University of Central Oklahoma

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Founded in 1890 as one of the state's first institutions of higher learning, the University of Central Oklahoma exists to help students learn by providing transformative education experiences to students so that they may become productive, creative, ethical, and engaged citizens and leaders serving our global community.

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Now showing 1 - 12 of 12

Open Access
Combat, supply, and the influence of logistics during the Civil War in Indian Territory.
(2008) Harris, Jason T.; Adamiak, Stanley; Hurt, Douglas; Pool, Carolyn
The purpose of this study is to broaden the historical knowledge of the war in Indian Territory by looking at the relationship between combat, supply, and logistics and the progression of warfare in the Territory as a result ... . It chronicles the events in the Civil War in Indian Territory from the withdrawal of federal troops in 1861 through the end of hostilities in 1865.
Open Access
Funding the Cold War University: science, curriculum reform, and soft power in US research universities, 1940s-1960s
(2022) Holley-Griffith, Bethany; Magnusson, Andrew; Churchill, Lindsey Blake; Adamiak, Stanley
Open Access
Japanese nationalism: a transnational case study of Pan-Asianism in China and Vietnam, 1931-1945
(2019) Chambers, Travis; Li, Xiaobing, 1954-; Goulding, Marc; Adamiak, Stanley
After Japan pragmatized bushido and formed a modernized nation-state in the late nineteenth century, it extended that same methodology to its East Asian neighbors, China and Vietnam. Despite state-sponsored bushido's success at home and cultural similarities with Asian peoples abroad, Japanese nation-state building failed in China and Vietnam. Was Pan-Asianism fully implemented as designed by Japanese architects? What were the repercussions of Pan-Asianism on nationalist movements in East Asia? Previous scholarship addressed these questions unfairly and critiqued Chinese and Vietnamese nationalists, who accepted Japanese aid, as collaborators or traitors. Additionally, historiography abruptly demarked Pan-Asianism's demise at Japan's surrender in 1945. Japanese nationalism and state-building succeeded in Japan but when applied transnationally from 1931-1945 and despite social, linguistic, and cultural similarities, Pan-Asianism failed in China and Vietnam due to differing historical experiences. This is an intellectual history that comparatively analyzes rhetorical, cultural, political, educational, economic, and military exchange between Japan, China, and Vietnam. Furthermore, it is a new interpretation of Pan-Asian exchange during World War Two that utilizes a transnational lens. It relies on primary sources from Japan, China, Vietnam, Great Britain, France, the United States, and numerous other countries involved from 1931-1945. The author does not simply employ sources from various countries but explains scholarly interchange and the formation of national narratives within East Asia. Moreover, the author references secondary sources from previous scholarship to establish a background and contribute a more rounded historical narrative. The author illustrates that despite cultural, linguistic, and social similarities between Japan, China, and Vietnam, Pan-Asianism was not effectively transplanted due to differing historical circumstances. The Japanese nation formed as a military culture and remained isolated from the seventeenth to nineteenth century. Japanese national-formation was juxtaposed to that of China and Vietnam, both of which were subjected to external incursions, consisted of various ethnic groups, and had different dialects. Despite Japan's failure in implementing Pan-Asianism directly, aspects of it survived World War Two into the Cold War in the form of post-colonial, nationalist movements in East Asia. This significantly contributes to historiography as a new, comparative study and intellectual history through a transnational lens.
Open Access
Jesse James in public memory : the Robin Hood myth, museum interpretation and newspaper analysis of Missouri's famous outlaw.
(2008) Coon, Stephanie A.; Loughlin, Patricia; Adamiak, Stanley; Pool, Carolyn
This study focuses on the importance of understanding myths and interpretive material to gauge memory of historical criminals. Each chapter represents an aspect of popular culture that supplements the traditional historical knowledge of Jesse James.
Open Access
Medical officers of health and public health reform in Victorian England
(2022) Cruzan, Tristan; Springer, Michael; Adamiak, Stanley; Lacher, Katrina
Open Access
Men are cheaper than gold : English sailors and their irreligiousness towards society, 1560-1642
(2015) Savill, Dennis Ray; Adamiak, Stanley; Sheetz-Nguyen, Jessica A.; Springer, Michael S.
The English common sailor rose from his humble beginnings to the pinnacle of renown and fame during the repulsion of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Afterwards, with the rise of the privateer and the merchant ships, the Royal Navy found it difficult to retain quality mariners. Following many decades of deriding and dehumanizing the tar, the men engendered and reproduced an attitude of irreligiousness towards religion in general and Christianity in particular, mocking the officers who represented the society, which denigrated them. This paper will explore the practices and transmission types of this irreligiousness and the way the state attempted to utilize the seamen to extend their power while simultaneously minimizing their importance to society. Using mainly sailor memoirs or pamphlets from the period, the paper also examines how contemporary historians and those of successive generations viewed the irreligiousness of the seamen. In the mid-sixteenth century, authorities initiated intensive regulations and discipline, which historians later labeled as Biopower, in shaping and controlling the behavior of the British sailor for the good of the state, which in turn led the men to exhibit agency, in the forms of irreligiousness, employment choice, and their very lifestyle, in resisting this drive to become high society's view of British. In due course at the beginning of it all, the hypocrisy of the established society juxtaposed against the sailor who enjoyed life to the fullest in an attempt to handle the stresses of this never before seen deep sea lengthy voyages demonstrates two differing tales of this early age of sail for the English. One story depicts the dashing officer rallying men onward to capture the prize or prevail against the raging storm, afterwards asking all to bow their heads as they thanked God for their deliverance. This same yarn shows the exasperated lieutenant, trudging from tavern to brothel, searching for the able but alcoholic tar and beseeching him to sign on for a voyage, for his own good, so he could attain some money for himself and perhaps his future. The other tale relates overbearing officers, usually hapless but mostly cruel, looking for their own gain on the backs of sailors and slaves, all the while committing the same kinds of acts he admonished the men for doing. The truth, as anyone looking back over so many centuries and relying on manuscripts and journals can detect, most likely resides somewhere in the middle but probably nearer to the cruel officer theme. British society did engage in applying Biopower to controlling the sailors and that the seamen used agency in their irreligiousness to fight back. This paper shines a light on an aspect of mariner agency that has been often overlooked. Their very lifestyles and indifference to prudent living such as savings, church-going, and other forms of high society shows they fought against the system which sought to control them with their very lives and minds.
Open Access
Revolution, imperialism, and the Hawaiian monarchy : reconsidering American-Hawaiian affairs during the late nineteenth century.
(2014) Paige, Forrest W. L.; Adamiak, Stanley; Sheetz-Nguyen, Jessica A.; Springer, Michael S.
After 100 years, the Hawaiian kingdom's collapse continues to garner not only academic debate, but also long-standing hostilities rooted in deep-seated sentiments of Pacific Nativism and American Nationalism. From this enduring conflict, two historical interpretations have developed that reflect the polarized views of nineteenth century Western capitalists and the modern Native Hawaiians. Although antagonistic in nature, their narratives reject accepted historical methods in favor of promoting their specific social, religious, and political principles. Using government documents, newspaper and journal articles, as well as the manuscripts of key historical agents, the thesis reexamines the events corresponding to the cessation of Hawaii's monarchy and its sovereignty five years later. Contrary to the competing primary historical narratives, it examines the often-ignored complex social, political, and economic factors that created a tempestuous, but economically profitable, relationship between the kingdom's privileged native class and the elite foreign subjects. The evidence indicates the 1893 coup d'e?ütat resulted from multiple domestic conflicts, independent of American foreign policies, but garnered international attention when a rogue US diplomat aided the Caucasian insurgents. Furthermore, the material suggests American imperialists in 1898, not a policy of imperialism, used their country's increased nationalism during the Spanish-American War to appropriate the Hawaiian Islands as a military asset. The true victim, as with most global historical narratives, remained the islands' neglected commoners caught in the drive to elevate financial standings.
Open Access
Surgeons of the severed limb: Confederate military medicine in Arkansas, 1863-1865
(2014) Kellum, Rachel K.; Adamiak, Stanley; Brown, Kenny L.; Janzen, Mark
By bridging two frequently overlooked subjects in Civil War historiography, medicine and the conflict in the West, this work provides a novel and important perspective on the war in the Trans-Mississippi by examining the Confederate surgeons of Arkansas, their place within the army, their treatment of the wounded, their microbial foes, and their efforts to combat these enemies, particularly after the loss of the Mississippi River. Rebel surgeons in Arkansas faced extreme hardships in their attempts to care for the sick and wounded, even more so than their counterparts east of the Mississippi River due to the isolation of the westernmost part of the Confederacy. Despite the formidable obstacles, the vast majority of these doctors remained committed to the health and safety of their men. These physicians served in small tent hospitals and filthy camps, on the gruesome battlefield, and on the sides of dusty roads. They worked all night in field hospitals performing operations by moonlight in order to save the lives of their soldiers. They spent weeks at battlefields after the final shot had been fired, searching for casualties and treating the injured often without regard to their own safety or sustenance. They labored over hospital beds, committing themselves to providing care and comfort to the sick and wounded. Southern physicians and their staffs sought to diagnose and treat diseases, heal wounds, and provide comfort to the fighting men who were becoming increasingly fatigued mentally, physically, and emotionally as the conflict continued. Though they diligently strove to maintain a healthy corps, a lack of knowledge, experience, personnel, and supplies hindered their efforts and ultimately limited their overall effectiveness.
Open Access
The battle of Belleau Wood : America's indoctrination into 20th century warfare.
(2010) Seldon, Kevin C.; Adamiak, Stanley; Loughlin, Patricia; Pool, Carolyn
The battle of Belleau Wood serves as a microcosm of the American experience in the Great War. Several misconceptions surrounding the battle, born largely out of its propaganda value, created a legacy that overshadows the significance of the battle as a baptismal of modern twentieth-century warfare. The experience, unprecedented in the annals of American military history, placed largely inexperienced troops into a situation where poor decisions, inferior tactics and faulty communication methods delayed orders and sent unsuspecting men into a cauldron of chaos and terror. Historians have painted a picture that implies that the battle had epic ramifications in that it halted the German drive on Paris. This myth is born out of the desire of the American Expeditionary Force commanders to obtain a decisive victory on the battlefield. Belleau Wood provided that opportunity and gave birth to a legendary story of American military arms devoid of the dreadfulness and futility that characterizes so much of the fight. These depictions overshadow the horrific nightmares of the fighting that men carried with them through the remainder of their lives. Those terrible sights and sounds baptized participants and an entire nation into the horrors of a new age of warfare. The main focus of this thesis rests largely on first-hand accounts of the fighting at Belleau Wood. Examination of several eye-witness reports and unpublished memoirs and oral histories reveal the true cost which bought in blood the glory that dictates most interpretations of the engagement. This work also assesses human stories behind this epic battle in context to the common myth which depicts the fight simply as the engagement which saved Paris.
Open Access
The Glorious Revolution in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
(2014) Evans, Richard A.; Sheetz-Nguyen, Jessica A.; Adamiak, Stanley; Springer, Michael S.
This thesis focuses on the political relationship between the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the English Crown between 1630 and 1691. It begins with the establishment of the colony and how the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay understood their place in the British Empire based on their charter. The settlers connection to London was altered each time the executive authority changed during the turbulent seventeenth century. The colony had an antagonistic relationship with the Stuarts during most of this time. This tension reached its apex with Charles II's removal of the Massachusetts Bay's colonial charter in1684. The Puritans interpreted their place in the empire much differently than Charles II but the king's methods to control the colony only reconfirmed the misunderstanding between the two. After Charles II's death his brother James II acted more aggressive with the colony. He used imperialistic tactics to subdue the Puritans. Under his appointed governor Edmond Andros, James II combined the New England colonies to form the Dominion of New England.
Open Access
The Lusitania and the American Public Response : a newspaper narrative.
(2017) Lagle, Maggie; Olmstead, Justin Quinn; Adamiak, Stanley; Lacher, Katrina
Since the First World War erupted on 4 August 1914, historians have been documenting the conflict and outbreak of war via writing books, conducting archival research, producing films, etc. In the 1920's following the conclusion of the war initial studies focused on the Crisis of 1914. Specifically, historians focused on the diplomatic and political aspects as well as who was primarily responsible for the outbreak of war. Eventually, historians would shift their focus to the soldiers themselves, researching and documenting their experiences during the war. The research conducted for this thesis focuses on the sinking of the Lusitania liner on 7 May 1915 and the American public response to the incident by examining newspapers from across the United States and their coverage of the sinking. Thesis chapters will include information obtained from the Northeast, South, Midwest, and American West to conduct thorough research and acquire general opinions throughout the country. Working on the assumption that German-Americans had a decisive impact on media coverage, newspapers from states with high and low German-American populations are examined, resulting in well-rounded research.
Open Access
The Taiwan Straits Crisis of 1954-1955 : the contemplation of going to war over foreign troop morale.
(2013) Burch, Justin E.; Li, Xiaobing, 1954-; Adamiak, Stanley; Plaks, Jeff; Webster, Kirk
This study examines the Taiwan Straits Crisis of 1954-55 and how the Eisenhower administration handled the imbroglio and attempts to explain why the crisis lasted for such a long period of time. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles believed that in international relations between adversaries, the number one reason for the start of wars was miscalculation by one side or the other. Yet throughout the fall of 1954 and into the summer of 1955, the presidential administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower made America's position with regards to the Republic of China (ROC) controlled offshore islands anything but clear to Mao, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), or the international community. Eisenhower and the National Security Council (NSC) were consistently caught between two opposing philosophies and political realities in its dealing with the crisis. International pressure from the British and a hostile domestic and global public opinion, kept America from publicly declaring that it would defend the offshore islands. The administrations fear of handing communism what was viewed as another victory in the Cold War and irrevocably damaging Nationalist troop morale on Taiwan kept Dulles and Eisenhower from formulating a publicly clear and unequivocal policy for Formosa, the Pescadores and the nationalist-held islands. This failure extended a confrontation for nearly a year that should have ended in a matter of days or weeks. There has, to this point, never been a monograph written specifically about the Taiwan Straits Crisis of 1954-55. However, the event is well covered by journal articles and chapters in books discussing US foreign Policy, US diplomacy, the Cold War, the Eisenhower administration, US-China relations, Military history, and a variety of other topics. While the Taiwan Straits Crisis is not now a major incident engrained in the American public's conscience, like World War II or the Cuban Missile Crisis, it is a standard case study that is nearly always mentioned in major academic reference works. The first historical accounts of the crisis focused on the belief that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles singlehandedly ran American foreign policy during his tenure. The historiographical interpretation settled on a perception that Dulles and the military pulled Eisenhower to an unnecessary ideological confrontation with Mao Zedong's Peoples Republic of China (PRC). This interpretation was largely dismissed during the 1960s and 1970s as research began to confirm that, although Dulles had a great deal of influence, it was in the end Eisenhower who made the final decisions. As Eisenhower era documents slowly became available to the public, the next generation of historians began to grapple with how the crisis unfolded and in what respect Cold War ideology governed how the White House made decisions. With the publication, in the 1980s, of the Foreign Relations of the United States, covering this period, historians like H.W. Brands interpreted the crisis through the prism of the Dulles and Eisenhower policy of Massive Retaliation and saw the crisis as a test of that policy. The next era of investigation into this Cold War case study came from historians, both from the east and west, who used Chinese documents to tell, for the first time, the PRC side of the crisis, adding to our overall knowledge of the event. This thesis is an attempt to merge all of these schools, along with new original research, to come up with a more complete understanding of why Eisenhower and Dulles made the decisions they did in the 1950s with regards to Taiwan and the Offshore islands. This project concludes that Dulles came into the Eisenhower administration with a clear idea of how to conduct foreign policy. The new secretary of state believed in clarity of design and purpose. If America was straight forward in what it wanted and what it would and would not do, then miscalculation by the enemy, in this case worldwide Communism, would be negated. The best way to avoid a big war in the calculation of Dulles was to avoid misunderstandings between nations. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the Cold War and the realities of the offshore islands in the Taiwan Straits kept Dulles from implementing what should have been a rational, even successful policy. Because the KMT government on Taiwan was wrapping up so much of its prestige into holding all of the territory it still controlled, The US believed it could not allow the offshore islands to fall and result in catastrophic consequences for the morale of the nationalist military and destabilize Jiang's government. If Taiwan fell to the Communists as a result, then it would serve as the first domino of western leaning democracies to crumble. Southeast Asia, Japan, the Philippines could be next and America would be endanger of losing the Cold War altogether. However, American allies like Great Britain would not support a war over the offshore islands and American public opinion was decidedly against another conflict in Asia so soon after the conclusion of the deeply unpopular Korean War. The Eisenhower administration had painted itself into an ideological corner that created longstanding tensions and crisis after crisis all because it could not make a clear decision on the status of Quemoy, Matsu, and the other ROC holdings along the mainland Chinese coast. As a result of these findings, this study focuses on the offshore islands and why the Eisenhower administration was unable to make a final decision on their status and thereby giving the world a clear understanding of where the United States stood. In addition this project also investigates the US-Mutual Defense Treaty signed in 1954 and how it impacted this event more clearly than in previous works. For the first time, this endeavor takes the word of Eisenhower, Dulles, and the National Security Council when they stated that they could not allow the offshore islands to fall to the communists because it would damage the morale of ROC troops and the government of Jiang Jieshi. Furthermore, this thesis puts a new focus on the impact of British and international opposition to the United States position with regards to Quemoy and Matsu and explains how this opposition along with a lack of American domestic support, moderated the Eisenhower administration's actions and kept the US from going to war with the PRC. There are many opportunities for further research on this topic. One avenue would be to delve more thoroughly than this study does into the relationship between the White House and Congress and how House and Senate members affected the decision making process. The one major set of documents that remains classified, are National Security Administration documents that could have a wealth of information on what the intelligence was telling the administration with regards to the PRC. Also, along those lines an investigation into American support for raiding operations conducted by the ROC on the PRC could be of great value. Finally a project describing primarily the Joint Chiefs internal discussions and ultimate recommendations to the president would be a fascinating expose. Army Joint Chief General Mathew Ridgway was often at odds with the other chiefs on a variety of issues, the Taiwan Straits Crisis only being one of them.