History electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of History. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item The Missouri constitutional controversy of 1845(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1936) Bradford, Priscilla"The frontier in America in the 1840’s was usually a stronghold of the principles of Jacksonian Democracy. The frontier demanded economic and social equality for all people, recognition of the common man, election of all officers and their direct responsibility to the people, and destruction of any Institution which seemed to represent privilege for one class against the frontier class. "It was a self-confident section, believing in its right to share in government, and troubled by no doubts of its capacity to rule." Missouri in the 1840's permits a study of the clash between the frontier and the older sections since the State had then both types of settlement. The constitutional controversy of the 1840’s has been used in this study as a basis for an analysis of the frontier— old section clash. The controversy revealed inconsistencies in the frontier position as well as careful observance of its principles, depending up on the extent to which observance of those principles was politically expedient. In the description of the convention there was no attempt to discuss, nor even to enumerate, all the measures considered by the delegates and written as a part of the new constitution. Only those measures were included which involved considerable controversy among the delegates and which contributed to the rejection of the new constitution."--Introduction.Item Witelonis perspectivae liber quartus Book IV of Witelo's Perspectiva : a critical edition and English translation with introduction, notes and commentary(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2003) Kelso, Carl J., Jr.; Smith, A. MarkThis work is a critical Latin edition-with an accompanying English translation, commentary and introduction-of Book IV of the Polish philosopher Witelo’s Perspectiva. It is part of a series of critical editions of all ten books of the treatise (four have already been completed). Written in the mid-1270’s by the Polish scholar Witelo, the Perspectiva was a valued university textbook throughout the later Middle Ages in the study of "liberal arts." It is both a compilation and culmination of ancient and medieval optical theories, such as those of Euclid, Ptolemy, Avicenna and Alhacen. In fact, Witelo’s chief sources in Book IV are Alhacen’s De aspectibus as well as Euclid’s Elements and Optics (Liber de visu). Unfortunately though, this brings up a basic problem with Book IV. As the introduction of this work will show, Witelo adds little to his sources in terms of original thought and thus brings into question his intellectual contribution to the Perspectivist tradition. For example, Book IV, at times, seems nothing more than a copy of portions of Alhacen’s De aspectibus. However, like the previously-edited books of the Perspectiva (i.e., Books 1-3 and 5), this one snows Witelo to be, if not a brilliant innovator, at least a gifted organizer of thought and more than a mere imitator. Book IV poses several intriguing ancillary problems as well. Take, for example, the opinion of such art historians as Erwin Panofsky and David Summers that Perspectivist thought and even Witelo’s own optical account-particularly his treatment of the twenty-two visible intentions in Book IV-was instrumental in the development of Renaissance aesthetics among the likes of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Leonardo da Vinci. After examining Ghiberti’s Commentario Terzo and Leonardo’s Treatise on Painting in the introduction of this work, it is clear that Book IV’s role was more inspirational than specific in the aesthetic writings of Ghiberti and Leonardo. For example, Leonardo cites Witelo by name several times, but the Perspectivist principles used by Leonardo (e.g., light and shadow in the technique of chiaroscuro) are often paraphrased and difficult to attribute to him or, for that matter, to other Perspectivist scholars. These are among the cardinal issues that provide the critical framework as well as the historical context for this edition. However, the text at issue has much broader significance and potential for greater applications. Because of its numerous theoretical and psychological implications, Book IV of Witelo’s Perspectiva crosses over several disciplines besides the history of science, including philosophy, psychology and art history (i.e., aesthetics). For this reason, among others, this critical edition should prove to be valuable to the humanities as a whole.Item A travel-worthy nation : travel, cultural liminality, and national consciousness in the United States, 1783-1848(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Pellerito, Jordan; Sexton, Jay; Dierksheide, Christa[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] This project contends that the distinct American national identity is rooted in the early travel phenomenon, an effect of the United States's postcolonial cultural dependence. As early as 1787, elite Americans identified the importance of cultural authority to political independence in the transatlantic world. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century Anglo-European culture evidenced that travel strengthened national legitimacy by displaying cultural distinction and unification. Thus, Americans sought to establish the United States as a travel-worthy country amidst other diplomatic, economic, and political developments. After American independence, British travelers visited the United States scouting for emigration because they perceived it as still within the imperial periphery. Independent Americans' economic dependence on the British Empire reinforced this notion and also enabled them to continue importing British culture as an early domestically unifying tool and transatlantic display of belonging. Further, the population's recent status as British subjects and predominantly Anglo ancestry comprised a familiar society for travelers, albeit under distinct political rule. British travelers initially found Americans familiar and used European comparisons to familiarize the United States as a country, while Americans embraced their travel literature as evidence of legitimacy and sources of information. At the turn of the century, geopolitical circumstances forced a renegotiation of the Anglo- American dynamic. Political and social unrest caused war in Europe, which led Britain to capitalize on American dependency and similarity for military support. British travel narratives added to outrage over the British Navy's impressment and American newspaper editors publicized the travelers' commentary as harmful to the United States's reputation. As such, they identified what the British got wrong about Americans but had little to offer in corrections because the national self-image rested on intangible political values. The War of 1812 then instigated a combination of developments ripe for claiming cultural authority in pursuit of a distinction. Reduced British presence in North America encouraged federal tours in the west in order to produce trustworthy--not British-- information, while postwar nationalism decidedly othered the British as opponents of republican government. Still, Americans fresh from a second war for independence had only their shared government and political abstractions to rally around. Newspapers, still suspicious of British travelers' influence, turned travel literature into a transatlantic discourse about the American identity, which included national space. Like the federal government's support for western tours, editors and contributors called upon Americans to travel their own country instead of relying on British information. The itinerary of the first American travel guide, published in 1821, consisted of northeastern sites. The region's picturesque scenery and existing attractions, like Niagara Falls and Ballston Springs, and developing urban spaces constituted a tour of American distinction and progress that Anglo- Europeans would still find comprehensible. The communication, market, and transportation revolutions expanded the possibilities of domestic travel, while westward expansion emphasized tensions around what domesticating new national space meant in such a geographically diverse country. The American self-image firmly rested on natural grandeur and progress but now had to consider how to effectively apply it across the expanding country. By the 1830s, a domestic American travel institution flourished. Publishers released new editions of guidebooks with updated sites and information, more Americans had the resources to travel, and there was more country to experience. Battle sites, waterfalls, native American encampments, caves, natural springs, asylums, and penitentiaries were among sites that travelers and guides made symbolic of America. However, growing sectional tensions manifested in domestic travel discourse. The northeast region inspired the national landscape and while southern states embraced the template in this period, they struggled to attract travelers and considered the issue within the broader sectional dynamic. Further, bringing new western states and territories into the nation maintained an eastern-western dichotomy as the northern-southern polarity grew. Despite this, American tourists abroad performed a unified national identity based on landscape to understand other spaces, as well as to avoid revealing their relation to slavery amongst European hosts. By the close of the 1840s, Americans possessed a concrete self-image and a fragile, though necessary national identity. A surge in European emigration, more territorial acquisitions, and intensifying debates about the future of slavery only added pressure. This project seeks to establish that postcolonial Americans recognized that Anglo-European national legitimacy required cultural distinction, and that travel was the means to achieve it. In order to become a travel-worthy nation, Americans had to also establish what distinguished their national space and represented them.Item Modernizing the Mountain South : the creation and early years of the Ozarks Regional Commission, 1965-1974(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Hutchison, Joseph; McFarland, VictorIn 1965, Congress passed the Public Works and Economic Development Act (PWEDA), which established the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and allowed for the creation of multi-state development regions and commissions to mirror the newly formed Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The first of these regions, officially established in March 1966, was the Ozarks Economic Development Region (OEDR), initially consisting of 125 counties in Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Several months later, the Ozarks Regional Commission officially organized. The commission's primary task was to spur modern industrial economic development in the OEDR and thus grow the region's economy through private investment, infrastructure, vocational-technical education, and PR. But after sixteen short years of existence, President Ronald Reagan dismantled the commission in 1981, and few fought for its continuance. The commission was plagued by issues from the very beginning. Internal dysfunction, lack of funds, and a lack of authority all hindered the ORC from achieving its full goals. Even when the commission did fund projects in the OEDR, money seldom went to the counties that needed it most. But this was a part of the federal government's larger strategy of economic growth that sought to build up certain areas with the hopes that their success would trickle outward into the surrounding areas. Ultimately, this strategy did little to help the OEDR's poorest areas. Thus, the downfall of the ORC provides a look at the failures of growth as a viable economic strategy, as well as the federal government's rocky relationship with a regional approach to development.Item Big Jesus : Christian tourism and far-right influence in the Arkansas Ozarks(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Cook, Kaylee; Wigger, JohnThe following contains the masters thesis, "Big Jesus: Christian Tourism and Far-Right Influence in the Arkansas Ozarks," by Kaylee Cook. The title refers to Christ of the Ozarks, an imposing, stark-white Jesus statue built atop Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Gerald L.K. Smith, after decades of fringe, far-right political activity, built it in 1966 before constructing additional, adjacent shrines, including a largescale production of the Passion Play, a religious performance depicting Jesus Christ's last week on earth. The first two chapters explore Eureka Springs' history, Smith's controversial career, his eventual delve into Christian tourism in the Ozarks region, and his complicated relationship with residents there. Smith's projects revitalized Eureka Springs' economy, but residents, including a growing influx of countercultural back-to-the-landers, faced the dilemma of being associated with the notorious extremist, anti-Semite, and political outcast. The town eventually displayed a seemingly contradictory embrace of Smith. This thesis explores how these outwardly progressive Americans decided to engage with, or at least tolerate, a far-right figure to stimulate their struggling local economy, and how Christians similarly overlooked or even endorsed his harmful beliefs to advance their religious cause. The concluding segments utilize Gerald L.K. Smith and Eureka Springs as a case study on compromised values in the search for economic or religious gain.