Theses and Dissertations - Department of History

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Colonial Pennsylvania's peace experiment on the frontier, 1631-1786
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Cecil, Patrick William; Selesky, Harold E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation explores the maintenance of peace in Pennsylvania during the colonial era. When other colonies along the Atlantic seaboard experienced warfare in the early decades of settlement, Pennsylvania presents an anomaly for experiencing 120 years of relative peace with Indians before becoming a center point for two major conflicts in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The existing scholarly literature has examined the Long Peace and two conflicts, the French and Indian War and the War for American Independence, as distinct periods in the colony's history. When considering these periods through a lens of military violence, scholars point to the lack of military tradition and culture under the Quaker-led government during the Long Peace as an explanation for Pennsylvania's poor military reaction when at war and have used racial, religious, and political interpretations to discuss violence in the colony. In contrast, I argue that the inhabitants of Pennsylvania did have an effective approach for securing the safety of their settlement. I demonstrate that a security culture of restraint developed between Indians and European settlers, marked by dialogue, not war, in the fifty years prior to the formal establishment of Pennsylvania. When they arrived, William Penn and Quaker leaders recognized this understanding to be already in place and they infused into this preexisting structure their own ideals of community and brotherhood of man while continuing the practices of the culture of restraint. I explore how restraint and these Quaker ideals eroded during the eighteenth century, but argue that the culture of restraint ultimately had a lasting legacy through its outward symbols, language, and shared memories assisting in reestablishing peace along the frontier following war. My dissertation thus revises our understanding of Colonial Pennsylvania's long period of peace and how Quakers approached the issue of security in the colony, while also demonstrating the value in considering the role of peace in military history and security affairs.
The formative period of Anglo-American relations during the First World War, July 1914 - December 1915
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Floyd, Michael Ryan; Jones, Howard; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
When the First World War began in August 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared that he wanted the United States to remain neutral. By avoiding the conflict in Europe he hoped to demonstrate that his country held itself to a higher standard and that he was an honest broker who could mediate an end to the war. Additionally, Wilson hoped that the United States could profit from selling goods to the belligerents. He was not, however, well-versed in diplomacy, nor was he a non-partisan observer. This disposition, along with his desire for American prosperity, regularly influenced his policies and, in turn, aided the Allies. Yet, regardless of his restricted and often parochial approach to international affairs, Wilson did not intentionally violate American neutrality in the early months of the war. His position changed as the conflict progressed because Britain and the United States gradually increased their economic and political ties to the point that U.S. and U.K. interests became Anglo-American interests. This dissertation examines how the intertwining of U.S. and British political and economic interests during the first eighteen months of the First World War induced Wilson to intentionally deviate from neutrality and provide calculated support for the Allies.
A friendly salute: the President-Little Belt Affair and the coming of the war of 1812
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Hooks, Jonathon Woodard; Jones, Howard; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
In May 1811, thirteen months before the start of the War of 1812, the United States frigate President and the British sloop-of-war Little Belt fought an hour-long battle approximately fifty miles off the North Carolina coast. When the firing ceased the Little Belt had suffered heavy damage and thirty-two casualties. The President sustained only minor damage and one wounded sailor. The brief battle had significant ramifications for Anglo-American relations. The victory of the U.S.S. President four years after the defeat of the Chesapeake redeemed the honor of the United States and its navy. Because the action occurred near the spot of the previous bout, some Americans and Britons suspected the scrape did not happen accidentally. Newspaper editors and political leaders hostile to the president alleged that President Madison ordered the attack as a means to halt the impressments of American sailors or possibly to draw the United States into a war with Great Britain. In both nations sentiment for a conflict increased as many Britons believed the United States had sullied their national honor and numerous Americans concluded that a victory over Britain would come with ease. The President-Little Belt Affair also confirmed the American tactical theory holding that the United States Navy could never destroy Britain's, but that lone, swift ships could defeat single British vessels in head-to-head duels. This strategy proved extremely successful in the opening months of the War of 1812. While the President-Little Belt Affair did not start the War of 1812, it did serve as an important event leading up to the conflict. Without this occurrence Americans might never have summoned the courage to fight their former master and the British might never have developed the desire to struggle with a nation thousands of miles away while their empire resisted Napoleonic France. The President-Little Belt Affair proved an essential part of the road to the War of 1812.
The globe and anchor men: U.S. Marines, manhood, and American culture, 1914-1924
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2018) Folse, Mark Ryland; Huebner, Andrew J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation argues that between 1914 and 1924, U.S. Marines made manhood central to the communication of their image and culture, a strategy that underpinned the Corps’ effort to attract recruits from society and acquire funding from Congress. White manhood informed much of the Marines’ collective identity, which they believed set them apart from the other services. Interest in World War I, the campaigns in Hispaniola, and the development of amphibious warfare doctrine have made the Marine Corps during this period the focus of traditional military history. These histories often neglect a vital component of the Marine historical narrative: the ways Marines used masculinity and race to form positive connections with American society. For the Great War-era Marine Corps, those connections came from their claims to make good men out of America’s white youngsters. This project, therefore, fits with and expands the broader scholarly movement to put matters of race and gender at the center of military history. It was along the lines of manhood that Marines were judged by society. In France, Marines came to represent all that was good and strong in American men. In Haiti and the Dominican Republic, however, they demonstrated the ironies and weaknesses of American manhood through cruel and inhumane treatment of natives. Marines maintained positive connections with society through this controversy regardless. Throughout the Great War-Era, Marines promoted a style of manliness that emphasized popular Victorian notions of honor, courage, selflessness, self-control, hard work, and strength. In doing so, they kept traditional ideals of manhood at a time when American men’s culture had begun to shift toward a newer form of masculinity that valued consumption over production and appearances over character. In the Great War Marines presented themselves as the knightly saviors of civilization. In Hispaniola they portrayed themselves as the enforcers of peace and law whose manhood was far superior to the Haitians’ and Dominicans’. As Marines promoted themselves as a man-making institution, one that could turn Americans into good citizens, they demonstrated how adaptive their manly image could be through peace, war, and foreign occupation duty.
A legacy of care: Hesse and the Alice Frauenverein, 1867-1918
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Smith, Kara; Williamson, George S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Although scholars have considered the role of secular nursing associations in nineteenth-century Germany, they have focused on these organizations through the lens of nationalism and state-building or modernization and professionalization. As a result, the question of religiosity in secular nursing has been left largely unexplored. Focusing on the development of the Alice Women's Association for Nursing (Alice Frauenverein für Krankenpflege), which was founded in 1867 in the grand duchy of Hesse, this dissertation examines the ways in which this and similar nineteenth-century women's associations articulated a division between secular and religious forms of nursing, even while they drew on theological traditions associated with liberal Protestantism and on institutional models associated with the Catholic orders and Protestant diaconates. By following the model of the religious motherhouse, these secular Red Cross-affiliated women's associations were also able to provide their nurses with respectability and lifelong security, although adhering to this system meant that the nurses gave up much of their personal freedom. This study also highlights the ways in which nursing during the Kaiserreich continued to combine aspects of volunteerism and professionalism, and calls into question the tendency among nursing historians to view nineteenth-century developments primarily in terms of professionalization. Lastly it considers the relationship of the Alice Frauenverein to the mid-nineteenth century "woman question" (Frauenfrage), which in large part turned on the lack of employment opportunities for middle-class women.
Sea league of all the Britons: race, identity, and imperial defense, 1868-1914
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Mitcham, John Calvin; Beeler, John F.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Focusing on the transnational connections between the metropole and the empire, my dissertation explores the cultural dimensions of British imperial defense policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a particular emphasis on cooperation with the self-governing colonies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The existing scholarly literature on Anglo-Dominion relations presents the period 1868-1914 as a monolithic struggle between the proponents of imperial centralization and the powerful sentiments of colonial nationalism. In contrast, I argue that any critical examination of the evolution of the Commonwealth must be situated within the cultural and intellectual milieu of late Victorian ideas about race. I demonstrate that a pervasive sense of pan-British identity shaped the worldview of white colonials and resulted in an unprecedented level of imperial cooperation. Furthermore, I explore how the racial and cultural hegemony of imperial elites pushed non-white participation in the defense of the empire to the margins, reinforcing the popular literary construction of Rudyard Kipling's "Gunga Din" and other "loyal" subaltern stereotypes. My dissertation thus revises our understanding of the broader imperial relationship and provides a comprehensive and more nuanced context for the meaning of "British" identity within the empire.
Thinking through transition: USAF doctrine, technology and the F-111A
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Minney, John Minney; Selesky, Harold E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The dynamic created in the USAF between technological advances and strategic bombardment doctrine dates from the earliest systematic attempts to codify air doctrine after World War I. These ideas seemed to be validated by the advent of atomic weapons and long range bombers during World War II. By the 1950s, strategic bombardment and technologically advanced aircraft had become the lens through which airmen viewed modern warfare. Airmen were generally persuaded that war was total, and would be fought with nuclear weapons, despite a growing body of evidence that the geostrategic environment had changed since World War II. This dissertation uses the F-111A as a case study to demonstrate the consistency of USAF thinking concerning doctrine and technology, which ultimately affected procurement decisions. As envisioned in 1959, the F-111A was the product of not only the latest aircraft technology available, but also a persistent preference for strategic bombardment doctrine within the USAF. Acquired as a long-range high-speed tactical nuclear fighter-bomber to counter the Soviet nuclear threat in a general war, the F-111A was sent to Southeast Asia in 1968, and again in 1972, to face an insurgent threat in a limited war. Enamored with technology, airmen believed that the F-111A, with its advanced systems, could solve the tactical problems encountered in Southeast Asia that were unforeseen in institutional doctrine. The complicated history of the F-111A serves to illustrate the pitfalls of static doctrine in an ever-changing strategic environment. This study addresses why the USAF arrived in Southeast Asia equipped for a general war in Europe, and illuminates the continuing challenge of matching technology and doctrine.
Upon a dangerous design: the career of Edward Sexby, 1647-1657
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Lawson, Dean; Beeler, John F.; Mendle, Michael; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Perhaps no figure of England’s Civil Wars and Interregnum (1642-1660) is more deserving of study than Edward Sexby (c. 1616 – d. 1658). From April 1647 to July 1657 Sexby was, in succession, an ‘agitator’ (or agent) put forward from the Long Parliament’s New Model Army to communicate soldierly grievances, and larger concerns over England’s future; an intermediary between Oliver Cromwell and John Lilburne in the forging of a New Model and Leveller alliance directed against Charles I; an army officer and intelligencer for the English Republic or Commonwealth; and lastly, a conspirator against Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate. Scholars of England’s 1640s and 1650s have long commented on parts of Sexby’s story, but few scholars have examined his work from beginning to end as a career and considered its impact. This dissertation seeks to fill that important historiographical gap. The chapters of this study provide a narrative and an analysis of a career that is shown to have been consequential, inasmuch as Sexby was a figure behind some of the momentous events that occurred in England between the spring of 1647 and the spring of 1657. This study reveals that Sexby’s work helped to produce discussions in the New Model Army in the fall of 1647 of proposed changes to England’s constitution, the New Model and Leveller alliance of the fall of 1648 that was a step towards Charles’ execution and founding of the Commonwealth, and the second Protectorate parliament’s offer in the spring of 1657 to restore England’s monarchy with Oliver Cromwell as king. Three times in his career, Sexby’s work touched on the very constitution and future of England.
Upon a dangerous design: the public life of Edward Sexby, 1647-1657
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Lawson, Dean Ford; Mendle, Michael; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Edward Sexby was a figure active during England's Civil War and Interregnum (1642-1660). He is best remembered today for some populist assertions and heated exchanges with Oliver Cromwell during those discussions in parliament's New Model Army on the constitution and future of England known as the Putney Debates (1647), and as the most probable author of Killing Noe Murder (1657), a pamphlet providing learned justifications for Cromwell's assassination in response to his increasingly monarchical Protectorate (1653-1658). Upon a Dangerous Design contextualizes Killing Noe Murder by providing a clearer picture both of Sexby's public life and his relationship with Oliver Cromwell. It considers Sexby roles as a representative for the rank and file of the New Model Army, speaker in the Putney Debates, state servant for the English Republic or `Commonwealth' (1649-1653), and conspirator against the Protectorate and life of Oliver Cromwell. Though focused on a single, extraordinary figure, this study illuminates broader themes of interest to students of political culture. Sexby's public life demonstrates how social and educational barriers separating political groups were permeable and how radical thought and action were intertwined.

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of History by Author "Beeler, John F."

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