Letter from the Editors

oai:iowa-historical-review:id:3184

Legislating the Landscape: The Battle for a Federal Wilderness Bill for Montana, 1979-1988

Federally owned lands in the western United States have long been a source of legal and political conflict. Clashes between development interests, environmentalists, legislators, and indigenous groups throughout the 1980s defined federal land policy in Montana as well. In 1988, after nearly a decade of effort, S.2751 – the Montana National Resources Protection and Utilization Act – was poised to designate over 7 million acres of federal land in Montana as wilderness, recreation areas, or for development,ending years of legal limbo. Despite broad support from both houses of Congress, President Reagan killed the bill with a pocket veto, and those lands remain undesignated today. This paper examines the political actors and processes behind S. 2751, and investigates the bill’s place in the changing political climate of 1980s American politics, particularly on issues of environment in the west

Holding Out For a Hero(ine): A Postfeminist Analysis of Superhero Stories from the 1980s

This research thesis focuses on the 1980s and how postfeminism in media was established during this period. Postfeminism as an ideology believes that feminism "died," or at minimum completed and no longer functions as necessary, as women seem to have legal equality now. This thesis looks at postfeminism through the lens of superhero stories from the 1980s. Ultimately, the stories presented show how the overall rejection of the ideology of feminism in favor of postfeminism after the "success" of the second wave affected superhero comic culture in America. Additionally, this thesis looks at the inclusion of this ideology around women\u27s rights in the 1980s in a part of pop culture traditionally produced for men. Superhero stories as a medium were more gender-biased toward men in the 1980s because men were the primary consumers of this type of media, so the inclusion of feminism (or the lack thereof) demonstrated how second-wave feminism and postfeminism impacted the presentation to several groups, including those that were not necessarily affected by these movements

Opposing Tyranny: White Resistance against the Rhodesian Front (1965-1977)

In November 1965, the government of Southern Rhodesia unilaterally declared itself independent from Britain. It was an extreme response to the British directive that there would be “no independence before majority rule.” The ruling political party during this time, the Rhodesian Front, feared the consequences of relinquishing power. Born out of imperialist beliefs and anti-communist sentiment, this ultra-conservative political party sought to maintain minority rule and asserted that Rhodesia would “never in a thousand years” be ruled by the Black majority. While many Whites supported minority rule, my paper will focus on the efforts of select groups within the White African community to subvert the Rhodesian Front led government and initiate majority rule within what would become the state of Zimbabwe. I am looking specifically at two groups of people who have different philosophies, yet share the same goal of majority rule. This paper will discuss notable members from each group including Judith Todd, an equal rights activist and daughter of a former Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, and Bishop Donal Lamont, an Irish missionary who defied an emergency governmental order and assisted the Black resistance

Patriarchy and Gender Law in Ancient Rome and Colonial America

Roman Antiquity and Colonial America shared much in common regarding limits on women’s legal rights and the role of gender in law. Gendered stereotypes regarding women’s ability and place in society are reflected in the patria potestas and manus of Ancient Roman law, as well as through the patriarchal and pious Puritan laws of New England society during the American Colonial period. Both male-dominated social and legal systems were based on the notion of women’s innate inferiority and female submission to male authority. Gender expectations and biases are also present, not only in family law, but also in law governing sexual behavior and partnerships. While Roman law punishes sodomy and male same-sex relationships on the grounds of contradicting the concept of the pater familias, Puritan New England relied on Christian morals and religious teachings to govern their sodomy laws. However, such gender disparities in the law are also subject to social status and race, leading men who did not reflect the respective society’s preferable identity to face harsher punishments as a result. Regarding the concept of gender and male superiority, family law and the societal expectations that both shaped and were shaped by such laws reflect an ever-present patriarchal structure throughout the Early American and Ancient Roman legal systems. The gendered attitudes toward marriage, rape, sex, and consent in both Roman and Early American society are reflected in the laws that governed the lives of women and gender non-conforming minorities in both societies

There\u27s No Business Like Oil Business: The Allure of Tax Sheltered Oil Income to Hollywood\u27s Wealthy

Hollywood’s greatest stars did not only produce blockbusters, but were savvy businessmen who also produced oil gushers. These stars invested in oil interests in order to shelter a large part of their income from the rapidly rising income tax rates of the 1930s. The unique tax benefit they used was the percentage oil depletion allowance, part of the Revenue Act of 1926, which allowed an oil company to reduce its taxable income by 27 ½ percent. By the 1950s, many Hollywood individuals and corporations extensively invested in the oil business which made the allowance an important component of their financial portfolios. Meanwhile, rich oilmen were also attracted to Hollywood to capitalize on a big hit, or use the losses on a money losing movie to offset their taxable profits from oil. Thus, in the mid-twentieth century, the American oil industry and Hollywood formed a close, mutually reinforcing relationship, and one that academic historians have largely overlooked. After the 1973 oil shock, the percentage depletion allowance came under threat as it was repealed for major integrated oil companies. To protect the allowance for the non-integrated independent producers, Hollywood found their political patron in the famous Hollywood actor and Republican president, Ronald Reagan. As president, Reagan ardently defended the retention of the allowance during his term in the 1980s. Hollywood’s role in the oil industry developed from being a few casual investors using the oil depletion allowance into a substantial oil industry participant and a major political defender of oil-specific tax provisions