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This thesis examines the popularity of plays from the ancien régime in the theatre of the French Revolution. In spite of an influx of new plays, works dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were amongst the most frequently performed of the decade. Appropriation resulted in these tragedies and comedies becoming ‘Revolutionary’ and often overtly political in nature. In this thesis, I will establish how and why relatively obscure, neglected plays became both popular and Revolutionary at this time. I shall draw on eighteenth-century definitions of appropriation to guide my analysis of their success and adaptation, whilst the theoretical framework of pre-history and afterlives (as well as modern scholarship on exemplarity and the politicisation of the stage) will shape my research. To ensure that I investigate a representative selection of appropriated plays, I will look at five very different works, including two tragedies and three comedies, which pre-date the Revolution by at least thirty years. Voltaire’s Brutus enjoyed successive Revolutionary afterlives from 1789-1799, whereas Lemierre’s Guillaume Tell was only truly successful as political propaganda during the Terror. Meanwhile, Molière’s Misanthrope was subjected to censorship and Revolutionary alterations, but could not rival the extraordinary success of one of his lesser known comedies, Le Dépit amoureux, which suddenly became one of the most popular plays in the theatrical repertoire. Finally, Regnard’s Les Folies amoureuses became popular in the highly politicised theatre of the Revolution in spite of the fact that the comedy had no obvious connection to politics or republicanism. The power of appropriation was such that any play could become Revolutionary, as both audiences and the government used appropriation as a method of displaying their power, attacking their enemy, and supporting the progress of the French Revolution.

Thesis advisor: David Hollenbach / Around the globe, oppressive regimes continue to pose a threat to the human dignity of those whom Ignacio Ellacuria identified as "the continually crucified masses." This oppression often yields political conflict as ordinary people seek to liberate themselves from extraordinary suffering. The South African struggle against apartheid presents a potent historical example of how a subjugated group brought enormous pressure to bear on an oppressive regime, leading to a transition to democracy and a greater respect for human rights. Given the persistence of oppression in our world this dissertation thus asks the question: What are the most effective and ethical means for resolving political conflict and establishing a just peace in situations of grave injustice; and how does South Africa's successful, relatively peaceful struggle against apartheid assist us in discovering those means? To answer this question, this dissertation proposes the following thesis: South Africans employed a twofold approach to conflict resolution which consisted both of what are now commonly called "just peacemaking" practices and practices based on revised just war principles, including nonviolent direct action and limited armed resistance toward the end of a relatively peaceful transition of power and the promotion of a just peace, marked by national reconciliation. To support this thesis this dissertation explores the practical strategies of the African National Congress (ANC) as they unfolded during South Africa's struggle against apartheid. These strategies can be viewed through the lenses of the emerging just peacemaking theory, and those of the just war tradition. Through my investigation of the relationship between the practices of just peacemaking theory and those of the just war tradition in the context of South Africa, this dissertation uncovers principles for a "just revolution." A just revolution maintains a presumption against the use of force and seeks to limit violence and inflict the least possible harm while establishing a just peace and promoting social reconciliation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

The Mask of Liberty: The Making of Freeholder Democracy in Revolutionary Georgia examines the structures and practices of government in Revolutionary Georgia from the 1750s to ratification of the federal constitution in 1788. Based on evidence compiled from land, probate, legislative, and executive records supplemented by loyalist claims, newspapers, manuscript, shipping, and grand jury records, this dissertation presents a view of the American Revolution in Georgia that reorients previous studies. This study argues that Georgia's American Revolution belonged to non-elite white male freeholders, fiercely committed to local control and autonomy. After Independence, they fashioned a political system that vested real power in small counties and starkly limited the reach of the state's executive and judicial branches. Georgians based their government on a mix of ideas current in Revolutionary America, the utility of which they measured against the state's distinctive history. This study relates that history to the political structures and practices that grew out of it. The American Revolution in Georgia was not a revolution of the dispossessed, of women, of slaves, or of property-less white men. It was fashioned by ambitious, self-interested men, most of whom migrated to Georgia in the decades immediately before or immediately after independence to take advantage of liberal land policies, a growing commercial environment and unusual opportunities to establish themselves, provide for families, and participate in self-government. Late eighteenth century Georgia was, at least for a time, the best freeholders' country, a land where white men could gain a freehold and enjoy a measure of political equality unknown to their fathers and grandfathers. That was the radicalism of Georgia's American Revolution, a radicalism born of the state's distinctive history of late settlement, destructive warfare, and engagement with great political debates of the age.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. / The Peace of Paris in 1763 marked a turning point in the relationship of Great Britain with her colonies. The mother country's new territorial possessions seemed to require an increased revenue from the American colonies. However, Parliament's attempts to raise it greatly antagonized the colonists. In Massachusetts, the new Parliamentary program brought about a rapprochement between the conservative merchant and propertied classes, and the radicals. But the two allies had differing final goals. The radicals sought more self-rule, whereas many merchants, having prospered under the Old Colonial System, viewed the British Empire as the rock of their prosperity. The Navigation Acts had been advantageous to their trade, while restrictive legislation had been but mildly enforced [TRUNCATED]