This thesis is about iconoclasm in Paris, 1789-1795. Previous full-length studies on the subject have condemned revolutionary iconoclasm as 'vandalism' because, they claim, it showed barbaric disrespect for art's sacred, aesthetic and historical values. This thesis argues that such condemnations are anachronistic because they fail to recognise the variety of ways in which late eighteenth-century Parisians used art, assessed its value and established appropriate ways of treating it. For many eighteenth-century Parisians, religious and political art had a vital role to play in mediating struggles for meaning in the wider world. Many Parisians did not privilege the aesthetic and historical values of art, nor did they believe that such values offered necessary and sufficient grounds for automatically respecting art's physical integrity. This thesis explores the various ways in which different interest groups sought to preserve or destroy art for political and/or religious reasons, and the resulting tension between groups who did, or did not, believe that all art ought to be divorced from such struggles. The thesis draws on a wider range of manuscript and printed sources than have been used in previous studies, even the more recent articles that have avoided condemning iconoclasm. In order to explain the scale of official iconoclasm in Year II, this thesis also covers a longer period than most of the available literature on the subject. The methodology employed in this study focuses on fewer spaces than is usual in this field of research, establishing connections between specific iconoclastic events and local, as well as national, discourses. Close analysis of iconoclastic actions, and representations of them, are used to argue from the specific to the general, explaining iconoclasm and the development of iconoclastic and preservationist government policies. It is shown that iconoclasm occurred because art symbolically mediated contested power relations during the revolution.

No description available.

This thesis explores the role of Caron de Beaumarchais in the American Revolution as a controversial topic in history and his shipping arms and ammunition to America during the 1777 campaign.

acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Ashley K. Schmidt

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Germanic Languages and Literatures, 1921. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

No description available.

“Evil Dead: The Problematic Story of the Jonestown Corpses” examines the issues that arose with handling the bodies after the mass suicide of Peoples Temple members on the Jonestown site in 1978. The Jonestown dead are treated as deviant and dangerous. This project examines strategies of classification and identification, and how these differed before and after the mass suicide. A particular emphasis will be on the disgust response as a shared signifier of danger. A comparison is drawn between the 2011 Jonestown memorial stone and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, examining how memorials can be made that separate the dead from controversial conflicts. The Peoples Temple saw themselves as participating in a ‘Revolutionary Suicide’ to advance a socialist agenda. This intent was lost in the aftermath of the suicides, and they were instead treated as irrational and excluded by their former allies. The eventual memorial only became possible by separating the dead from their cause. / October 2016

There are two opinions as to the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania Rifle during the Revolutionary War. On one hand it is alleged that the rifle was, at best, not particularly useful, and that its disadvantages outweighed its advantages. In contradiction to this we find that the British military appealed to London for rifles, and that the British government specified that there be a definite number of riflemen among the mercenaries they hired. Furthermore, according to Fortescue, the British military were forced to change their tactics, at least in part, because of the rifle. It is the purpose of this thesis to resolve this conflict by determining which of the two positions, if either ,is correct, or to determine the extent to which they may both be correct.

This investigation is concerned with the importance of the role that William Livingston played in the struggle for American independence. Two methods were used to present this role. First, a narrative account describes his work as governor of the state of New Jersey. Second, subjective opinions of his contemporaries and others evaluate the effectiveness of his work.