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Of all the inventions of ancient and imperial China, perhaps none is as famous or world-changing as gunpowder. The chemical mixture drastically changed the nature of warfare, albeit over the course of a thousand years. The formula began with Daoist alchemy during the Tang Dynasty, but was applied militarily in the succeeding Song Dynasty. Such an invention created new empires and changed warfare forever. This paper discusses its invention and early military uses in China then investigates how Europeans, among other peoples, were able to advance it far beyond that of the Chinese and other civilizations by the fourteenth century. The “Military Revolution” has been a popular topic of discussion among scholars for years, but a broader analysis of such a revolution requires a comparison of the military histories of China and the West. This thesis examines how and why it was the Europeans that advanced this military technology and supplanted China as the premier gunpowder superpower of the late Middle Ages. Multiple geopolitical, political, economic, and military factors and preconditions played a role in causing the increasingly widening technological gap in the following centuries. The paper also details how China’s position as the unchallenged cultural, economic, and military giant of East Asia for much of the last two thousand years even contributed to its overall decline in comparison to an ascending West. Meanwhile, existential warfare among the fledgling nation states of premodern Europe stimulated hyper intense competition in nearly every field and triggered rapid advancements in weapons technology.

Sex work in the United States has become a more widely studied subject in the last twenty years. Most of these studies focus on the historical or archaeological evidence left behind by sex workers. Many of these studies focus most heavily on sex work in the western United States. Studies have looked through a variety of different lenses including gender, race, and economic impact. Despite these varied lenses, little attention has been paid to sex work in Southern cities such as Charleston, South Carolina. The purpose of this thesis is to add to the basic understanding of the prevalence, placement, policing, and composition of brothels in Charleston, South Carolina from 1880 to 1939. Charleston City Directories, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, the 1902 Charleston Blue Book, the Thomas P. Stony Papers, and the Law and Order League Papers provided addresses for analysis. The Charleston City Year Books provided information on arrests rates and death rates from syphilis which were used to help identify patterns of policing. This study found that the area known as the red-light district (the area between Queen Street, King Street, Beaufain Street, and Logan Street) in the early part of the twentieth century was the densest area throughout the entire study period. Brothels spread upwards towards the Neck of Charleston and east to the water on East Bay Street between 1880 and 1929. Additionally, this study found that brothel locations were heavily impacted by the political agenda of the sitting mayor with the amount of brothels and location of brothels ebbing and flowing alongside the sitting mayor’s stated moral agenda. The policing of brothels and brothel workers when compared against City Directory data suggests that sex workers of color were more heavily policed than their white counterparts. This thesis adds to the existing field of the study of sex work in Charleston, South Carolina. It is perhaps the most comprehensive list of brothel locations throughout the late nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries and among the first to examine the efficacy of policing attempts on the peninsula of Charleston, South Carolina.

The English language folktales collected from coastal New England in the 19th and 20th centuries display a prominence of weather magic motifs compared with folktales from other regions of the United States. This paper aims to explain the success of the weather magic theme in New England folklore collections and to serve as a starting point for scholarly discourse on the subject, which has hitherto been sparse. This study utilizes climate research, both scholarly and popular collections of folktales, local travel guides, and colonial and labor histories. Through a combination of historical analysis, comparative study, and textual analysis, it offers insight into the historical and climatological contexts for the success of the weather magic theme. The findings indicate that immigrants brought the relevant motifs into coastal New England from England, Scotland, and Ireland. Although migrants from those nations settled in other parts of the United States, New England’s particular climate and prominent seafaring industry kept these stories relevant. The paper argues for a significant possibility of bias on the part of the folklore collectors and authors who canonized these motifs into the region’s folklore, especially regarding their own regional identities and nautical occupations. This study may serve as a starting point for scholarly discourse on weather magic motifs in folklore and the collections of English language stories from coastal New England.

This paper explores the reception history of Su Shi (1037-1101), examining how his image evolved over time and across different interpretations. It discusses how Su Shi, a composite model of a loyal official and a carefree literatus, was portrayed in historical, literary, and dramatic sources. By analyzing the interplay between Su Shi’s works and works of reception, this paper delves into the complex dynamics of values surrounding his image construction. This paper argues the reception of Su Shi’s works and his image was not a linear progression, but rather a constant process of negotiations and contentions of different discourses. It opposes a simplistic portrayal of Su Shi, highlighting the multifaceted nature of his persona and the diversity of perspectives that emerged over the centuries. Through critical analysis, this paper reveals the interplay of values and discourses that shaped Su Shi’s reception, resisting attempts to canonize or monopolize his image.

Robert F. Kennedy was his brother’s successful campaign manager, Attorney General at the height of the Civil Rights movement, a U.S. Senator, and presidential candidate in one of the most tumultuous times in American history. His celebrity was a catalyst for intense opinions about him, consequently, Kennedy was both loved and loathed. The crafting of his image through savvy media management while Robert Kennedy was alive was enhanced and magnified after his death. How did this mythology, particularly in film, flourish? This thesis examines a few examples in how the Robert Kennedy story morphed into legend -- whether it was his efforts as a champion of equality and justice within the Black community, or his guiding hand in the Cuban Missile crisis, with a focus on uncovering the historical truth, brings light to the “how.” There will also be an analysis of the number of documentaries and retrospectives beginning the night of Robert Kennedy’s death. While it’s been proved that the Kennedy family were conscious of press relations to improve their image, they were a visually attractive and dynamic family that invited media attention. The celebrity aspect of Robert Kennedy was a combination of his own fame, plus a living extension of possibilities lost with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The candid film of Robert Kennedy as Attorney General, as well as his physical adventures, travels around the world, and visits to the poor and destitute, which were all filmed mostly at the behest of his team, greatly contributed to his image and iconography. There was an enormous number of documentaries and film portrayals of Kennedy that enhanced his image. Into this mix is the human factor of losing a political leader in such a violent and tragic way that left those who were critical of Kennedy mostly silent in the aftermath. Popular biographies and the large number of films that featured Robert Kennedy either focus on his memory or portray him in dramaturgical terms which only heightened his iconic status. This paper shows how extensively film was used to augment his image, and after his assassination it was Robert Kennedy’s family, colleagues, friends, and admirers who boosted his accomplishments to mythological levels because there was no real measurement other than “what might have been.”

The Cold War era saw the emergence of many different pop culture phenomena. Some were political, such as the Punk Rock and Hippie movements. Others were fashionable trends like Disco. However, Heavy Metal music is unique due to its opaque origins, skyrocketing popularity, and final disappearance after the end of the Cold War. Heavy Metal had a direct relationship with reflecting the fears and anxieties of the late Cold War period. It was a direct response to the Hippie activist counterculture rock n' roll of the 1960s, and it charters a new path of rock n' roll in the process. However, Heavy Metal's content and moral reputation grew darker, so it lost much of its widespread appeal in the post-Cold War world. The emergence of Grunge and Hip-Hop in the 1990s dethroned Heavy Metal from its seat atop the pop-culture throne. This paper tracks the evolution and downfall of Heavy Metal from the 1970s through the 1990s. The findings are that Heavy Metal music was unique to the Cold War and could not exist without this conflict's geopolitical and social climate. However, Heavy Metal has survived in developing regions throughout decolonization. These individuals use Heavy Metal as an active and passive means of resistance against repressive and oppressive societies.

This project is a study of the establishment of the ‘PC Master Race’ identity within the larger personal computer/desktop computer enthusiast and gamer communities. This group (and its associated ideology) is traceable to the late 2000s and early 2010s and continues to be active to present. In this paper I will show that the group’s use of technical jargon and fascination with specific consumer technologies acts as a cultural mediator between larger enthusiast communities. Additionally, I posit that these ideas have origins in techno-social processes borne out of commodity computing machinery developed in the 1990s and 2000s. Here, the framework established by Donald MacKenzie, and later expanded by James S Small, is useful in understanding ‘technology’ as a contingent social process, not as a linear trajectory. Paths not taken, or ‘failures,’ are worth evaluation to understand why a given technology developed as it did. In the case of the ‘PC Master Race’ there is also a strong socioeconomic component at work – it is not simply a matter of ‘being an enthusiast’ but instead ‘being an enthusiast in the right way.’ Divining what ‘the right way’ means, and for whom, is the ultimate purpose of this project. Introduction: An unattributed image macro quips “[t]ired of looking at Bad Screen. Can’t wait to get home and look at Good Screen” The implicit underlying point being that many in the modern work force rely upon desktop, deskside, laptop, luggable, or similar pieces of computing machinery as their daily workplace, while simultaneously anticipating a return to their home wherein many leisure activities are also provided by computing machinery. Such computing machines have become a ubiquitous aspect of many people’s lives in the early 21st century. They are used for communication, business, scientific research, and other general tasks that largely conform under the umbrella term ‘computing.’ Recognition of this is neither novel nor unstudied, and represents both a significant amount of scholarship on the part of historians of technology, as well as a realization of mid-20th century technologists’ visions for the future.1 It is fair to say, the ‘Bad Screen’ is well-studied and well understood as a form of modern technology. However, what about the ‘Good Screen’? Where do leisure activities fit into the broader discussion of the history of computing machinery, and of computer science? A survey of the totality of uses for modern computing machinery in leisure would be not only exhaustive to read, but impossible to accurately compile given the myriad uses that people have found for computing machinery, especially machinery connected to the Internet, over the last twenty or thirty years. Therefore, this project is interested in only one possible leisure activity that people engage in: videogaming. A comprehensive survey of videogaming would also be prohibitively complex, so an additional series of scope reductions are necessary to further refine our topic to enthusiast videogaming from ca. 2002-2012 and the ways in which enthusiasts fashion themselves against non-enthusiast, non-expert users. This period is chosen because it is here that we see the price of self- styled ‘PC Master Race’ - an Internet-based community of computing enthusiasts who describe their mission as ‘spreading the Second Golden Age of PC Gaming.’2 Even a brief survey of the ‘PC Master Race’ (sometimes stylized/abbreviated as ‘PCMR’ or ‘pcmr’) subreddit will reveal a community of over 3,000,000 members that is seemingly obsessed with customized high performance desktop computing machines, as well as one founded on the rejection of inexpensive commodity machines and ‘gaming consoles.’3 Also striking is participants (often) waggish use of explicitly religious language when describing their experience – they do not simply ‘join’ but instead ‘ascend.’ This is also a group that attempts to directly chart its own history, citing its founding in 2011, and highlighting a number of sources as ‘foundational’ to understanding ‘what pcmr is about.’4 This work attempts to get at the motivations for the formation of the PCMR group, analyzing both their claims as a consumer advocacy group and enthusiast community, as well as the underlying technological story surrounding the gaming- oriented computing machinery which they use.

In 1938 U.S. counter espionage agencies learned of Abwehr espionage in America. Since that discovery, historical narratives of the history of Abwehr espionage in the United States can be summarized within three distinct themes. First, once espionage began, it was fairly limited in scope, centered around the New York City metropolitan area, and was executed by poorly trained or untrained individuals. Second, these efforts occurred prior to the U.S. entry into the war, were continually exposed by U.S. counter espionage agencies, and as a result of that exposure, fundamentally ceased to exist near the end of 1941. Third, the espionage that did exist within the U.S. had no impact on the conduct or outcome of the Second World War. Declassified sources available since the early 2000s in American, British, and German archives, or uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal a different scope and impact to that espionage. This paper seeks to use the declassified archival information for comparative analysis of the historical narratives to determine the actual extent of Abwehr espionage in the U.S. and its relative impact on the Second World War. Comparative analysis that pits this historical misunderstanding against declassified archival primary sources only available within the last two decades reveals an Abwehr that was far more present and capable within the United States, and the results of its espionage activity had tangible impacts prior to and during the U.S. participation in the war.

It is said that the victors write the history. That adage is demonstrably true for the history of the First World War. The German Empire, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, has shouldered most of the blame for the war for most of the past century. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles declares this German guilt in no uncertain terms. But is this a fair assessment? A study of pre-war German diplomatic and military actions provides a method to partially assess the culpability of Germany for the Great War. A fair analysis of that geopolitical activity shows that the actions of the German Empire were in accordance with normal and accepted policies and methods of other Great Power European countries of that time. The German actions were directed at protecting the Reich and enhancing Germany’s presence on the world stage, not at aggression towards other states. This manner of international interaction is not consistent with a long-term strategy aimed at initiating major warfare. This paper is an important addition to the historiography on the subject of German responsibility for the First World War because of its demonstration of the conventionality of Germany’s pre-war policies and activities. A modified DIME model (diplomatic-informational-military-economic with the addition of a social aspect to the model) is used as the organizational method of discussion and analysis. This specific model may be referred to as a DIMES model.

The Hypothesis of Cultural Indigeneity proposes the novel concept that a non-native culture may qualify as indigenous to an area and, by extension, imply a right to legal protections for a non-native human population whose existence preserves an indigenous culture. This master’s thesis focuses on the contemporary field of indigeneity studies and the quintessential case study of the hypothesis, the culture of the Pitcairn Islands, through the lens of the intersection of culture, indigeneity, and international law. The methodology adheres to best practices of history, anthropology, and sociology, while taking particular care to place the views of indigenous populations at the epicenter of analysis, respecting the axiological standard of indigeneity studies. The present paper does not seek to make sweeping assertions about culture, indigeneity, nor even about “cultural indigeneity.” Rather, this research identifies how culture can be considered indigenous; how that status might provide legal protections for human populations which preserve such indigenous cultures; and why there is an extensive opportunity for an academic intervention in the field of indigeneity studies through the introduction of the niche of cultural indigeneity.