious challenge to the official Church's authority because of its ability to appeal to men and women from all orders of the city's society: churchmen, nobles, merchants, tradesmen, and the common sort, as well as the influential communities of religious exiles from the Continent who made their homes within the city and its environs. As a result of this popular appeal, the presbyterian movement was able to endure the systematic attempts to eliminate it carried out by the Queen and the church hierarchy, to continue to help shape the nation's religious climate under the Stuarts, and to leave a lasting mark on English culture.

In 1844 American Methodists split over the issue of slavery, and following the Civil War the regional churches took two paths toward accommodating African Americans. Northern whites put their faith in the ideology of racial uplift and believed freed persons could only rise through society through organic relations with their white brethren. Southern whites, however, contended that blacks should maintain their own racially segregated churches. Thus, by the 1870s, southern Methodism became an all white institution. Between 1916 and 1939 northern and southern Methodists debated a path to reunite American Methodism, and the role of African Americans in the church and the distribution of ecclesiastical authority became two primary obstacles. When the churches agreed on a final plan in 1939, it appeared that southern whites segregationist attitudes had prevailed over the northern Methodists racial egalitarianism. Scholarly interpretations have confirmed this assumption, arguing that the final plan caste African Americans into a racially segregated Central Jurisdiction and only gave blacks representation in the quadrennial General Conference. However, a careful examination of the reunification debates reveals how white and black Methodists conceptions of race changed over the inter-war years. Where other interpretations have caste reunification as a regressive measure in race relations, this essay argues that at the time, many Methodists believed it was one step toward a more racially and ecclesiastically harmonious Methodism.

Edmund Burkes legacy has heretofore centered on his seminal work, The Reflections on the Revolution in France. However, Burkes other contributions have been largely ignored. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to focus on Burkes literary and political role in the British response to the French Revolution from 1790 until his death in 1797. This study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter contains a contextual background of Burkes moral and political philosophy. It explains why Burke responded in the manner he did to the French Revolution. The remaining three chapters, in a chronological manner, trace Burkes influence on the British governments response to the French Revolution. These roughly six years can be divided into three approximately two-year periods. Chapter 3 analyzes the first period which begins in November 1790 and extends until January 1793. It encompasses the reaction to the Reflections, and ends right before the outbreak of war between Britain and France. The second period, lasting from February 1793 until July 1795, is examined in Chapter 4. Included in this timeframe are Burkes dealings with the British government concerning war policy; this section ends with the invasion of Quiberon. Chapter 5 studies the third and final period which starts in August 1795 and continues to Burkes death in July 1797. It witnesses Burkes withdrawal from foreign affairs, and his investment in the Penn school for émigré children. Source material includes four volumes of Burkes Correspondence, and uses several primary sources, including A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, Thoughts on French Affairs, Letters on a Regicide Peace, among others. Secondary literature sources are supplementally used to interpret the events and political thinking during that period of time. The findings show that Burke was responsible for a greater impact on the French Revolution than he is credited by most scholars. Regarded by most historians and political scientists as the father of modern Anglo-conservatism, Burkes legacy should be amended to include his accomplishments following the publication of the Reflections, and his impact on British foreign policy.

Pablo Picasso drew inspiration from diverse artistic traditions. This thesis argues that the medieval art and heritage of Catalonia was among his earliest influences and that it proved instrumental to Picasso's development of that revolutionary approach to painting, known as Cubism. The topic has amazingly received little attention over the past decades and this thesis is an attempt to fill the glaring gap in Picasso scholarship. My work combines formal analysis with an investigation of the broader cultural context in which Picasso was operating in order to demonstrate how the young artist was influenced by the figurative and stylistic execution of Catalan medieval art. Although the Blue Period (1901-1904) is the focus of the thesis, because it constituted Picassos first major moment of impact with medieval art, I trace the progression of Picassos relationship with medieval imagery throughout his early career, from subtle references in the 1890s to more direct appropriation between 1902 and the dawn of Cubism 1907.

As one of the premier legal minds in the Senate, having twice declined presidential nominations to the Supreme Court, Judah Benjamins rhetoric contains the Souths most sophisticated and clear-minded legal expositions on constitutional theory, state sovereignty, and republican government since the writings of John C. Calhoun. A well-known moderate, Benjamins national political career also reveals the effect of extremism on his own political thinking, while offering a limited perspective into the shifting attitude of the Deep South as well. Benjamins judicious speeches counseled northerners that southern views of liberty and sovereignty were inexplicably linked to slavery. With measured rhetoric Benjamin argued that any attempt to regulate slavery not only imperiled southern liberty, but corrupted the original spirit of the Constitution. Beginning in 1856, as a result of the Republican Partys emergence in national politics, Benjamin increasingly employed strident rhetoric in his speeches which embraced the political logic of secession. With Abraham Lincolns election in 1860, Benjamin not only defended secessions logic, but encouraged its urgent execution.

This thesis examines the religious language used by Americas Revolutionary leadership, particularly regarding days of fasting and prayer, the appointment of chaplains to the Continental Army, and the practice praying in the Continental Congress. These three occurrences indicate the presence of religious thought in the prosecution of the American Revolution and the establishment of an American nation. But it is an oversimplification to draw the conclusion that the founding of the United States was religious in nature simply because religious thought was involved in the process. Examining these three acts reveals the complex association of religious and political rhetoric, and at the same time helps to make sense of public religious expressions made by Americas political leadership in the Revolutionary context. By analyzing the language surrounding the proclamation of fast days, the appointment of chaplains, and the offering of prayer in Congress, we can achieve a better understanding of the role religion played in promoting a patriotic identity and securing a greater sense of American nationhood. In proclaiming fast days, appointing chaplains, and participating in congressional prayer, Americas Revolutionary leadership utilized the language of American providentialism, the belief that God intervened in the affairs of mankind and that America was ordained by God to play a pivotal role in that plan. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the founders public use of religious rhetoric, particularly that of providentialism, reveals less about the founders personal religious beliefs and more about how they perceived the religiosity of their constituents. The founders use of religious language to illicit a patriotic response from Americans indicates that they perceived most Americans possessed a non-secular, essentially Christian worldview.

After the start of World War I in 1914, the British government began internment of enemy alien men, disrupting the large German population settled in the country. This move seemed to be in complete contrast in comparison to the lax immigration laws during the long nineteenth century, when Great Britain had one of the most liberal immigration laws of any country in Europe. The British public was proud of this tradition and Britains image as an open haven for refugees and individuals seeking a better life. Foreigners were attracted to Britain by its liberal traditions, most clearly exemplified by the Liberal Partys espousal of limited government intervention and the protection of civil liberties. This thesis will examine the decades of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the Liberal Party experienced a crisis of ideals and a split and Britain experienced an economic depression which coincided with an increase in immigration. During these decades, foreigners became a convenient other for Britons to blame for economic problems, and pressure from the angry public forced governments to pass new legislation which contradicted previous open-door policies. The Aliens Act of 1905, one of the first pieces of legislation which provided officials with more power to turn away undesirable aliens and limit their movement around the country, was followed by the Defence of the Realm Act and the Aliens Restriction Act, which H.H. Asquiths Liberal government passed immediately following the declaration of war on Germany in 1914. For the duration of the war Germans in Britain faced blatant discrimination and infringement upon their civil liberties, as dictated by the new wartime legislation. Most men were interned in large camps located on the Isle of Man, while women faced repatriation at the discretion of the government. At the conclusion of World War I, David Lloyd Georges coalition government decided to extend the new restrictions regarding immigration legislation, conveying how British liberal traditions were forever changed.

By the mid-nineteenth century, two separate visions of civilization and Christianity existed in Liberia. On the one hand, the settlers the emigrants sent from the United States to Liberia by the American Colonization Society starting in 1822 worshiped the external appearance of a Christian mind and civilized western body. They revered those citizens who spoke the best American English, lived in the grandest wood-framed houses, and wore the best American clothes. They required total indoctrination of natives into the religion of the tall hat and frock coat to maintain a stable, civilized American society. On the other hand, the black-led missionaries the black Americans and frustrated settlers who broke off from the white-led missionary enterprise in the 1840s and 1850s promoted the idea of a civilized, Christian mind. To them, the religion of the top hat and frock coat developed an exaggerated sense of civility both in Americo-Liberian society and the few native societies it touched. Accordingly, they worked to inject the native population with an understanding of a single benevolent God, solemn prayer, and spiritual immortality through translated scripture, and pidgin sermons. This split in cultural and religious practice gave rise to a new national and racial identity in the Liberian hinterland based on the pan-Negro principles of Edward Blyden, Alexander Crummell, and John Seys, among others. Led by the black missionaries, a new group of pan-Negro preachers rejected the total indoctrination practices of the Americo-Liberians, promoting a sense of racial unity and equality lost in Liberian settler society. They transplanted American-based Jacksonian individualism into the African context, allowing natives to experiment with, and learn the teachings of Christianity on their own. At the same time, however, the Americo-Liberian society, which existed strictly in the urban centers of Monrovia, and coastal settler towns, remained steadfastly American. Americo-Liberian leaders placed innate value on skin color, ancestry, and outward appearance, creating a racialistic meritocracy that banned dark-skinned blacks, and native Africans from the highest echelons of settler society. Both societies were Americo-Liberian by nature, separated by the fundamental difference between rhetoric and reality.

Paul Krassner began publishing a small-circulation magazine called The Realist in New York City in 1958 because he believed there existed excessive restraints on speech in American culture. The publication began with a combination of earnest critiques and good-humored satires on such topics as organized religion, sexual mores, Cold War paranoia, and civil rights. By the mid-sixties, the magazine was enlarging the space not just for what opinions could be expressed but also for the way those opinions were expressed and, in the process, testing the boundaries of obscenity. As Krassner became a bitter opponent of the Vietnam War and the administration that waged it, he combined vulgarity and protest into a startling form of self-expression that, ultimately, resulted in the magazines best-remembered piece. Issues of The Realist from 1968 demonstrate that Krassner flirted with political radicalism, particularly in that heady year, but ultimately, his war was with the cultural censors. The humor in The Realist, both bold and sophomoric, led to denunciations from journalists, politicians, and feminists. The condemnation of the latter group particularly stung the usually thick-skinned editor, who had long made the case for equal pay and reproductive rights for women. The Realist is the principal example of a 1960s publication and, by mid-decade, a widely read one that reveled in psychedelic and sexual experimentation, condemned what it considered evil, but above all, considered the right to self-expression the most essential American value.