History M.A. Thesis

Mar 24, 2014

Perpetual Improvement: A Potomac Environmental Story

Hall, Jesse Shain. “Perpetual Improvement: A Potomac Environmental Story.” (Under the direction of Dr. Matthew Booker.) On February 8, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the restoration of the Potomac River, asserting a landscape so “rich in history and memory which flows by our nation’s capital should serve as a model of scenic and recreation…

Mar 18, 2014

Southern Womanhood in Transition: The Writings and Reminiscences of Virginia Clay Clopton

Lyon, Meghan Ruth. “Southern Womanhood in Transition: The Writings and Reminiscences of Virginia Clay Clopton.” (Under the direction of Dr. Susanna Lee.) Historians have a love-hate relationship with Virginia Clay Clopton’s 1905 memoir, A Belle of the Fifties. Although frequently referenced for its descriptions of the antebellum South, its character sketches of Civil War heroes,…

May 6, 2013

Aristocratic Gentlemanliness and Revolutionary Masculinities among Virginia’s Delegation to the Continental Congress, 1774-1776

Jewett, Amanda Averall. “Aristocratic Gentlemanliness and Revolutionary Masculinities among Virginia’s Delegation to the Continental Congress, 1774-1776.” (Under the direction of Dr. Craig Thompson Friend.) There was never one type of manhood practiced in Virginia during from 1774 to 1776. Instead, different masculinities blended and overlapped to reflect changes in culture and society. While elements such…

Apr 22, 2013

Mossadegh in America: A Turning Point, October 8-November 18, 1951

Lear-Nickum, Ian Cole. “Mossadegh in America: A Turning Point, October 8-November 18, 1951.” (Under the direction of Dr. Nancy Mitchell.) The Anglo-Iranian Oil Crisis officially began in April 1951, when the Iranian legislature nationalized Iran’s oil industry. This political action foreclosed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s claim on Iranian oil, and drew ire from Great Britain…

Apr 22, 2013

The Changing British State during the Counterrevolution: The Role of the John Reeves’ Association Movement

Super III, Robert Thomas. “The Changing British State during the Counterrevolution: The Role of the John Reeves’ Association Movement.” (Under the direction of Dr. Brent S. Sirota.) The Association for Preserving Liberty and Property Against Republicans and Levellers was founded by John Reeves in November of 1792 to police British society from the threat of…

Mar 28, 2013

Captivated by Texts: Male Anxieties, Editorial Input, and Reader Responses in Captivity Narratives, 1675-1724

Hall, Molly Suzanne. “Captivated by Texts: Male Anxieties, Editorial Input, and Reader Responses in Captivity Narratives, 1675-1724.” (Under the direction of Dr. Susanna Lee.) Captivity narratives produced in New England between 1675 and 1724 featured female protagonists that upheld idealized standards of behavior for women. Female characters within these stories acted submissively, were model mothers,…

Mar 26, 2013

Pageants of Sovereignty: ‘Merciless Indian Savages’ and American Nation-State Formation on the Northern Borderlands, 1774-1775

Mortimer, Loren Michael. “Pageants of Sovereignty: ‘Merciless Indian Savages’ and American Nation-State Formation on the Northern Borderlands, 1774-1775.” (Under the direction of Dr. Craig Thompson Friend.) When Thomas Jefferson denounced the Native American nations residing west of the thirteen colonies as “Merciless Indian Savages” in the Declaration of Independence, he willfully misrepresented the negotiated peace…

Mar 19, 2013

Visions of Terrestrial Happiness: Natural History, Empire, and the Environment of Colonial North America, 1751-1791

Blakley, Christopher Michael. “Visions of Terrestrial Happiness: Natural History, Empire, and the Environment of Colonial North America, 1751-1791.” (Under the direction of Dr. Judy Kertesz.) Knowledge of nature, both scientific and literary, became a political discourse in colonial America and the early republic. Eighteenth century representations of nature functioned in the imaginary of the colonial…

Mar 19, 2013

Surveys of Ambition: Carolina in the Colonial Imagination, 1700-1721

Dixon, Bradley Joseph. “Surveys of Ambition: Carolina in the Colonial Imagination, 1700-1721.” (Under the direction of Dr. Judy Kertesz.) The prevailing historiography characterizes the growth of the British empire in the early American Southeast as a process driven by the Indian trade in indigenous slaves and European goods. The place of Native Americans within the…

Mar 19, 2013

Putting Race in its Place: Race, Empire and Spaces of Belonging in Colonial Kenya, 1890s-1960s

Rouphail, Robert Michael. “Putting Race in its Place: Race, Empire and Spaces of Belonging in Colonial Kenya, 1890s-1960s.” (Under the direction of Dr. Owen Kalinga.) This thesis investigates how local politics of land ownership and global currents of imperial knowledge production informed racial thought in colonial Kenya. Employing Timothy Mitchell’s analytic tool of “enframing,” the…