University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal
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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 includes 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.
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Publication “All Rights Are Held Subject to the Police Power”: The Rise and Fall of the Police Powers in American Constitutional LawThomas, AlbertCurrent libertarian understandings of individual rights are assumed by many to have been a fundamental part of our American culture since the nation’s founding. Yet our understanding of American individualism and its ideals is a modern one; though the Bill of Rights speaks of individual liberties which are to be protected against the federal government, local "police" powers took priority over individual rights through much of U.S. history. The police powers were predicated on a community-centered interpretation of liberty, which resembles the philosophy of Rousseau. In this thesis, I argue that 19th-century America exhibits a remarkably French understanding of religious freedom that has, over time, evolved into our present-day libertarian understanding of constitutional freedoms. Consequently, this seeks to alter our contemporary conceptualization of American legal historyPublication Jefferson's Equality InconsistenciesCorriea, ThomasThomas Jefferson’s own work, accounts from his family, and several sources concerning his relationship with notions of slavery and equality, show the inconsistencies in Jefferson’s ideas about equality. This can be solved by classifying them into two spheres: the political and personal. Although it was useful to classify his paradoxes into two spheres of thought, it became evident that the contradictions were not absolutely confined to them. Even within the spheres of the political and personal, Jefferson’s ideas and actions concerning equality were not consistent.Publication An Unending War: The Legacy of Agent OrangeBurrage-Goodwin, MirandaDuring 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.Publication A Comparison of Liberal and Marxist Revolutionary ThoughtStoughton, ChadLiberalism 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.Publication From Hellenism to Hitlerism: The Use of Sport as an Ethnic and Cultural IdentifierSchwartz, EthanFrom antiquity onwards, sports and competitive athletic events have been used as an area to implement othering strategies. Othering is the attempt to differentiate a societal group by some determining factor. Evidence of athletics being used as an othering medium, is prevalent throughout ancient Greece, ancient Rome, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and early 20th century Britain.Publication Fool's Gold: Comparing Two Political and Economic Crises in Brazilian HistoryKatan, CarrieThis paper’s goal is to compare and contrast the political and economic crisis that affected the Brazilian military dictatorship from the late 1970’s to mid 1980’s to the political and economic crisis currently affecting Brazil in order to get a better idea of what may be the political effects of the current crisis. This paper argues that both the current crisis and the one under the dictatorship stem from similar causes. It also argues that Brazilian democracy, much like the military dictatorship before it, risks being fatally undermined politically by an economic crisis it is responsible for.Publication The Power of Perception: How the perception of race impacted Irish and Italian immigrants in Boston from 1850-1910Weidner, GenevieveIn 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.Publication THE SAGA OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM: FAMILY AS MICROCOSMEsten, KathrineThe 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.Publication ENEMIES OR SAVIORS: THE COMPLICATIONS OF RESISTING REVOLUTIONChrzanowski, MichaelDomestic 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.Publication The Ramifications of Revolution: Haiti and the Influence of U.S. PolicyKeane, EmilyThe 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.