In the 1780s, Emperor Joseph II implemented reforms of the Catholic Church in Austria. By the time of his death in 1790, Joseph had cut off the Austrian Church from Rome, dissolved one-third of the monasteries in the Habsburg Empire, made marriage a state matter, granted toleration to Protestants, controlled clerical education, and restricted many religious activities. After the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815), Europe retreated toward conservatism, and reform in Austria ended. Yet most of the religious changes in the 1780s, aptly labeled Josephinism, remained in the Austrian Church. This thesis will examine the persistence of Josephinism in the Austrian Church. Austria continued to restrict communication between the Church and the papacy, used books banned by Rome in its clerical educational system, tolerated Protestants, retained control of marriage laws, and regulated overall religious activity. Josephinism was a compromise between anticlerical liberalism and the Catholic reaction that characterized several other European nations after 1815. Austria censored egregiously anticlerical literature and tolerated religious minorities in a manner that did not offend ordinary Catholics. Bureaucrats cultivated the support of the growing liberal middle classes, who supported a reduction in the Churchs temporal power, by attempting to restrain zealotry. This religious settlement helped ensure political and religious stability in the Restoration (1815-1848). Through the lens of Church policy, one can see Austrias response to the challenges of modernization. Austrian officials remained committed to the ideals of Josephinism, and religious policy in the Habsburg Empire was surprisingly progressive and peaceful until the Revolutions of 1848. For the Restoration era, Josephinism worked well as a balance between Catholic reaction and the secularism of the modern world. But in the 1850s, Emperor Francis Joseph dismantled the Josephinist Church and concluded a concordat with Rome that favored the papacy. When international events forced the emperor to share power in the 1860s, the concordat and other conservative Church policies of the 1850s became an easy target for anticlerical liberals. This religious turmoil in the 1850s and 1860s confirms that the moderate Church policy pursued before 1848 had, indeed, been the proper course of action for Austria.

The subject of this dissertation is Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury 1663-1677. This project give an overview of his life and the pivotal points in history where his actions and activities impacted the survival of the remnant of the church during the interregnum as well as settling it at the Restoration. This project seeks to reconstruct his role in the settlement of a definite Anglican identity during his tenure as archbishop and his legacy in handling the turbulent political and religious climate of late 17th century England.

"Berlin & the Origins of Detente" is a diplomatic history of the Berlin Crisis from 1958-1963. 'Berlin Crisis' usually means the events surrounding construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Wall, erected just two months after US President John Kennedy and the Soviet Union's Chairman Nikita Khrushchev met at Vienna, physically divided East Berlin from the Western sectors of the US, Britain and France, who kept occupation forces under the 1945 Potsdam accords. This work covers the events leading up to the Wall and after, when the focus shifted from multilateral Allied diplomacy in the Eisenhower-era to bilateral US-Soviet engagement in the Kennedy period. Salient events include the 1959 Geneva foreign ministers conference and Western ministers/head of state meetings principally concerned with Berlin. It covers ambassadorial meetings, papers and proposals, correspondence and historiography based on Khrushchev, Eisenhower and other leaders, European and Allied issues. The Wall was the most visible part of a dispute between the Soviet Union and the United States, Britain and France who occupied West Berlin. In 1958, Khrushchev issued an ultimatum to the West: end the occupation of West Berlin, turn it into an open 'free city' and recognize the (Eastern) German Democratic Republic through a 'peace treaty' that would supersede the Potsdam agreement. Principals displayed a readiness to use force if necessary, to defend their position, but attempted a diplomatic approach to resolve the Berlin issue, which was related to disarmament. Berlin acted as a catalyst in the US, USSR and Allied relationships. Diplomatic approaches lessened tensions and brought brief, tentative periods of detente. Negotiation renewed US-Soviet diplomatic engagement and provided a precedent for later attempts at detente, which were more centered on disarmament. No other issue led to summit conferences or engaged the US, Allies and Soviet Union so intently.

In the late fourth and early fifth centuries Christians actively sought to reimagine the persecutions of the pre-Constantinian era by keeping the memory of the martyrs alive. The cult of martyrs became one tool for navigating present difficulties and establishing a source of legitimacy. As a valuable connection with the past, the cult of martyrs enabled Christian communities to build identity, and bishops could use it to promote the Christianization of the empire. In spite of the cult's widespread popularity, churches imputed widely disparate meanings to the cult. The cult's function in a particular locale was often shaped by that place's specific religious and political context. Chapter one deals with the martyrdom phenomenon, the earliest Christians' views on this phenomenon, and the development of the cult of the martyrs. Chapters two and three investigate the relationship of the cult of martyrs to its Roman cultural context by analyzing suicide martyrdoms and the tendency of bishops to portray the cult as spectacle. Chapters four, five, and six describe the cult's relationship to three notable bishops: Ambrose of Milan (d. 397), John Chrysostom (d. 407), and Augustine of Hippo (d. 430). Though contemporary with one another, these three men all viewed the cult of the martyrs as fulfilling somewhat different needs for their congregations. The last chapter describes the controversy over the cult in Gaul, where some clergy resisted its development.

This thesis describes how Ronald Reagan succeeded in carrying Louisiana in the 1980 Presidential election. Initially, pundits predicted the election, both statewide and nationwide, would be a dead heat between Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. Southern voters supported Carter, despite his many blunders; many American voters wondered if Reagan would be a competent leader. Reagan had a well-organized campaign and spent plenty of time in Louisiana, considered a pivotal swing state. His campaign team prepared speeches, explained issues, and received information and support from state Republican leaders, including Governor David Treen and Congressmen Robert Livingston and Henson Moore. Good local support, coordinated by the national campaign, paid real dividends. This thesis utilizes the Ronald Reagan Campaign Papers at the Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California. These papers were first made available for research in 2008, and include correspondence among campaign staffers, politicians, and some supporters. In addition, this thesis uses network newscasts from the Vanderbilt University Television News Archive. Finally, numerous Louisiana newspapers, including those from rural, suburban, and urban areas, were used for research. Reagan's victory in the 1980 election marked the beginning of a new form of conservatism that stressed economic and social reform via lower taxes, smaller federal government, strong national defense, and opposition to both abortion and homosexual lifestyles. In Louisiana, his win boosted the state's Republican Party, once considered a small minority party with little power in local and state leadership. In addition, the 1980 campaign served as a trial run in Louisiana for Governor Treen, who served as Reagan's Louisiana honorary campaign chair, and former Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards, who served as Carter's Louisiana honorary campaign chair, as these two men faced each other in the 1983 gubernatorial election. Thanks to Reagan's legacy, Louisiana's Republican Party has transformed itself into a strong second party that currently holds most statewide elected offices, federal Congressional seats, and both houses of the state legislature. Though not clear in 1980, today it is clear that the conservative Republican resurgence in American politics defined itself in Louisiana in choices offered by Ronald Reagan in achieving an impressive electoral victory.

The primary subjects of this dissertation are the post-World War II German authors Alfred Andersch and Hans Werner Richter. Drawing from a mixture of the authors writings and previously-researched as well as new archival sources, this study will examine their roles as editors of the U.S. Army-sponsored POW newspaper Der Ruf, as founders of the postwar West German journal, also titled Der Ruf, and, most famously, as founding members of the influential postwar West German literary circle Group 47. Each of these developments led directly to the next, and this study will explore the various processes that linked them together. Existing studies have offered various interpretations, ranging from the belief that the authors time in America strongly impacted their development as writers to claims that their later careers were strongly informed by desires to distance themselves from accusations of collaboration. Most works tend either toward an exclusively historical or literary focus, but this study seeks to unite previously disconnected areas of scholarship in order to arrive at a more complete understanding of the authors roles in the emergence of post-World War II West German literature.

The Bald Knobbers of Southwest Missouri were a vigilante organization that originated in Taney County, Missouri, in 1885, before spreading to adjacent Christian and Douglas counties in ensuing years. They began as a group dedicated to protecting life and property, aiding law enforcement officials in the apprehension of criminals, opposing corruption in local government, and punishing those who violated the social and religious mores of their community. In some places, the vigilantes gained much political influence, occupied key offices, and became effectively the ruling faction in local politics. They made many enemies, however, with whom they had several violent, sometimes fatal, confrontations. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, I advance three major arguments in this dissertation. First, the Civil War contributed to the Bald Knobber movement by leaving a legacy of bitterness and mistrust among the people of Southwest Missouri, creating a polarized political culture, and increasing the acceptance of violence and vigilantism as methods of solving problems and deterring crime. Second, the original vigilance committee in Taney County consisted of a coalition of middle and upper class men of diverse occupations and backgrounds who wanted to enforce the law, fight corruption in local government, and promote the economic modernization of their region by encouraging new investment, businesses, and settlers to come to the area. Third, in contrast to the original group, the Bald Knobbers of Christian and Douglas counties were mostly poor and overwhelmingly agricultural. Rather than promote economic modernization, they often resisted it when it produced hardships for themselves or their families. To that end, they expelled homesteaders who competed with them for land and resources, and clashed with railroad agents over what they perceived as unfair pricing and employment policies. They also emphasized moral regulation, the punishment of people who violated their standards of decent behavior, more than their counterparts in Taney County.

While the historiography of the Red Scare has often discussed the major internal security legislation passed during the period, the legislation in question is often given short shrift and characterized as a misguided response by Congress. It is important to examine this legislation not only for what it did for the internal security of the nation, but also for what it meant symbolically. Implementation of governmental policy, including internal security policy, through legislation often also serves as a window to the beliefs and values of those crafting the legislation. By examining the internal security legislation passed during the Red Scare, we can determine some of the beliefs and values that underlay the legislation. This dissertation argues three points. First, Congressional politics and legislation during the Second Red Scare created a pattern for dealing with internal security crises both during and after the Cold War. As part of this pattern, the values and beliefs that underlay the initial internal security legislation are present in internal security legislation of the 1960s and the early 2000s. The judicial response to this legislation created necessary limits to Congressional action. Second, while the race riots of many major urban centers in the 1960s have been explained as social crises, its important that they be studied as internal security crises as well. Particularly within Congress, some viewed these riots as an insurgency and an insurrection and framed their responses and legislation towards combating them. Finally, while attempts have been made to create a post-Cold War policy towards combating terrorism, the initial post-September 11, 2001, attempts at anti-terror legislation (such as the USA PATRIOT Act) continued to follow much of the same pattern established for internal security crises during the Cold War.

When the Renaissance was in its full bloom in Italy, England was just beginning to show awareness of this new learning- humanism. In the mid- 1400s English scholars traveled abroad to Italy and collected books, knowledge, and learned the Greek language. Thomas Linacre and John Colet were part of a younger generation that benefited from this previous experience and both men travelled to Italy to continue their scholarly pursuits. Linacre arrived in Florence during the height of humanist scholarship. While there he came under the influence of medical humanists, devoted to the translation of ancient medical texts from Greek into Latin with the hopes that this purified knowledge would improve medical practice and education. John Colet travelled to Italy only six years after Linacre, but during those six years the political, religious, and scholarly atmosphere of Italy had changed a great deal. This affected the type of humanism that Colet experienced. He was a devout Christian and he was deeply influenced by the Christian humanism that was being expounded in Florence; this was concerned with returning to the purity of the original church fathers and spreading their message of true faith. In this thesis I examine the different humanist influences that these men came under and how they affected their later efforts to reform England. Linacre and Colet found a way to take the examples and lessons they had experienced in Italy to facilitate a practical application of humanist values onto the English framework through enacting changes to education, medical regulations, translations, and Latin grammars.

One of the most important events of Edward VIs reign, the 1549 rebellions, has been intensely studied by historians of the period. However, most monographs of the rebellions pinpoint the enclosure commissions or Edward Seymours inability to govern effectively as the reasons behind the riots. What is ignored is the intimate relationship between the eastern rebels language in their petitions and the rhetoric employed in evangelical propaganda from Edwards accession in January 1547 to the outbreak of the rebellions in May 1549. My research in Edwardian propaganda during Somersets protectorate reveals a dialogue established between evangelicals and Catholics concerning doctrine and theological analysis based on the scriptures. Somersets regime used the London printing presses to appeal to the lower orders of society, the common people, for support of the Reformation. The rhetoric employed was designed to appeal positively to the people, emphasizing the commonwealth and universal good. It also linked the people with their king in governing the kingdom and breaking from the popes tyrannical authority. In addition, the regime used Henrician and Roman Catholic conversion narratives to disseminate evangelical doctrine, most notably through cleric Richard Smyths two forced recantations, which were printed and sold in Pauls Cross. Other works used include Stephen Gardiners defense of the Eucharist, John Hoopers response, and Robert Crowleys two confutations of Miles Hogarde, another Henrician Catholic, and Nicholas Shaxton, a former evangelical. The conclusion of this study draws direct parallels between the 1549 petitions and the rhetorical strategies used in the previous two years. The governments direct patronage of this propaganda and the language that drew the commons into a political partnership with their king helped to spark the rebellions, resulting in a crisis of leadership and legitimacy.