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Title: A Critical Evaluation of Alternative Methods and Paradigms for Conducting Mediation Analysis in Operations Management Research.
Creator: Malhotra, Manoj K. (Manoj Kumar), Singhal, Cherry, Shang, Guangzhi, Ployhart, Robert E.
Abstract/Description: Mediation as a theory testing approach has witnessed considerable adoption among Operations Management (OM) researchers. Although mediation-testing methods have evolved tremendously in the past decade, their dissemination in the OM field has not seen parallel growth. These advanced techniques facilitate the testing of existing and complex hypotheses in a more precise manner. With the intent of critically evaluating existing and alternative methods for conducting mediation analysis needed to...
Show moreMediation as a theory testing approach has witnessed considerable adoption among Operations Management (OM) researchers. Although mediation-testing methods have evolved tremendously in the past decade, their dissemination in the OM field has not seen parallel growth. These advanced techniques facilitate the testing of existing and complex hypotheses in a more precise manner. With the intent of critically evaluating existing and alternative methods for conducting mediation analysis needed to support sophisticated empirical research, this paper first reviews OM studies that tested for mediation in the past eleven years (2002-2012) from top-tier OM journals. Four commonly used mediation approaches were identified. Based on principles of good theory building, type of mediation model, and properties of empirical data, we evaluate the existing methodologies and make recommendations on how to improve the rigor of OM mediation testing. Using published OM studies in top journals as examples, we then illustrate the relevance and advantages of these recommendations, as well as their ease of use. Furthermore, we empirically show that more robust and insightful results can be achieved by adopting these techniques, which in turn have the promise of leading to better theory building and testing in the field of operations management.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_dm_faculty_publications-0024, 10.1016/j.jom.2014.01.003
Format: Citation

Title: Far from fields of glory: military operations in Florida during the Civil War, 1864-1865.
Creator: Coles, David J.
Date Issued: 1996
Identifier: FS00000103_00001, 2821568, fsu:89548
Format: E-book

Title: “Laborers Together with God”: Civilian Public Service and Public Health in the South during World War II.
Creator: Tomlinson, Angela E., Jones, Maxine Deloris, Montgomery, Maxine L., Jones, James Pickett, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences,...
Show moreTomlinson, Angela E., Jones, Maxine Deloris, Montgomery, Maxine L., Jones, James Pickett, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: During World War II, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 required conscientious objectors (COs) who opposed any form of military service to perform "work of national importance under civilian direction." The program that carried out this alternative service was the Civilian Public Service (CPS), in which approximately 12,000 pacifists served at 151 camps established across the nation during the war. Some of those camps were in Florida and Mississippi, where CPS men worked with...
Show moreDuring World War II, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 required conscientious objectors (COs) who opposed any form of military service to perform "work of national importance under civilian direction." The program that carried out this alternative service was the Civilian Public Service (CPS), in which approximately 12,000 pacifists served at 151 camps established across the nation during the war. Some of those camps were in Florida and Mississippi, where CPS men worked with state and local public health authorities to combat diseases that plagued the South's poor, including hookworm and malaria. Though an advance over previous options for COs, CPS was not always well-received, by either the American people or the men who served within it. This dissertation will examine the camps in Florida and Mississippi to assess the success (or lack thereof) of the CPS alternative service program during the war, and also to explore the larger question of how well the United States upholds and protects the right of its citizens (particularly, nonconformist citizens) during a time of national crisis.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_2015fall_Tomlinson_fsu_0071E_12875
Format: Thesis

Title: The American Library Association Liberty and Justice Book Awards.
Creator: Murphy, John J. S., Srygley, Sara Krentzman, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The purpose of this paper is to present background information related to the establishment of the American Library Association Liberty and Justice Book Awards program; to give a factual description of the awards program including criteria for selection, specifications, and procedures; to compile critical comments on the awards program as found in professional literature; to describe the award-winning books; to analyze reviewers' criticisms of the award-winning books, as available in the...
Show moreThe purpose of this paper is to present background information related to the establishment of the American Library Association Liberty and Justice Book Awards program; to give a factual description of the awards program including criteria for selection, specifications, and procedures; to compile critical comments on the awards program as found in professional literature; to describe the award-winning books; to analyze reviewers' criticisms of the award-winning books, as available in the major book-reviewing media; to describe the authors receiving the awards; and to report on comments of the authors receiving the awards, in relation to their opinions concerning the values and results of the awards program"--Introduction.
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Date Issued: 1960
Identifier: FSU_akd9319
Format: Thesis

Title: Characteristics of unmarried mothers born in Spanish American countries and the United States, Catholic Welfare Bureau, Incorporated, Miami, Florida April 30, 1951 - May 1, 1960.
Creator: Kemple, David P., Greene, John, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: "The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there were significant differences in data collected by a schedule of selected items applied to the case records of thirty unmarried mothers born in Spanish American countries and thirty unmarried mothers born in the United States. All sixty mothers who were pregnant out-of-wedlock are former recipients of services offered by Catholic Welfare Bureau, Incorporated, Miami, Florida between May, 1951 and May, 1960"--Introduction.
Date Issued: 1961
Identifier: FSU_ahn3810
Format: Thesis

Title: Rip his arm off and feed it to him: A discussion of professional wrestling.
Creator: Collins, James P., Fowler, Douglas, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This paper provides a brief historical outline of wrestling, some mention of the form's vast popularity in current American culture, and a discussion of the theoretical bases of myth and ritual which give wrestling its basic form and account for much of its durability of appeal. It relates wrestling to two of its closest cousins, theater and sports, and attempts to touch on a few of the most important connections and diversions. The paper also provides a brief overview of American cultural...
Show moreThis paper provides a brief historical outline of wrestling, some mention of the form's vast popularity in current American culture, and a discussion of the theoretical bases of myth and ritual which give wrestling its basic form and account for much of its durability of appeal. It relates wrestling to two of its closest cousins, theater and sports, and attempts to touch on a few of the most important connections and diversions. The paper also provides a brief overview of American cultural heritage which provides a more contemporary context for wrestling's current appeal, and discusses certain particulars of form, process, and production as they express wrestling's purpose, appeal, and uniqueness. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a subject from a broad cultural, artistic, and historical perspective, and determin the origins, appeals, and significances inherent in the form.
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Date Issued: 1982
Identifier: FSU_James_P_Collins_1982_5-17-2012
Format: Thesis

Title: Factors influencing prospective female volleyball student-athletes' selection of an NCAA Division I university: Toward a more informed recruitment process.
Creator: Reynaud, Cecile, Rider, Robert A., Florida State University
Abstract/Description: "The purpose of this study was to identify factors that most influence prospective female volleyball student-athletes' selection of an NCAA Division I university. This research was an applied, cross-sectional study using a multi-method approach of collecting data using surveys and telephone interviews. The sample in this study was approximately 500 Division I female collegiate volleyball players from sixty-four universities"--Abstract.
Date Issued: 1998
Identifier: FSU_B_Cecile_Reynuad
Format: Thesis

Title: Organization and function of American education in its relation to educating for democracy.
Creator: Kenly, Genevieve Capps, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: "The scope of this paper will cover the organization of the schools in relation to educating for democracy. The organization and functioning of the schools as they relate to the freedom of the teacher will be shown. This paper is concerned with the problems of the elementary school, rather than the secondary schools or college, in all sections of the United States"--Introduction.
Identifier: FSU_aku3793
Format: Thesis

Title: A survey of current articles on administration and supervision of business education.
Creator: Abel, Howard, Murphy, Glen E., Florida State University
Abstract/Description: "The purpose of this study is to survey articles on administration and supervision of business education that have appeared in professional literature between January 1, 1942, and December 31, 1952"--Introduction.
Date Issued: 1953
Identifier: FSU_akz9884
Format: Thesis

Title: The crisis of democracy in the United States, 1929-1939.
Creator: Pierce, William Henry, Applewhite, Marjorie Mendenhall, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The period from 1929 to 1939 was selected as the time for study because it was during this time that democracy, as we knew it in the United States, was confronted with two dire threats: the likelihood of complete internal economic collapse and growing success for anti-democratic "isms" in Europe. It is the purpose of this paper to bring together what is considered to be the most representative thinking on the causes and effects of the crisis and to see what features of the crisis have been...
Show moreThe period from 1929 to 1939 was selected as the time for study because it was during this time that democracy, as we knew it in the United States, was confronted with two dire threats: the likelihood of complete internal economic collapse and growing success for anti-democratic "isms" in Europe. It is the purpose of this paper to bring together what is considered to be the most representative thinking on the causes and effects of the crisis and to see what features of the crisis have been permanent in nature and what may have been learned from the crisis that might help in preventing a recurrence.
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Identifier: FSU_akw1832
Format: Thesis

Title: Comparison by states of features of inheritance and estate taxes.
Creator: Neuhauser, Jess B., Trembly, Edward D., Florida State University
Abstract/Description: "The purpose of this paper is to compare by states features of inheritance and estate taxes, and to attempt to forecast their probable future trend"--Introduction.
Date Issued: 1953
Identifier: FSU_akp4954
Format: Thesis

Title: Cut from Different Cloth: The USS Constitution and the American Frigate Fleet.
Creator: Byington, Richard Brownlow, Blaufarb, Rafe, Ward, Candace, Grant, Jonathan A., Jones, Maxine Deloris, Stoltzfus, Nathan, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences,...
Show moreByington, Richard Brownlow, Blaufarb, Rafe, Ward, Candace, Grant, Jonathan A., Jones, Maxine Deloris, Stoltzfus, Nathan, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: The historiography of the early American navy and, more definitively, the USS Constitution's role in American consciousness revolve around the valorous acts associated with the naval engagement between the Constitution and the HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. The basis for this mass public appeal was presented, disseminated, and perpetuated by historians, journalists, and popular writers. Paralleling historical and popular works, the public perception of the Constitution and the prowess...
Show moreThe historiography of the early American navy and, more definitively, the USS Constitution's role in American consciousness revolve around the valorous acts associated with the naval engagement between the Constitution and the HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. The basis for this mass public appeal was presented, disseminated, and perpetuated by historians, journalists, and popular writers. Paralleling historical and popular works, the public perception of the Constitution and the prowess of America's frigate fleet as a whole subsequently rose to dizzying heights after the War of 1812—based on the evidence emanating from a single naval engagement that lasted just over half an hour. This work seeks to examine how the Constitution ascended to such great military heights when all the odds were against American naval hegemony following the Revolutionary War. By comparing and contrasting naval correspondence, captain's logs, and ship records associated with America's original frigate fleet, a better sense of the collective biographies of the six frigates will be achieved; and, in the process, lend greater perspective to the history of the early American Navy. The methodology of this dissertation is to view the American Navy through the lens of the captains, officers, and crew that served on the Constitution. While this study looks to add insight into naval development by comparing and contrasting each of the original six American frigates, the USS Constitution is at the center of the investigation. This is a case study that utilizes the Constitution as a means to view and balance the successes and failures of the early American Navy.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_2015fall_Byington_fsu_0071E_12858
Format: Thesis

Title: James Fenimore Cooper 1820-1852 Book History, Bibliography, and the Political Novel.
Creator: Lenz, Bradley Andrew, Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, François, Hellweg, Joseph, Faulk, Barry J., Gontarski, S. E., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Program in...
Show moreLenz, Bradley Andrew, Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, François, Hellweg, Joseph, Faulk, Barry J., Gontarski, S. E., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities
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Abstract/Description: James Fenimore Cooper’s work as a political activist is the underlying subject of this monograph. This study looks at how Cooper used his political writing to disseminate the ideology of the radical enlightenment. Cooper’s specific support for the independence of Poland is examined within its historical context. This work explores Cooper’s relationship to the Polish cause. It is an aspect of Cooper scholarship that is necessary to understand his political activity. This study is primarily...
Show moreJames Fenimore Cooper’s work as a political activist is the underlying subject of this monograph. This study looks at how Cooper used his political writing to disseminate the ideology of the radical enlightenment. Cooper’s specific support for the independence of Poland is examined within its historical context. This work explores Cooper’s relationship to the Polish cause. It is an aspect of Cooper scholarship that is necessary to understand his political activity. This study is primarily interested in Cooper’s use of the political writing to disperse the tenets of American political and social life into European populations. Cooper’s critical heritage is examined in this study. The personal relationship between Cooper and Walter Scott is examined. This relationship grew to personify the cultural war that divided England and America. Cooper’s literary reputation was harmed by English critics that resented his political activism. Bibliographical analysis supplied the quantitative data needed to develop Cooper’s imprint distribution frequencies. The data from Cooper’s enumerative bibliography allowed contrasts to be made between political and non-political fiction and non-fiction. Analysis of distribution frequencies supplied answers to questions concerning the popularity of Cooper’s political novels compared to his non-political novels. Bibliographical data in this study supplies facts about the distribution of Cooper’s texts. Cooper’s activism and political ideology is placed in the context of American philosophy as proto-pragmatism. Resistance to hereditary monarchy and European political systems is indicative of an evasion of European philosophy that characterized American intellectual circles. Cooper is placed in the tradition of American thought that founded the philosophy of pragmatism.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: FSU_SUMMER2017_Lenz_fsu_0071E_13927
Format: Thesis

Title: Life Histories of Four Chinese and Taiwanese Immigrants in Tallahassee, Florida.
Creator: Duan, Yiran, Dowell, Kristin L., Thorner, Sabra G., Joos, Vincent Nicolas, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the life stories of four Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants in Tallahassee by collecting detailed narratives. There are three aspects that this thesis focused on: 1) motivations for emigration from their home countries to the United States and changes in their socioeconomic status afterwards; 2) cultural, political, and religious shifts of identity after immigration; and 3) the religious conversion of three of them and the roles that the Chinese Church plays in their daily...
Show moreThis thesis explores the life stories of four Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants in Tallahassee by collecting detailed narratives. There are three aspects that this thesis focused on: 1) motivations for emigration from their home countries to the United States and changes in their socioeconomic status afterwards; 2) cultural, political, and religious shifts of identity after immigration; and 3) the religious conversion of three of them and the roles that the Chinese Church plays in their daily lives. Narrative analysis of an ethnographic method used with this study. The findings of this project suggest that there were various factors motivating my participants to immigrate to the U.S. and all of them have experienced upward mobility. However, they have also encountered structural social inequalities that cannot be solved by individual actors. In terms of the shifts in their identities, the narratives collected from the participants show that there is a complex relation between their cultural identities and citizenship. Further, Christianity and the Chinese Church also play important roles in three of the participants’ lives, which offer them a different perspective discussing their identities. Overall, this thesis has filled a gap in the academic literature; no scholars have previously explored this immigrant group in Tallahassee. additionally, I provided information for future anthropological studies that relate to diasporic immigrants’ lives in the U.S.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: 2018_Sp_Duan_fsu_0071N_14603
Format: Thesis

Title: The Controversy Surrounding Slave Insanity: The Diagnosis, Treatment and Lived Experience of Mentally Ill Slaves in the Antebellum South.
Creator: Simon, Kristi M. (Kristi Marie), Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Gabriel, Joseph, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Abstract/Description: Focusing on the period from approximately 1800-1865, this thesis uses a historical conceptualist perspective to examine how psychiatric history intersects with the lived experience of slaves in the antebellum south. Unlike previous works that tell the history of psychiatry through the history of the asylum movement, this study seeks to emphasize how everyday Americans, from white physicians to slaves, conceptualized, discussed, diagnosed, and treated black insanity. In the process, this study...
Show moreFocusing on the period from approximately 1800-1865, this thesis uses a historical conceptualist perspective to examine how psychiatric history intersects with the lived experience of slaves in the antebellum south. Unlike previous works that tell the history of psychiatry through the history of the asylum movement, this study seeks to emphasize how everyday Americans, from white physicians to slaves, conceptualized, discussed, diagnosed, and treated black insanity. In the process, this study illuminates the way the politics, beliefs, and culture of nineteenth-century society impacted the way Americans viewed black insanity. Moreover, the findings presented in this thesis attest to the pivotal role race, gender, and class played in both the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in the antebellum south. Hence, paying careful attention to the politics of the time, this study focuses on the highly contested and flexible process that was conceptualizing, diagnosing, quantifying, and treating black insanity in the antebellum south, and encourages readers to consider how the label “insane” impacted the life of an afflicted slave and their community.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: 2018_Sp_Simon_fsu_0071N_14534
Format: Thesis

Title: The Closeted Autobiographer: Feminism, Religion, and Queerness in the Unstaged Closet Dramas of Djuna Barnes.
Creator: Andrews, Marisa M. (Marisa Martha), Osborne, Elizabeth A., Dahl, Mary Karen, McKelvey, Patrick T., Florida State University, College of Fine Arts, School of Theatre
Abstract/Description: Throughout her time as a member of the famed Provincetown Players, for which she penned three successful plays, playwright Djuna Barnes simultaneously wrote twelve short closet dramas, none of which saw the light of the stage. Despite the fact that they were officially republished in the 1995 anthology At the Roots of The Stars: The Short Plays, edited by Douglass Messerli, scholarly criticism on these fascinatingly weird plays is all but non-existent. With this gap in mind, in this thesis I...
Show moreThroughout her time as a member of the famed Provincetown Players, for which she penned three successful plays, playwright Djuna Barnes simultaneously wrote twelve short closet dramas, none of which saw the light of the stage. Despite the fact that they were officially republished in the 1995 anthology At the Roots of The Stars: The Short Plays, edited by Douglass Messerli, scholarly criticism on these fascinatingly weird plays is all but non-existent. With this gap in mind, in this thesis I analyze two of these short closet dramas: A Passion Play (1918), published in Others magazine, and Madame Collects Herself (1918), published in Parisienne. These two plays, read in conversation with the rest of Barnes’s work throughout the 1910s, crystalize the intersecting issues of gender, sexuality, and religion, which also have significant connections to the rest of Barnes’s canon. In this thesis, I address the following questions: How do these plays fit into the Barnes canon? What might their texts reveal as standalone works of closet drama? What might they reveal about the work and lives of women playwrights in the United States in the early 20th century? While there are many ways in which to approach these texts, I have specifically chosen the dual methodologies of Jill Dolan and Nick Salvato. Utilizing Jill Dolan’s latest book Wendy Wasserstein, a critical biography of the highly acclaimed second-wave feminist playwright, and Nick Salvato’s Uncloseting Drama: American Modernism and Queer Performance, I will combine two seemingly disparate methodological processes to form an analysis of these plays for the first time. Following the introductory chapter, chapter two will explore A Passion Play, a short drama that looks into the final night of sexual encounters between two prostitutes and the other two men hung on crosses alongside Jesus Christ during the Passion. In this chapter, I explore Barnes’s personal articulation of the binary (or lack thereof) of good and evil. Chapter three explores Madame Collects Herself, a gruesome, five-page comedy that takes place in a hair salon. I argue that Madame Collects Herself builds on the religious, sexual, and feminist themes found in A Passion Play, suggesting that Barnes’s closet dramas both serve as early examples of Barnes’s creative work and operate as intriguing examples of her interest in de-marginalizing those who were often seen as other.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: 2018_Su_Andrews_fsu_0071N_14738
Format: Thesis

Title: Savage Saints: Muscular Christianity, Human Nature, and Fighting in America.
Creator: Park, Adam, Corrigan, John, Newman, Joshua I., Porterfield, Amanda, McVicar, Michael J., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religion
Abstract/Description: “Savage Saints” historiographically reconfigures “Muscular Christianity.” It studies the close and positive relations of martial arts and combat sports to Muscular Christianity, and it argues the central importance of the concept of “human nature” to Muscular Christian theology and practice. Many have shown that the Muscular Christian movement took shape as a critical reaction against the perceived unhealthy and enfeebling ways of American culture. Decrying the physical stagnation of indoor...
Show more“Savage Saints” historiographically reconfigures “Muscular Christianity.” It studies the close and positive relations of martial arts and combat sports to Muscular Christianity, and it argues the central importance of the concept of “human nature” to Muscular Christian theology and practice. Many have shown that the Muscular Christian movement took shape as a critical reaction against the perceived unhealthy and enfeebling ways of American culture. Decrying the physical stagnation of indoor life prompted by urban environs, the poor dietary customs of American foodways, and the general lack of play among both children and adults, the movement solidified as a large-scale Protestant “commitment to health and manliness.” My work refines this understanding of Muscular Christianity. Muscular Christianity was a response to various rumored cultural “crises”—particularly regarding health and manly vigor. More fundamentally, Muscular Christianity was (and continues to be) a rejoinder to America’s supposed divergence from Creation’s Purpose and Nature’s Laws. Muscular Christianity, then, was a natural theology that sought to correct unnatural modern ills by discerning and following a designed human plan. And the human design that Muscular Christians revealed was a violent one, wherein fighting was integral to “human nature”—an instinct placed within us that was both original and good. Fighting was uniquely foundational for Muscular Christians. Cast as a natural act prior to and outside of an unnatural American civilization, fighting occupied a privileged place in Muscular Christian theory and praxis. Opposite the perceived “overcivilizing” trends of the nation—i.e. the culturally inflicted threats to health and manly vigor—fighting showcased “human nature” and God’s Creation in its purest form. Languid, impotent, and chronically ill Americans, so it went, had neglected the value of rough-and-tumble action. Combat sports and martial arts gave wayward Americans a rare glimpse into what was and what should be. Finding the Divine in the bellicose, Muscular Christians looked to the fighting arts as a socially curative and individually salvific countermeasure to American “overcivilization.” Filling a historiographic void, then, “Savage Saints” accounts for the Muscular Christian attraction to and use of combat sports and martial arts in the 20th-century United States. Muscular Christians readily advocated and took up Japanese jiu-jitsu at the turn of the century, boxing during and immediately after the First World War, judo, karate, and other eastern martial arts in the second half of the century, and mixed martial arts (MMA) from the 1990s to the present day. If sports and a newly emboldened physical culture defined Muscular Christianity’s restorative and revisionist program, fighting was clearly an essential component. In the overall saga of Muscular Christianity and fighting, “human nature” was the primary protagonist and the praiseworthy hero. Pugnacious human nature was the God-given guide inside us. Physical aggression was the natural instinct created within. Employing the exemplary practices of martial arts and combat sports, Muscular Christians vested “bare life”—a life outside and before American civility—with a masculinized sense of primal bellicosity and theological meaning. As God created it—and as evident through fighting—human nature was virile and potentially savage. The Nature that American culture forgot was the Nature that Muscular Christianity sought to remember. Fisticuff knowledge was not lost to all, however. Muscular Christians often looked to culturally untainted youths, and more naturally attuned foreigners for ideas for living rightwise. Physically aggressive children and combat proficient eastern cultures were valued as those less subject to the detrimental effects of American overcivilization. Looking to children, eastern cultures, or within themselves, Muscular Christians fabricated a forceful instinct—the Word in the flesh. Americans, so it went, simply had to remember who they were—aggressive and physical—as they were made. By enabling special access to “human nature” through fighting, Muscular Christianity popularized masculinized notions of persons as originally, purposefully, and virtuously atavistic. With fighting as an instrumental practice, and with the quarrelsome Word as an inner guide, Muscular Christians constructed persons as godly barbaric selves, as savage saints.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: FSU_SUMMER2017_Park_fsu_0071E_13938
Format: Thesis

Title: A Mighty Fortress: American Religion and the Construction of Confessional Lutheranism.
Creator: Brasich, Adam S., Corrigan, John, Ruse, Michael, Kelsay, John, McVicar, Michael J., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religion
Abstract/Description: This dissertation focuses on the beliefs and practices of confessional Lutherans in North America (particularly those of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod) as a form of religious conservative intellectual and material production. Confessional Lutheranism distinguishes itself from other variations of conservative Protestantism through its appeals to sixteenth century sources of religious authority and the...
Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the beliefs and practices of confessional Lutherans in North America (particularly those of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod) as a form of religious conservative intellectual and material production. Confessional Lutheranism distinguishes itself from other variations of conservative Protestantism through its appeals to sixteenth century sources of religious authority and the construction of historical memory, cultural practices, and material culture. Confessional Lutherans view American religion through the lens of the Book of Concord, which, since it derives authority from the eternal Word of God, is equally applicable to twenty-first century America as it was to Germany in 1580. Since the Lutheran Confessions simply rearticulate the Bible, theology cannot progress beyond the statements made in the documents. Therefore, confessional Lutherans have judged American religion and found it wanting based upon sixteenth century standards of orthodoxy. The impact of this confessionalism is not solely theological or intellectual. Rather, it deeply impacts religious culture and practice. Liturgy, hymnals, and church architecture are defined not only by orthodoxy but by their difference from contemporary evangelical trends. As much as confessional Lutheranism is positively defined by quia subscription to the Confessions, negatively it is defined by its suspicion towards conservative American evangelicals. Through a close analysis of the Book of Concord’s role in confessional Lutheranism, theological critiques of evangelical approaches to worship and emotion, controversies regarding ecumenical participation, and descriptions of material culture in the form of hymnals and church buildings, this study describes how confessional Lutheranism is constructed in relation to other versions of American Christianity. While confessional Lutheranism’s theological isolationism may seem to sequester the community within an intellectual ghetto, confessional Lutherans are very aware of their religious surroundings and react to them. This dissertation also shows how this community’s strict adherence to their Confessions relates to American Protestant questions of authority. The Confessions’ role as a theological norm separates them from American evangelicals, who have more nebulous sources of authority. Finally, this study demonstrates the continued importance of theological orthodoxy in American religious conservatism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Confessional Lutherans separate themselves religiously from conservative evangelicals based upon theological principles. This demonstrates that one cannot reduce religious conservatism to voting patterns and political analysis. Theology continues to matter.
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: FSU_SUMMER2017_Brasich_fsu_0071E_13985
Format: Thesis

Title: The Choctaw Club: Martin Behrman, Reform, and the Roots of Modern American Politics.
Creator: Criss, Ralph Eric, Jumonville, Neil, Bonn, Mark A, Creswell, Michael H., Gray, Edward G., Stoltzfus, Nathan, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department...
Show moreCriss, Ralph Eric, Jumonville, Neil, Bonn, Mark A, Creswell, Michael H., Gray, Edward G., Stoltzfus, Nathan, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: The proper role of government at all levels—local, state and federal—has been debated since the birth of the Republic. This project explores that debate by illustrating how a variety of social and political issues manifested themselves in the real life of New Orleans' longest serving mayor, Martin Behrman, and the lives of millions of other Americans, in the early twentieth century. Integral to the story of Martin Behrman's life is the tale of Storyville—the infamous red-light district—the...
Show moreThe proper role of government at all levels—local, state and federal—has been debated since the birth of the Republic. This project explores that debate by illustrating how a variety of social and political issues manifested themselves in the real life of New Orleans' longest serving mayor, Martin Behrman, and the lives of millions of other Americans, in the early twentieth century. Integral to the story of Martin Behrman's life is the tale of Storyville—the infamous red-light district—the growth of the beer industry, and World War I. These matters were bound together in a ball of confusion surrounding the act of congress authorizing the war and its funding. Specifically, questions poured in from across the nation, asking which parts of American cities sailors could visit, whether or not sailors and soldiers were to be treated equally under the law, and even whether or not a civilian could buy a soldier a cold beer to say "thank you" for his service. In this way, the politics of beer, sex, and reform exploded across the United States. In Louisiana, these issues contributed to the defeat of Martin Behrman in the mayoral election of 1920, the weakening of the "Regular" political machine, and the ascent Huey Long, the "Kingfish." Many of the same legal and moral questions that were asked in 1915 are now asked in 2015 as presidential candidates jockey for position in the presidential primaries of both major parties. How much federal government intrusion into the private lives of citizens is appropriate, given the urgent need to protect the nation from terrorism? Which civil liberties may be encroached upon and to what extent? What is government's role in promoting public health, fair wages, and morality? What is the appropriate role of the federal government versus states and localities, especially during wartime? How do we handle the large numbers of immigrants flocking to our shores—from both a policy and rhetorical perspective? Answers to such questions constituted the political fault lines of the early twentieth century, as they do today. This study does not attempt to answer the policy questions above. Rather, it seeks to add context to debates surrounding them and to demonstrate their durability. The challenge is how to discuss these complex issues in a concise and cohesive manner. The author chose the political career of the longest serving mayor in the history of New Orleans to act as the glue that holds the narrative together.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_2015fall_Criss_fsu_0071E_12842
Format: Thesis

Title: The Few, the Proud: Gender and the Marine Corps Body.
Creator: Patterson, Sarah Elizabeth, Sinke, Suzanne M., Moore, Dennis, Piehler, G. Kurt, Upchurch, Charles, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences,...
Show morePatterson, Sarah Elizabeth, Sinke, Suzanne M., Moore, Dennis, Piehler, G. Kurt, Upchurch, Charles, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: This project examines the changing shape of femininity and masculinity for Marines from World War I to the Korean War, focusing on the ways that the body serves as a canvas for demonstrating the negotiation of gender roles and the Marine Corps image. Gender has been a constant issue for the military. However, few historical studies consider the ways that the Marine Corps’ status as a particularly elite, masculine institution impacted the desired image of femininity for its female recruits and...
Show moreThis project examines the changing shape of femininity and masculinity for Marines from World War I to the Korean War, focusing on the ways that the body serves as a canvas for demonstrating the negotiation of gender roles and the Marine Corps image. Gender has been a constant issue for the military. However, few historical studies consider the ways that the Marine Corps’ status as a particularly elite, masculine institution impacted the desired image of femininity for its female recruits and how this image changed over time. The hyper-masculine nature of the military influenced the relationship between masculinity and femininity for both servicemen and women. My project looks at these changes in masculinity and femininity by placing gender identity within the context of the hyper-masculine military environment. R.W. Connell’s Masculinities, Anthony Rotundo’s American Manhood, and Aaron Belkin’s Bring Me Men assist in putting gender identity in the military into a more complex and nuanced context, especially focusing on masculinity’s centrality to the American military institution. Belkin, in particular, argues that military masculinity has never been entirely devoid of feminine elements. Aspects of femininity have long been a part of military life, from domestic responsibilities often associated with women to close same sex companionship between soldiers. While generally considered less masculine when taken as separate behaviors, they did not seem problematic in a military context. This leads to the conclusion that the incorporation of women into the military was not a radical introduction of femininity into a solely masculine environment, but rather a more complicated shift in the relationship between gender and occupation. This project’s conclusions support this kind of closer relationship between masculinity and femininity in the military context. Francine D’Amico and Laurie Weinstein’s Gender Camouflage, Melissa Ming Foynes, Jillian C. Shipherd, and Ellen F. Harrington’s “Race and Gender Discrimination in the Marines,” Melissa S. Herbert’s Camouflage Isn’t Only for Combat, Heather J. Höpfl’s “Becoming a (Virile) Member: Women and the Military Body,” Leisa D. Meyer’s Creating GI Jane, and Sara L. Zeigler and Gregory G. Gunderson’s Moving Beyond GI Jane address this shift in gender relations and the resulting tension between military men and women throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries I investigate changes in military gender identity by looking at legislation and regulations controlling gender and sexuality in the military, media depictions of Marines, and the ways that gendered military identity plays out on the body, especially through physical fitness, uniforms, and bodily maintenance. The Marine Corps documented their ideas of normative masculine and feminine Marine bodies through pictures, propaganda, and newsletters. Examination of these different characteristics of the ideal body allow for comparison through time of the ways that Marines presented themselves to society, as well as the methods the Corps utilized to encourage images advantageous to its purposes. Such comparisons show changes in the perception of gender identity through time, as well as new norms of appearance and behavior that developed. This evidence illustrates the complicated and often contradictory relationship between masculinity and femininity that all Marines, male and female, negotiate. This project illustrates the significance of these frequently gendered representations of Marine bodies through time. They show the negotiation of gender within the Corps and how assumptions of gender roles shifted from one war to the next. Understanding these changes helps explain the tensions and conflicts which developed between male and female Marines during different periods, as well as creating a framework for investigating these tensions into the contemporary era. The primary sources used for this project focus on the appearance of Marines, male and female, and include national legislation related to Marines and military regulations enforcing conformity in dress and appearance. Memoirs of Marines, publications intended for Marine readers, as well as publications depicting Marines aid in gaining a better idea of the function of gender for Marines, especially in relation to their interactions between male and female Marines. These documents show the changes occurring in expectations about femininity and masculinity in the Marine Corps over time. Public publications, such as general interest magazines, women’s magazines, and newspapers, showed public ideas of Marines’ gender and their relationship to civilian American gender ideals. This project explores the changing shape of normative Marine Corps bodies and the impact of ideas of masculinity and femininity in their deployment as methods of supporting the services’ goals.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: 2019_Spring_Patterson_fsu_0071E_14978
Format: Thesis

Title: Health Politics in Cold War America, 1953 -1988.
Creator: Whitehurst, John Robert, Doel, Ronald Edmund, Mesev, Victor, Frank, Andrew, Blaufarb, Rafe, Gabriel, Joseph, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department...
Show moreWhitehurst, John Robert, Doel, Ronald Edmund, Mesev, Victor, Frank, Andrew, Blaufarb, Rafe, Gabriel, Joseph, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: Throughout American history, physicians and their close professional associates, including pharmacists, have been asked to participate in both public health and national security efforts. While these efforts are not inherently contradictory, some physicians within the medical community began to perceive them as such, especially following World War II. These physicians gave birth to an anti-nuclear “physicians’ movement” that challenged the notions of national security and used public health...
Show moreThroughout American history, physicians and their close professional associates, including pharmacists, have been asked to participate in both public health and national security efforts. While these efforts are not inherently contradictory, some physicians within the medical community began to perceive them as such, especially following World War II. These physicians gave birth to an anti-nuclear “physicians’ movement” that challenged the notions of national security and used public health as a basis for doing so. They did this alongside two very important allies: natural scientists and concerned citizens, particularly middle-class women. This dissertation focuses on the two ways in which activist physicians were most directly tied to national security: as purveyors of information on the health effects of radiation (especially that resulting from nuclear testing) on people and the environment, and as participants in civil defense programs and exercises. Cold War physicians and pharmacists were expected to be the arbiters of information concerning the physical impacts of nuclear testing on Americans. Indeed, civil defense programs often described them as the “liaison” between the science community and the general public. Consequently, those within the “physicians’ movement” used their positions to challenge nuclear testing through medical activism. The Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), alongside various other anti-nuclear groups like the Women Strike for Peace (WSP) and Committee for Nuclear Information (CNI), presented information which contested the narratives of federal and state agencies, which often claimed that radioactive levels resulting from nuclear testing remained and would continue to remain safe for Americans. This challenge was largely manifest through the national conversation on the consequences of radioisotopes on public health, in particular Strontium 90 and Iodine 131. These radioisotopes fell from the skies in the form of fallout and worked their way back up food chains and into the American diet. This was especially disconcerting to young mothers, as infants and small children were particularly susceptible to these toxins. The “physicians’ movement” mobilized these radioisotopes and challenged civil defense throughout the early Cold War. Its leaders largely did so in the name of public health and were even credited by Kennedy’s science advisor, Jerome Wiesner, for their influence in garnishing American support for the passing of a Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) in 1963. The LTBT was a monumental achievement of the anti-nuclear movement, as it eliminated atmospheric (above ground or aquatic) nuclear testing in both the United States and the Soviet Union. While underground nuclear testing continued, and other nations soon entered the nuclear club, this legislation greatly limited the two largest nuclear powers from further contaminating the global atmosphere to the degree that they had in the early Cold War. During the early Cold war, physicians and pharmacists were also expected to continue the tradition of supporting and preparing for war on the home front via civil defense exercises and practices. With civil defense administrators shifting their focus from conventional toward nuclear arsenals following World War II, they also began to predict the disproportionate destruction of physicians in post-war scenarios. Pharmacists and others within the medical community were being trained to take the place of these theoretically deceased physicians in preparation for a post-attack environment. The idea that pharmacists could replace physicians in a post-nuclear environment, as proposed by civil defense planners, alerted some physicians that something must be done. In response, the PSR participated in several congressional hearings, influenced the narratives of other anti-nuclear groups, funded anti-nuclear media, and fostered citizen-science projects in order to challenge notions of civil defense and nuclear testing in the name of public health. Medical activism, however, did not end with the signing of the LTBT. The PSR, in particular, only grew stronger as the Reagan Revolution and heightened Cold War tensions rose in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The PSR mutated from a local and national organization into an international participant in the Freeze movement and the anti-nuclear resurgence of the early 1980s. Medical activists again used many of the same methods they had relied on during the early Cold War period to challenge militarism such as professional journals, newspaper editorials, and popular media. They also began to use newer forms of media. In particular, the PSR funded the airing of several well-known and influential anti-nuclear films, like Day After and Threads, which challenged the foundations of civil defense throughout the 1980s. The story of Cold War medical activism illuminates the various tensions which have existed, and continue to exist, which are fundamental to balancing the necessities of national security with those of public health.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: 2019_Spring_Whitehurst_fsu_0071E_14837
Format: Thesis

Title: Collegiate Symbols and Mascots of the American Landscape: Identity, Iconography, and Marketing.
Creator: DeSantis, Gary Gennar, Frank, Andrew, Crew, Robert E., Grant, Jonathan A., Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Gray, Edward G., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences,...
Show moreDeSantis, Gary Gennar, Frank, Andrew, Crew, Robert E., Grant, Jonathan A., Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Gray, Edward G., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: The rise of college symbols and mascots related to the American landscape directly correlates with the rapid changes stemming from industrialization and urbanization occurring in American culture between the late-nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century. The loss of national identity attributed to the closing of the western frontier had a devastating effect on young white males in particular. The ensuing cultural crisis brought about by the wanton extirpation of wildlife...
Show moreThe rise of college symbols and mascots related to the American landscape directly correlates with the rapid changes stemming from industrialization and urbanization occurring in American culture between the late-nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth century. The loss of national identity attributed to the closing of the western frontier had a devastating effect on young white males in particular. The ensuing cultural crisis brought about by the wanton extirpation of wildlife and destruction of the natural environment led directly to the preservationist movement of the turn-of-the century. In the face of unparalleled immigration, fitness and the back-to-nature movement were believed to be instrumental in helping white American men avoid committing "race suicide." Nurtured by the teachings and philosophies of conservationists and preservationists, young white college men formed the first football teams and adopted symbols of the American landscape as a means of team identity. Because iconography makes for a powerful tool of identity and solidarity, students and college officials were likewise intrigued. Eager to quell unruly student behavior, college administrators—who had a more than contentious relationship with the student body throughout the late-nineteenth century—gladly assented. The profits soon realized from college sports and the pageantry surrounding it proved irresistible to colleges across the land. Consequently, by the early decades of the late-nineteenth century, numerous American college athletic teams began using mascots related to the American landscape and school colors to foment group solidarity.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: 2018_Fall_DeSantis_fsu_0071E_14289
Format: Thesis

Title: Managing Modernist Musicians: Quaker Stewardship in the Work of Blanche Wetherill Walton.
Creator: Eubanks, Emily Rebecca, Lumsden, Rachel, Seaton, Douglass, Von Glahn, Denise, Florida State University, College of Music
Abstract/Description: Blanche Wetherill Walton played a significant role in the development of America’s modernist music culture throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Her legacy has largely been preserved through her roles as a patron and salonnière during this time, which included sending financial aid to composers, housing modernist musicians, hosting meetings of the New York Musicological Society, and hosting musicales in her home. However, Walton’s participation in modernist music extended far beyond traditional...
Show moreBlanche Wetherill Walton played a significant role in the development of America’s modernist music culture throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Her legacy has largely been preserved through her roles as a patron and salonnière during this time, which included sending financial aid to composers, housing modernist musicians, hosting meetings of the New York Musicological Society, and hosting musicales in her home. However, Walton’s participation in modernist music extended far beyond traditional patron or salonnière roles. In addition to offering financial gifts, Walton carried out tasks typical of a music agent. These activities included organizing auditions, sending and receiving programs and scores, disseminating writings, corresponding, booking dates, securing venues, coordinating networking opportunities, handling contracts, and arranging lessons on behalf of modernist musicians. The depth and breadth of Walton’s work sets her apart from other music patrons; she acted as a one-woman agent for a select, yet still large, group of modernists. Walton’s upbringing in a wealthy Philadelphia family ensured that she gained managerial skills necessary for overseeing and running a large household. As a young woman of the elite class Walton also learned social etiquette and benefitted from her family’s connections to influential individuals in American music culture. These experiences would prove to be invaluable to Walton’s work in assisting modernist musicians in the early twentieth century. Walton’s upbringing also featured strong ties to her family’s Quaker background. As direct descendants of the founder of the Free Quakers, the Wetherills would have been well versed in Quaker values of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. These tenets influenced Walton’s work in modernist music culture as she generously offered her resources, skills, time, and energy to promote modernist musicians and their music. Despite her family’s wealth and a large settlement she received following the death of her husband in 1903, Walton experienced financial strains in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash. In addition to providing funds and housing to musicians whenever possible, Walton supplemented this support with managerial assistance. Thanks to her upbringing, Walton knew how to be involved in the day-to-day activities of music culture, understood the importance of working hard on behalf of others, and lived comfortably enough to devote her time and energy to this work. Her influence was far reaching and influenced the careers of many modernist musicians, including Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford, Imre Weisshaus (Paul Arma), Aaron Copland, Joseph Szigeti, and Wesley Kuhnle. This project examines her work on behalf of these six composers, though many others also benefitted from her work and generosity. This group of musicians speaks to the diversity of Walton’s interests in modernist music, encompassing a wide range of modernist compositional approaches, individuals from a variety of backgrounds, both composers and performers, and both male and female modernists. Examining Walton’s managerial work not only illuminates the extent of her involvement in modernist music culture but also provides a better understanding of the structure and state of America’s modernist music culture in the 1920s and 1930s. By looking at the influence Quaker beliefs had on Walton’s work as a manager, this project also suggests that religious values may serve as a new framework through which we may better understand modernist music culture.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: 2019_Spring_Eubanks_fsu_0071N_15204
Format: Thesis

Title: The Origin of Disfranchisement: County Level Resistance to African American Voting in Post-Emancipation Florida.
Creator: Long, Thomas W. (William), Frank, Andrew, Piehler, G. Kurt, Grant, Jonathan A., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines how divisions among Florida Democrats affected the suppression of African American political participation in Florida. In post-emancipation Florida, white politicians overcame these divisions to create a framework in which the state technically met federal mandates established by the Fourteenth Amendment while also ensuring that de facto disfranchisement occurred statewide, a constitutional façade. In addition, it explores how this conversation marginalized the concerns...
Show moreThis thesis examines how divisions among Florida Democrats affected the suppression of African American political participation in Florida. In post-emancipation Florida, white politicians overcame these divisions to create a framework in which the state technically met federal mandates established by the Fourteenth Amendment while also ensuring that de facto disfranchisement occurred statewide, a constitutional façade. In addition, it explores how this conversation marginalized the concerns of the state’s African American community. Four individuals epitomized the distinctive approaches to the post-Reconstruction political order. Governor David S. Walker represents Florida’s Reconstruction Era lawmakers who met in Tallahassee in 1866. Governor Walker assured legislators that Florida could return to the Union without having ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, but he later told legislators that African American suffrage was “fixed.” Unreconstructed rebels such as A.K. Allison urged violence to stop African American political participation during Reconstruction. Governor William D. Bloxham personifies Democrat officeholders who promised to suppress vigilante violence but appealed for electoral support at a Klan rally. Senator Wilkinson Call embodies the racist populism that condemned railroads and African American “lust.” Each of them contributed to Florida’s constitutional façade. Florida’s 1865 constitution denied African American suffrage. Florida’s lawmakers could not conceive of it. Governor Walker assured them it would not occur, but he accepted the reality that Congress had imposed. Allison represents a “boisterous” element of displaced aspiring white elites who violently repressed African American suffrage. Governor Bloxham represents the Democrat establishment that condemned vigilante violence as it relied on the Ku Klux Klan to maintain white electoral solidarity. Patronage and paternalism illuminate the tension that existed between the establishment embodied by Governor Bloxham, and the “boisterous” element who aspired to the establishment or sought to reclaim their position in it. Those who had the power to dispense could afford paternalism, whereas those who aspired to that power saw African American political participation as a threat to their ability to distribute patronage. Senator Call’s Confederate background, descent from Governor Richard Keith Call, and anti-railroad populism embodies Democrat divisions between the Democrat establishment conservatives who favored railroads and anti-railroad populists who complained over their land policies, charges, and damage to livestock. Shifting political coalitions of white anti-railroad populists and conservative railroad aligned Democrats defined the political as the social to exclude African Americans. His congressional tirade against African American “lust” illuminates the abiding fear that moved Florida to deny African Americans social citizenship to deny a political citizenship guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Florida’s constitutional façade held: The state had not denied African American suffrage; the Democrat Party, the only relevant political organization, simply chose not to let them participate in primary elections. Senator Call’s tirade over African American “lust” moved disfranchisement’s spirit through the door that joined the political to the social. It completed Florida’s constitutional façade that denied African Americans’ citizenship. Beginning with the constitutional convention that drafted Florida’s 1868 constitution, Democrats used gubernatorial appointments and apportionment to dilute African American political strength. During Reconstruction, a “boisterous” element, such as Allison violently suppressed African American political participation. While Governor Bloxham vowed to suppress vigilante violence, he joined Democrats in courting Klan support to turn back an electoral challenge from disaffected Democrats in Florida’s 1884 gubernatorial election. After Florida’s 1885 constitutional convention and anti-railroad legislature had marginalized African American political activity, the push to deny African American political citizenship intensified. County Democrat organizations denied African Americans the right to participate in the only relevant political organization, and the Democratic Party combined their white only rule with a populist anti-business platform. The dominance of the Democratic Party had blurred the social and the political. The exclusion of African Americans from the social organization, the Democratic Party, excluded them from the political. Their political exclusion further separated African Americans from white society. Florida had completed its constitutional façade: African Americans retained the right to vote, but their exclusion from political decision-making made that right meaningless.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: 2019_Spring_Long_fsu_0071N_15025
Format: Thesis

Title: Making a Way out of No Way: Black Progress & the AME Church in Early County, Georgia to 1918.
Creator: Harris, Kyle Quinton, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Montgomery, Maxine Lavon, Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Piehler, G. Kurt, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences,...
Show moreHarris, Kyle Quinton, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Montgomery, Maxine Lavon, Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Piehler, G. Kurt, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: Utilizing the historical and cultural frameworks of Stephen Hahn and bell hooks and their scholarly predecessors and contemporaries, this study focuses on the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Early County, Georgia, as a counter-hegemonic rural space for refuge, resistance, ingenuity and community-building, paying close attention to the activities at county seat, Blakely, which rippled through Early County. Chapter 1 of this study will examine the historical presence and...
Show moreUtilizing the historical and cultural frameworks of Stephen Hahn and bell hooks and their scholarly predecessors and contemporaries, this study focuses on the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Early County, Georgia, as a counter-hegemonic rural space for refuge, resistance, ingenuity and community-building, paying close attention to the activities at county seat, Blakely, which rippled through Early County. Chapter 1 of this study will examine the historical presence and significance of Blacks in Early County and their encounters with Methodism. The writer builds the argument that Africans in Early County always exercised varying degrees of ingenuity and autonomy, even under the yoke of slavery. As a consequence of the 13th and 14th Amendments, Blacks in the county were legally placed in a new space wherein they could make permanent inroads and influence AND develop this society. Utilizing the official media organ of the AME Church, The Christian Recorder and correspondence from AME Bishops, Elders, and laity, the writer shows how the national thrust of the AME church influenced the work of freedom and progress at the local level, evidenced through the accomplishments and collaborative efforts of AMEs and community leaders in Early County. In order for freedom and democracy to expand and be firmly rooted in a community, education must be at its core. Chapter 2 examines the AME Church's role in the field of education in Georgia, paying particular attention to African Methodist educational work in Early County and its influences across the state. Using the framework of Hooks, the establishment of the AME Church --- its educational and political arm created new "worlds" for Blacks in Early County. Moreover, it provided a "safe space" for the building of community. Chapter 3 will examine the political role of the AME Church in Early County, Georgia, highlighting how the firmly-bound ties of the connectional AME church, worked to undermine White Supremacy in Blakely, focusing on the leaders of this political movement and their religious background and influence. Efforts at Black progress, freedom and autonomy in Early County were not met with open arms from the county's White citizens, at times it was met with violent retaliatory measures. Chapter 4 will examine violence in the county, analyzing two instances of overt race violence, where AME Churches and congregants, among others, were targeted. It will also examine the AME Church's national stance on race violence, highlighting the viewpoint of leaders at the national and local levels and how they mitigated polarized race relations at the county seat. Overall, this study seeks to add to the historical scholarship of the AME Church's role in Black progress in America. In hooks' "Choosing the Margin As A Space of Radical Openness" she emphasizes a significant line from the South African Freedom Charter which states, "Our struggle is also a struggle of memory against forgetting" in her discussion on radical politics in the perceived Black peripheral space. It is hoped that this work will highlight the efforts of the AME church and Black people in Early County who embraced a radical and transformative movement of forward progress, outside of the scope of White Supremacy. In addition to this study creating an accurate historical record for the halls of academia, this work also encourages readers to remember, identify, examine, enhance and reimage the historical tenets of Black political progress and implement them to galvanize civic participation, societal justice and inclusive education in the rural South.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: 2019_Summer_Harris_fsu_0071E_15373
Format: Thesis

Title: Is State Safety Net Capacity Adequate to Meet Basic Needs?.
Creator: Swanson, Jeffrey V., Barrilleaux, Charles, Coleman, Eric A., Weissert, Carol S., Florida State University, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Department of Political...
Show moreSwanson, Jeffrey V., Barrilleaux, Charles, Coleman, Eric A., Weissert, Carol S., Florida State University, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Department of Political Science
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Abstract/Description: This dissertation consists of three individual studies on the role of state governments in social welfare. The first paper discusses the relationship between gubernatorial administrative capacity and the ability for Democrats to increase social welfare spending after the state has experienced an economic downturn. Using panel data for 49 US states from 1987 to 2014, I examine whether budgetary authority allows governors to respond to an economic contraction in the expected partisan matter. I...
Show moreThis dissertation consists of three individual studies on the role of state governments in social welfare. The first paper discusses the relationship between gubernatorial administrative capacity and the ability for Democrats to increase social welfare spending after the state has experienced an economic downturn. Using panel data for 49 US states from 1987 to 2014, I examine whether budgetary authority allows governors to respond to an economic contraction in the expected partisan matter. I find evidence to support the view that governors shape budget policy in a manner that is consistent with their preferences. The second paper is on the decentralization of Medicaid and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) by the national government to the state governments to see if the programs were made worse off in performing their goal of poverty alleviation. Decentralization is measured using expenditure ratios of state general fund spending to federal government spending. I find that more state involvement in Medicaid reduces expected poverty growth even after controlling for state economic, political, and demographic factors. Although no effect was found from AFDC/TANF decentralization, the results do demonstrate a positive impact from more state involvement in Medicaid. The final study is on the impact of social assistance programs on infant health. Infant mortality rates are an important indicator of population health. The primary goal of this chapter is to serve as an evaluation of government redistributive programs and population health. Do the outputs of social assistance programs reach their intended beneficiaries? I find that increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and TANF benefit generosity within states has a negative association with overall infant mortality after controlling for economic development and additional factors related to infant health.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: 2019_Summer_Swanson_fsu_0071E_15281
Format: Thesis

Title: Bickering Brass: Interservice Rivalry, Defense Unification, and the Pacific War.
Creator: Gates, Allyson, Piehler, G. Kurt, Souva, Mark A., Culver, Annika A., Creswell, Michael, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Abstract/Description: Interservice rivalry between the United States' military services during the Second World War often proved problematic. Although the Americans and their allies emerged victorious from the conflict, they did so in part due to the even worse rivalries between the military services of the German and Japanese armies. These problems that came to a head during the war had a lasting effect on the military structure that continues to be felt to this day. The present structure of the American military...
Show moreInterservice rivalry between the United States' military services during the Second World War often proved problematic. Although the Americans and their allies emerged victorious from the conflict, they did so in part due to the even worse rivalries between the military services of the German and Japanese armies. These problems that came to a head during the war had a lasting effect on the military structure that continues to be felt to this day. The present structure of the American military is the result of decades of efforts to unify the services, which culminated with the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act. However, whereas most studies of the subject place the Cold War as the central, defining factor of the unification of the defense structure, my work argues that it was not tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that created the foundations of the semi-joint American national security state, but instead the lessons of the Second World War. The conflicts between the Army and the Navy in the Pacific Theater provided the impetus for efforts to unify the services. Those same conflicts also led to a much less unified result than had originally been hoped for by the proponents of unification, which is, in part, the reason the unification process lasted so long after the passage of the National Security Act.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: 2019_Summer_Gates_fsu_0071E_15169
Format: Thesis

Title: Distant Music: Recorded Music, Manners, and American Identity.
Creator: Attaway, Jacklyn, Faulk, Barry J., Jumonville, Neil, McGregory, Jerrilyn, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis discusses Derrida's theory of Hauntology, establishes a theoretical framework for an analysis of the hauntological aesthetic in recorded music, and explores the hauntological aesthetic in reference to Victorian spirit photography and contemporary recorded music of producer-musicians such as Greg Ashley, Jason Quever, Tim Presley, and Ariel Pink. By describing and analyzing the recorded music of said producer-musicians, this thesis reveals how aesthetically hauntological recorded...
Show moreThis thesis discusses Derrida's theory of Hauntology, establishes a theoretical framework for an analysis of the hauntological aesthetic in recorded music, and explores the hauntological aesthetic in reference to Victorian spirit photography and contemporary recorded music of producer-musicians such as Greg Ashley, Jason Quever, Tim Presley, and Ariel Pink. By describing and analyzing the recorded music of said producer-musicians, this thesis reveals how aesthetically hauntological recorded music expresses American anxieties concerning the effects of changing technologies and cultural transitions. In effect, this thesis shows how American ideologies operate as "ghosts," and how one can better interpret and understand these core values by combining aesthetics and history through the medium of recorded music.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5315
Format: Thesis

Title: The New Community School: Placing Informal Musuem Education into Historical Context.
Creator: Langham, Audrey Elizabeth, Jumonville, Neil, Wiegand, Wayne, Koslow, Jennifer, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Recently museums have begun to feature public programming that engages new audiences, they partner with a number of diverse community organizations, and they put the focus of their efforts on education. With these new focuses they have changed from didactic institutions to places where the visitor may confirm his experience, and at times may add his own voice to the discussion. This shift in focus has been swift, and scholarship is only beginning to catch up with the values being expressed in...
Show moreRecently museums have begun to feature public programming that engages new audiences, they partner with a number of diverse community organizations, and they put the focus of their efforts on education. With these new focuses they have changed from didactic institutions to places where the visitor may confirm his experience, and at times may add his own voice to the discussion. This shift in focus has been swift, and scholarship is only beginning to catch up with the values being expressed in the profession. It is my intention to offer a history of educational philosophy that is relevant and useful for museum professionals by closely examining two historical lines of thought. Progressive education provides a framework that museums can use to model their educational programming. Creating hands-on programming, and focusing on the individuality of the learner are important aspects of progressive educations that museum professionals can use for their own programming. The idea of the community school focuses on partnerships, the use of the physical building, and bringing a number of resources together in one place. This set of ideas follows the paths that museums use to receive funding and strengthen their relationships within their local community. Local history museums have begun to use these all ideas, and focusing their attention on similar work done in the past is an important step for the profession. Therefore these two concepts provide a historically relevant and important background for present day museum programming.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3287
Format: Thesis

Title: The United States and the International Criminal Court: A Relationship That Can Redefine American Foreign Policy.
Creator: Swaisgood, Daniel Robert, Coonan, Terry, D'Alemberte, Talbot (Sandy), Jumonville, Neil, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: In response to a heightening concern for international justice, in the late 1990`s in Rome, Italy over 160 countries deliberated on the most suitable approach to an international standard dealing with war crimes, crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity and genocide. In reference to the International Criminal Court`s jurisdiction, these four crimes have come to be termed ―core crimes.‖ Although the culmination was the establishment of the ICC a variety of countries stood against such an...
Show moreIn response to a heightening concern for international justice, in the late 1990`s in Rome, Italy over 160 countries deliberated on the most suitable approach to an international standard dealing with war crimes, crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity and genocide. In reference to the International Criminal Court`s jurisdiction, these four crimes have come to be termed ―core crimes.‖ Although the culmination was the establishment of the ICC a variety of countries stood against such an establishment and fought to weaken the Court`s jurisdictional reach. The United States of America took center stage during the deliberations in Rome as one of these countries, voting against the Court with such infamous human rights abusers as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, among others. Determined to undermine the Court`s ability to threaten national sovereignty the U.S. even went so far as to pass legislation enabling it to invade The Hague upon the possible arrest of any U.S. military representative. Despite U.S. objections though, the Court operates as a new standard for international justice and labors to hold war criminals accountable. Further, among the various movements, standards and ad hoc tribunals, the ICC stands alone as the first permanent international judicial composition with universal jurisdiction over core crimes. With the Court having a direct affect on international human rights standards and accountability, as well as being an important leader through its role on the global stage, this paper will detail the history of the aforementioned movements as well as their influence on the ICC`s creation. Further, the U.S. objections and reaction to the Court will be summarized and responded to with the conclusion that U.S. interests would be served by both signing and ratifying the Rome Treaty. Whereas a denial of ICC jurisdiction over core crimes seemingly protects national sovereignty, the same denial undermines the U.S. position of leadership in the world theatre. Finally, although more difficult to quantify, undermining the position of U.S. leadership in this manner invariably creates a far more dangerous threat to U.S. national sovereignty than does allowing the ICC to exercise complementary jurisdiction over the core crimes.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5217
Format: Thesis

Title: Kinking the Stereotype: Barbers and Hairstyles as Signifiers of Authentic American Racial Performance.
Creator: Freeland, Scott, Lhamon, William T., Anderson, Leon, Sommer, Sally, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: When Sherman Dudley's black barber character, Raspberry Snow, took to the stage in 1910, his pre-promoted "shiftless" personality fulfilled American audiences' conditioned, pejorative expectations for blackness. A closer look at the storyline, however, suggests Dudley fashioned Snow's predictability to be an example of the opportunity for subversion of power that exists for stereotyped individuals. Embodying the surface attributes of the stereotype designed to confine them, a number of...
Show moreWhen Sherman Dudley's black barber character, Raspberry Snow, took to the stage in 1910, his pre-promoted "shiftless" personality fulfilled American audiences' conditioned, pejorative expectations for blackness. A closer look at the storyline, however, suggests Dudley fashioned Snow's predictability to be an example of the opportunity for subversion of power that exists for stereotyped individuals. Embodying the surface attributes of the stereotype designed to confine them, a number of American performing personae escape persecution, and even profit by lulling their "audiences" (read: adversaries) into believing all is well. Quite often, performing the stereotype is as simple as donning a notably "black" hairstyle, or presuming the supposedly docile attributes associated with black barbers. Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that since at least the early nineteenth century, storytellers both black and white have contributed to the promotion of this powerful secret. Black hairstyles and barbers that subvert racist intentions are a recurring theme throughout American lore, and their inclusion in tales by Dan Emmett and Herman Melville resurface in later works by Charles Chesnutt and Sherman Dudley. This paper traces a lineage of characters who successfully subvert an imposed power structure, and whose messages continue to recycle themselves in modern-day performances that suggest black and white are not as far apart as conventional wisdom would have us believe.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4398
Format: Thesis

Title: Music Scenes in America: Gainesville, Florida as a Case Study for Historicizing Subculture.
Creator: Vandegrift, Micah, Jumonville, Neil, Gunderson, Frank, Faulk, Barry, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The history of music scenes is a topic that has been misunderstood. Scholarship has tended to focus on sociological theory as a basis for understanding how and why music scenes exist and motivate youth. While accomplishing important work and connecting the study of scenes to academia, theory has left uncovered the narrative history of music scenes. Setting scenes in their specific historical, social and cultural context allows them to be examined by a different set of research goals and...
Show moreThe history of music scenes is a topic that has been misunderstood. Scholarship has tended to focus on sociological theory as a basis for understanding how and why music scenes exist and motivate youth. While accomplishing important work and connecting the study of scenes to academia, theory has left uncovered the narrative history of music scenes. Setting scenes in their specific historical, social and cultural context allows them to be examined by a different set of research goals and methods. In this paper, I outline a historiography of music scenes, from the original implications of subcultural research to ethnography in the early 1990s. Tracing the literature on scenes, I argue that studying scenes from my position in 2009 must be accomplished with a historical point of view, not ignoring theory, but placing narrative history as the primary methodology. The growth of post-punk music scenes in America throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s had extensive effects on popular culture, and through understanding the history first, I propose researchers will have a better grasp on what a scene is, why it functions in society, and how it has affected regional and national subcultural identity. I used Gainesville, Florida as an example of this method. The social characteristics of Florida and the shifts in the national subculture throughout the 1990s are two essential points I bring to bear in the case study of Gainesville. Overall, I hope to introduce Florida's scenes as anomalous instances of subcultural activity and to spur further inquiry on the topic of (re)writing music scenes into the history of youth culture, especially in the 1990s.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4589
Format: Thesis

Title: Strategic Bombardment as an Obstacle to Strategic Airpower: Why the Early American Airborne Was Shortchanged.
Creator: Klimek, Sean, Piehler, G. Kurt, Souva, Mark A., Gellately, Robert, Grant, Jonathan A., Jones, James Pickett, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department...
Show moreKlimek, Sean, Piehler, G. Kurt, Souva, Mark A., Gellately, Robert, Grant, Jonathan A., Jones, James Pickett, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: The popular narrative surrounding the creation and development of American airborne forces maintains that Infantry officers were in a constant struggle with Air Corps officers over control of the project. The archival record suggests a much different story. Instead of actively pursuing control of the airborne, between May 1939 and August 1940 the Air Corps repeatedly offered excuses to justify their lack of effort in and concern for the project. The record shows that Air Corps leadership at...
Show moreThe popular narrative surrounding the creation and development of American airborne forces maintains that Infantry officers were in a constant struggle with Air Corps officers over control of the project. The archival record suggests a much different story. Instead of actively pursuing control of the airborne, between May 1939 and August 1940 the Air Corps repeatedly offered excuses to justify their lack of effort in and concern for the project. The record shows that Air Corps leadership at the highest levels openly refused even the most minimal of material and intellectual support for the program. Despite the numerous military attaché reports emanating from Europe describing both the growing likelihood of war and the German airborne advances, the Air Corps continued to resist all efforts to assist the project even after it became evident that the German Air Force (the Luftwaffe) was in control of the German airborne. American air officers simply saw no purpose in the airborne. The consequences of such negligence would be far reaching. After the war U.S. Generals George C. Marshall and Henry H. Arnold both expressed regret that American airborne forces were not utilized in a "strategic" fashion during the war. Both men alluded to the belief that a large-scale strategic airborne operation could have resulted in an earlier end to the war in Europe. What is perhaps most ironic about these post-war revelations was that General Arnold was in a unique position as Chief of the Air Corps in 1939 to impact how the airborne would be used during the impending war. Yet Arnold and his air officers repeatedly refused to help create and develop the airborne forces. As a result, ultimate control of the airborne was given to the Office of the Chief of Infantry in August 1940. After the Infantry was given control of the project, airborne forces were destined to be used piecemeal as supporting elements of ground forces and would not be used in a strategic and independent fashion during the war. The lack of interest by the Air Corps in 1939 was not only a setback for the airborne but it also restricted the definition of American airpower. By mid-1940 the Germans had demonstrated the effectiveness of airborne forces being under the control of air forces. Had the Air Corps recognized this potential and seized the project, then American airborne forces could have been used in an independent manner and a powerful argument supporting air force autonomy would have been presented. But, mostly because of an institutional infatuation with aerial bombardment, the Air Corps did not identify any potential in the airborne until after the project was given to the Office of the Chief of Infantry. Consequently, the Air Corps did not capitalize on a tangible opportunity to possess a very real type of independent air operation. Air officers, wittingly or not, thus revealed the hierarchy within airpower theory: that independence was less important than aerial bombardment. As a result, both the airborne and the idea of airpower were restricted, reduced, and rendered less potent.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9375
Format: Thesis

Title: Northwest of Slavery: Illinois's Long Struggle to Prevent the Introduction of Slavery.
Creator: Clift, William D., Gray, Edward G., Jones, James Pickett, Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Abstract/Description: This thesis investigates the impact the Missouri controversy had on the political of slavery within Illinois. The purpose is to define whether the Missouri Compromise directly impacted the debates upon slavery in Illinois. The issue of slavery was initiated because of the Virginia Cession in 1783 and the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. From these documents the subject of bondage produced a number of laws throughout the territorial period enacted to restrict blacks; the debate came to a point of...
Show moreThis thesis investigates the impact the Missouri controversy had on the political of slavery within Illinois. The purpose is to define whether the Missouri Compromise directly impacted the debates upon slavery in Illinois. The issue of slavery was initiated because of the Virginia Cession in 1783 and the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. From these documents the subject of bondage produced a number of laws throughout the territorial period enacted to restrict blacks; the debate came to a point of contention in 1818 when Illinois created a constitution and joined the Union. The Missouri controversy provided a platform for the Congressmen from Illinois to engage in the national debate, and once a compromise was reached, the political economy that emerged was no different than before. The study of the politics of slavery in Illinois can help to explain that the Missouri Compromise did not change the political landscape of the nation, rather it nudged the Union closer to sectionalism and the antebellum era.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9308
Format: Thesis

Title: Environmental Religion and the American Transcendentalist Legacy.
Creator: Dillard, Daniel C., Porterfield, Amanda, Kirby, David, Corrigan, John, McVicar, Michael J., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religion
Abstract/Description: In the nineteenth century, American Transcendentalists and other environmental religionists redefined notions of religion, nature, and humanity as a creative and sometimes effective means to manage the various social, cultural, and intellectual crises of their age. They attempted this largely through their literary output, scientific undertakings, and political discourse - all of which served as strategies and tactics to compensate for areas where they found institutionalized religion to be...
Show moreIn the nineteenth century, American Transcendentalists and other environmental religionists redefined notions of religion, nature, and humanity as a creative and sometimes effective means to manage the various social, cultural, and intellectual crises of their age. They attempted this largely through their literary output, scientific undertakings, and political discourse - all of which served as strategies and tactics to compensate for areas where they found institutionalized religion to be lacking. The result - what I coin environmental religion - was a non-reductive ecological materialism that replaced the German idealism of American Transcendentalism's metaphysical forebears. Moreover, the environmental religion they fashioned provided the framework for today's radical environmentalists and other likeminded groups. This dissertation calls for a reconsideration of the disciplinary horizon of nature religion in North American history and culture. In support of this call, I analyze the historical underpinnings of what I term environmental religion by focusing on the first and second generation of American Transcendentalists. By environmental religion I refer to an integrated network of beliefs, practices, and lifestyles by which individuals and groups gave meaning to (or found meaning in) their lives by orienting themselves to nature - the physical planet as well as that perceived to be "natural" and therefore authentic, pristine, unmanufactured, unspoiled - which they believed to be of the highest value. This work therefore seeks to draw connections between aspects in America's religious history that have remained thus far unearthed. Defining environmental religion as I have done - by focusing on a reverent orientation to nature that conceives the "natural" to be of the highest value - provides for the study of a wide range of subjects, groups, and individuals who were nonetheless connected by a deferential and awe-inspired response to nature, the environment, and the material world. In short, by concentrating on what I call environmental religion, I provide a new perspective on American Transcendentalism. However, I also trace powerful and prevalent - yet largely unexamined - trends, themes, and movements coursing through American history and culture.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9324
Format: Thesis

Title: Birthing Bodies and Doctrine: The Natural Philosophy of Generation and the Evangelical Theology of Regeneration in the Early Modern Atlantic World.
Creator: Gray, Lauren Davis, Porterfield, Amanda, Gray, Edward G., Corrigan, John, McVicar, Michael J., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religion
Abstract/Description: In the Atlantic world of the eighteenth century, revivalists in Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean centered their theology around the doctrine of the new birth. The new birth was the unifying, if contested, theme of the transatlantic revivals. Although prominent evangelical theologians like Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and Nikolaus von Zinzendorf each conceptualized rebirth a little differently, the surprising unity of the doctrine across geographic and institutional...
Show moreIn the Atlantic world of the eighteenth century, revivalists in Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean centered their theology around the doctrine of the new birth. The new birth was the unifying, if contested, theme of the transatlantic revivals. Although prominent evangelical theologians like Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and Nikolaus von Zinzendorf each conceptualized rebirth a little differently, the surprising unity of the doctrine across geographic and institutional boundaries stemmed from the fact that they all sought to ground the spiritual metaphor of the new birth in the natural philosophy of childbirth. Before the early modern Atlantic world saw a sudden increase of this evangelical preaching on the doctrine of the rebirth, there was a sudden increase of writings by natural philosophers on new findings about conception and childbirth. This seventeenth-century fascination among natural philosophers with the process of "generation," as it was called, led to the eighteenth-century preoccupation with "regeneration" among evangelical leaders. Edwards, Wesley and Zinzendorf were each exposed to the mechanism of Descartes, the empiricism of Locke, and the theory of preformationism at early ages, long before their theological systems had solidified. Employing this natural philosophy of generation was not simply a way to legitimize the idea of the new birth; it was the method by which this doctrine was produced. The main question of this dissertation, then, is one of epistemology: where do religious knowledge and values come from? How is a theological doctrine formed? As this case study of the new birth shows, theology is oftentimes produced from the body--from embodied experiences, bodily metaphors, and empirical information about the body. Bodies--as much as sacred texts, charismatic leaders, ecclesiastical institutions, etc.--are sites of religious values and truths. The experience of being born again, Edwards, Wesley and Zinzendorf agreed, was instantaneous and sometimes accompanied by convulsions of the body and terrors of the mind as in the pangs of childbirth. To learn about the spiritual mechanisms of this new birth experience, one could study the physical process of childbirth as explained by natural philosophers. Revivalism relied heavily on enlightenment philosophy for the development of its values and worldview, and in turn enlightenment movements relied on transatlantic revivalism for the transmission of its ideas to those who would not otherwise have had access to them. Evangelical preachers like Edwards, Wesley and Zinzendorf were the cultural mediators between what Wesley called "plain people" and natural philosophers like Malebranche, Descartes, and Locke. The sermons and treatises written by these preachers were the medium through which knowledge about the natural and supernatural worlds was conveyed. Rather than viewing evangelicalism as opposed to the heady intellectualism of enlightenment empiricism, this dissertation shows how these revivalists consistently drew from the findings of natural philosophy in the creation of their theology. For them, the body was a site for the formation of such theological knowledge. Early modern natural philosophy put human bodies into discourse, transforming bodies from an experiential reality into a natural phenomenon worthy of academic study. This in turn opened up the body as a site of theological inquiry for clergy across the Atlantic who believed that divine truths could be gleaned from the natural world. Several of these clergy birthed the first evangelical movement by translating the natural philosophy of childbirth into a streamlined metaphor that both united those who had had the experience of the new birth and radically divided them from those who had not. If the body was the epistemology that revivalists drew knowledge from, then religion was the medium through which such knowledge was conveyed.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9341
Format: Thesis

Title: Systems of Slavery in the United States, 1860.
Creator: Burris, Gregory David, Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Blaufarb, Rafe, Doel, Ronald Edmund, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Abstract/Description: This thesis studies the causal factors of US slavery prior to the Civil War. My main data set is the 1860 census from the National Historical GIS (nhgis.org), which is aggregated to the county level. Historians have traditionally broken the slave owning South into vague regions, called "belts" based on the dominant cash crops of those regions. There is no spatial demarcation of these boundaries, and this regionalization completely ignores areas that are not conceptualized as cash crop...
Show moreThis thesis studies the causal factors of US slavery prior to the Civil War. My main data set is the 1860 census from the National Historical GIS (nhgis.org), which is aggregated to the county level. Historians have traditionally broken the slave owning South into vague regions, called "belts" based on the dominant cash crops of those regions. There is no spatial demarcation of these boundaries, and this regionalization completely ignores areas that are not conceptualized as cash crop production areas. As old territories exhausted their soil and evolved from slave societies into societies with slaves. Slavery is seen as a single system migrating across the South, with new territories being brought into the monolithic system. As a result, there is limited qualitative or quantitative understanding of regional diversity within the South, and the existing regions have not been questioned for over a hundred years. I use county level census data to study the entire slave owning South. This allows the study of the interrelation of the various cash crop producing regions as well as the areas that were not involved in these industries. I will also be able to gauge the impact of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem and the impact of autocorrelation on my models of different study areas. The result is the rejection of the null hypothesis based on traditional historical conceptualizations that slave density was dependent on cash crop cultivation. I present a new alternative hypothesis that explains slavery as a more generic phenomenon, capable of deriving profits from a wide variety of crops and industrial products as well as the more traditional cash crops. This thesis argues that there were many facets to slavery, and that necessitates the discussion of these facets. Profitability from slavery was more general and not just from cash crops. Cash crops had become less labor intensive by 1860. Money could be made from slaves in many economic pursuits, including cash-crops, grain crops, urban industry, and rural industry. These products were not substitutes for each other. Most of them, especially cash-crops, were only capable of growing in certain locations under certain conditions. Cotton could not have substituted for tobacco in the tobacco belt any more than sugar could have been grown in the colder climate of Virginia. Because a profit could be made off of slave labor in many agricultural and industrial activities, the value of putting a slave to work in a corn field in Kentucky was competitive with putting that same person to work in a cotton field in Mississippi or an iron blasting furnace in Virginia. By 1860, the supply and demand for enslaved people was at equilibrium across the South and the Upper South was not diminishing or economically dependent on the slave trade. The slave population of the Upper South was not decreasing in the antebellum period or even stagnating. It was instead growing while still supplying the Lower South with slaves through the domestic slave trade. The Upper South had not and was not transferring to a society with slaves, nor was it moving in that direction. This was not even true within urban settings.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9300
Format: Thesis

Title: Dancing Americana: Choreographing Visions of American Identity from the Stage to the Screen, 1936-1958.
Creator: Boche, Kathaleen E. R., Sinke, Suzanne M., Phillips, Patricia H., Frank, Andrew, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Young, Tricia Henry, Florida State University, College of Arts and...
Show moreBoche, Kathaleen E. R., Sinke, Suzanne M., Phillips, Patricia H., Frank, Andrew, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Young, Tricia Henry, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: This dissertation examines concert dance, Broadway musicals, and film musicals from the mid-1930s to the early Cold War period, exploring how choreographers, directors, and performers expressed American nationalism through dance. Nationalism in dance transferred from the ballet stage during the buildup and early years of World War II to Broadway and Hollywood musicals in the mid-1940s to late 1950s. This shift brought Americana dances to a wider audience--the concert dance audience was small...
Show moreThis dissertation examines concert dance, Broadway musicals, and film musicals from the mid-1930s to the early Cold War period, exploring how choreographers, directors, and performers expressed American nationalism through dance. Nationalism in dance transferred from the ballet stage during the buildup and early years of World War II to Broadway and Hollywood musicals in the mid-1940s to late 1950s. This shift brought Americana dances to a wider audience--the concert dance audience was small and elite, but the audience for movies was larger and more diverse. In addition to analysis of the dancing, this dissertation utilizes the papers of choreographers, Broadway publicists' scrapbooks, the records of the Production Code Administration, film preview audience surveys, reviews, letters, and interviews. Frontier figures and servicemen were already a part of American identity before cowboy ballets and tap dancing sailor movies; however, dancing made these figures come to life for audiences, wrapping up ideology in attractive, virtuosic performance. Nationalism in dance intersected with personal artistic expression, censorship, government policy, critical response, and audience reaction. As the audience grew, so did concerns over mediating the messages presented. Dance was a part of U.S. diplomacy, propaganda, and identity. This dissertation contributes to the current scholarship on dance and nationalism because it spans across concert dance, popular culture, and mass media, linking multiple disciplines in the process.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9144
Format: Thesis

Title: Liability of teachers for school accidents.
Creator: McKinley, David, Parker, Edna E., Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The purpose of this study is to gather and to present information on the liability structure of our legal system in such a manner as to help the classroom teacher to understand more fully his legal responsibilities and thus relieve him of unwarranted fears regarding accidents and injuries resulting from classroom activities. It is hoped that this study will ultimately contribute to the security of those who read it and give encouragement to those who seek to enrich their classes by means of...
Show moreThe purpose of this study is to gather and to present information on the liability structure of our legal system in such a manner as to help the classroom teacher to understand more fully his legal responsibilities and thus relieve him of unwarranted fears regarding accidents and injuries resulting from classroom activities. It is hoped that this study will ultimately contribute to the security of those who read it and give encouragement to those who seek to enrich their classes by means of the experience type curriculum.
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Date Issued: 1956
Identifier: FSU_historic_alb9563
Format: Thesis

Title: Vernacular Mormonism: The Development of Latter-Day Saint Apocalyptic (1830-1930).
Creator: Blythe, Christopher James, Corrigan, John, Luke, Trevor S., Porterfield, Amanda, McVicar, Michael J., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Religion
Abstract/Description: This study examines the development of apocalypticism in Mormon culture from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Specifically, it argues that a major shift in apocalyptic thought in the twentieth century was essential for the Americanization of Mormons during the period of transition (1890-1930). The early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints possessed a radical eschatology, emphasizing dualism and the imminence of the apocalypse. Following the murder of their...
Show moreThis study examines the development of apocalypticism in Mormon culture from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Specifically, it argues that a major shift in apocalyptic thought in the twentieth century was essential for the Americanization of Mormons during the period of transition (1890-1930). The early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints possessed a radical eschatology, emphasizing dualism and the imminence of the apocalypse. Following the murder of their prophet, Joseph Smith, Mormons came to see themselves as a distinctive people from other Euro-Americans, which they referred to as Gentiles. They expected the soon collapse of the American government as a result of their culpability in Smith's death, as well as other examples of persecution. Throughout the nineteenth century, the relationship between Mormonism and their fellow Americans was defined by this millenarian logic. It was only after Utah was received as a state in the Union that Mormons began to embrace a more moderate millenarian thought. In addition to historicizing the subject of apocalypticism in Mormonism, this study examines how the regulation of apocalyptic prophecy ultimately resulted in a new understanding of how lay Mormons should properly experience and narrate the experience of their faith. Throughout the nineteenth century, it was popular for Mormons to narrate visions, dreams, and prophecies, often including narratives of the apocalypse. During the period of transition, the Church hierarchy did not directly refute previous understandings of millenarian thought. Instead, they opposed popular vernacular prophecies, which continued to promote a nineteenth-century Mormon worldview. By regulating these prophecies and marginalizing those who shared them, Church leaders articulated new rules for the sharing of charismata.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9294
Format: Thesis

Title: Escaping the Mechanism: Soldier Fraternization Throughout the American Civil War.
Creator: Thompson, Lauren Kristin, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Montgomery, Maxine L., Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Frank, Andrew, Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Piehler, G. Kurt, Florida State...
Show moreThompson, Lauren Kristin, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Montgomery, Maxine L., Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Frank, Andrew, Mooney, Katherine Carmines, Piehler, G. Kurt, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: "Escaping the Mechanism: Soldier Fraternization throughout the American Civil War," contributes to the rich scholarship on Civil War soldiers because one cannot fully understand the nature of the war experience, without also knowing how soldiers controlled some conditions of their existence. Although it was strictly forbidden, Union and Confederate soldiers fraternized with each other often as an escape from the monotony and routine of encampment, drills, and marching. When citizen soldiers...
Show more"Escaping the Mechanism: Soldier Fraternization throughout the American Civil War," contributes to the rich scholarship on Civil War soldiers because one cannot fully understand the nature of the war experience, without also knowing how soldiers controlled some conditions of their existence. Although it was strictly forbidden, Union and Confederate soldiers fraternized with each other often as an escape from the monotony and routine of encampment, drills, and marching. When citizen soldiers experienced war, and its limits, they perpetuated this behavior by testing restrictions. As an outlet of resistance and an expression of choice, a "culture of fraternalism" formulated as soldiers attempted to grasp control after the psychological and physical damage of war shattered their metaphysical world. Because mental and physical challenges chipped away at soldier morale, men found ways to push back against the system. Soldiers needed an escape. Thus, enemies organized ceasefires, truces, and a trading network in order to remain in control of their world and escape the "mechanism" of military life. Fraternization deserves its own attention both in terms of its frequency in soldiers' manuscripts and implication as a coping mechanism, but also because its significance is dismissed or minimized by leading Civil War scholars. Several Civil War historians acknowledge that fraternization happened but either categorize soldiers who did as uncommitted or bypass the reason why it occurred so often. Based on my extensive reading of soldiers' letters and diaries from eleven archives in seven states, I argue that soldiers fraternized in order to fight the war on their own terms through subtle forms of dissent. In viewing fraternization as a method by which soldiers reaffirmed their own control and escaped the military mechanism, the implications of fraternization are worthy of further investigation and can no longer be sidestepped. Just because soldiers remained ideologically committed, does not suggest they were without physical and mental privation. Soldiers found alternative ways to assert their own autonomy in order to cope with the harsh realities of army life. To understand how soldiers shaped their circumstances through fraternization, the points where it happened most frequently and the challenges particular to that campaign will be analyzed in detail. Chapter 1 depicts how soldiers developed a culture of fraternalism. An accurate study of Civil War soldiers cannot begin in 1861. Men came to war with traditions, experiences, and values from a world before they were soldiers. In particular, soldiers embodied two important cultural notions of antebellum society. When men faced limits to their potential or independence they dealt with them through outlets of fraternity and resistance. Because soldiers' ability to fraternize was dependent upon their tactical position, on picket duty in proximity to one another or in trenches during a siege, the culture of fraternalism waxed and waned throughout the war. The points where extensive fraternization occurred merit its own attention. Chapter 2 focuses on the first, and arguably most documented, instance of widespread fraternization which took place during the Fredericksburg Campaign. Men who fought in armies throughout the Western Theatre of the Civil War also created and upheld a culture of fraternalism. Chapter 3 analyzes the major occasions of fraternization which occurred along the vast territory between the Mississippi River and the eastern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains particularly during the Siege at Vicksburg, Tennessee Campaign, and Atlanta Campaign. This chapter illustrates that although men in these armies came from different states and encountered different obstacles, their development of fraternization occurred simultaneously to their comrades in Virginia as a means to shape their environment. Chapter 4 shifts focus back to eastern Virginia in the summer of 1864. When the Overland Campaign resulted in a siege at Petersburg, Virginia, the armies of Northern Virginia and the Potomac experienced a new set of conditions. While gridlocked at Petersburg for eleven months, men on both sides dealt with side effects of siege warfare. The culture of fraternalism continued through the trade of commodities and newspapers but most importantly during this siege was a continual and intricate arrangement of ceasefires to placate the constant sense of anxiety and necessity to "be on guard." Chapter 5 follows soldiers into their lives as veterans in attempt to understand how they shaped the remembrance of their service. Just as men constructed ways to fight the war on their own terms, veterans used their "power of the pen" to document their experience. Rather than dismissing postwar soldier accounts of fraternization as a consequence of reunionist propaganda, perhaps soldiers wrote about their interaction with the enemy because they deemed it worthy of remembrance. In synthesizing the broader historiography on masculinity, identity, and military experience with fraternization, this study demonstrates not simply why soldiers fought but rather how they utilized tactics, terrain, and commodities to make their service more manageable. What these chapters contend is that regardless of campaign or theatre, ideologically committed soldiers were able to remain dedicated because of opportunities, like fraternization, to assert their own control over the war.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9469
Format: Thesis

Title: The Resurgence of Cold War Imagery in Western Popular Culture.
Creator: Van Jelgerhuis, Daniel, Wakamiya, Lisa Ryoko, Romanchuk, Robert, Edwards, Leigh H., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Modern Languages and...
Show moreVan Jelgerhuis, Daniel, Wakamiya, Lisa Ryoko, Romanchuk, Robert, Edwards, Leigh H., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
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Abstract/Description: The portrayal of Russia in Western popular culture has served various purposes, particularly between 1945 and 1991. With a few exceptions, Soviet citizens, particularly Russians, have been shown as, alternatingly, backwards peasants and cunning enemies. In the post-1991 period, this tradition of showing Russia as the enemy continued in film and television, but tapered off in favor of more seemingly relevant foes on the world stage. While film analyses focusing on the portrayal of Russia and...
Show moreThe portrayal of Russia in Western popular culture has served various purposes, particularly between 1945 and 1991. With a few exceptions, Soviet citizens, particularly Russians, have been shown as, alternatingly, backwards peasants and cunning enemies. In the post-1991 period, this tradition of showing Russia as the enemy continued in film and television, but tapered off in favor of more seemingly relevant foes on the world stage. While film analyses focusing on the portrayal of Russia and Russians have been done, the renewal of focus on Cold War imagery in reference to Russia and the West has not been commented on. Because of the so-called Illegals Program uncovered in 2010, the attempted "reset" between the United States and the Russian Federation, increased Western media coverage of human rights issues in Russia, and many other types of exposure, including the annexation of Crimea and the conflict with Russia-backed anti-Kiev militias in eastern Ukraine, Russia has taken center-stage and is subject not only to international scrutiny, but also to rehashed prejudices and outdated knowledge of the country that stems from old antagonisms. The television programs The Americans, Archer, and Doctor Who all look at Russia and the relationship of Russia with the West through a Cold War lens. I argue that this resurgence is in response to both Cold War nostalgia and a renewal of Russia's relevance on the world stage. By analyzing these programs, it will be shown that the types of information and impressions that are being promoted by popular culture of late at once serve to provide nuance to an ordinarily one-sided and limited portrayal of Russia and its people, and at the same time reinforce old, stale images of the "Evil Empire" that only serve to prevent understanding and cooperation between the citizens of the West and of Russia.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9476
Format: Thesis

Title: Industrial Modernization and the American Civil War.
Creator: Gray, Corey Patrick, Creswell, Michael H., Doel, Ronald Edmund, Piehler, G. Kurt, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
Abstract/Description: What explains why and how America fought the civil war? This thesis argues that industrial modernization can be a useful analytical tool for understanding the causes of the American Civil War. The argument is developed by analyzing the social, political, and military events of the era through the lens of industrialization. This study will show that the American Industrial Revolution lay at the core of the social, political, and military events that shaped this great conflict. Understanding...
Show moreWhat explains why and how America fought the civil war? This thesis argues that industrial modernization can be a useful analytical tool for understanding the causes of the American Civil War. The argument is developed by analyzing the social, political, and military events of the era through the lens of industrialization. This study will show that the American Industrial Revolution lay at the core of the social, political, and military events that shaped this great conflict. Understanding the causes of human events is as critical as understanding their effects. By grasping the root causes of the war, we can better understand how and why it was fought. This analysis of American society, American politics, and the country's military establishment will provide the rich context needed to apprehend the reasons for the American Civil war beyond the dichotomy of slavery and economics.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9605
Format: Thesis

Title: Schism and Sacred Harp: The Formation of the Twentieth-Century Tunebook Lines.
Creator: Kahre, Sarah E., Brewer, Charles E. (Charles Everett), Porterfield, Amanda, Seaton, Douglass, Eyerly, Sarah, Florida State University, College of Music
Abstract/Description: This dissertation explores tunebook revisions in the broad Sacred Harp tradition during the period from 1879 through 1936. My work focuses on the split of Sacred Harp singing into three competing sub-traditions during the early twentieth century, forming singing communities in the South with diasporic traits. I will argue that, if one views all of Sacred Harp singing as a diasporic culture, then the center is the antebellum tradition of tunebook singing, embodied in the four original editions...
Show moreThis dissertation explores tunebook revisions in the broad Sacred Harp tradition during the period from 1879 through 1936. My work focuses on the split of Sacred Harp singing into three competing sub-traditions during the early twentieth century, forming singing communities in the South with diasporic traits. I will argue that, if one views all of Sacred Harp singing as a diasporic culture, then the center is the antebellum tradition of tunebook singing, embodied in the four original editions of The Sacred Harp published by B. F. White between 1844 and 1870. Sacred Harp singers were "exiled" when other tunebook compilers modified their styles after the Civil War in reaction to the growth of seven-shape and gospel style music, and then disagreements primarily related to stylistic issues caused the dispersal into three related tunebook lines during the early twentieth century. My ultimate goal is to better understand both this under-studied period of Sacred Harp history and the diasporic culture it produced. To that end, I will clarify what was valued (and devalued) and why by different editors and singing communities during the period from the death of B. F. White in 1879 through the publication of the first Denson edition in 1936. "Boylston" will serve as a case study to examine how different editors approached revising a stylistically problematic tune. I will also explore how musical styles found in different tunebooks may reflect particular cultural, political, and religious values associated with parts of the South after Reconstruction, with particular attention to the changing role of women. Ultimately, I will show how these different values fractured what had been a single tradition and promoted the formation of three distinct tunebook lines, a division that is still a feature of Sacred Harp practice today. Through the lens of diaspora theory, I will illuminate how, why, and along what lines this division occurred within the context of Southern history. Although Sacred Harp singing may not fit intuitively into classical conceptions of a diasporic culture, this perspective provides a way to understand the singers' alienation within the broad tunebook singing practice and highlights the importance of history, tradition, and nostalgia to the formation of the identity "Sacred Harp singer." Different responses to these values are key in the development of these new tunebook lines. Post-Reconstruction attitudes toward the antebellum past were generally mixed and complex across the entire South, so the metaphor of exile applied to this relatively small group could also contribute to larger conversations about Southern identity at the time, especially Southerners' relationships to their history and the legacy of previous generations. This sense of diasporic identity within Sacred Harp singing cultures has continued to the present day, producing anxieties documented by contemporary ethnomusicological studies of the now-international singing community.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9365
Format: Thesis

Title: Anna Sokolow’s Rooms: A Case Study of Dystopic Americana Synthesizing Historical Research, Movement Analysis, and Restaging from Labanotation Score.
Creator: Patel, Bhumi B., Young, Tricia Henry, Atkins, Jen, Phillips, Patricia H., Belman, Rodger, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance, School of Dance
Abstract/Description: Cement skyscrapers, the smell of automobile exhaust, turned down faces of strangers. New York City during the Great Depression was at odds with the founding fathers' vision of America as a shining City Upon a Hill. Anna Sokolow's feelings about the modern urban landscape, the deadening isolation that often accompanies it, and its forsaken twentieth century anti-hero inspired her to create her celebrated and influential 1955 piece, Rooms. In this dance, Sokolow explores the uncanny loneliness...
Show moreCement skyscrapers, the smell of automobile exhaust, turned down faces of strangers. New York City during the Great Depression was at odds with the founding fathers' vision of America as a shining City Upon a Hill. Anna Sokolow's feelings about the modern urban landscape, the deadening isolation that often accompanies it, and its forsaken twentieth century anti-hero inspired her to create her celebrated and influential 1955 piece, Rooms. In this dance, Sokolow explores the uncanny loneliness that can affect those living in close quarters to others, specifically in busy, gritty, urban post-war America. During the first half of the twentieth century dancemakers and artists alike were creating a growing body of work that we can now refer to as Americana. These were works that self-consciously drew upon a wide range of American themes and stereotypes. While the politics and aesthetics of Americana are diverse, including work based on such themes as the American Frontier, and African American heritage, this thesis explores Rooms as a case study of a sub-genre I refer to as Dystopic Americana. This thesis represents the use of the Labanotation score of Rooms and historical research. I begin with introductory and contextual information about the study in general and Rooms specifically, followed by a general definition of Americana. I then explore three broad types of Americana: Mythic America, the African American Experience, and Dystopic America. Sokolow's Rooms is a work of Dystopic Americana. I then go on to explain three major themes characteristic of Dystopic Americana and present in Rooms: the modern, urban landscape, isolation and loneliness, and the anti-hero. From these investigations I draw conclusions about the experience of embodied research and argue for the synthesis of history and dance reconstruction as a model of best practices in the field.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9227
Format: Thesis

Title: Resisting the Civil-Rights Movement: Race, Community and the Power of the Southern White Press.
Creator: Edmonds, Willard T., Jumonville, Neil, Milligan, Jeffrey Ayala, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Frank, Andrew, Florida State University, College of Arts and...
Show moreEdmonds, Willard T., Jumonville, Neil, Milligan, Jeffrey Ayala, Jones, Maxine Deloris, Koslow, Jennifer Lisa, Frank, Andrew, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
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Abstract/Description: When conservative politicians captured Washington in the 1980s and 1990s, they brought with them a style of rhetoric rooted in the South of the 1950s and 1960s. The three core elements of this Southern style are clear: * Strong beliefs -- firmly held, loudly proclaimed and adhered to at the risk of becoming dogmatic. * Learning not to see -- a practiced avoidance of complications or distracting issues, an ability to turn a blind eye, to deny the obvious. * Policing of the public square --...
Show moreWhen conservative politicians captured Washington in the 1980s and 1990s, they brought with them a style of rhetoric rooted in the South of the 1950s and 1960s. The three core elements of this Southern style are clear: * Strong beliefs -- firmly held, loudly proclaimed and adhered to at the risk of becoming dogmatic. * Learning not to see -- a practiced avoidance of complications or distracting issues, an ability to turn a blind eye, to deny the obvious. * Policing of the public square -- strict enforcement of the ruling beliefs, at times becoming a bullying of allies to keep them in line, paired with quick and sharp public attacks on dissenting opinions. The Southern style is now an ingrained element of the conservative movement, and it operates with, and relies upon, active cooperation of the conservative press. This, too, has roots in the South. During the decades of civil rights activism, Southern newspapers instilled Southern ideology and allegiance among white readers, turned a blind eye to injustice and other weaknesses of Jim Crow culture and cleared the public square of dissenting opinions and alternative points of view. This study examines how the Southern style operated in the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the work of journalists in Richmond, Virginia, Tallahassee, Florida, and Jackson, Mississippi, and on their interactions with political leaders, activists and the public.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9169
Format: Thesis

Title: Ideological, Dystopic, and Antimythopoeic Formations of Masculinity in the Vietnam War Film.
Creator: Stegall, Elliott, Kelsay, John, Bearor, Karen, Erndl, Kathleen M., Edwards, Leigh H., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Program in Interdisciplinary...
Show moreStegall, Elliott, Kelsay, John, Bearor, Karen, Erndl, Kathleen M., Edwards, Leigh H., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities
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Abstract/Description: This dissertation argues that representations of masculinity in the Hollywood war/combat films of the Vietnam film cycle reflect the changing and changed mores of the era in which they were made, and that these representations are so prevalent as to suggest a culture-wide shift in notions of masculinity since the Vietnam War. I demonstrate that the majority of the representations of masculinity in the Vietnam War film cycle (an expression that includes all films on the Vietnam War but...
Show moreThis dissertation argues that representations of masculinity in the Hollywood war/combat films of the Vietnam film cycle reflect the changing and changed mores of the era in which they were made, and that these representations are so prevalent as to suggest a culture-wide shift in notions of masculinity since the Vietnam War. I demonstrate that the majority of the representations of masculinity in the Vietnam War film cycle (an expression that includes all films on the Vietnam War but particularly those produced in Hollywood) have achieved mythic status--accepted truths--but are often exaggerated and/or are erroneous to the point of affecting how historical events are understood by subsequent generations. Such is the power of cinema. This dissertation, then, adopts a cultural-political-historical perspective to investigate Hollywood's virtual re-creation of the Vietnam War and its combat participants as dystopic, anti-mythopoeic figures whose allegiance to patriotism, God, and duty are shown to be tragically betrayed by a changing paradigm of masculinity and has thus created a new mythos of the American male which abides in the American consciousness to this day. All of which is to ask, why was there such a significant change from admirable cinematic representations of America as a nation that represents the ideology of freedom and liberty for all and U.S. soldiers as the hallmark of strength and goodness in the WW II movies to the mostly wretched representations of both in the Vietnam War cycle? While each chapter of my dissertation will attempt to identify plausible answers to these questions, I will also seek to explore why and how these alterations from the regnant traditions of American values--honoring the military, respecting the government and other traditions, such as the nuclear family, marriage as a sacred institution, monogamy as the respected norm, children as inviolable, gender roles as fixed, separation of the races, etc.--came to such a tumultuous head in the 1960s and resulted in the significantly altered constructs of values and masculinity that have become the norm in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In order to investigate historical cinematic representations effectively, it is necessary to consider the actual events of the times and challenge the subsequent various mythopoeic formations of the Hollywood Vietnam veteran.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9251
Format: Thesis

Title: Music, Morality, and the Great War: How World War I Molded American Musical Ethics.
Creator: Church, Lucy Claire, Seaton, Douglass, Buchler, Michael Howard, Brewer, Charles E. (Charles Everett), Jackson, Margaret R., Florida State University, College of Music
Abstract/Description: In 1917 America found itself embroiled in a worldwide battle concerning the identities and rights of nations. It was all of a sudden required to re-think its ethnic and cultural identity in the light of both its "melting pot" origins and the new nationalized standards for moral goodness and badness (enemy countries were now seen as unquestionably morally bad, allies morally good). One aspect of American culture that was particularly confused by this transition was the music world. American...
Show moreIn 1917 America found itself embroiled in a worldwide battle concerning the identities and rights of nations. It was all of a sudden required to re-think its ethnic and cultural identity in the light of both its "melting pot" origins and the new nationalized standards for moral goodness and badness (enemy countries were now seen as unquestionably morally bad, allies morally good). One aspect of American culture that was particularly confused by this transition was the music world. American music culture, and especially art or "classical" music culture, had been founded on a deep-seated appreciation for the German tradition. German performers, composers, theorists, historians, critics, and, most of all, repertoire were embraced and beloved by Americans. In fact, many musicians were what we might call "hyphenated" Americans, first- or second-generation German immigrants who made music their livelihood in America. What's more, in the years leading up to the war, America had developed a widespread understanding of the moral nature of music that was based largely on national musical styles. Popular thought proclaimed that music was a distinctly moral art and that Italian and French styles represented its lowest moral output. German musical style, on the other hand, fulfilled music's highest potential to be morally good. When in 1917 this understanding collided with the unwavering declaration that Germany (and its cultural output) was the enemy, the embodiment of evil, American music culture responded with understandable confusion and vehemence. Robberies, lootings, bomb threats, riots, trials, restraining orders, police presence, mass demonstrations, internments, and deportations plagued German-American and German musicians, as well as those who dared to perform German repertoire. Many of these incidents can be seen within the sociological framework of "moral panic," Stanley Cohen's description of cultural events that represent disproportionate responses to supposed moral threats. To study them adequately is to see them not only as interesting stories but as signposts pointing to deeper cultural issues and insecurities. In the wake of these wartime and post-wartime moral panics, America was forced to re-examine its conceptions of musical morality, as well as its relationship to German performers and repertoire. Although it reincorporated German culture quite quickly following the war, it did so self-consciously, with a newfound desire to expand its national boundaries to include American, British, and French repertoire and performers into its core. This diversity of styles found its greatest success as part of the new valuing of plurality that came with modernism. Furthermore, America's distinct ability to incorporate and celebrate pluralism helped it to become the new world center for art music in the twentieth century despite its long-term struggle to create its own distinct musical style.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9572
Format: Thesis

Title: Losing Home: Why Rural Northwest Florida Needs to Be Saved.
Creator: Riley-Taylor, Zena S., Jumonville, Neil, Davis, Frederick, Koslow, Jennifer, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Land use in Florida has seen many changes since it became an American territory in 1821. But while land use can be a categorical term for classifying property, it can also take on a more valuable meaning. When the land was originally opened up for frontier settlers and wealthy planters to farm in the early years, it usually meant family and freedom as individuals and large kinship networks migrated south to establish homesteads and plantations. This population was mostly concentrated in...
Show moreLand use in Florida has seen many changes since it became an American territory in 1821. But while land use can be a categorical term for classifying property, it can also take on a more valuable meaning. When the land was originally opened up for frontier settlers and wealthy planters to farm in the early years, it usually meant family and freedom as individuals and large kinship networks migrated south to establish homesteads and plantations. This population was mostly concentrated in Middle Florida or the northern part of the state. Leading up to the Civil War, cotton was obviously a royal crop and a manufacturing movement emerged to support the momentum toward Southern independence. However, the aftermath of the Civil War seems to be a turning point for the dominantly agrarian region as timber, railroads, and tourism changed the way residents used the land. While Northwest Florida retained agriculture as a major part of the economy, the peninsula became more developed and populated, mostly with wealthy Northern tourists, and in effect, the state transformed into two distinct regions with very different environments and cultures. Comparisons between the two sections are made throughout the study to illustrate lessons that can be learned from one to the other. Sprawl, congestion, and overdevelopment's assault on the environment are common concerns. My focus for this study is to show how land use and essentially rural life changed for those individuals who were accustomed to subsistence farming in Northwest Florida. Land prices, a decline in farm acreage, population distribution, and suburbanization exhibit this transformation. In addition, the intention is to show the assets of the Panhandle through its environment, rural character, and agrarian heritage which equates into a revered quality of life. The rural places of Northwest Florida deserve protection from inappropriate and misplaced development using rural land conservation and land-use planning techniques while revitalizing towns and cities that have already been developed and preserving the region's vast historical resources for future generations.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7577
Format: Thesis

Title: From Boom to Bust: Ghost Towns of Selected Florida Gulf Coast Communities.
Creator: Roberts, Rebecca, Davis, Frederick, Fenstermaker, John, Bickley, Bruce, Program in American and Florida Studies, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines extinct or vanishing towns along Florida's northwest coast, specifically communities in Wakulla and Levy Counties, that experienced a boom to bust phenomena between Florida's territorial period and the early twentieth century. The exceptional growth of the selected areas prospered largely due to an abundance of seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. The towns withered and disappeared when industrialization depleted the natural resources or when populations shifted...
Show moreThis thesis examines extinct or vanishing towns along Florida's northwest coast, specifically communities in Wakulla and Levy Counties, that experienced a boom to bust phenomena between Florida's territorial period and the early twentieth century. The exceptional growth of the selected areas prospered largely due to an abundance of seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. The towns withered and disappeared when industrialization depleted the natural resources or when populations shifted according to changes in land availability and mandated land use. Lumberyards sometimes demanded specific wood for manufacture and harvested a species to decimation within a geographical area. Sawmill owners bought non-contiguous land or leased other nearby lands to meet the increasing need for production. Early Gulf Coast railroads tended to follow the path of high-yield lumber mills and commodified natural products. Newly implemented laws often changed the methods of available collection, and consumption of resources and became another factor in whether a town thrived or died. Small, independent commercial fishermen abandoned their livelihoods when new net bans challenged their authority. Hunting resorts closed in consequence of federal land purchases. The Civil War changed forever the labor force behind cotton production. Southerners who viewed slaves as just another limitless resource had to reevaluate their lifestyles. Even the old planters and slave owners who could readjust morally and socially were unable to realign themselves financially and the death of their beneficent town soon followed. Freedmen left their master's land when and if opportunity arose in favor of newer or black-cultured communities. An out-migration of freedmen could lead to the death of post Civil War towns. The demise of many southern ghost towns is often attributed to technological advances and progress bypassing the sleepier little villages, but this theory diminishes, if not totally dismisses the agency of a single person, or a select group of people, to make or challenge decisions contributing to the boom or bust of a particular settlement. It is true that the areas studied often witnessed a loss of transportation services and outward migration in favor of larger or newer sites, but a breach usually appeared in the town's power-structure long before population loss. Larger political, social, and economic forces working outside of the geographical area of a future ghost town were not truly as powerful as might be expected. Instead, the decisions of a relatively small group of citizens, who often had contacts with people connected to larger government forces, made decisions independently of a town council and greatly contributed to the sometimes gradual and sometimes swift extinction of their own districts. The town's lack of a powerful force could be equally devastating if the area received no external representation.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1821
Format: Thesis

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