Journal Issue: University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal: Volume 2, Issue 1
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2018-30-04
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Fool's Gold: Comparing Two Political and Economic Crises in Brazilian History
Katan, Carrie
This 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.
Getting on the Map: American women and subversive cartographical practice
Westhoven, Kara
Approaches to cartographic history have largely centered around a Cartesian perspective of space and a masculine tradition that celebrated the domination and exploration of new lands. This paper, instead, assesses the ways in which women have successful inserted themselves into this cartographic practice. By examining American women’s use of maps, from tools for education and early nation building, to nineteenth-century biographical resources, and as promotional visuals of the suffrage movement, it becomes clear that women have utilized maps, geography, and cartographic vocabulary in unconventional ways throughout history. Maintaining critical perspective of feminist cartography also allows for identification of the oversight and exclusion of marginalized groups of women. This study of historic cartographic practices culminates in discussion of modern feminist geography and its efforts to represent women’s diverse relations to space. In tracing the historical patterns of women’s participation in cartography, as well as their contemporary implications, we find that women have subverted a traditional masculine narrative of space in a variety of ways.
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.
Control through Criminalization: The U.S. Legal System and the Construction of Criminal Aliens
Schnur, Kyran Doyle
Immigration laws and policy in the United States underwent a metamorphosis during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first. Beginning with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, immigration across the US-Mexico saw its first serious levels of restriction. Radical shifts in policy in the 1980s made documented immigration impossible for many, and these legal hurdles were compounded by border militarization in the 1990s. In the 21st century a new emphasis on criminalizing undocumented immigrants has developed. These dramatic shifts have all contributed to a modern policy that seeks to control undocumented immigrants rather than deter their immigration. Modern undocumented immigrants find that because of these policies they have no true path to citizenship due to their criminalization. They are also denied the protection of the law that protects them through the plenary power doctrine and the ascending scale of rights theory. These policies have failed to deter large scale immigration across the US-Mexico border, and indeed are not designed to do so. They have succeeded in forcing undocumented laborers into very weak negotiating positions that have enabled the growth of a highly exploitative US labor system, while also catering to xenophobic desires to prevent Latin American culture to enter the US mainstream.
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.