University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

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<h2> Submission Guidelines</h2> <p>We accept submissions in three categories: essays or book reviews based on secondary sources, essays based on primary sources, and miscellaneous historical reflections. Essay submissions must be historical, academic pieces with a clear thesis, analysis and support. But for historical reflections, we also encourage students to submit reflective writing pieces on the study of history, or what history means to them. This section of the journal is particularly open-ended to students. You may submit pieces that were assigned as part of coursework or essays done independently if they fit the academic criteria.</p> <h2></h2> <h2></h2> <h2>Review Process</h2> <p> Upon receiving each submission, the editorial board will decide on the appropriateness of the piece for the journal and will then solicit feedback from an outside reviewer. The author’s name and identifying information will be removed from the submission to allow the reviewer to concentrate only on the content. Based upon the feedback from the outside reviewer, whose identifying information will remain unknown to the author, the editorial board will decide whether to publish the piece. We will then send a notification to the author, indicating that their article will 1) be published as is; 2) require minor revisions; 3) require major revisions; 4) not be published in the journal at this time.</p>
<p>Founded in 2016 by members of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, the UMass History Journal is devoted to showcasing the diverse historical work of undergraduate students. This publication will include essays, book reviews, and historical reflections written either within or outside the framework of undergraduate courses. Authors may be history majors, minors, or non-majors who have interests in the study of history. </p>
<h2>Submission Checklist</h2> <p></p> <p>1) All text, including headings, sub-headings, notes, and references, is set in a standard 12-point type, such as Times or Times New Roman, and the text is double-spaced with a 1-inch margin on all sides.</p> <p>2) The piece should conform to proper, standard English grammar as described in <em>Elements of Style</em></p> <p>3) References/citations should conform to <em>The Chicago Manual of Style</em></p> <p>3) The piece is no longer than 7,000 words with footnotes and references included.</p> <p>4) The abstract is no more than 150 words.</p> <p>5) There are no URLs located in the main text when used in a bibliographical sense (although names such as Amazon.com are acceptable). URLs should be relocated to endnotes or the reference list.</p> <p>6) Manuscript has been copyedited by the author.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <h2>Style Points and Mechanics</h2> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Quotation Marks</p> <p></p> <p>Double quotation marks should be used for in-text quotations, direct speech, and publication titles, and also for constructed terms or concepts, for ironic effect, or for authorial commentary. In all cases, a period or comma precedes the closing double quotation mark. Citations and Bibliography</p> <p>Notes</p> <p>Notes should be presented as footnotes and full bibliographic information should appear at first citation. Citations should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style citation system. Please consult the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide for reference. Any acknowledgments should be placed as an unnumbered note before the Notes section.</p> <p>Note reference superscripts should be in Arabic numerals (1,2,3 etc.) not Roman numerals.</p> <p>URLs should not be located in the main text when used in a bibliographical sense. URLs should be relocated to endnotes or the reference list.</p> <p>Please refer to the Purdue Online Writing Lab's guide to the Chicago Manual of Style for examples and detailed descriptions. See also this list of examples prepared by the UMass History Journal.</p>

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    An Unending War: The Legacy of Agent Orange
    Burrage-Goodwin, Miranda
    During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), the United States military dropped nineteen-million gallons of a chemical defoliant commonly known as Agent Orange. In the direct aftermath of this conflict, many U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers, civilians, and related progeny experienced severe and often life threatening diseases and birth defects. This paper seeks to establish a more concrete link between the chemical defoliants and these diseases. Despite the overwhelming evidence, many scholars and scientists are reluctant to acknowledge this connection. In the years following the Vietnam War, the abortion rate in Vietnam saw a drastic increase. This study provides evidence for causation, not just correlation, between chemical warfare and the resulting spike in pregnancy termination due to developmental defects. In addition, the paper highlights concentrated efforts to improve widespread knowledge about the physical and environmental effects of chemical warfare, as well as the ways the United States and Vietnam have addressed the issue in the forty years since the end of the war.
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    A Comparison of Liberal and Marxist Revolutionary Thought
    Stoughton, Chad
    Liberalism and Marxism are two of the most influential ideologies of the modern era. Generally analyzed in the context of their criticisms of one another, they are rarely examined through the lens of revolutionary thought and action. Both ideologies have a clear interpretation of revolution, and both are fundamentally revolutionary, both in origin and in outlook. This paper will examine how liberal and Marxist ideology shaped how revolution was understood by their respective adherents, and how that understanding contributed to the success or failure of their revolutionary movements to create lasting polities that adhered to their ideological principles.
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    The Power of Perception: How the perception of race impacted Irish and Italian immigrants in Boston from 1850-1910
    Weidner, Genevieve
    In the 1850s, a large population of Irish immigrants came to Boston. In the 1880s, as Boston began to industrialize, the promise of jobs encouraged many more groups of immigrants to move to Boston. The Italians and more Irish came to Boston, but because the Irish had established communities and job connections in the city, it was easier for the Irish immigrants to have better jobs and move into positions of power. Since the Italian immigrants came later than the Irish, the gatekeepers of Boston largely defined that their ethnicity meant. By referencing secondary sources on the topic of race and ethnicity, and by using primary sources from the period on the experience of the Irish and Italian immigrants, this paper explores the difference between race and ethnicity, and how that impacted the experience of different groups as they settled into Boston.
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    THE SAGA OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM: FAMILY AS MICROCOSM
    Esten, Kathrine
    The story of American Catholicism since the 19th century is one of social isolation, family devotion, and strict religious doctrine. In contrast, this story is also one of progressive development, Americanization, and the creation of a unique American Catholic identity, even if unintended by the Church. Combining a historical analysis of Catholic movements in the 19th and 20th centuries for Catholic immigrants and their descendants in the Northeastern United States with personal interviews of late 20th century members of my own Catholic family, I argue that the decreasing reliance of later generations of Catholics on Church authority, coupled with friction between changing American values and rigid Catholic beliefs, has made Catholicism substantially a matter of individual choice.
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    ENEMIES OR SAVIORS: THE COMPLICATIONS OF RESISTING REVOLUTION
    Chrzanowski, Michael
    Domestic opposition to the government in Paris was a constant throughout theFrench Revolution. Although the revolutionary government repressed each instance of unrest,the various opposition movements’ motivations and goals provide a lens through which wecan re-evaluate the values of liberty, equality, and justice that revolutionaries articulated.One domestic opposition movement, the Federalist Revolt of 1793, had major significance for the course of the Revolution. The Federalist Revolt raised questions about fundamental aspects of the Revolution itself: who were the sovereign people? Who claimed to represent the people?Was violence integral to claiming sovereignty? I explore a number of aspects of the FederalistRevolt. Why did the revolt occur? Why did its participants arm themselves? Who were the participants and detractors of the Federalist Revolt? What was the impact of the Federalist Revolt on the policies and practices of the National Convention? How did signs of the Terror reveal themselves in debates of sovereignty and acts of repression during the periods of civil unrest?Distinct regional identities and the diverse effects of revolutionary policy on these regions was the essence of the tension between Paris and the provinces. Additionally, I challenge the past historiography on the Federalist Revolt and argue that armed resistance to perceived oppressive government had always been present in the politics of France. The Federalist Revolt was an ideological struggle between various levels of government authority. Historians in the past by and large accepted the viewpoint of the central government that the Federalist Revolt was a counter-revolutionary movement. Writers such as Paul Frolich, who defended the violent actions of the Jacobin leaders preceding the Terror, and historians like Albert Mathiez (Le Bolchevisme et le Jacobinisme (1920),La Révolution Française (1924)), Jacques Godechot (La grande nation: l'expansion révolutionnaire de la France dans le monde de 1789 à 1799 (1956) La contre-révolution: doctrine et action, 1789-1804 (1961) La pensée révolutionnaire en France et en Europe, 1780-1799 (1963)) and Georges Lefebvre (Classes and Class Struggles during the French Revolution (1953), The Parisian Sans-Culottes andthe French Revolution (1964),The Sans Culottes: the Popular Movement andRevolutionary Government (1972),The French Revolution 1787-1799 (1975), A Short History of theFrench Revolution (1977)), renowned yet somewhat controversial, taking hardline marxist interpretations on the Revolution, formed the general basis of thought around the narrative of counter-revolution. This paper falls in line with Suzanne Desan’s understanding of the Federalists, who said “the leaders of the Federalist Revolt were not counterrevolutionaries. They were not Royalists. They were revolutionaries.” The interests of the Federalist Revolt were closely aligned with the early revolutionary years, focused on claiming sovereignty for the nation to end the injustices of the Old Regime, rather than embracing a grand revolutionary vision.
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    The Ramifications of Revolution: Haiti and the Influence of U.S. Policy
    Keane, Emily
    The Haitian Revolution, lasting from 1791 to 1804, was the first successful slave-led insurrection against France in Saint-Domingue. Influenced by United States foreign policy, the fight to establish a free nation led the U.S. to question future economic and diplomatic relationships with an independent Haiti. Through excerpts from various sources, including a Pennsylvania Gazette article outlining violence in Saint-Domingue, the 1793 French Emancipation Decree and Laurent Dubois’ historical narrative, this essay explores the precarious relationship between the U.S. and Haiti during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The vehement and successful rejection of foreign rule by an enslaved population swayed the American government to attempt to prevent a similar uprising within the states. The U.S. denial to recognize Haitian independence exemplifies the notion that the U.S. government denied Black autonomy to preserve its economy and power structures.
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    THE TRANSMUTATION OF THE DRAUGR: CHRISTIANIZING ICELANDIC MYTHOLOGY
    Esten, Kathrine
    If the dead will not stay dead, what can you count on? The better question may be: Why aren’t the dead staying dead? In this essay, I examine the draugr (pl. draugar), an undead creature of pagan Norse origin, as described before and after the adoption of Christianity in Iceland in 1000 CE. Featured prominently in pre-conversion folklore, the draugr often symbolized Icelandic fears of isolation, starvation, and darkness. However, The Sagas of Icelanders, written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, features a reimagined draugr. Intentionally, post-conversion draugar return from the dead in accordance with Catholic practice or lack thereof. The transmutation of the pagan draugr into a religious symbol took place to benefit ecclesiastical authority. Combining psychological and literary analysis of the draugr with historic developments in Iceland and the Catholic Church, I argue that Christian authors manipulated mythology to reaffirm Church authority in a troubled political time.
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    THE THEATRICS OF PLACE: 18TH C. FANTASY AND GEORGE III AT THE GREAT PAGODA AT KEW
    Fernacz, Nicholas P.
    This paper examines two sites of eighteenth-century architecture, The Great Pagoda in London’s Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, commissioned for King George III, and the Qianlong Emperor’s Western Palace complex at Yuanming Yuan 圆明园 in Beijing. By looking at architecture that transports the beholder through nonnative modeling, this paper investigates the virtual realities constructed in the foreign imagination. Methodologically based upon the architect’s, Sir William Chambers, own architectural treatises (On the Art of Laying out Gardens Among the Chinese and Dissertation on Oriental Gardening), and Jonathan Hay’s book Sensuous Surfaces: the Decorative Object in Early Modern China, this paper finds that The Great Pagoda intended to craft an entirely Sinicized experience for the King in which the sights, sounds, smells, and especially the views of Chinese gardens were replicated to engender the site as a theatrical set. Likewise, the Qianlong Emperor could personify his British equivalent through European modes of viewing, artificially ruling over a European city, particularly at Hudong xianfahua 湖东线法 画 (Perspective Painting East of the Lake), a series of stage flats painted in trompe l’oeil to conjure a convincing street view. The findings of this paper complicate the traditional scholarly narrative which tends to simplify the colonizer/colonized relationship, restoring agency to China’s fetishistic gaze towards the West. King George III collected nonnative architecture, using structures as conduits for personal fetishization and diplomatic strategizing through a performance within the choreography of a Chinese garden space. Concurrently, the Qianlong Emperor held a mutually exotic gaze towards Europe, particularly at the site of pictorial and scopic techniques allowing him to revel in his comprehension of such nonnative visual tricks as trompe l’oeil. This mutual understanding of elite garden spaces obviates the need to hierarchically define Great Britain and China’s relationship, but instead insists upon their equivalency in navigating the ‘other.’
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    From The Meanest Man to King Charles I: The King’s Role in the Trial of King Charles I
    Lerer, Benjamin
    The House of Commons convened the High Court of Justice to try King Charles I for various high crimes and treason. The High Court of Justice found King Charles I guilty. But the High Court of Justice was illegitimate and could not try the meanest man in England. Ben Lerer analyzes civil lawyer Sir Edmund Pierce’s views on the King’s role, the views on the King’s role expressed by acts of the House of Commons, and the views on the King’s role expressed by the King himself, the crowd, and the High Court of Justice.