Electoral competition has been an essential part of acquiring the American presidency since Jackson’s election of 1828. Competition made strategic considerations to ensure the maximization of...Show moreElectoral competition has been an essential part of acquiring the American presidency since Jackson’s election of 1828. Competition made strategic considerations to ensure the maximization of electoral support increasingly relevant. One phenomenon that traditionally dominated strategic thinking during American elections is ‘Outsiderism’: during campaigns candidates deliberately assume an outsider position in the electoral arena, not on the basis of genuine motivations, but for the categorical purpose of vote-maximization. Despite the fact that Outsiderism has constantly been deployed over the course of history, it has yet to receive scholarly attention. This thesis, therefore, offers an analysis of Outsiderism in the realm of American presidential campaigns. It investigates Outsiderism’s roots in the subsequent campaigns of Jackson and Van Buren through an analysis of their respective campaign biographies. Furthermore, it links Outsiderism to the framework of Rational Choice Theory, which elucidates the rather manipulative motives that induce Outsiderism. Thus, this thesis seeks to clarify to what extent Jackson and Van Buren conformed to Outsiderism during their campaign. Why did they as would-be presidents see the need to present themselves (to a certain extent) as outsiders to American politics? The results suggest that both Jackson and Van Buren as presidential candidates employed Outsiderism, although Jackson to a lesser extent than Van Buren, because they deemed it as advantageous for garnering the required support to get elected. As a result, they have paved the way for a campaign strategy that has remained dominant until today.Show less
This thesis offers a close reading of three neo-slave narratives, Octavia Butler's "Kindred," Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Charles Johnson's "Middle Passage" focusing on the themes of slave and...Show moreThis thesis offers a close reading of three neo-slave narratives, Octavia Butler's "Kindred," Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Charles Johnson's "Middle Passage" focusing on the themes of slave and post-slavery community, family and gender in relation to the historical trauma of slavery. This thesis first addresses the historiographical debates about the agency and resistance of enslaved people within a system of systematic oppression and dispossession and then demonstrates how the three novels negotiate this issue. Both "Kindred" and "Beloved" probe into the limitations and possibilities of the community as a site of black male and female empowerment. Instead of romanticizing life in the free and enslaved black communities, both Butler and Morrison challenge these sites and call attention to the costs of resistance to the slavery regime. On the other hand, in his effort to liberate his fiction from black identity politics that foreground the works of Butler and Morrison, Johnson explores the cultural hybridity of his protagonist, but he ultimately only reproduces patriarchal values he overtlty parodies.Show less
This paper offers an in-depth study into slaves using poison as a form of resistance in antebellum Virginia. Although much attention has been given to sensational and bloody slave resistance such...Show moreThis paper offers an in-depth study into slaves using poison as a form of resistance in antebellum Virginia. Although much attention has been given to sensational and bloody slave resistance such as Nat Turner’s Rebellion and more recent scholarship has focused on “everyday resistance,” this paper attempts to bridge the gap between the two as poisoning is simultaneously violent yet hidden. While previous scholars have given some study to eighteenth-century poisoning, the nineteenth century is perhaps of more interest as advances in forensics and the rise of paternalism created an environment vastly different from, and in many ways more conducive to, poisoning than that found in the previous century. To try to gain a more complete understanding of poison practices this paper presents cases that involve slaves of different genders, occupations, and ages. Contrary to some historians, this paper presents poisoning in the context of its practicality and is critical of the view of poison being spiritually tied to Africa; as such, this paper explores the many varieties of poisons slaves utilized. Using newspaper articles and other primary sources, this paper dissects the poisoning practices of slaves as well as the white reactions to it.Show less
This thesis takes as its subject Octavia Butler’s science fiction trilogy Lilith’s Brood which it reads in the context of the neo-slave narrative, using the theoretical framework of posthumanism as...Show moreThis thesis takes as its subject Octavia Butler’s science fiction trilogy Lilith’s Brood which it reads in the context of the neo-slave narrative, using the theoretical framework of posthumanism as its angle of inquiry. Most criticism concerning Lilith’s Brood fails to adequately address the discursive tension in the work between these two competing discourses: posthumanism and the neo-slave narrative. The alien invasion in Dawn for example is figured in highly contradictory terms. On the one hand it is cast in the historically grounded and emotionally charged, racialized terms of American slavery and oppression, on the other hand it is embraced as an occasion for a long overdue, radical transformation of the humanist subject into a posthuman one. The question of how these two discourses conflict and interact with each other is one that this thesis engages at length by analyzing the way Lilith’s Brood reconfigures three foundational concepts that are found in humanist philosophy – rationality, autonomy, and authenticity. According to posthumanism these virtues on which the humanist subject is founded delineate a narrow and exclusionary concept of the human. In Lilith’s Brood however they are reconfigured in order to extend to non-human creatures as well. At the same time this reconfiguration of subjectivity also more accurately describes the human condition when it is exposed in the light of posthumanism and stripped of its humanist pretentions. Each chapter takes one of the novels in the trilogy and demonstrates how it deconstructs one of these foundational concept: autonomy, authenticity and rationality. At the same time the themes of slavery and subjection run as a red thread throughout the work, at times corroborating Lilith’s Brood’s posthumanist message, at times problematizing it. In keeping these themes foregrounded the trilogy gives full expression to the struggle and danger that accompanies change, bravely acknowledging troublesome conclusions such as the inevitable inequality that haunts all power relations and the necessity of sacrifice.Show less
The thesis reevaluates racial impact of free jazz, which represented a musical reflection on the racial politics of the 1950s and the 1960s, by judging its political contributions in comparison to...Show moreThe thesis reevaluates racial impact of free jazz, which represented a musical reflection on the racial politics of the 1950s and the 1960s, by judging its political contributions in comparison to the so-called Old Guard, a group of jazz experimental artists predominantly active in the 1950s, namely Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Sonny Rollins, who were also significantly involved in the racial politics. The thesis establishes that despite a lack of popularity among critics and scholars, the Old Guard was equally politically active as free jazz, if not even more so, even though both movements portrayed their contributions differently. The Old Guard remained direct and conformational, in contrast to free jazz, who pursued more indirect and pragmatic attitude when addressing and dealing with the politics of race, as a distinct set of social, economical, and musicological, motivations at the turn of the 1960s caused free jazz to change its approach.Show less
At a time in which the dominant culture’s pressure on immigrants to Americanize increased, Mary Antin (1881-1949) and Abraham Cahan (1860-1951) wrote literary works that bore witness to the...Show moreAt a time in which the dominant culture’s pressure on immigrants to Americanize increased, Mary Antin (1881-1949) and Abraham Cahan (1860-1951) wrote literary works that bore witness to the complexity and personal costs of assimilation. The Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Antin’s (fictionalized) autobiography The Promised Land (1912) and Cahan’s novella Yekl; A Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896) and his novel The Rise of David Levinsky (1917) offer insights into the impact of America’s assimilationist ideology on identity construction, showing how both ethnic and national identities are imagined, constructed, and performed. The protagonists explore the social injustices Jewish immigrants suffered in the United States and the complex nature of Americanization by sometimes bluntly criticizing the pressure to conform, but elsewhere demonstrating that they have assimilated to a certain degree. The protagonists find themselves in a bind: on the one hand they need to give in to the pressure to assimilate in order to attain the American dream, while on the other hand they often feel tied to their Jewish cultural heritage.Show less
The American occupation between 1945 and 1948 is analysed through the eyes and minds of American political officials working in Austria. The interaction between Austrian government officials and...Show moreThe American occupation between 1945 and 1948 is analysed through the eyes and minds of American political officials working in Austria. The interaction between Austrian government officials and State Department officials, working at POLAD (USFA) and the US legation in Vienna, form the basis of this thesis. In search of America's post-war objectives in Austria this thesis discovered more than just that. The analysis indicates that the American assessment of the situation was increasingly influenced by dubious intelligence and, conflicting interpretations of domestic and international events. Uncertainty over Austria's future (imagination) became more important than actual facts and figures (knowledge) in determining policies. Both the American political officials and Austrian government contributed to the questionable notion that the country faced a considerable communist-Soviet threat, creating a potentially dangerous precedent for the future.Show less
In the autumn of 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Marriner S. Eccles, Mormon millionaire Republican and owner of many companies, including banks, in Utah, "Governor", chairman of the...Show moreIn the autumn of 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Marriner S. Eccles, Mormon millionaire Republican and owner of many companies, including banks, in Utah, "Governor", chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve System (FED). The FED is an institution in the United States similar to the central banks of the Netherlands, France or Britain. An important difference is that the European central banks are fully owned by the state, while the FED is a partnership between the federal government and 12 local private banks. In this way, a better comparison is with the European Central Bank, also a partnership of regional central banks, which, however, are owned by the state. Eccles accepted his appointment under the condition that he could dramatically reshape the FED. As well as renowned economists, for example, Milton Friedman and John Kenneth Galbraith, Eccles believed that the Depression that began in 1929 was the fault of the FED. In 1935, President Roosevelt signed the law that indeed radically reformed the DED. The most important reform was that the actual decision-making power moved to the "Board of Governors". Remarkably Eccles, although he was primarily responsible for monetary policy, saw fiscal policy as the solution to the economic problems of the 30s. Asserting that he never had read a word from him, Eccles had the same ideas as the renowned economist John M. Keynes. Increasing government spending, creating large deficits on the federal budget were the solution. All the Americans had to have more money to spend on goods and services. That would stimulate the economy and unemployment would disappear. To Eccles unemployment was not only an economic but also and above all a moral problem. The explanation for this is his Mormon background. The Mormon community in Utah was a theocratic and egalitarian democracy, where it was considered normal for the "government", meaning the Church, to have the right and duty to steer the economy and provide jobs to the unemployed through projects, paid by the government. These ideas he proclaimed as early as 1932. For many it was "swearing in church". The prevailing idea was that economic recovery needed that the state was not more spending than its revenues. This is a discussion that has never been finally decided and is gooing on to this day. Evidence for this is the 3% percent standard for the budget deficit to be met by countries in the European Union by reducing expenditures and to obtain higher revenues by increasing taxes. To a true Keynesian, for example Paul Krugman, this is an abomination. It was not until 1938 that President Roosevelt submitted a budget that was based on the ideas of Eccles. A fierce battle with the Secretary of the TReasury, Henry Morgenthau who strongly believed in a balanced budget, was needed. Eccles' first great merit is that, by reforming in 1935 the FED He made it possible for the FED to grow to the very powerful institution that it is today. When the chair of the FED appears in Congres to give his, or as is the case today, her views on the economy and monetary policy the entire financial world is listening attentively The other great achievement of Eccles is that he made acceptable as one of the economic policy options that a government can and should play a active and steering role in the economy of the countryShow less
This thesis re-views Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" through the cultural-anthropological lens of "liminality" in order to understand the novel's endurance as well as its contemporary reflection of a...Show moreThis thesis re-views Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" through the cultural-anthropological lens of "liminality" in order to understand the novel's endurance as well as its contemporary reflection of a generation in limbo. This thesis contends that the liminal characteristics and rituals studied by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner in small-scale African communities can be modernized and applied to such ritualistic phenomena as road travel in Kerouac's novel, which utilizes the anonymity of the American highway as a liminal space that allows freedom of self-definition. Such a reading returns "On the Road" to its contemporary socio-political landscape and makes it clear that the novel depicts not a subversive countercultural movement, but that it is actually part of a private ritual of passage that eschews the mainstream culture only on a temporary and minimal basis. By way of the liminal phase, the narrator appropriates characteristics of the socially and ethnically marginal while reproducing and reinforcing the values of the mainstream (white) culture against these marginal people.Show less
