History Limited: The HiddenPolitics of Postwar Popular Histories

This dissertation examines popular history and collective memory in the mid-20th century. Each chapter studies a different source of politicized history, exploring who created the history to be disseminated, what their goals and motivations were, why the historical trope particularly suited their needs and objectives, how they managed to convey ideologies through representations of the past, and how this popular history related to contemporary social and political issues. All of these "historians" - DuPont's radio and television show, Cavalcade of America; the History Book Club; CBS's historical news program, You Are There; the American Heritage Foundation's "Freedom Train"; and the Smithsonian Institution - attempted to mold collective memory into an ideological foundation for their agendas.  During a tumultuous period, at home and abroad, the past became a safer forum for political discourse, and reexamining these sources of historical information and interpretation sheds new light on postwar politics. Surprisingly, deep ideological divisions persisted well into the age of apparent consensus. However, despite significant differences, the key people in all of these cases shared the same basic assumption about the relevance of history to contemporary society. The widespread acceptance of a strong relationship between past and present in postwar American society contrasts with later attitudes toward the past. The new technologies that enabled the communication of particular historical representations and interpretations changed too, and rapidly matured into forms less suited to the dissemination of historical lessons. As these attempts to control the public's views of the past began to fail, popular history was increasingly driven by marketplace considerations and was less confined to perspectives carefully chosen by a particular group of elites

Race and Justice in Mississippi\u27s Central Piney Woods, 1940-2010

“Race and Justice in Mississippi’s Central Piney Woods, 1940-2010,” examines the black freedom struggle in Jones and Forrest counties. The writer concludes that more than any other region of Mississippi, the Central Piney Woods became the pivotal theater in the war for racial justice because the intensity of its racial oppression combined with its unparalleled suffrage campaign, and watershed street protests forced a federal alliance, instigated landmark court rulings, and generated black political victories that lay the foundations for a more equitable racial order. To obtain a broader perspective on the forces that transformed racial justice over time, this community study focuses on the nexus at which the civil right struggle, massive resistance, and federal intervention converged; and it expands the typical periodization of civil rights studies to examine the racial struggle from the Jim Crow era, through the Civil Rights Movement, and into the racial landscape of contemporary times. The first stage of the modern black freedom struggle began in the Central Piney Woods on the eve of World War II as blacks capitalized on the termination of American isolationism to expose racial oppression in the South. Yet the pervasive racial police state prevented the rise of a full-scale revolt until the mid-sixties. In 1964, the black freedom struggle moved into its second stage when civil rights activists launched a decade-long revolt against the racial order that forced the dismantling of the Jim Crow state. Determined to address inequities unresolved by the Civil Rights Movement, the freedom struggle moved into its third stage as local blacks launched a second movement to fight for political clout, economic equity, retributive justice, and the termination of discrimination in the schools, the courts, and city government. Although the struggle transformed the Central Piney Woods into the harbinger of biracial governing, economic, educational, and infrastructure disparities persisted, and the society was still largely segregated. At the least, as blacks had acquired substantial political power and as white progressivism had grown, the Central Piney Woods had an historic opportunity to address these disparities efficaciously and to seek a racially reconciled society

Pilot study for subgroup classification for autism spectrum disorder based on dysmorphology and physical measurements in Chinese children

Poster Sessions: 157 - Comorbid Medical Conditions: abstract 157.058 58BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder affecting individuals along a continuum of severity in communication, social interaction and behaviour. The impact of ASD significantly varies amongst individuals, and the cause of ASD can originate broadly between genetic and environmental factors. Objectives: Previous ASD researches indicate that early identification combined with a targeted treatment plan involving behavioural interventions and multidisciplinary therapies can provide substantial improvement for ASD patients. Currently there is no cure for ASD, and the clinical variability and uncertainty of the disorder still remains. Hence, the search to unravel heterogeneity within ASD by subgroup classification may provide clinicians with a better understanding of ASD and to work towards a more definitive course of action. METHODS: In this study, a norm of physical measurements including height, weight, head circumference, ear length, outer and inner canthi, interpupillary distance, philtrum, hand and foot length was collected from 658 Typical Developing (TD) Chinese children aged 1 to 7 years (mean age of 4.19 years). The norm collected was compared against 80 ASD Chinese children aged 1 to 12 years (mean age of 4.36 years). We then further attempted to find subgroups within ASD based on identifying physical abnormalities; individuals were classified as (non) dysmorphic with the Autism Dysmorphology Measure (ADM) from physical examinations of 12 body regions. RESULTS: Our results show that there were significant differences between ASD and TD children for measurements in: head circumference (p=0.009), outer (p=0.021) and inner (p=0.021) canthus, philtrum length (p=0.003), right (p=0.023) and left (p=0.20) foot length. Within the 80 ASD patients, 37(46%) were classified as dysmorphic (p=0.00). CONCLUSIONS: This study attempts to identify subgroups within ASD based on physical measurements and dysmorphology examinations. The information from this study seeks to benefit ASD community by identifying possible subtypes of ASD in Chinese population; in seek for a more definitive diagnosis, referral and treatment plan.published_or_final_versio

Nunavut, A Creation Story. The Inuit Movement in Canada\u27s Newest Territory

This is a qualitative study of the 30-year land claim negotiation process (1963-1993) through which the Inuit of Nunavut transformed themselves from being a marginalized population with few recognized rights in Canada to becoming the overwhelmingly dominant voice in a territorial government, with strong rights over their own lands and waters. In this study I view this negotiation process and all of the activities that supported it as part of a larger Inuit Movement and argue that it meets the criteria for a social movement. This study bridges several social sciences disciplines, including newly emerging areas of study in social movements, conflict resolution, and Indigenous studies, and offers important lessons about the conditions for a successful mobilization for Indigenous rights in other states. In this research I examine the extent to which Inuit values and worldviews directly informed movement emergence and continuity, leadership development and, to some extent, negotiation strategies. While I originally set out to deconstruct all factors that led to the creation of Nunavut – looking for a model for successful Indigenous movement outcomes – I found the focus of my work increasingly gravitating toward a more detailed study of Inuit ontology and the ways it shaped movement leaders and actors, but also how movement leaders and actors helped shape and define Inuit ontology. Throughout the Inuit movement in Nunavut, Inuit ontology underwent a reflexive process of canonization resulting in a coherent philosophical framework that can be placed on a par with those emerging from more well-known European traditions. I used the outcome of this process to evaluate the narratives and rhetoric of movement actors on their philosophical constancy. This case study strengthens the argument put forth by Marshall Ganz that social movement outcomes are directly informed by life experiences, particularly those of leaders. Ganz argues that those experiences were essential in shaping their thought processes, their motivations, their repertoires of collective action, and their extensive use of networks (Ganz, 2000, p. 1005). This particular study of one part of the Inuit movement that took place in Nunavut not only affirms Ganz’ arguments, but by looking at the relationship between Inuit ontology and leadership, helps to provide a model for how – at least in this one case – the life experiences of social movement actors directly inform both. Analysis of the narratives and life stories of over 120 movement participants suggests that the degree to which members of a movement’s leadership share common life experiences, experiences working with each other in other contexts outside of the social movement (in this case through kinship ties), and ontological thought or worldviews may determine the degree to which they are able to achieve unity and maintain continuity over time. More specifically, culturally and experientially-rooted common understandings of leadership, common ways of dealing with internal conflict, and clearly defined and effective modes of leadership oriented cultural reproduction helped the Inuit leadership and Inuit organizations remain or appear cohesive for almost three decades. As with most movements, the core number of actors in the Inuit movement was small; movement continuity did not depend upon recruiting and maintaining large numbers of people. The process of choosing movement members was mostly closed, and therefore far more likely to include Inuit from common leadership backgrounds who shared similar worldviews and were tied to each other through kinship. Many other factors, including those that fall under the more traditional purview of political opportunity frameworks, must be taken into account when looking at any movement as a whole. However, as this study has shown, far more attention needs to be paid not only to the life experiences of a movement’s leadership, but also to the ontological thought or worldviews (shared or divergent) that helped shape or give meaning to those experiences

Outside Influences: Great War Experiences along the Canada-U.S. Border

This dissertation provides a history of three border regions along the Canada-U.S. international boundary during the First World War era (1914-1918), including Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan; St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and Calais, Maine; and White Rock, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington. It examines the development of cross-border economies and border-crossing cultures in these communities before this period and reveals how the war–and specifically U.S. neutrality–affected such transnational relationships. Furthermore, it investigates local reactions to wartime legislation designed to better monitor the cross-border movement of enemy aliens, undesirable immigrant groups, enlisted men, and, following the introduction of the Military Service Act in 1917, men of military age (18 to 45). The three case studies included in this dissertation reveal that attitudes toward the international boundary’s permeability varied widely across Canada. In communities where the war was preceded by several generations of intense cross-border economic and social relations, such as at Windsor and St. Stephen, the conflict failed to disrupt the continued growth of distinct border-crossing cultures. In fact, in many cases residents of these communities used various local channels to express their belief that the federal government should better accommodate transnational traditions when implementing legislation affecting travel across the international boundary. Furthermore, the language used to formulate these protests reveals that many residents of Windsor and St. Stephen believed that they resided in a distinctly international community. By contrast, the White Rock case study reveals that where settlement at the border did not pre-date the introduction of a centralized immigration apparatus, there were far fewer protests against changes to the boundary’s permeability. The White Rock and Blaine example also demonstrates that concerns about the movement of certain goods and people–including alcohol and undesirable racial groups–factored into local conceptions of the international boundary and an extranational neighbour. Together, these three case studies provide insight into how Canadians in border communities interpreted the war, nationalism, and the Canada-U.S. relationship

University of San Diego News Print Media Coverage 2007.03

Printed clippings housed in folders with a table of contents arranged by topic.https://digital.sandiego.edu/print-media/1050/thumbnail.jp