History Honors Theseshttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/266192024-03-29T00:29:48Z2024-03-29T00:29:48ZIf You Build It, They Will Come: From Flood Zone to Economic BoomBerardi, Benhttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/294112020-09-22T20:18:14Z2019-01-01T00:00:00ZIf You Build It, They Will Come: From Flood Zone to Economic Boom
Berardi, Ben
On July 30, 1993, the newly-unified city of Chesterfield, Missouri bore witness to the most tumultuous disaster since its incorporation in 1988. The levee surrounding the area, fittingly named the Gumbo Flats, breeched in four separate places, the result of a perfect storm of high winter snow volumes and dangerously high levels of rainfall, among a multitude of other indirect factors. Massive flooding drowned the lowland area, leaving the entire Valley submerged under eleven feet of water.
But the flood itself is not the focal point of this article; the real story is how a suburban town, barely five years old, rallied around its residents, city officials, state legislators, and federal agencies to restore, renovate and evolve the Chesterfield Valley area into a real estate goldmine. By analyzing hundreds of city press releases and examining administrative action plans, I determined the critical decisions made regarding the renovation of the levee and the sources of funding that built the now-thriving Chesterfield Commons. In particular, levee enlargement and tax increment financing (TIF) catalyzed the creation of a corporate and community real estate mecca.
Throughout the history of modern disasters, the profitability of capitalism in the wake of a disaster has proven to be a common, and primary, factor in successful restoration and rejuvenation projects. Kevin Rozario, author of What Comes Down Must Go Up, presents the idea of creative destruction as a basis for how disasters pave the way for capitalistic business endeavors. He argues, “so deeply has the link between disaster and development become that even those who have fought most vigorously to contain the ravages of capital have tended to view further destruction as the necessary precondition for healing modernity’s harms” . The Chesterfield Valley is an exemplary model of this belief system, a true “out of the ashes rises the phoenix,” where ingenuity and community came together to direct infrastructure development, and an entire town’s willingness to inject finances where they were needed most established the foundation for a suburban city’s billion-dollar-and-counting economic powerhouse.
2019-01-01T00:00:00ZFritz Kuhn's Nazi America: Kuhn's Growth and Destruction of the German American Bund in the 1930sWolf, Cameronhttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/293502020-09-22T20:17:39Z2019-04-01T00:00:00ZFritz Kuhn's Nazi America: Kuhn's Growth and Destruction of the German American Bund in the 1930s
Wolf, Cameron
The German American Bund was the most influential and dangerous American Nazi organization to exist before the destruction of Hitler’s Germany. Building itself from the remnants of two Nazi organizations that failed to establish any kind of true legitimacy, the Bund saw an explosion of its’ prestige due to their leader: Fritz Kuhn. This paper will argue that no other group established themselves to the same degree, as a legitimate Nazi Organization within American culture as the German American Bund. Conversely as the perception of the Bund within society grew as a legitimate threat to democracy as Hitler’s army moved throughout Europe, the social conditions within the United States during the 1930s exacerbated the attraction to the Bund and inflamed the desire of the government to see the Bund’s demise. It is vitally important to understanding how Nazism, and political dissidence gains attraction and support as there has been a resurgence of pro-Nazi activity within culture today.
This thesis was submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors.
2019-04-01T00:00:00ZDemons & Devils: The Moral Panic Surrounding Dungeons & Dragons, 1979-1991Wilson, Austinhttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/293492020-09-22T20:16:42Z2019-04-01T00:00:00ZDemons & Devils: The Moral Panic Surrounding Dungeons & Dragons, 1979-1991
Wilson, Austin
2019-04-01T00:00:00ZThe Great Italian Educator: The Montessori Method and American Nativism in the 1910sKlaske, Elise M.https://hdl.handle.net/1808/293482020-09-22T20:15:57Z2019-04-01T00:00:00ZThe Great Italian Educator: The Montessori Method and American Nativism in the 1910s
Klaske, Elise M.
The purpose of this project is to investigate to what extent Protestant nativism impeded the spread of the Montessori Method in the United States. The Montessori Method has experienced waves of popularity in America ever since it was first introduced in 1910. During the first wave of popularity, from 1910-1917, Dr. Maria Montessori, the founder, faced backlash from educators and educational philosophers for her scientific reasoning and her pedagogical and social philosophies. Some Montessori historians believe that these factors were critical in halting the spread of the Montessori Method in America in 1917. An additional theory is that Montessori’s personal identity, as an Italian Catholic woman, impeded the reception of her ideas in America. Considering that the time period was characterized by anti-Catholic rhetoric from political organizations as well as newspapers and journals, the theory makes sense.
Research for this project was conducted by examining newspaper publications that covered the Montessori Method, rebuttals of the method published by American educators, and the books and articles written by Montessori advocates. Other primary sources include Catholic publications and Dr. Montessori’s own books and writings. Secondary sources, such as autobiographies of Maria Montessori’s life and examinations of nativist activity at the beginning of the 20th Century, help paint a picture of the state of America when Dr. Montessori visited in 1913. Overall, these sources indicate that anti-Catholic sentiments played a minor role, if any, in hampering the spread of the Montessori Method.
Maria Montessori’s publicist, Samuel S. McClure, crafted a particular public image for Montessori, compatible with themes of social reform, Progressive educational reform, and feminism, which would appeal to most Americans. The creation of this public image is significant as it was a manifestation of the cultural upheaval experienced during the early 20th century and had lasting implications for Progressive education and the future of the Montessori Method in America. Supporters for the method emphasized the scientific foundation of the method, Dr. Montessori’s ideas for social reform through education, and the compatibility of the method with American ideals of individual freedom and responsibility. In the end, other factors such as leading educators’ disapproval of different aspects of the method, World War I, and Dr. Montessori’s personality led to the decline of the Montessori Method in America at that time.
This thesis was submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors
2019-04-01T00:00:00Z