Pamela E. Brooks
"Boycotts, Buses, and Passes: Black Women's Resistance in Montgomery, Alabama and Johannesburg, South Africa, from Colonization to 1960"
(proposal approved June 1996; dissertation defended July 2000 - Assistant Professor of African-American Studies, Oberlin College)
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Yinghong Cheng
"The 'New Man:' experiments of Communist China and Cuba in the 1960s: A World History Perspective"
(approved May 1996; dissertation defended January 2001 - Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Salem State College)
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Deborah Smith Johnston
"Rethinking World History: Conceptual Frameworks for the World History Survey"
(proposal approved April 1998; dissertation defended April 2003 - teacher at Lexington High School, Lexington, Massachusetts)
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David M. Kalivas
"A World History Worldview: Owen Lattimore, a life lived in interesting times, 1900-1950"
(proposal approved August 1997; dissertation defended April 2000 - Professor of History, Middlesex Community College)
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Eric L. Martin
"Anti-colonial Worldviews: An Intellectual World History of the Twentieth Century"
(dissertation defended August 2001 - Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Salem State College)
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George Reklaitis
"A Common Hatred: Lithuanian Nationalism During the Triple Occupation, 1939-1953."
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Jefferey W. Sommers
"The Entropy of Order: Democracy and Governability in the Age of Liberalism"
(proposal approved October 1997; dissertation defended July 2001 - Assistant Professor of History, North Georgia College and State University)
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Sarah Swedberg
"The Cranch Family"
(proposal approved June 1996; dissertation defended August 1999 - Assistant Professor of History, Mesa State College)
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"Boycotts, Buses, and Passes: Black Women's Resistance in Montgomery, Alabama and Johannesburg, South Africa from Colonization to 1969", by Pamela E. Brooks.  July 2000

This study illuminates the ideas and actions of working-class and middle-class African American and South African women who fought against political and social oppression of the 1950s. Such women were granted the least degree of formal political power and socio-economic status, yet they overcame these disabilities in ways that were tremendously important to themselves, their communities, and their movements. Their bus boycotts nd pass resistance clearly demonstrated to the world the power of Black women's voices.

Through oral interviews and archival research conducted in Alabama and South Africa, the women's developing political consciousness which impelled them to act, their strategies and ideologies, and the meaning their activism held for them becomes clear. The study shows that there are several ways in which African American and South African women are similar in their work, life experiences, and political organizing. In a most fundamental way, these women share membership in the African diaspora which, in one sense, has meant their shared familiarity with white domination and at least their exposure to, if not their creation of, various forms of Black resistance. They are similar, too, in their people's rootedness to the land, in their migration from it to the cities, in their urbanization, their familiarity with factory work and in union organizing, and in their development of networks of politically active women and men. Additionally, the women share important connections to the era of World War Two, wherein their political awareness becomes more acute; however, well into the mid-nineteenth century, the preceding generations of independent-minded women and men provide important examples of resistance to the women under study.

Differences among both groups of women are also treated here. The points of departure between the two cases include ‹ national liberation on a wide scale, versus a freedom movement not yet national in scope; a pronounced feminist argument within the freedom movement, versus a movement nearly absent such a critique; a movement greatly affected by the presence and strength of the Black church, versus a movement not nearly so affected. Such differences underscore the versatility among individuals and groups who had to tailor their movements to the urgent needs of their particular peoples given the nature of the domination with which they had to contend. Finally, this study shows that the women's conceptions of themselves as women and as leaders made an important difference to the success of their movements, and in turn, a gendered dimension of the diaspora is made visible.

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"Rethinking World History: Conceptual Frameworks for the World History Survey," by Deborah Smith Johnston April 2003  

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"A World History Worldview: Owen Latitimore, a life lived in interesting times, 1900-1950," by David M. Kalivas  April 2000

This intellectual biography explains and examines the perceptions of Owen Lattimore and while placing him into a world history context; this study also demonstrates the importance of Lattimore's ideas and methods for historical research. Lattimore's methods as a field scholar are investigated and weighed into the overall equation of his life during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. This dissertation asserts that Lattimore's travels, scholarship and professional relationships during the 1920-1950 time period represent a distinct period of intellectual formation critical to his worldview. The connections between and across societal and cultural boundaries are vital to Lattimore's historical viewpoint, as are his perceptions on the dynamic role that connections with people, places and ideas have had across the Steppes of Central Eurasia. The method employed in determining the character and value of Lattimore's worldview is an extensive review of unpublished primary sources: travel diaries, extant correspondence; Lattimore's published works; and relevant secondary sources to substantiate the contention that Owen Lattimore's ideas and methods are both germane and significant to the field of world history. This dissertation establishes that Lattimore's work, and his emphasis on the role of frontier zones, offers a significant contribution to the field of world history.

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"The 'New Man:' experiments of Communist China and Cuba in the 1960s, a World History perspective" by Yinghong Cheng.  January 2001

The fundamental goal of communist revolution is not only to create a new society, but also a "new man." This newly perfected person, hammered out of struggle, would put society over self and moral over material incentives. The belief in the malleability and perfectibility of human nature is deeply rooted in European intellectual tradition (Enlightenment, Marxism, Utopianism and Russian radical intellectuals' ideas) and political history (French Revolution). The Soviet Union was the first regime to actualize this social engineering nationwide, resulting in the formation of the "Soviet Man" in the 1920s-1930s. But after Stalin's death, the ideological bonds were eased and the characteristics of the "Soviet Man" increasingly faded. This development raised concerns in China and Cuba, where the Soviet trend was seen as an unacceptable compromise, a retreat from the revolutionary mission of professed communists..

The Chinese and Cuban campaigns to create the new man through social engineering were more comprehensive and thoroughgoing than the Russian effort. While the vision of perfecting people remained the fundamental motivation for Chinese and Cuban leaders, they were alarmed by the Soviet lesson. Creating an incorruptible new man thus became a primary state concern. Nationwide campaigns of social engineering were launched in both countries in the same time period: the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and Cuban Revolutionary Offensive (1968-1970).

The Chinese and Cuban new men cpossessedsome new features, in contrast to the Soviet new man. They were said to be able to perpetuate revolutionary militancy and political dynamism in peacetime. A prevailing belief in both cases was that steadfast revolutionary faith could create economic miracles. In the absence of modern technology The Chinese and Cuban new men also bore anti-urban and anti-intellectual features, in contrast to the urban emphasis and high respect for professionals that characterized the Soviet system.

In the 1960s, the Chinese and Cuban experiment of creating a new man attracted some alienated Western intellectuals who were looking for an alternative human ideal. It also drew attention from Third World leaders seeking a road to quick modernization based on mass mobilization and individual sacrifice. This issue, with its roots in Western tradition and the range of responses it brought from contemporary Western intellectuals and the Third World leaders, is a significant issue in both communist studies and world history.

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"Anti-colonial Worldviews: An Intellectual World History of the Twentieth Century" by Eric L. Martin  August 2001

This study examines the formative intellectual period of three anti-colonial thinkers within the context of a worldwide historical complex of imperialism between the years 1869 and 1967. The early intellectual development of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1909), Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1947) and Ernesto Che Guevara (1930-1954) are investigated to illustrate the existence of a dynamic relationship between the individual and the global. This relationship demonstrates the influence of global forces upon individuals and the individual's role as an influence on global systems. Utilizing Dilthey's conceptualization of worldview and the techniques of intellectual history, Gandhi, Nkrumah and Guevara are analyzed as intellectuals working on a common problem. It is the contention of this study that the worldviews of these individuals contained a substantial global dimension, which formed a connection between their worldviews and those of other anti-colonial thinkers, while also contributing to a global-intellectual network of anti-colonial thought and activism.

This dissertation traces the intellectual development of Gandhi, Nkrumah and Guevara as they became social activists by reviewing their extensive published material inclusive of autobiographies, monographs, essays, commentaries, editorials, and speeches. This study portrays the historical complex of imperialism as it was reflected in Gandhi, Nkrumah and Guevara's key statements on the nature of the colonial problem (Hind Swaraj, "Towards Colonial Freedom," and Guevara's last three public pronouncements). Secondary sources such as biographical studies, national histories and analyses of decolonization further contextualize each activist's thought within local and global conditions. The examination of these three thinkers in relation to one another within a global framework of analysis demonstrates the existence of a wider, shared anti-colonial worldview. This shared anti-colonial worldview provides a global intellectual framework with which to re-evaluate the role of anti-colonial thinkers as an instrument to track the nature of the imperialist complex in the twentieth century. The colonial problem connected and shaped the worldviews of Gandhi, Nkrumah and Guevara; it also demonstrates the importance of understanding national histories and their independence movements within a world historical framework during the twentieth century.

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"The Entropy of Order: Democracy and Governability in the Age of Liberalism" by Jeffrey W. Sommers  July 2001

This study investigates tensions between democracy and order, and examines how democracy promotes governability at certain times while threatening it at others. It surveys the Age of Political Liberalism in the Atlantic world over the past two centuries, and centers on the crises of democracy confronting the United States-led world order during the last half of the twentieth century. It inspects the challenge and service that democracy presented to elites by documenting "the entropy of order": the crises of governability elites periodically encountered. This analysis traces how elites have been hard pressed to maintain governability under political liberalism; because order is required if they are to control society and economy. Inevitably, entropy sets in and social control breaks down, just as it does with systems in the natural world. Successful new orders arose that temporarily solved the contradictions that led to breakdowns of previous systems. The very solutions applied to restore order and profitability, however, precipitated new crises. The nature of this process is both episodic and evolutionary.
Crises of profitability often precipitate challenges to order. This study assumes that Kondratieff waves reflect these crises of accumulation. These long-term waves have undergone shifts from A phase expansion to B phase contraction in system-wide economic activity in the years 1825, 1875, 1914, and 1968-73. I demonstrate that some crises have been harder to manage than others, and have proved cardinal turning points in maintaining hegemony. While these crises are episodic, some crises pose greater threats to order than others. The very nature of an A phase expansion produces contradictions leading to B phase contractions and a crisis of profitability and governability. The engine of change in the world system is directly connected to Kondratieff waves and their intersection with historical conditions. Yet, we must remember that exogenous shocks, such as wars, often precipitate crises, and may, or may not, be related to cycles of expansion and contraction in the global economy. Crises of "democracy" (governability) have manifested themselves in three ways which are related to, if not sometimes caused by, a crisis of accumulation. First, counter-systemic challenges to the hegemon-led world order by nations aspiring to develop autonomously. Second, challenges to hegemony and breakdown of class coalitions within the hegemonic order. And third, a generalized crisis of ideology. These challenges often arise during crises of accumulation. Returning the system to order and increased profitability requires fixing all three of these challenges.
The literature utilized by this study includes studies of economic policy and opinion making for the U.S., Britain, Haiti, Paraguay, and the Soviet Union. The data drawn from these and other published sources focus especially on elite points of view (such as arguments in economic and social policy that were seen as advancing elite interests), and institutions that influence public opinion (such as government commissions, advertising agencies, and think tanks). My analysis traces changing elite viewpoints and opinion-making institutions in A phase and B phase periods. Key debates analyzed in the course of the dissertation include, for the twentieth century, the entry of the U.S. into World War I, the U.S. occupation of Haiti, Soviet economic policy, Keynesian economic policy in the Cold War era, trends in middle-class culture, and the development of think tanks as privatized sites of intellectual production and policy production. Methodologically, this work uses case studies to demonstrate connections between the movement and interplay of separate, yet related, forces, which propelled Toynbeean challenges to the world system. By analyzing these connections I reveal how systemic threats have been resolved with each crisis of democracy, and in the process provide new interpretive world historical insights into the nature of elite governance and challenges to order.

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