Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Great adventure. a new world'

This is a study of British policy-makers and their perceptions of the Empire immediately after the First World War. It explores the post-1918 crises most frequently noted by historians – the nationalist challenges in Ireland, India and Egypt – and demonstrates how policy-makers came to view these challenges as interconnected. It argues, moreover, for the centrality of the Irish situation in shaping the responses of policy-makers to developments in India and Egypt. The thesis also investigates the impact of phenomena such as black nationalism in the West Indies, growing labour militancy in Britain and the Empire, and the politico-religious movement of pan-Islam. Policy-makers saw these as being enmeshed with one another, and frequently attempted to comprehend or explain them as ‘Bolshevik’ intrigue. Whereas nationalist challenges were viewed through an ‘Irish prism’, these phenomena were viewed commonly through a ‘Bolshevik’ one. Additionally, it is stressed that post-war political and socio-economic unrest was seen to be reverberating across areas of traditional British control, such as the Mediterranean, and newer areas, such as the Middle East. Worries about labour unrest, growing nationalisms and movements such as pan-Islam led to a re-shaping of British policy in these regions. The more autonomous parts of the Empire also presented post-war challenges. Increasing Dominion assertiveness meant that Anglo-Dominion relations changed significantly during this period. It is argued that this shaped key aspects of British military and foreign policy, and influenced Britain’s relationships with, notably, Japan and the United States. In the ‘informal’ Empire in South America, meanwhile, policy-makers registered a rapid decline in British influence immediately the War ended and acquiesced to growing American strength there. The major post-war concerns that are identified were not encountered by policy-makers individually. They were powerfully present simultaneously and were perceived in London as an entangled and interconnected challenge to British imperialism.

This thesis examines the ways in which the new financial world of early eighteenth-century London was interpreted, understood and represented through visual forms. The focus of the thesis is on the years between circa 1689 and 1763; that is from the Nine Years War, when deficit finance was first established, until the end of the Seven Years War, by which point its existence was more broadly accepted. It argues that these financial innovations had a determining impact upon the production of visual imagery, especially that produced by the London print market, and that images themselves were instrumental in the debates generated by an increasingly speculative financial world. Following an introduction establishing the aims, methods and scope of the thesis, the chapters take the form of a series of thematic studies chosen to address key issues and images. Chapter one examines the depiction of the Royal Exchange and Exchange Alley in a range of polite topographical prints and graphic satires. This allows for an overview of desirable and disreputable representations of commercial conduct. Chapter two takes as its theme the early years of the Bank of England, East India Company and South Sea Company as principal government creditors. It looks at their rivalry for a position in public finance and the image each company promoted through the premises they built between 1725 and 1734. The third chapter considers the establishment of the national debt and its early management. Graphic satires feature prominently in effecting visual retribution on those suspected of financial misconduct. In Chapter four the state lottery is examined as a form of generating revenue directly from the public and considers the part played by graphic products in questioning this government-sanctioned speculation. The fifth chapter is concerned with the representation of gaming and examines the ways in which it might be adapted to signify both virtuous and inappropriate economic conduct. The concluding chapter focuses on the response of the print market and the press to the turnaround in fortunes in the Seven Years War and how they register an apparent acceptance of the new financial institutions and developments of the preceding half-century.

Cette thèse concerne les politiques sociales en Grande-Bretagne, dans l'État français, ainsi que dans l'Italie fasciste pendant la Deuxième guerre mondiale. Mon approche ne se borne pas aux années de guerre. Il tient en compte la dépendance des précédentes politiques dans les trois Pays, et elle est ouverte aux développements de l'après-guerre. J'ai réparti ce travail en trois parties, en poursuivant des critères méthodologiques et thématiques. Dans la première partie, j'ai donné un aperçu des politiques sociales dans les trois Pays de la fin du 19e siècle jusqu'au déclenchement de la guerre. Dans cette section, j'ai analysé la nature incrémentielle des politiques sociales, en retraçant les héritages en matière de politique sociale dans chaque Pays. De toute manière, les autres deuxième et troisièmes parties constituent le cœur de la recherche. La deuxième partie est une analyse comparée des politiques mises en place pendant la guerre, ainsi que des projets formulés pour l'après-guerre. Elle est divisée en trois chapitres qui correspondent à chaque Pays examiné, avec un chapitre conclusif où les résultats de la recherche sont croisés, afin de renforcer la compréhension comparative du sujet. La troisième partie porte sur un examen comparé/transnational de l'exploitation politique des reformes sociales. D'un côté, la politique sociale a été utilisée pour renforcer le front intérieur gagner le consensus. De l'autre côté, la diffusion des informations et de la propagande sur les projets de réforme pour l'après-guerre devait jouer le rôle primaire dans la reconstruction des relations internationales après la guerre
My dissertation concerns the social politics in Great Britain, in the Vichy regime, and in Fascist Italy during World War II. My approach to the topic, however, is not narrowly limited to the war years. It takes into account the path dependence of the previous policies in the three countries, and is open to the further developments of the immediate postwar years. I split my work in three parts, according to methodological and thematic criteria. ln a first part, I provided the overview of the social politics enacted in the three countries from the end of the 19th Century to the outbreak of the war. ln this section, I captured the incremental nature of the social policies, also retracing the specific policy legacy in each country. The very cure of my research, however, dwells in the other two parts. ln section two, I carried out a comparative analysis of the policies implemented during the war, and the draft projects for after the war. This section is split in three chapters, where I scrutinized the social politics in each country, and a conclusive chapter where I crossed the results of my investigation, strengthening its comparative aspects. The third part is a comparative/transnational exploration on the political use of social policy. On the one hand, social policy was exploited to strengthen the home front and gamer domestic political consensus. On the other, the dissemination of information and the propaganda of the postwar social project was also expected to play a not secondary role in the resettlement of the international relations after the war

During the First World War, ideas of duty and sacrifice were a dominant characteristic of public discourse in New Zealand. Specifically, concern centred on a perceived inequality of sacrifice, which saw brave soldiers die on the front lines, whilst other men remained on the home front, apparently avoiding duty. This thesis charts the prevailing and powerful ideas that circulated during wartime New Zealand around these two stereotypes; on the one hand there was the soldier, the ideal of service and duty; on the other, the conscientious objector, a target for the derogatory label of 'shirker'. While there are a few select critical works which examine the experiences of New Zealand World War One conscientious objectors, such We Will Not Cease (1939) and Armageddon or Calvary (1919), there is a near complete absence of studies which examine the home front and ask how conscientious objectors were perceived and consequently judged as they were. It is the contention of this thesis that ideas around the soldier and the 'shirker' were interrelated stereotypes and that both images emerged from the process of mass mobilisation; a highly organised war effort which was largely dependent for its success upon the cooperation of wider civilian society. In sum, the thesis examines and analyses the ideas within mainstream New Zealand society as they appeared in public sources (notably newspapers, cartoons and government publications), and in doing so, tracks how social mores and views towards duty, sacrifice and service were played out at a time of national and international crisis.

The New Zealand Government�s repatriation measures to assist Great War veterans have largely been considered a failure. This thesis examines repatriation through the experiences of Dunedin and Ashburton veterans, demonstrating that within the context of the 1920s pre-welfare state these provisions proved to be both generous and far more successful than is often suggested. The Government�s repatriation response to returning veterans reflected contemporary attitudes towards dependency and need. Belief in self-reliance underpinned repatriation policy, with a stated aim of restoring veterans to the civil position they held prior to enlistment rather than providing assistance to move up the occupational ladder. Fear of the morally corrosive effect of dependency, as well as economic concerns, meant the repatriation provisions were principally concerned with ensuring veterans regained financial independence through employment. To that end war pensions compensated for lost earning power, rather than providing a full living income, and repatriation provisions largely consisted of assistance in finding jobs or obtaining farms and businesses. The Government�s repatriation provisions also reflected contemporary medical knowledge. The repatriation legislation restricted war pensions and free medical care to veterans with disabilities directly attributable to military service. However the link between military service and disability remained unclear in many cases. Slightly more than half of those discharged unfit suffered from sickness rather than wounds, many from conditions common among the civilian population. Contemporary aetiological knowledge often did not support the war pension applications lodged by returned soldiers disabled as a result of non-contagious disease, and an absence of clinical evidence undermined claims of latent illness. In addition the medical profession�s failure to adopt psychological theory and practice meant that by the early 1920s shell shock sufferers were treated according to psychiatric medicine�s understanding of mental illness. Within the context of 1920s New Zealand the repatriation provisions were generous: the Repatriation Department�s work had no precedent; the war disabled were one of the few groups to receive state pensions and received more than other state pensioners; and the provisions of the soldier settlement scheme were available to all veterans, regardless of health, capital or farming experience. Despite the limited aims of the Government�s repatriation provisions many veterans did successfully re-establish themselves in civilian society. By the 1930s Ashburton soldier settlements had proved more successful than others in Canterbury, and compared well with other crown settlements in Ashburton County. More generally war service produced no dramatic change in the occupational structure of veterans: veterans generally retained their occupational status during the post-war decade, volunteers faring slightly better than conscripts but neither as well as their civilian counterparts. Although some veterans certainly did experience need and indigence after the war the majority of urban and rural men in the sample groups were financially stable, particularly after the boom and bust of the immediate post-war years. The men in the Dunedin and Ashburton sample groups represent the most successful of the returned soldier population nevertheless they show that a significant proportion of Great War veterans were successfully repatriated by the end of the post-war decade.

Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Ernest William Turner served Canada admirably in two wars and played an instrumental role in unifying veterans’ groups in the post-war period. His experience was unique in the Canadian Expeditionary Force; in that, it included senior command in both the combat and administrative aspects of the Canadian war effort. This thesis, based on new primary research and interpretations, revises the prevalent view of Turner. The thesis recasts five key criticisms of Turner and presents a more balanced and informed assessment of Turner. His appointments were not the result of his political affiliation but because of his courage and capability. Rather than an incompetent field commander, Turner developed from a middling combat general to an effective division commander by late 1916. His transfer to England was the result of the need for a proficient field commander to reform the administration. Turner proved to be an excellent administrator, a strong nationalist, and was crucially responsible for improvements in administration and training in England. Finally, the conflict with Sir Arthur Currie, the commander of the Canadian Corps, rather than being motivated by obstructionist jealousy was the outcome of competing institutional imperatives and Currie’s challenging personality.

Constructions of memory, myth and legend relating to Gallipoli have dominated the academic assumption which suggests that this dimension alone has allowed for the reawakening of the exceptional interest in the Anzac tradition; a tradition that has converged at the physical site in modern day Turkey. While these intangible constructions have waxed, waned, and re-emerged over the Twentieth Century, possessing the site to commence the construction of an Anzac Battlefield Cemetery has been ignored in academic enquiry. This significant series of events from 1916 to 1965 were indispensable to memory perpetuation and essential to the commemorative primacy that this preserved headland now enjoys. The desire to repossess, and then own in perpetuity the battlefield in order to attach the appropriate masonry adornments, is in itself unique. This dimension has not been academically scrutinised by any historian until now. Nor has the deliberate desire to construct an Anzac shrine that would someday attract pilgrims from the Antipodes been studied. Present day site-sacralisation by rite-of-passage pilgrims, thoroughly emersed in the Anzac tradition, suggests the convergence of the two dimensions is complete. To counteract this problem of the �hegemony of the intangibles� this thesis explores primary sources, gleaned largely from archival records, then evaluates the significance of the history of �physical Gallipoli.� Thematic approaches based upon the lines of possession, preservation and pilgrimage argue that this parallel dimension has played an indispensable role in shaping the end result today. Tens of thousands Australasian travellers now flock to this preserved battlefield to encounter the actual physicality of the tradition. The battlefield cemetery, complete with botanical emblems of ownership, had been out of the reach of the very generation who had created, acquired and constructed the battlefield landscape. The New Zealand public had to be content with assorted forms of vicarious pilgrimage coupled with widespread domestic memorialisation. New Zealand�s post-evacuation experience at Gallipoli became a story completely distinctive from that of Australia or Great Britain. The deliberately constructed Anzac Battlefield Cemetery is a unique landscape artefact that a proud but mournful generation set out to create. They eventually achieved this end by a complicated mixture of conquest, occupation, careful preservation, and commemorative ownership. These efforts were assisted by the vagaries of economic happenstance and international politics that left this remote Peninsula isolated and off-limits to human encounter. Fortuitously frozen in time, this landscape artefact, so steeped in Classical history, has emerged as one of the most sacred, and perhaps the most recognisable, geographic features associated with Australasia. Overriding these plans for shrine construction had been the stated goal of securing a reverent final resting place for those who fell during the creation of the Anzac legend in 1915. Sepulture perpetuelle became the post-evacuation catchphrase that propelled this Great War generation to go almost to the brink of war to secure the principles of this phrase. This lofty goal of permanence, by passage of time and the re-appropriation of nature, had mercifully been completed before the current �second invasion� that commenced in the 1980s. The Anzac Battlefield Cemetery is now a victim of its own very successful physical preservation.

There are surprisingly detailed similarities between Germany and the USA on their way towards the Second World War. In this paper, I have compared the nations' expansionist philosophies, their encounter with racism, and the internal conflicts between authoritarian leadership and democracy. I began with an overview of Manifest Destiny and the German myth of the East. Next, I summed up the deep changes that the First World War caused for both societies and how they went into the Great Depression. I examined the rise of scientific racism as part of the international eugenics movement and the emergence of populist leaders during the economic crisis. It became clear that neither expansionism nor racism were genuine German ideologies. In fact, the American Manifest Destiny served as a role-model for German plans in the East. Even the racist concepts of the Third Reich were strongly influenced by American scientists. The main difference seems to be the experience with the First World War and the diversity of American protest during the crisis.

New Zealand’s First World War studies have traditionally focused on the soldier and battlefield experiences. ‘The Rural Home Front’ breaks with that tradition and focuses on the lives of people and the local communities that the soldiers left behind in the predominantly rural region of Taranaki in New Zealand. ‘The Rural Home Front’ is essentially a study of the impact and effects of the First World War on rural society. By focusing on topics and themes such as ‘war enthusiasm’, the voluntary spirit of fund raising and recruiting, conscription, attempting to maintain normality during wartime, responses to war deaths, the influenza epidemic, the Armistice and the need to remember, this thesis argues that civilians experienced the Great War, too, albeit differently from that of the soldiers serving overseas.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
Includes bibliography
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The onset of democracy in South Africa in 1994 was accompanied by the rise in bids for, and the hosting of sports mega-events so as to accomplish national interests and goals. This was done with the purpose of rebranding the South African image to the international community through national and international campaigns that sought to highlight the country’s aspirant status as a rainbow nation and its pan-Africanist ideals. This study investigates how, as host for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, South Africa was reported on by two international online media newspapers, The New York Times (United States of America (USA)) and the Guardian (United Kingdom (UK)). The aim is to address an understudied aspect of South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ by reflecting systematically on the tone and content of international media portrayals of the event, both before and during the tournament. The study has two focuses. Firstly, it considers the motives for South Africa’s bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. Secondly, it appraises the content and nature of reporting in the two overseas newspapers. The study uses a mix of secondary and primary sources, which include academic journals, books, websites, newspaper articles and government and the FIFA websites. The findings of this study suggest that the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ was based on the country’s positive experience from hosting previous sports mega-events. Additionally, South Africa wanted to showcase its commercial maturity, its development of physical infrastructure, and the presence of human skills. The motives underpinning the bid aimed at dispelling and challenging international misconceptions of the African continent. The novelty of an African country bidding to stage and hosting a sport mega-event such as the FIFA World Cup™ resulted in the country gaining extensive international media coverage from The New York Times and the Guardian. The qualitative and quantitative content analysis from these two newspapers yielded some commonality and recurrence of words such as: “stadium”, “tickets”, ‘vuvuzela”, “crime”, and “security”. The differences between the two newspapers were minimal, supporting the liberal-pluralist theoretical claim that the media acts as an agenda setter, and in line with the Marxist theory of the ideological role of the media. Media coverage of sports mega-events is important and influential in determining the way in which the host country is branded, and future studies are necessary to address the
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die koms van demokrasie in Suid-Afrika in 1994 het gepaard gegaan met die toename in tenders en die gasheerskap van megasportgebeure om nasionale belange en doelwitte te bereik. Die doel was die herposisionering van die Suid-Afrikaanse beeld in die internasionale gemeenskap deur middel van nasionale en internasionale veldtogte wat daarna gestreef het om die land se reënboognasiebeeld en sy pan-Afrikanistiese ideale te beklemtoon. Hierdie studie ondersoek hoe Suid-Afrika, as gasheer vir die 2010 FIFA Wêreldbeker, deur twee internasionale aanlynmediakoerante, The New York Times (Verenigde State van Amerika) en die Guardian (Verenigde Koninkryk) uitgebeeld is. Die doel is om die meer onverkende aspekte van Suid-Afrika se gasheerskap onder oë te neem, en voorts om sistematiese peiling te doen van die toon en inhoud van internasionale media-uitbeeldings van die sport gebeurtenis. Die studie het twee fokuspunte. Eerstens word ondersoek ingestel na die motiewe van Suid-Afrika se bod om die 2010 FIFA Wêreldbeker aan te bied. Tweedens beoordeel dit die inhoud en aard van verslaggewing in die twee oorsese koerante. Die studie gebruik ’n mengsel van sekondêre en primêre bronne, insluitend akademiese tydskrifte, boeke, webwerwe, koerantberigte en die regering en FIFA se webwerwe. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie beklemtoon dat die motiewe van Suid-Afrika se bod om die 2010 FIFA Wêreldbeker aan te bied, gegrond was op die bewese positiewe prestasierekord wat die land as gasheer in vorige megasportgebeure opgebou het. Voorts wou Suid-Afrika sy kommersiële volwassenheid, die ontwikkeling van fisiese infrastruktuur, en die teenwoordigheid van mensvaardighede ten toon te stel. Die motiewe vir die bod was ook daarop gemik om internasionale wanopvattings oor die Afrika-vasteland uit te daag en uit die weg te ruim. Die ongekendheid van die aanbied van ’n megasportgebeurtenis soos die FIFA Wêreldbeker deur ’n Afrikaland, het daartoe gelei dat die land uitgebreide internasionale mediadekking in The New York Times en die Guardian geniet het. Die kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe inhoudontleding het getoon dat daar ’n mate van gemeenskaplikheid en herhaling van woorde was, soos: “stadium”, “tickets”, “vuvuzela”, “crime” en “security”. Die verskille tussen die twee koerante was minimaal en ondersteun liberaal-pluralistiese teorie wat die media as ’n agenda steller uitwys. Dit ondersteun ook Marxistiese teorie oor die ideologiese rol van die media. Mediadekking van megasportgebeure is belangrik en invloedryk in die bepaling van die manier waarop die gasheerland as handelsmerk voorgestel word, en toekomstige studies is nodig om die onderbestudeerde aspekte van die 2010 FIFA Wêreldbeker ™ te ontleed. Dit sluit onder andere in, ontleding van die langtermyn ekonomiese, politieke en maatskaplike nalatenskappe van so ’n gebeurtenis.

This thesis studies the clash between the hero and the First World War in the works of Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It explores the impact on their poetry and attitude towards the concept of the hero as it applied to them as people and poets. The study shows that over prolonged contact with the horrors of the First World War, it is evident in both literary sources and their poetry that both Sassoon and Owen changed their attitudes negatively towards both the idea of heroes and heroism, as well as the War as a just and glorious cause.  However, the myth of the hero was still a core belief of their society, and in order to not be branded cowards and discarded along with their warnings, they had to become heroes in the eyes of their society, to openly attack the concept and the war it fueled. This thesis then studies how and why First World War poetry and literature should be utilized within the subject of English in the Swedish School System, as a means to provide a multicultural and critical education.

The economic disaster known as the Great Depression struck Grayson County, Texas, in 1929, and full economic recovery did not come until the close of World War II. However, the people of Grayson benefited greatly between 1933 and 1946 from the myriad spending programs of the New Deal, the building of the Denison Dam that created Lake Texoma, and the establishment of Perrin Army Air Field. Utilizing statistical data from the United States Census and the Texas Almanac, this thesis analyzes the role of government spending‐federal, state, and local‐in the economic recovery in Grayson County.

博士
國立成功大學
中國文學系
107
The Amusement Centers in modern Shanghai rose in the 1910s. Just like the epitome of modern Shanghai, it was one of the important entertainment images. New World was the first independent building center, and Great World was the largest and most used assembly center. Both of them were representative. The research was based on the two tabloids of New World and Great World, combined with historical materials such as newspapers and periodicals. The text body was first dealt with the origins of the amusement centers, in response to the mixed nature of Chinese and the West, and the operation of the commercial mechanism was explored by the genesis of rise and fall. Second, the Amusement Centers Tabloid itself was discussed. The style and source of the text were sorted out, and then the conflicts and reconciliations between the editorial group and the audience center were discussed to see how the literati in the business environment could behave. Then, the discussion was concentrated on the drama and art entertainment of the amusement center, and explored the ups and downs of the drama according to the spatial characteristics of the amusement centers. Finally, the mix of Chinese and Western entertainment of the amusement center was explained. The Chinese people's perspectives on Western entertainment and the observations of foreign tourists on the characteristics of the amusement centers were presented mainly based on the perspective of the third party to interpret the modern and traditional Shanghai.

ABSTRACT Medieval xenophobia fostered attitudes that viewed anything foreign or distasteful as monstrous. Accordingly, insular inhabitants of the Middle Ages were constantly striving to distinguish Self from Other. My dissertation argues that sixteenth-century England began to reverse this trend: it began to reconcile difference, not by distinguishing Self from Other, but by blurring those distinctions. Visions of ancient Self and contemporary Other began to fuse as proponents of Imperial Britain sought to assimilate foreign monsters that were once considered barbaric, inferior, or inhuman. This method of assimilation is especially apparent during the Elizabethan Age of conquest in the New World. England's prophetic destiny was inextricably tied to its epic history, its Trojan ancestry, and its most glorified rulers, Brutus and his distant successor, King Arthur. Thus, reestablishing and rewriting Britain's legendary past became an exercise in securing its future. I maintain that John Dee (c. 1527-1608/9) and Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599) strategically fused ancient Britain and the New World via the figures of King Arthur and his alleged descendant, Queen Elizabeth. Portions of Dee's Brytanici Imperii Limites are explored to illustrate this connection, as are some of his arcane mystical pursuits. I further examine sections of Spenser's Faerie Queene in relation to Queen Elizabeth and King Arthur, and interpret Arthur in Faery lond as a metaphor for England in the New World. My introduction establishes the key features of the Galfridian tradition and its significance to the Tudor dynasty. It further discusses medieval perceptions of the monstrous that influenced the early-modern era. Subsequent chapters argue that England's assimilation of Other extended to pagan deities and giants, Native Americans, ancient Israelites, and (in Elizabeth's case) to the feminine Other. My final chapter demonstrates how Queen Elizabeth, via her affiliation with King Arthur, became a temporal bridge uniting England's epic past with its future glory.

The Colored Trainmen of America (CTA) actively challenged Jim Crow policies on the job and in the public sphere between the 1930s and 1950s. In response to lingering questions concerning the relationship between early black labor activism and civil rights protest, this study goes beyond both local lure and cursory research. This study examines the Colored Trainmen's major contributions to the advancement of African Americans. It also provides context for some of the organization's shortcomings in both realms. On the job the African American railroad workers belonging to the CTA fought valiantly to receive the same opportunities for professional growth and development as whites working in the operating trades of the railroad industry. In the public sphere, these men collectively protested second-class services and accommodations both on and off the clock. Neither their agenda, the scope of their activities, nor their influence was limited to the railroad lines the members of the CTA operated within the Gulf Coast region. The CTA belonged to a progressive coalition comprised of four other powerful independent African American labor unions committed to unyielding labor activism and the toppling of Jim Crow. Together, they all worked to effectuate meaningful social change in partnership with national civil rights attorney Charles H. Houston. Houston's experience and direction, coupled with the CTA's dedicated membership and willingness to challenge authority, created considerable momentum in movements aimed at toppling racial inequality in the workplace and elsewhere. Like most of their predecessors, the CTA's struggle for advancement fits within a continuum of successive challenges to economic exploitation and racial inequality. No single person or organization can take full credit for ending segregation or achieving equality. Many who remain nameless and faceless contributed and sacrificed. This study not only chronicles the contribution of a relatively unsung African American labor organization that waged war against Jim Crow on two different fronts, it also pays homage to a few more individuals who made a difference in the lives of an entire race of people during the course of a bitterly contested, never-ending struggle for racial equality in the United States of America during the twentieth century.

American jurisprudence currently applies two incompatible validity standards to determine which laws are enforceable. The natural law tradition evaluates validity by an uncertain standard of divine law, and its methodology relies on contradictory views of human reason. Legal positivism, on the other hand, relies on a methodology that commits the analytic fallacy, separates law from its application, and produces an incomplete model of law. These incompatible standards have created a schism in American jurisprudence that impairs the delivery of justice. This dissertation therefore formulates a new standard for legal validity. This new standard rejects the uncertainties and inconsistencies inherent in natural law theory. It also rejects the narrow linguistic methodology of legal positivism. In their stead, this dissertation adopts a pragmatic methodology that develops a standard for legal validity based on actual legal experience. This approach focuses on the operations of law and its effects upon ongoing human activities, and it evaluates legal principles by applying the experimental method to the social consequences they produce. Because legal history provides a long record of past experimentation with legal principles, legal history is an essential feature of this method. This new validity standard contains three principles. The principle of reason requires legal systems to respect every subject as a rational creature with a free will. The principle of reason also requires procedural due process to protect against the punishment of the innocent and the tyranny of the majority. Legal systems that respect their subjects' status as rational creatures with free wills permit their subjects to orient their own behavior. The principle of reason therefore requires substantive due process to ensure that laws provide dependable guideposts to individuals in orienting their behavior. The principle of consent recognizes that the legitimacy of law derives from the consent of those subject to its power. Common law custom, the doctrine of stare decisis, and legislation sanctioned by the subjects' legitimate representatives all evidence consent. The principle of autonomy establishes the authority of law. Laws must wield supremacy over political rulers, and political rulers must be subject to the same laws as other citizens. Political rulers may not arbitrarily alter the law to accord to their will. Legal history demonstrates that, in the absence of a validity standard based on these principles, legal systems will not treat their subjects as ends in themselves. They will inevitably treat their subjects as mere means to other ends. Once laws do this, men have no rest from evil.