History M.A. Thesis

Apr 28, 2015

The Warrior’s Banquet: Syssitia in Ancient Crete

Although the island of Crete is most famously known today as the homeland of the Minoan civilization of the second millennium BCE, during the Classical and Hellenistic periods in Greece (ca. 480 – 67 BCE), the island was famous in the Greek world as the homeland of a large number of independent poleis (Greek city-states).… 

Apr 21, 2015

Evidence that the Majority of Medieval English Jews were not Moneylenders

The collective Western mind still today erroneously sees “the Jews” of medieval England as moneylenders. It is generally accepted that the Jews functioned to create a more liquid economy and to provide the crown with much needed financial support. However, while it is true that a select handful of Jews did operate as professional moneylenders,… 

Apr 20, 2015

Motivation, Mechanics and Magnitude: A Study of Glass Recycling in the Roman Empire

The topic of Roman glass recycling is not often discussed in scholarly literature. Knowledge of this subject, however, is integral to our understanding of the Roman glass industry and the ancient economy more generally. Evidence for Roman glass recycling comes from three main sources: ancient literary references, archaeological remains, and chemical composition studies. All three… 

Mar 26, 2015

Weber and Troeltsch, Friendship, Cooperation, Conflict

Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch were two of the leading intellectuals at the time of the outbreak of the First World War. For most of their adult lives, these two remained close friends, working in close cooperation at the University of Heidelberg and helping one another in the development of their innovative ideas concerning the… 

Mar 20, 2015

The Rage of Famine: Social Relations Among Soviet Peasantry During the Great Soviet Famine, 1930-1934

The purpose of this study is to examine issues of peasant social relations in Soviet Ukraine during Great Soviet Famine of the early 1930s. The goal is to show how village society was affected by the conditions of famine. Also, issues of tension and cohesion among peasantry are examined in terms of how the famine… 

Mar 16, 2015

“White Men Without Side-Arms:” Moderation, Manhood, and the Politics of Civil Rights in North Carolina, 1960-1965

Much of the existing historiography on the Civil Rights Movement in North Carolina either focuses on grassroots activists at the community level or on debates about whether the state’s white citizens exhibited “progressive” views on race or not. This study seeks to bridge this gap by examining the relationships and political struggles between African American… 

Oct 27, 2014

Hampton’s Black and Indian Students Remaking Culture in the Face of Trauma (1870-1920)

Smelter, Cara Angela. “‘Not as they were before and never can be’: Hampton’s Black and Indian Students Remaking Culture in the Face of Trauma (1870-1920).” (Under the direction of Dr. Blair Lynne Kelley.) ‘Not as they were before and never can be’: Hampton’s Black and Indian Students Remaking Culture in the Face of Trauma (1870-1920)… 

May 9, 2014

Jimmy Carter’s Geneva Peace Conference; Doomed or Defeated

Schultheiss, Thomas Edward. “Jimmy Carter’s Geneva Peace Conference; Doomed or Defeated?” (Under the direction of Dr. Nancy Mitchell.) This study focuses on the efforts of President Jimmy Carter and his administration in 1977 to convene a comprehensive Middle East peace conference in Geneva. Carter had advocated a Geneva peace conference as a presidential candidate in… 

May 8, 2014

With Great Power and Great Responsibility: The Representation of America’s Social Anxieties and Historical Events in The Amazing Spider-Man, 1962-1979

Shaeffer, Mathew Todd. “With Great Power and Great Responsibility: The Representation of America’s Social Anxieties and Historical Events in The Amazing Spider-Man, 1962-1979.” (Under the direction of Dr. David Zonderman). This thesis examines The Amazing Spider-Man comic series as a means to explore historical events and social anxieties during the 1960s and 1970s. Recently, superheroes… 

Apr 22, 2014

How We Have Forgotten: Chemical Strawberries and Their Archived Alternatives in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Roberts, Stacy Nichole. “How We Have Forgotten: Chemical Strawberries and Their Archived Alternatives in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” (Under the Direction of Matthew Morse Booker.) This thesis tracks the history of commercial strawberry production for urban markets from the market revolution of the early nineteenth century through the turn of the twenty-first century. Strawberries…