History Senior Integrated Projects

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This collection includes Senior Integrated Projects (SIP's, formerly known as Senior Individualized Projects) completed in the History Department. Abstracts are generally available to the public, but PDF files are available only to current Kalamazoo College students, faculty, and staff.

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    Jefferson Poland, The East Bay Area Sexual Freedom League, and the Language of Liberation
    (2023-11-01) Kaplan, Leo V.; Lewis, James E., 1964-
    In the mid-1960s, Jefferson Poland, Sam Sloan, and Richard Thorne led a group in which (mostly white, mostly heterosexual) men and women were able to indulge in free love and self-discovery. Interviews with League members show that a great number remember it fondly as a key part of their personal development. But even in its heyday, the League struggled with a dark conundrum in rationalizing how one could free individuals from anti-sexual brainwashing without coercion.
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    "From Protest Signs to News Headlines" : The Vietnam War Antiwar Movement and Counterculture in Media Discourse
    (2024-01-01) Gage, Taryn M.; Lewis, James E., 1964-
    In the volatile era of the 1960s and early 1970s. the United States found itself embroiled in the deeply divisive Vietnam War. As the conflict unfolded on the distant shores of Southeast Asia. a parallel battle for hearts and minds raged on the home front. The antiwar and counterculture movements. fueled by a fervent desire for change and dissent against the war, emerged as powerful social forces that challenged the status quo. Integral to the evolution of these movements was the unprecedented influence of television, a medium that became a battleground for shaping public opinion and disseminating the stark realities of war. The media's portrayal of the antiwar and 2 counterculture movements, juxtaposed against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, not only reflected the societal fissures of the time but also underscored the transformative role that television played in molding public consciousness during this tumultuous period in American history. During this turbulent era of the Vietnam War. mainstream media outlets. including prominent publications like Time magazine and The New York Times, played a pivotal role in shaping public perception and discourse around two interrelated movements that defined the period: the counterculture movement and the antiwar movement. These two movements were emblematic of the broader societal upheaval and cultural transformations of the 1960s and early 1970s, and they sometimes stood in stark contrast to the policies and ideals of the United States government at the time. As such, Time and The New York Times. among others, became platforms for not only reporting on these movements but also reflecting the dynamic and evolving attitudes within American society. This introduction will explore how these influential media outlets portrayed and, in some ways, influenced the counterculture and anti war movements, revealing the complex interplay between media, politics, and cultural shifts during a period of intense societal change. During the Vietnam War, mainstream media such as Time magazine and The New York Times were both heralded and criticized for their coverage of the counterculture and anti war movements. While these publications sought to provide comprehensive reporting and analysis of these movements, they often found themselves navigating the challenging terrain of balancing objective journalism with the intense emotions and divisions of the era. This duality in media coverage gave rise to debates about media bias and influence, as well as the broader question of whether these outlets were merely chronicling events or actively shaping public opinion and government policy. The portrayal of the counterculture and anti war movements in mainstream media during the Vietnam War remains a testament to the power and responsibility of the press in reflecting and influencing the social and political climate of a nation in turmoil.
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    Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing : The Illuminati’s Impact on the Rise of Conservatism in Late Eighteenth Century Britain
    (2023-11-01) Topf, Simon; Haus, Jeffrey, 1964-
    The Illuminati conspiracy emerged in the United Kingdom towards the end of the French Revolution. For the British, the shock of the uprising had largely subsided, leaving them only to ask how such a thing had occurred. A number of reactionary figures would pop up in the wake of the revolution, looking for any and every possible explanation for the revolution. France had long been a paragon of conservative values with its strong centralized monarchy; to have seen it fall naturally would have called into question the entire ideology of British conservatism. For the conservatives to accept that the French Revolution was caused by anything less than an inauthentic and demonic conspiracy was to accept that their worldview was a deeply flawed one, that they were beholden to a dogmatic ideology that could not resolve the structural issues that were the true cause of the revolution. To the great fortune of pseudo-historic television show hosts everywhere, John Robison, professor of the natural sciences at Edinburgh University, decided he had deduced the origin of what he saw as a nonsensical revolution. He concluded that the defunct Bavarian Illuminati had infiltrated French intellectual culture and high society to organize a revolt against all that is good and godly in Europe. Robison would publish these thoughts in 1797 with his book Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried on in the Secret Meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Society Collected from Good Authority. The book would discuss his theory in a nature that would be nearly as long winded as his title, as Robison would meander his way through over 400 pages of paranoid ramblings.
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    "A Widow Seven Weeks" : The Diary of Louisa Adams Park
    (2023-11-01) Holmes, Fiona; Boyer Lewis, Charlene M., 1965-
    In December of 1800, Louisa Adams Park addressed her diary, beginning by writing, "Louisa Adams-- (how odd that looks) was a heedless girl-- Louisa Park is not." Louisa continued, adding, "See what it is to have a good husband that one loves. Oh that I could-- that it were possible for me, in some way, to show him the unbounded depth of my affection. But fate has placed me in a situation where I can do or say no more than others." Louisa wrote in her diary during her husband's voyage on the USS Warren in the West Indies, often speaking directly to him in its pages. Her diary served many purposes: it aided her household management; it was where she mapped the social circles she and John ran in; and where, increasingly, she vented her hopes and frustrations to her husband in an epistolary style during his long absence. Louisa's diary was no secret, either, such as that of Elizabeth Pepys's, which met its fate in a fire upon her husband's discovery of its existence. It had been John's idea that Louisa keep a diary in the first place. He clarified as much to the future readers of his wife's diary, having transcribed it in the 1840s, stating that there she could "keep a little journal of occurrences &, when disposed, of her thoughts, during my absence, as it might be an amusement in some of her solitary hours, and would certainly be an interesting manuscript for my perusal." Louisa's diary had the potential to take many forms; it could be a simple helpmate, where she kept terse, barebones, dated entries of weather, correspondence, and household matters with very little introspection or, if she had the time and inclination, could be a space for self-expression. Neither one nor the other, Louisa's diary takes on a variety of forms throughout its eight-month existence; beginning and ending with her husband's departure and arrival, it is shaped by and for him. Louisa herself expressed as much by clarifying to her diary that she was no longer Louisa Adams, a girl, but Louisa Park, a married woman. By doing so, she reinforced her changed status and the social and cultural mores that simultaneously shaped and were expected of her and influenced how and what she wrote in her diary. Yet, Louisa's diary also acted as a space in which she confided her frustrations and worries, moments in which her anxiety for her husband, herself, and her child erupted into moments of conflict. As scholar Felicity Nussbaum writes, "Women's autobiographical writing, especially the private writing of diary and journal, is one location of these contradictions that both produce and reflect historicized concepts of self and gender while sometimes threatening to disrupt or transform them. " Louisa's diary is both structured by the cultural dictates of womanhood and motherhood in the post-revolutionary era and also an action against them; it is this dynamic that has the potential to complicate the diary as a historical document and diary writing itself, thereby enriching the study of woman's lives and experiences.
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    Corruption and The KKK : Two Issues That Defined Ulysses S. Grant's Presidency
    (2024-01-01) Ribaudo, Raymond; Lewis, James E., 1964-
    Grant's presidency was complicated for the two issues he faced the most, civil rights and corruption. He is often most remembered for corruption as that was the primary focus throughout the 20th century. However, as we are now living in a world where civil rights is still an issue and African Americans are still being mistreated, Grant's work for civil rights and his battle in taking down the Ku Klux Klan is now more of a focus rather than his corrupt administration and is now much more appreciated. The more recent authors acknowledge that civil rights is still an issue and they present Grant's work in this area more than they focus on the corruption within his administration. Grant's legacy was always rising and decreasing in time but in today's world, his reputation is on the upward trend and is continuing in that direction because we acknowledge the fight for civil rights is still continuing and we appreciate the work that Grant has done in that area as he was one of the first to take on that fight.
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