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This dissertation tells the story of how anticommunism operated on the state and local level in Massachusetts from the depression through the 1950s. Using analytic tools from both political history and social history, it asks: what initiatives were driven by anticommunism, who were the people behind these initiatives, why did they want to suppress political dissent, and where did their ideas originate. The findings show that anticommunism on the state and local level was far more complex than has been appreciated. In Massachusetts, political ideas travel through a prism of class and ethnicity before taking shape as political actions. Neither the pluralist analysis of McCarthyism as a mass based movement from below, nor the revisionist analysis of McCarthyism as an elite rivalry over political power adequately explain what happened in Massachusetts. A more accurate picture reveals pockets of anticommunist activity throughout the state. These pockets were peopled with conservative Yankees, professional anticommunists, Catholic legislators and opportunist labor leaders. However, the ideas driving each group were quite different. What this study shows is the usefulness of anticommunism in helping Americans find common political ground across class and ethnic differences. For most people it was a lot easier to agree on what was un-American than it was to agree on what was American. Massachusetts anticommunists maintained an unbroken thread of activity throughout the period of this study, 1930 to 1960. Evidence of anticommunism and antiradicalism during the Second World War--expressed as opposition to conscientious objectors and support for the Christian Front--links the "little Red Scare" of the depression to postwar McCarthyism. The same groups of people supported anticommunist initiatives during the cold war as had during the depression and war years. The Catholic Church continued to be the single most influential source of anticommunism. Union leaders used anticommunist Catholic labor doctrine to oust rivals from power within the electrical workers union. A legislative commission dominated by socially conservative Irish Democrats investigated subversion among liberal Yankees. Cold war anticommunism on the state level was driven by ethnic conflict not party rivalry.

This dissertation examines the resurgence of Massachusetts Federalists in national politics from 1805 through 1815. During this ten-year period, Federalists were relegated to the periphery of national politics as the Democratic-Republican majority in Congress passed a string of controversial commercial policies directed at French and British violations of America’s neutral trade. However, the rejection of bipartisan solutions, along with the anti-commercialism and sectional bias in Jeffersonian political economy, precipitated a resurgence of the Federalist Party after 1805. In Congress, Federalists, led by Massachusetts’ representatives, compensated for their dwindling numbers and influence in the national arena by adopting a populist stance and opposition platform that attracted New England voters. In fact, this study suggests that national expansion, the spread of slavery, and Jefferson’s agrarian ethos, played a more significant role in the Democratic-Republican Party’s rise to national prominence after 1800, than a widespread rejection of Federalist elitism. By testing the validity of Federalist claims that New England’s ability to safeguard its interests in national government diminished in direct proportion to the nation’s growth, we gain a better understanding of the emergence of New England nationalism and the deepening sectional hostilities that threatened the survival of the Union. Finally, through its reassessment of the Federalists’ opposition to commercial restrictions and their calls for constitutional reform to abolish slave quotas, this dissertation departs from the focus of previous studies, expands the discourse surrounding early national politics, and places Federalists in their appropriate historical context.

The purpose of this thesis is to show a transformation around the scientific revolution from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries against a Whig approach in which it still lingers in the history of science. I find the transformations of modern science through the cosmological models of Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. Since of the enormous content, I shall only pay particular attention to Copernicus and Newton in which the emerging sciences transformed the cosmos on what Alexandre Koyré calls from a "closed world to infinite universe". As an interdisciplinary approach, I used the methods and inquiries from philosophy and history to explain the cosmological transformation in the sciences. The first part deals on the philosophic content of Michel Foucault and Thomas Kuhn which help to provide insight though their systematic thoughts are incompatible. The second part deals in the historic contents from Copernicus' doctrine, De revolutionibus, to Newton's mechanics, Principia. My ultimate outcome is to demonstrate the multi-perspective dimension of knowledge in which interdisciplinary studies shows transformation of the sciences and its effects on history.

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This study focuses on the significant investment in oceanography that typified Cold War Britain. Thanks to the analysis of untapped archival records, it documents the remarkable growth of marine research in the UK, and its underlying ambitions, from the end of Second World War naval exercises to the deployment of nuclear submarines in the Atomic Age. In particular, it looks at the significance of sea studies in the context of British naval operations, the surveillance of enemy vessels at sea, and the gathering of intelligence on the capabilities of enemy forces. In so doing, it depicts the trajectory of what was at the time dubbed "military oceanography" from its ascendancy in the post-war years to the creation of an national organization (the National Institute of Oceanography, NIO), devoted to pursue novel research, to its re-configuration during the 1970s marking an important transition from military to civilian (environmentally-driven) studies. The thesis discusses the complexities of the Cold War British State. It reveals the connections between leading scientists, government administrators, and military officers, and their interplay in the establishment and development of oceanographic studies. The thesis contends that at the core of the political-scientific interface there are policy networks and that we can gain a better understanding of this interaction by looking at some of the key figures, or "nodes" in these networks. It thus uses the career of the NIO director, the marine scientist George Deacon, as a source to gain entrance into the historical path of British oceanography, and argues that by looking at Deacon as a mediator (or "go-between") one can gain a better understanding of the dynamics and historical evolution of the policy networks he participated in.

This study attempts to assess the dynamics of British policy towards the Chinese community in Malaya during a period of thirteen years which witnessed the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, the reestablishment of British colonial rule, and the efforts towards self government. A key factor in the British policy towards the Chinese community is based on an awareness of the community's potentiality to become a " Fifth Column", threatening the security of British Malaya. The problem facing the colonial authorities, therefore, was how to neutralize this potential "Fifth Column". Influenced by the contemporary situation, the British eventually adopted a policy of socio-political reorganization of the Chinese community as a means of solving the problem. During the period of this study British policy towards the Chinese political role covers four stages: first, the pre-war period with the so-called "pro-Malay policy"; second, the 1942-1947 period with the new Chinese policy and the Malayan Union scheme; third, the period of Federation and the revival of a pro-Malay policy; and finally, the Malayanization of the Chinese aiming at building a united Malayan nation. Simultaneously with this stage, was the British undertaking of decolonization.In retrospect, the study in the main confirms the success of British policy towards the Malayan Chinese particularly in cultivating a sense of Malayan national consciousness. At least the majority of the Chinese in Malaya willingly chose this land as their home.

The development of nylon represented a triumph of ten years of experimentation conducted by the DuPont Company in the 1920s and 1930s. For the first dozen years of its existence, nylon was produced exclusively by DuPont, but that changed in 1951 when the company, under anti-trust pressure, negotiated a contract to license the Chemstrand Corporation to manufacture nylon yarn. Two years later, Chemstrand, a joint business venture of the Monsanto Chemical Company and American Viscose, produced its first 20,000 pounds of nylon textile yarn at its Pensacola Plant. This plant had the capacity to convert simple raw materials derived from petroleum into nylon yarn, a viable product with great market potential. / The primary purpose of this dissertation is to record highlights of the Chemstrand/Monsanto Pensacola plant's four decades of operation focusing on the principles and philosophy which brought the plant to its current status. / Included in the research are topics pertaining to the research and development of nylon, the formation of the Chemstrand Corporation, growth of the plant site, on site Research and Development, end products produced from Pensacola fibers and chemicals, health, safety, and environmental issues, and business/community relations. / The research is intended to provide a concise, synthesized study that will serve as a case study for future projects analyzing the development of post World War II business in the South. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: A, page: 3346. / Major Professor: William Rogers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.