OU - Exploring U.S. History
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About Exploring U.S. History (HIST 1483 and HIST 1493)
Understanding the past, including the unique rights and responsibilities of American citizenship, is essential for our collective future. These courses will introduce you to the means and methods of original research, and will enhance your ability to articulate your own ideas and arguments-- both orally and in writing. These skills should serve you well throughout your academic and professional careers. We look forward to working with you!
James Hart, History Department Chair, University of Oklahoma
News
Congratulations to OU student Camille Matlock, whose research paper “America’s Dairyland: A Brie Bit Gay” won the David W. Levy Prize for Fall 2020. Matlock’s research examines how the Gay People’s Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee used both major and independent media “to combat systemic oppression, promote political engagement, and destigmatize homosexuality” in the wake of McCarthyism.
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Undergraduate Open Access Into the Badlands: Japanese American Incarceration and the Environment(2019) Bahr, JulieIn the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States not only declared war on the Empire of Japan, but also began the forced relocation of thousands of Japanese American citizens from the Pacific Coast to concentration camps in the inland West. Over the course of the next four years, the experience of Japanese Americans in these camps was characterized not only by scant wages and arduous work weeks, but also by the harsh climate of Western United States. For Japanese Americans uprooted from the balmy Pacific Coast, the hostile alien landscape shaped everything from their mental and physical health to their overall perception of imprisonment, often compounding their feelings of homesickness and anger. Thus, the environment was not merely a site of Japanese American incarceration, but an instrument of social control manipulated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA): administrators situated the camps in strategic locations designed to both isolate Japanese Americans and secure their labor in the name of patriotism and the public good. Thus, Japanese American internment was more than just an atrocious civil rights violation, but an instance of environmental injustice where one group used the natural world as a tool to assert authority over another.Undergraduate Open Access America’s Dairyland: A Brie Bit Gay(2020) Matlock, CamilleThe dogmatic, authoritarian 1950’s triggered a massive emergence of movements and sub-cultures that sought to counter repressive McCarthy-era persecutions and reject mainstream American society. Openly gay and lesbian communities felt empowered by these movements and began advocating for their own equal rights, consolidated self-esteem, and group consciousness. Out of these existing queer communities, the Gay Peoples Union, a student-led organization at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, emerged and championed gay activism. This paper argues that while many queer organizations claimed the mantle of revolutionary sexual struggle, none embodied the gay liberation movement like the Gay Peoples Union as they utilized both mainstream and alternative media outlets to combat systemic oppression, promote political engagement, and destigmatize homosexuality. This paper uses primary sources from the Gay Peoples Union’s newspaper publications and radio program as well as secondary sources examining the gay liberation movement as a whole from different historians to serve as historical evidence.Undergraduate Open Access The Cold War: The Pursuit of Freedom from an Unfreed Nation, The United States of America(4/24/20) Bethancourt, Eduardo Alberto CampbellThe end of World War II brought some temporary joy to the United States and many other nations across the globe. Nevertheless, such a joy barely lasted as tension among its wartime ally, the Soviet Union, escalated to what is now known as the Cold War. The United States envisioned Soviet expansion as a threat to freedom and thus democracy due to the authoritarian and inhumane tendencies of Stalin's regime. While the United States aimed to spread democracy and freedom around the world during the Cold War, this paper will argue that the American government had in place several oppressive laws—Jim Crow—and treatments that restricted African Americans from enjoying civil liberties and the democratic system that the United States was trying to implement overseas.Undergraduate Open Access After the Revolution: The Natural Rights of Women(4/25/19) Tobin, CaitlinThe post-Revolutionary American woman was idealized as an embodiment of virtue, heralded for fulfilling her duties to family and society, but kept well outside of politics, academia, and other traditionally masculine environments. And yet the ideals of the American Revolution were seated in the concept of rights as natural and inalienable, as devices that granted the power specifically to challenge exclusion from government. This social contract theory, most famously expressed by John Locke in the late seventeenth century, held that members of society traded some personal freedoms in exchange for government protection of life, liberty, and property, thus stressing the importance of personal duties as well as personal autonomy. However, Americans’ focus during the Revolution fell more heavily on the latter, emphasizing man’s individual liberties, and more specifically, his political liberties, as the essence of natural rights. In contrast, women’s natural rights were conceptualized in accord with theory originating from the Scottish Enlightenment shortly before the American Revolution. In this view, rights were benefits conferred by God, with necessary duties attached, and these rights and duties became indistinguishable. While the Lockean conceptualization of natural rights found its place at the very heart of the American Revolution, writings from the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries demonstrate how the Scottish theory of natural rights was differentially applied to women, equating their rights with duties and thus justifying the denial of the same natural rights as men.Undergraduate Open Access Thomas W. Woodrow's Appeals for Socialism Based on Religion and EconomicsOvercash, Joshua; Brosnan, Kathleen; Truden, JohnDuring the early 1900s, Oklahoma contained one of the largest socialist parties in the United States. In his magazine, Woodrow's Monthly, Thomas W. Woodrow, a socialist Christian pastor in Hobart, Oklahoma, created a wide variety of appeals for socialism. Woodrow's socialist philosophy directly reflected his economic and religious context in rural Oklahoma in the early 1900s. Examining the religious and economic situation of Oklahoma during this time period reveals why Woodrow made the appeals he did and why his appeals would have been likely to produce his intended effect.Undergraduate Open Access The Hull House, its Co-Founders, and the Progressive EraTowe, Cassidy; Griswold, RobertJane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr were the co-founders of the first settlement house in Chicago. This home, the Hull House, provided a plethora of amenities, clubs, and academic classes for poverty-stricken people in the city of Chicago. The Hull House operated for one hundred and twenty-two years; the house opened its doors in September of 1889 and just recently filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Despite the unfortunate ending, the Hull House was revolutionary in its time. According to Addams, the house was a success; the Hull House was an important addition to Chicago's economy and set the standard for a Progressive Era full of peaceful activism and influential reformation. Immigrants frequented the Hull House, they used the services the house offered to their advantage. Some examples would include medical aid, food assistance, English-language classes, and clubs for both children and adults. Addams and Starr enlightened the lives of impoverished immigrants that stepped through the doors of the Hull mansion. Despite the good the Hull House provided, there were a few Americans wary of the presence of the settlement house in urban Chicago. They questioned the co-founders' sanity and spread rumors. Regardless of these setbacks, Addams and Starr brought settlement houses to America, gained a platform for activism during the Progressive Era, and offered culture and opportunity to the urban population in Chicago. The co-founders devoted their lives to the Hull House; Addams resided in the mansion until her death in May of 1935. Both Addams and Starr reshaped the immigrant experience in Chicago during Progressive Era through the services they offered at the Hull House.Undergraduate Open Access Protesting Miss AmericaGarrett, Kylie; Hyde, AnneTopic statement: How did the 1968 Miss America Pageant protests exemplify the values of women during this time period, and how did the feminist movement affect other civil rights movements at the time?Undergraduate Open Access Out of the closet and into the streets : on the flamboyance and fervor of the gay liberation movementAnguiano, Rafael; Holland, Jennifer; Brumbelow, RyanIronically enough, mere moments after bemoaning today's young generation of LGBT men and women for being uneducated on the history of LGBT rights, drag performer Derrick Barry erroneously asserted that "people were killed" at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. Amusing attempt to appear well-versed aside, Barry's dismay at the state of LGBT education is widely shared throughout the LGBT community. There is a sense that modern LGBT Americans are out of touch with their history, complacent in the advent of a post-Obergefell v. Hodges society where the most visible battleground for LGBT rights, same-sex marriage, is no longer in the public consciousness. With that in mind, young LGBT people are increasingly turning to formal institutions to educate them, but one particular chapter is all too often overlooked. As a result, this chapter, called the gay liberation movement, deserves a renewed consideration. What chiefly differentiated the gay liberation movement of the late sixties to late seventies from earlier iterations of gay rights efforts was the adoption of rhetoric and action that emphasized a proud embrace of the LGBT identity, which brought with it a new set of accomplishments as well as challenges.Undergraduate Open Access Democracy deposed : U.S. media coverage of 1950's GuatemalaGraves, Jasmine; Wrobel, David; Cox, JeffAfter World War II, the United States established itself as a crusader for democracy and capitalism around the world. The urge to fight communism while advocating for democracy meant a dilemma when faced with countries with democratically elected leftist governments. By no means does leftism mean communism, however, during the Cold War, the United States feared that left of center governments could fall to communism with the Soviet Union's influence. Ultimately, the United States was more intent on stopping the spread of communism than supporting true democracies, so it supported military coups against democratically elected leftist governments to put right-wing regimes in their place. The fact that the CIA backed these coups is no longer a secret, and the CIA has even admitted to involvement in some of them. Despite these operations being clandestine at the time, that did not stop the media from subjectively reporting in opposition to these leftist governments, especially Guatemala's. Newspapers in the United States reported with clear bias against the leftist democratically elected government in Guatemala before, during, and after the CIA military coup.Undergraduate Open Access The corrupt bargain : a story of the Cherokee plightSteele, Alexander; Shelden, Rachel; Corpolongo, MattThe Cherokee Nation is one of the many Native American nations that had their rights and lives stolen by the United States, and arguments are made that they suffered the worst. The Cherokee did not admit defeat from the beginning, they fought for their rights through social and legal means. While the Cherokee Nation was forced off their sacred lands, they did not leave without resistance; they attempted to sway Jackson by pleading to his humanity and paternalism and attempted to create pathos with the general public.Undergraduate Open Access Buying your health : medical consumerism in the early twentieth centuryRandall, Erica; Schumaker, Kathryn; Boone, BrittanyAfter WWI, the United States saw an unprecedented rise in economic production and mass consumerism, an era that came to be characterized by wealth, prosperity, and vanity. Spurred on by the second industrial revolution, large corporations began mass- producing a variety of products, and for the first time in several decades, Americans had the monetary resources and economic freedom to purchase these products, including cars, household appliances, leisure items, etc. Advertisements played a significant role in this consumerism movement, and in the decades following WWI, advertising agencies refined their strategies to encourage individuals and families to purchase their products. Medicine and healthcare were not exempt from this overwhelming influence of consumerism, and during the 1920s and in following decades, Americans' accessibility to medicine and health products dramatically increased-as did their inclination to purchase self- prescribed medicine and products for a physical ailment rather than visit a doctor. This intertwining of medicine and consumerism was largely due to persuasive advertising strategies, including the use of universal language, the promise of self-improvement and disease prevention, and the idea that health products could negate the consequences of poor lifestyle choices.Undergraduate Open Access What the Black Panther Party did for youEvery, Alvian; Metcalfe, Warren; Hyman, TryceIn October of 1966 Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a socialist, multi-racial, black nationalist group that endeavored to awaken the black community and unify it in activism against the 'pigs' and political figures that disenfranchised blacks. Unlike other black nationalist groups, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was an organization that unified communities and sought to seek out against whites and black alike that held the community down rather than lifting it up. The Panthers carried an image of brutality for their many violent encounters with law enforcement and direct ties to the doctrines of Karl Marx and Mao. It makes sense that this type of organization would have a bad reputation, considering the borderline brainwashing ideologies. Why, though, would it have office buildings, and several eager members? An organization with so many moving parts cannot be boiled down the simple concept of "kill whitie," as Bobby White, a former Panther, asserted in an interview. In addition to taking the law into their own hands, members of the party provided community-oriented services such as the breakfast program, medical services, and discouraging the community's youth from participating in drug use and prostitution.Undergraduate Open Access "Manifestly unfit" : an analysis of eugenics in relation to race and disabilityKumar, Kirtana; Brosnan, Kathleen; Flynt, MetteEugenics was one of the darkest movements of the Progressive era. The eugenics movement argued that preserving "superior" humans will create a more productive and healthy class of people. It dated back to Francis Galton's idea that encouraging procreation among the supposedly superior would create a fitter group of people and preserve the white race, who eugenicists considered innately superior. American eugenicists persuaded people that certain characteristics such as race and disability were degenerate. In reality, they simply sought refuge in the idea of improving white Americans to justify maintaining power over people of color and the disabled. In fact, this movement led to restrictions on interracial marriage and lifelong sterilization of innocent people. Eugenics perpetuated discrimination under the veil that eugenics would create a better society, however, the underlying goal was to exercise social control and power over African Americans and disabled people.Undergraduate Open Access The Mexican-American War : a war of American valuesJackson, Dooley; Kelly, CatherineThe Mexican-American War significantly expanded the territories of the United States. This has become common knowledge throughout the public, and the war is frequently left at that defining statement. However, the Mexican-American War was more than a simple war of expansion and territorial disputes. Members of the American elite fiercely debated for the war and against it. Through a combination of both political and moral rhetoric, the Mexican-American War became not only a war for territorial expansion but a war for American values.Undergraduate Open Access The rush to save the illFarley, Hannah; Gilje, Paul; Truden, JohnBenjamin Rush is not to be dismissed as history has shown-his extensive medical training and experience, when contextualized within his own time, was highly beneficial to the people of Philadelphia during the summer 1793 yellow fever outbreak. In the late summer months, a lethal fever swept its way from the docks of America's capital to the heart of the city. From the beginning of August until November, four thousand and forty-four individuals died from the outbreak. This killed a tenth of Philadelphia's 50,000 citizens with half of that population escaping to the countryside. Among those who stayed behind, many encompassed the city's physicians including Dr. Benjamin Rush-signer of the Declaration of Independence, surgeon general of the Continental Army, and chair of the Institutes of Medicine and Clinical Practice at the University of Philadelphia.Undergraduate Open Access Law and order : Nixon's rhetoric and the Southern strategyHopewell, Audrey; Myers, Leroy; Griswold, RobertToday's familiar Democratic and Republican party coalitions have not always existed; rather, they began to emerge in the 1960s as demographic and geographic groups shifted party alliances. This paper focuses on one factor in the party realignment: Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. Nixon's 1968 campaign was characterized by a balance between appeals to conservative, anti-integration Southern white voters and the risk of alienating Northern liberals. To implement this "Southern strategy," Nixon employed ostensibly race-neutral language that actually had coded racial meaning. This color-blind rhetoric was belied by the actions of the administration and Nixon's rhetorical shift to the right after taking office.Undergraduate Open Access "The new Negro" : center of the Harlem stageTing, Katherine; Grinberg, Ronnie; Mack, DustinAmidst a tragically long-standing history of oppression, the Harlem Renaissance was arguably the pinnacle of African American prosperity in the United States during the early twentieth century. The Harlem Renaissance, being a period of cultural and spiritual revival, spanned the years between the 1920s and mid-1930s distinctly following the end of the first World War in 1918. Centralized in Harlem, New York, the infamous Harlem Renaissance illustrated the explosion of intellectual, social, and artistic reconstruction of the previously stigmatized African American race that in turn kindled a new cultural identity. Its essence can be interpreted as a collective and holistic "rebirth" of literary and artistic expression, a vision of the African American individual no longer tainted by the despotism of the past also known as the "New Negro." In fact, African Americans of Harlem represented a sense of "black pride" in the form of the "New Negro" ideology described by their affluence, literature, and artistic expression, all of which reflected the rise of African American social sophistication.Undergraduate Open Access American terrorWalters, Matthew O.; Gilje, Paul; Simons, ChristopherFor 150 years, those that have come to call the American Civil War "the War of Northern Aggression" have cited General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea as an unnecessary act of terror; opponents claim the South would have surrendered without this show of brutality, and that what he did was completely illegal from a humanitarian perspective — they are wrong. William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea was a brutal affair, filled with what many Southerners argued to be war crimes; but, these actions can, in truth, be interpreted to have roughly followed today's laws of war, even though they did not yet exist in Sherman's time. War is brutal, dehumanizing, and degrading, and this campaign was simply a product of the time and a necessary evil. By examining the campaign through both Federal and Confederate accounts of the events, as well as the modern laws of war, it can be demonstrated that Sherman's campaign was, in fact, legitimate, legal, and entirely necessary.Undergraduate Open Access 50 shades of slavery : sexual assault of black male slaves in antebellum AmericaPerkins, Dedrick K.; Kruer, Matthew; Corpolongo, JohnMale slave owners used sexual assault to dominate, dehumanize, and emasculate male slaves in American Antebellum South. The oppression and violence that characterized the institution of chattel slavery are easily accessible, as well as the sexual assault often inflicted on female slaves. Although many slave narratives and journals address female rape and other forms of sexual assault, the abuse endured by male slaves has been grossly overlooked. The intention of this paper is not to discredit the suffering of female slaves, but the research suggested that the same use of sexual assault as a form of discipline and control was applied to male slaves. There is a general consensus that only women were subjected to the violently lustful assaults of slave owners. A closer analysis of the narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglas revealed the underlying issue that male slaves were going through similar situations. All of this was an attempt to increase American wealth through the forced labor of an entire race.Undergraduate Open Access Survey of the Marine Corps as a distinct branch of the United States military from 1775 to 1805Terselic, Abigail; Kruer, Matthew; Donwerth, DerekWhen the "shot heard 'round the world" sparked the American War for Independence in 1775, the emerging American nation was rattled, but only for a moment. The iron will of the Colonial forces provided the foundation for unity against the British Crown. Initially, the Colonial militia did not compare to the British forces, which had a thriving mother nation backing them and a rich history in strong, successful warfare. However, as the Colonies matured in resolve, they gained support, personnel, supplies, and unity. In addition to increasing the size of the Continental army, the Continental Congress decided to create a completely new division of the armed forces, one with explicit purpose and manifest strength. Thus, two battalions of Marines originated as an elite arm of the Colonial militia. The Marines faced their first challenge in the War for Independence, as they demonstrated their unique training and abilities, fighting alongside the Continental forces. After the victorious American Revolution, the new nation maintained Marines as part of its general military force. Gradually, they were employed more and more, until they became an official branch of the United States military in 1798. A mere six years later, the Marines gained universal recognition and respect as a powerful, invaluable asset to the rising United States by their famous victory in the First Barbary War in 1805. From its first roots in 1775 to its famous victory in the First Barbary War in 1805, the US Marine Corps became known for selectivity of personnel, discipline within its ranks and the ranks of other forces, and effectiveness in eliminating enemies through amphibious assault and hand-to-hand combat, all of which set the Marine Corps apart in mission and effectiveness from every other branch of the United States armed forces.
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