History Theses and Dissertations
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Item Claiming India: French scholars and the preoccupation with India during the nineteenth century(2009) Mohan, Jyoti; Herf, Jeffrey; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)My dissertation examines the image of India which was created by French academics during the nineteenth century. This image of India was distinct from the British image of India as a land of oppressed masses ruled by Oriental despots. The French image of India relied on spiritual and religious aspects of India, with particular emphasis on the antiquity and Aryan heritage of Indian culture. the difference in these images was largely due to the different intellectual and political traditions of Britain and France, but also reflected Anglo-French national and colonial rivalry as well as France's subordinate (subaltern) colonial position in India. I have looked at French writings on India from the religious writings of early modern missionaries to the secular writing of early twentieth century French academics. I have also examined the interest that French scholars in diverse intellectual fields like philology, anthropology, history and religion had in learning and writing about India during the nineteenth century. My conclusion is that French scholars at the end of the nineteenth century defined India primarily in terms of race, caste and Hinduism.Item Understanding the Class Enemy: Foreign Policy Expertise in East Germany(2009) Scala, Stephen J.; Herf, Jeffrey; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study makes use of reports, resolutions, analyses, and other internal documents as well as oral history interviews in order to detail the construction, functioning, and output of foreign policy expertise in the GDR. Subordination to the practical needs and political-ideological requirements of the leadership of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) represented the defining feature of East German foreign policy expertise. Yet its full politicization, which was essentially complete by the late 1960s as the SED succeeded in establishing a comprehensive system of foreign policy expertise tailored to meet its particular vision, entailed the maintenance of a degree of professional and intellectual autonomy--the GDR's Aussenpolitiker, or foreign policy professionals, were expected not only to comply with the political and ideological postulates espoused by the party leadership but also to deliver sound, specialist analysis of international relations. The persistent tension between these contrasting objectives was directly reflected in the output of East German experts, who in the conditions of diplomatic isolation prevailing until the early 1970s formulated a GDR-specific conception of international relations that fused clear identification of East Germany's realpolitical interests with the Marxist-Leninist notion of foreign policy as a form of class struggle. Following foreign policy normalization in the first half of the 1970s, however, increasing specialization and professionalization matched with a dramatic increase in East German experts' exposure to the capitalist West, including integration into a transnational network of foreign policy specialists, allowed the specialist element of expertise to gain preponderance over the dogmatic-ideological element. The great challenge to the international position of the Soviet Bloc and the GDR represented by the "second Cold War" in the first half of the 1980s then prompted East German experts to abandon simplistic adherence to Marxist-Leninist foreign policy dogma in favor of prioritization of the concrete realpolitical interests of the GDR. In the process, the GDR's experts formulated a body of non-dogmatic foreign policy thought that mirrored the Soviet New Thinking without taking on its comprehensiveness or overt rejection of inherited postulates.Item Civilizing The Empire: The League Of Nations and The Remaking Of British Imperialism, 1918-1926(2009) Sutcliffe, Rachel I.; Price, Richard N.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)After the First World War, Britain's economy and security depended on imperial cooperation for reconstruction. Yet, the war and the culture based on the League of Nations and its principles of self-determination and internationalism challenged efforts to strengthen imperial unity. Imperialists had to re-envision a more inclusive idea of empire in the midst of nationalist uprisings abroad and labor unrest at home. By analyzing circulated propaganda and speeches about the League, this thesis traces the efforts of British political thinkers who used the League's principles to manage the domestic discontent that threatened unity. It demonstrates how they tried to relate the League's principles to the ordinary Britisher's historical commitment to internationalism and imperial humanitarianism. Invoking social psychology, imperialists tapped into a universal interest in the League to re-legitimize the British Empire and establish a more enduring psychological imperial unity between the metropole and the empire after the war.Item The Intellectual Origins of Lin Yutang's Cultural Internationalism, 1928-1938(2009) Lee, Madalina Yuk-Ling; Gao, James Z; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of thesis: THE INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF LIN YUTANG'S CULTURAL INTERNATIONALISM, 1928-1938 Madalina Yuk-Ling Lee, Master of Arts, 2009 Thesis directed by: Professor James Z. Gao Department of History Cultural internationalism is international relations guided by intercultural affairs rather than by interstate affairs. From the outset of modern international history, two models of cultural internationalism have emerged--symmetrical and asymmetrical. The asymmetrical model--the one-way import of cultural ideas--was reserved for the non-Western world. China under the Chiang Kai-shek regime naturally falls under the asymmetrical model. The symmetrical model--the reciprocal exchange of cultural ideas--was reserved for the intra-Western world. My study shows how Lin Yutang, in 1935, defied the restrictions of the symmetrical model and implemented symmetrical cultural internationalism--reciprocal cultural exchange with the Western world--with incredible success. My study also contributes a new analytical framework for cross-cultural studies by analyzing the ideology and methodology of Lin Yutang's framework from the perspective of cultural internationalism. Moreover, this study traces the origin of Lin's framework to one of the New Culture paradigms conceived by Hu Shi and Zhou Zuoren.Item Bringing the Inside Out: Health, Personality, Politics, and the Tragedy of Lin Biao(2007-05-09) Luna, Adrian; Gao, James; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The following study is a close scrutiny of Lin Biao. This study will focus on Lin Biao's private life during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969). This study argues that Lin suffered from two distinct personality disorders: schizoid personality disorder and social anxiety disorder. After assessing the private behavior of Lin Biao and how the two disorders disabled Lin, this study will then move to illustrate the consequential enabling affect the two disorders had on Lin Biao's wife, Ye Qun. Thereafter, this study will reexamine several key cases that occurred immediately prior to and during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969) where Lin Biao is typically portrayed as being deeply involved. The conclusions are that Lin suffered from two distinct disorders, the disorders had an enabling affect on Ye Qun, and that Lin is a tragic figure, as he was placed in a political position that he could not appropriately administer under Chairman Mao.Item American Initiative in the Modern Catechetical Movement: From the Release of the Baltimore Catechism in 1885 to the Publication of the General Catechetical Directory in 1971(2006-12-11) Ingold, Matt D; Gilbert, James; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The twentieth century has been a dynamic era for Catholic catechesis in the United States. Since the Protestant Reformation, catechesis had revolved around the Catechism as the primary text and memorization as the fundamental method for imparting Christian doctrine. In the late nineteenth century, progressive American catechists, both lay and religious, endeavored to introduce modern pedagogical standards to the realm of Catholic religious education. Traditional historiography credits this transition to European initiatives. Assessing the evolution of American catechesis through modern catechetical programs and textbooks developed between 1885 and 1971, however, demonstrates that American initiative in modernizing catechesis was ongoing during the twentieth century in the United States. Pedagogical advances in religious education were taking place mainly at the classroom level by the ingenuity of progressive catechists. This thesis endeavors to illustrate the American contribution to the modernization of Catholic religious education in the United States.Item "The Swinging Door": U.S. National Identity and the Making of the Mexican Guestworker, 1900 - 1935(2006-11-21) Noel, Linda Carol; Gerstle, Gary; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines U.S. national identity in the first third of the twentieth century. During this period, heated discussions ensued throughout the country regarding the extent to which the door of American society should be open to people of Mexican descent. Several major events brought this issue to the foreground: the proposed statehood of Arizona and New Mexico in the early twentieth century, the increase in Mexican immigration after World War I, and the repatriation of Mexican immigrants in the 1930s. The "Swinging Door" explores the competing perspectives regarding the inclusion or exclusion of people of Mexican descent embedded within each of these disputes. This dissertation argues that four strategies evolved for dealing with newcomers of Mexican descent: assimilation, pluralism, exclusion, and marginalization. Two strategies, assimilation and pluralism, permitted people of Mexican descent to belong to the nation so long as they either conformed to an Anglo American identity or proclaimed a Spanish American one rooted in a European heritage, whiteness, and a certain class standing. Exclusion denied entry into the U.S., or in the case of those already there, no role in society. Marginalization, which became the predominant strategy by the 1930s, allowed people of Mexican descent to remain physically within the country so long as they stayed only temporarily or agreed to accept a subordinate status as second-class Americans. The prevailing view changed depending on the economic and political power of people of Mexican descent, their desire to incorporate as Americans, and the demand for their labor or land by other Americans. One of the most significant findings of this project is that as the marginalization strategy gained adherents, the image of Mexican immigrants as temporary workers or "guestworkers" became the primary way in which Americans, Mexicans, and the immigrants themselves regarded the newcomers from Mexico. Despite the fact that this image was often false, the notion of Mexicans as only temporarily in the U.S. proved too seductive for the many divergent voices to resist as this image theoretically allowed Mexicans to enter the country and to provide their labor without threatening extant notions of American identity.Item The Shadow of the Habsburgs: Memory and National Identity in Austrian Politics and Education, 1918-1955(2006-06-01) Campbell, Douglas Patrick; Rozenblit, Marsha; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines how the people of Austria portrayed their past as part of the centuries-old, multinational Habsburg Monarchy in order to conduct a public debate about what it meant to be an "Austrian" during a tumultuous era in Europe's history. As its main sources, It draws upon the public writings of Austrian politicians and intellectuals, as well as on educational laws, curricula and history textbooks used by the different Austrian governments of the era in order to describe how Austrian leaders portrayed Austria's past in an attempt to define its national future, even as Austrian schools tried to disseminate those national and historical ideals to the next generation of Austrian citizens in a practical sense. The first section describes how the leaders of the Austrian First Republic saw Austria's newfound independence after 1918 as a clean break with its Habsburg past, and consequently pursued a union with Germany which was frustrated by the political interests of the victors of World War I. The second section details the rise of an "Austro-fascist" dictatorship in Austria during the mid-1930s which promoted an Austrian patriotism grounded in a positive portrayal of the Habsburg Monarchy in order to remain independent from Nazi Germany. The third section examines Austria's forcible incorporation into the Nazi German state, and the effort by the Third Reich to completely eradicate the existence of a distinctive Austrian identity by casting the Habsburg era in a negative light. The final section describes the rebirth of an independent Austrian state at the insistence of the Allied powers after World War II, and the manner in which the leaders of the Austrian Second Republic used memories of the Habsburg Past in order to portray Austrians as the victims of foreign German aggression who bore no responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich. This study ultimately shows that national identity was variable in post-Habsburg Austria, and that Austrian leaders and educators were able to construct narratives regarding their past which at times argued both for and against Austrian Germanness in response to the changing demands of the European balance of power.Item Our Little Country: National Identities of Alsatian Jewry Between the Two World Wars(2006-05-07) Schachter, Ruth Beryl; Rozenblit, Marsha; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis looks at the Jewish community of Alsace and Lorraine between 1918 and 1940 and its attitudes towards France and Germany. The paper argues that while Jews living in Alsace and Lorraine by and large expressed political loyalty to France, they nevertheless expressed a unique cultural identity that resulted from their particular position of living in a contested borderland. The Jews of Alsace and Lorraine spoke both French and German in their daily lives, remained religiously and culturally conservative, and welcomed in refugees from Eastern Europe and Nazi Germany during the interwar period without concern about social or political repercussions. Alsatian Jews clearly manifested pro-French political tendencies, however unlike their fellow Jews in France, Jews in Alsace and Lorraine remained distanced from the ideological connotations of being French citizens. Thus, this thesis illustrates how political loyalty, and religious and cultural identities manifested themselves differently depending on specific locations.Item Engineering Consent: Peenemuende, National Socialism, and the V-2 Missile, 1924-1945(2005-09-02) Petersen, Michael Brian; Herf, Jeffrey; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: ENGINEERING CONSENT: PEENEMUENDE, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, AND THE V-2 MISSILE, 1924-1945 Michael Brian Petersen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Jeffrey Herf Department of History This dissertation is the story of the German scientists and engineers who developed, tested, and produced the V-2 missile, the world's first liquid-fueled ballistic missile. It examines the social, political, and cultural roots of the program in the Weimar Republic, the professional world of the Peenemünde missile base, and the results of the specialists' decision to use concentration camp slave labor to produce the missile. Previous studies of this subject have been the domain of either of sensationalistic journalists or the unabashed admirers of the German missile pioneers. Only rarely have historians ventured into this area of inquiry, fruitfully examining the history of the German missile program from the top down while noting its administrative battles and technical development. However, this work has been done at the expense of a detailed examination of the mid and lower-level employees who formed the backbone of the research and production effort. This work addresses that shortcoming by investigating the daily lives of these employees and the social, cultural, and political environment in which they existed. It focuses on the key questions of dedication, motivation, and criminality in the Nazi regime by asking "How did Nazi authorities in charge of the missile program enlist the support of their employees in their effort?" "How did their work translate into political consent for the regime?" "How did these employees come to view slave labor as a viable option for completing their work?" This study is informed by traditions in European intellectual and social history while borrowing from different methods of sociology and anthropology. I argue that a web of professional ambition, internal dynamics, military pressure, and fear coalesced in this project. The interaction of these forces made the rapid development of the V-2 possible, but also contributed to an environment in which terrible crimes could be committed against concentration camp prisoners in the name of defending National Socialist Germany.