A Real Social & Political Revolution : Nativism, Class Conflict, and Urban Reform in Portland, Maine (1840-1923)

In 1923, Portland, Maine voters approved passed a ballot measure that jettisoned the nearly century-old Council-Mayor plan in favor of a Council-City Manager form of governance. This dramatic alteration was supported by the Portland Chamber of Commerce and the Ku Klux Klan; it allowed the centralization of political power in the hands of an appointed City Manager and a City Council dominated by business interests. Taking this campaign as its focus, the following study incorporates nativism, class conflict, and urban reform in Portland, Maine with a focus on the period of 1840-1923. It blends ethnic, political, and urban history to analyze several periods of heightened class conflict between the city’s largely Yankee business elites and the workers and ethnic communities which challenged their dominance. Special attention is given to the later portion of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era (1886-1916) as well as the subsequent backlash (1917-1923). During each crisis, Yankee business leaders maintained their dominant social and economic position by building cross-class alliances through religious and ethnic appeals to Yankee workers and professionals. These alliances proved necessary for business elites in their efforts to overcome challenges posed by radical workers and ethnic communities. One of the favored tools for suppressing increased demands for democracy on the municipal level was municipal charter reform. This study demonstrates that such reforms were aimed at suppressing the threat of radical democracy to preserve ethnocentric capitalist hegemony. The latter portion of this thesis focuses on increased xenophobia during World War I and the first Red Scare, before examining the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (1920-1923). Portland’s Ku Klux Klan was somewhat dissimilar from other incarnations of the Klan; rather than oppose big business and embark on a campaign of terror and violence, it preferred to engage in political struggle, often alongside the Chamber of Commerce. With the Chamber providing the policy and the Klan providing an emotional appeal to drive turnout, the two groups defeated a disorganized opposition to institute a Council-City Manager proposal in Maine’s largest city

Nature and Nurture in Dark Matter Halos

Cosmological simulations consistently predict specific properties of dark matter halos, but these have not yet led to a physical understanding that is generally accepted. This is especially true for the central regions of these structures. Recently two major themes have emerged. In one, the dark matter halo is primarily a result of the sequential accretion of primordial structure (ie `Nature'); while in the other, dynamical relaxation (ie `Nurture') dominates at least in the central regions. Some relaxation is however required in either mechanism. In this paper we accept the recently established scale-free sub-structure of halos as an essential part of both mechanisms. Consequently; a simple model for the central relaxation based on a self-similar cascade of tidal interactions, is contrasted with a model based on the accretion of adiabatically self-similar, primordial structure. We conclude that a weak form of this relaxation is present in the simulations, but that is normally described as the radial orbit instability.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, fig with parts 1 to d, fig 3 with parts a to

The Mechanics of Fluid - Particle Systems

The study of the interaction of particles moving relative to fluids has had a long history and has led to many useful operations particularly in modern agriculture. Of special interest is the trajectory of particles and crop components but, until recently, it has not been possible to easily determine these. However with the recent publication of a trajectory plotting system and an associated monograph giving examples of its application, this need has now been met.Both should find ready application in education, research and design in the agricultural engineering industries. Copies of the trajectory plotting program and the associated monograph can be obtained at the addresses given in Section 4 below

Oxalates as Activating Groups for Alcohols in Visible Light Photoredox Catalysis: Formation of Quaternary Centers by Redox-Neutral Fragment Coupling.

Alkyl oxalates are new bench-stable alcohol-activating groups for radical generation under visible light photoredox conditions. Using these precursors, the first net redox-neutral coupling of tertiary and secondary alcohols with electron-deficient alkenes is achieved

Black holes and Galactic density cusps -- I. Radial orbit cusps and bulges

In this paper, we study the distribution functions that arise naturally during self-similar radial infall of collisionless matter. Such matter may be thought of either as stars or as dark matter particles. If a rigorous steady state is assumed, then the system is infinite and is described by a universal distribution function given the self-similar index. The steady logarithmic potential case is exceptional and yields the familiar Gaussian for an infinite system with an inverse-square density profile. We show subsequently that for time-dependent radial self-similar infall, the logarithmic case is accurately described by the Fridmann and Polyachenko distribution function. The system in this case is finite but growing. We are able to embed a central mass in the universal steady distribution only by iteration, except in the case of massless particles. The iteration yields logarithmic corrections to the massless particle case and requires a `renormalization' of the central mass. A central spherical mass may be accurately embedded in the Fridmann and Polyachenko growing distribution however. Some speculation is given concerning the importance of radial collisionless infall in actual galaxy formation.Comment: 10 pp, 3 fig