History Dissertations

China after the Sino-Soviet split: Maoist politics, global narratives, and the imagination of the world

Zachary A. Scarlett — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:38:51 PDT

This dissertation examines the global dimensions of politics and culture in the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1962 to 1972. Beginning in 1962, the PRC articulated a socialist modernity that positioned Chinese politics as a model for revolutionary struggle around the world. The CCP used global symbols and global events to shape this new socialist modernity and to inform everyday politics. Global symbols were conveyed through rhetoric, propaganda, political speeches, mass meetings, rallies, and Chinese and student newspapers. The Chinese Communist Party furthermore assiduously recorded every anecdote, testimonial, or story that supposedly demonstrated China's importance around the world. These...

Beyond liberation: students, space, and the state in East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1952-1990

Samantha M.R. Christiansen — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:54:48 PST

This dissertation examines the history of East Pakistan/Bangladesh's student movements in the postcolonial period. The principal argument is that the major student mobilizations of Dhaka University are evidence of an active student engagement with shared symbols and rituals across time and that the campus space itself has served as the linchpin of this movement culture. The category of "student" developed into a distinct political class that was deeply tied to a concept of local place in the campus; however, the idea of "student" as a collective identity also provided a means of ideological engagement with a globally imagined community of...

Sickness, scoundrels and saints: Tanta in the world and the world in Tanta 1856-1907

Stephanie Anne Boyle — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:36:14 PST

My dissertation is an investigation of the Egyptian Delta city of Tanta during its period of rapid urbanization, modernization and development (1856-1907). It determines that in an effort to modernize Tanta—along with Cairo and Alexandria—the Cairo-based state authorities exponentially increased Tanta's bureaucracy and physically transformed Tanta through public work and building projects. Local elites collaborated in this endeavor by joining the new administrative and judicial bureaucracies. Reforms to institutions that focused on physical and spiritual health (new forms of Sunni orthodoxy) became a vehicle to incorporate the governed classes into the project. Specifically, this project underlines the idea that the...

In search of a socialist modernity: the Chinese introduction of Soviet culture

Yan Li — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:35:30 PST

The first decade of communist rule in China featured the widespread introduction of Soviet culture that transformed the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens. The Chinese Communist Party familiarized the populace with a spectrum of Soviet cultural forms, such as architecture, fashion, film, and literature, through every possible channel with the intention of cementing their hold on power and pushing a program of international socialist modernization. However, while in general the popularization of Soviet culture generally achieved anticipated results, at times mass interpretation of Soviet cultural products differed considerably from the intentions of the new regime. The results of this decade-long...

Energy, mining, and the commercial success of the Newcomen "steam" engine

John Paul Murphy — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:44:07 PST

This dissertation is about energy; specifically how prime movers changed at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. These power needs are explored via the history of the Newcomen atmospheric engine, as it was used in the 18th century to drive pumps in flooded mines. This approach examines society as an energy-converting phenomenon, and uses the concept of an energy rent.

The dissertation seeks to reach past the 19th century's "high-pressure historiography" of the first engines powered by fire; instead, it traces the actual low-pressure atmospheric technology of the first commercially successful engines, and the surprising, rather than inevitable, transformation they...

Argentine intellectuals as harbingers of modernity: the democratization projects of Marcos Aguinis

Dalia Wassner — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:52:20 PDT

Marcos Aguinis (b. 1935) is an Argentine public intellectual dedicated to bringing democracy to his country by creating a participatory and inclusive public sphere. This dissertation traces the regional and global intellectual traditions upon which Aguinis draws and situates his contemporary contributions within their context. An integrated analysis of Aguinis's civic work as Minister of Culture and of his literary oeuvre of novels, essays, and dialogues, this study elucidates the ideological conversations both "vertical" (through time) and "horizontal" (across geographic boundaries) in which Aguinis participates as he envisions his nation's modernization. Aguinis's overarching mission is to heal a post-colonial Argentina...

Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski and his unique mission: a juxtaposition of the Post-Cold War outlooks

Dariusz G. Jonczyk — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 06:55:19 PST

The spy case of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski, a Polish Army officer who collaborated with the CIA between 1972 and 1981, has generated passionate debate in the post Cold War geopolitical transition in the world after the fall of Communism. Perceived as a traitor of his nation by his opponents and a hero of the Cold War era by his enthusiasts, Kuklinski accomplished his lonely mission by channeling some 35 thousand top secret documents in both Polish and Russian to the agency. Unlikely fully explored by the American strategists, the files nonetheless disclosed some important technical, operational, and strategic plans of...

Crossing the pond : jazz, race, and gender in interwar Paris

Rachel Anne Gillett — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:11:43 PDT

Between 1920 and 1939 the nightclubs of Montmartre became a venue where different nationalities came into contact, danced, talked, and took advantage of the freedom to cross the color line that Paris and the "color-blind" French audience seemed to offer. The fascination for black performers known as the tumulte noir provided the occasion for hundreds of jazz and blues performers to migrate to Paris in these years. French society was inundated with the sounds of jazz and also with images and stereotypes of jazz performers that often contained primitivist, exotic and sexualized associations. The popularity of jazz and its characterization...

"Discoveries are not to be called conquests" : narrative, empire, and the ambiguity of conquest in Spain's American empire

Joshua Weiner Ph. D. — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:11:41 PDT

This dissertation focuses on the intellectual issues that surround the most dramatic form of human encounter: that of imperial conquest. By examining the modes of thought available to conquering societies I examine the way in which specific narrative traditions influence the process of justification and legitimization of expansion.

Based on my analysis of a specific set of narratives created by Spanish in the Americas, a wide variety of published primary resources, and research in Spanish archives, I look into the narrative traditions of a number of societies in history, assess the construction of the reconquista narrative in Spain, and then...

From criminals to caretakers : the Salvation Army in India, 1882-1914

Emily A. Berry — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:20:20 PST

The British Empire of the late-nineteenth century represents the pinnacle of European imperialism. The nature of British colonialism was complicated, however, and nowhere more so than in India, England's most prized colony. My dissertation examines the role of Protestant missionaries within this British imperial endeavor. Through a case study of the Salvation Army's work in India, I illustrate the complexity of the relationship between missionaries and the colonial government. I address connections between the metropole and the peripheries of the Empire, while exploring the nature and influence of Protestant Christianity both at home and abroad. In England as well as...