Recent Submissions

  • Churchill’s Mythmaking Years: An Analysis of the Public Opinion of Winston Churchill from 1940 to 1941

    Maopolski, Reece (SUNY Oneonta, 2024)
    Winston Churchill became an idealized figure to the British public in his first two years as Prime Minister. The Battle of Britain and German blitzkrieg enabled Churchill to exercise his oratory skills through speeches that encouraged the suffering masses. Through an analysis of contemporary diary entries and public opinion polls, this essay reveals that British citizens connected with Churchill’s inclusive language and admired his recurring public visits to the streets of Britain. Churchill contributed to his mythmaking as he manipulated the media to prohibit criticisms of his wartime policies. He also utilized emerging technologies, mainly the radio, to speak to the masses and cement his reputation as a humble servant of the people. Despite a few detractors, most British people revered Churchill for his preservation of morale in the beginning of WWII, owing largely to the Prime Minister’s careful control over the creation of his own myth.
  • Fight the Good Fight of Faith: Protestantism, Partisan Politics and the War of 1812

    Frey, Adrian (SUNY Oneonta, 2024)
    The causes of the War of 1812 have been debated by historians. Explanations have ranged from reasons such as the hunger for new land to securing commerce and protection for American sailors on the seas. These previous explanations however have left aspects now seen as very important to the history of the early American republic such as religion and Anglo-American republican ideology out of the picture. In this paper various written materials such as poems, newspaper articles and sermons using the methods of conceptual history are used to show the importance of these aspects to the War of 1812 and how a powerful matrix of discourse between competing Christian denominations contributed to the causes and reactions to the War of 1812 among Americans. These reactions created an atmosphere of extreme partisanship between citizens of the United States at the time and divided them along religious and party lines in regard to the war.
  • Analyzing Social, Political and Economic Impacts on the Tragedy of Mortality during the Great Irish Famine

    Neumann, Olivia (SUNY Oneonta, 2024)
    Between 1845 to 1852, Ireland underwent a historical crisis known as the Great Irish Famine, afflicting the Irish population with disease and starvation, and leading to the death of roughly one million people. This paper seeks to discuss the causes and impacts of this detrimental event, whilst analyzing and comparing the various social, economic, and political debates surrounding the resulting death toll of the Irish Famine. The principal debates within this paper regard the failure of the potato crop due to blight, the British Whig governments adherence to laissez faire ideology, and the role of anti-Irish racial hatred. In explaining the influence and significance of these debates, historic subjects such as the public works projects, and terms such as “non-intervention,” “moralism,” and “divine providence” are detailed. By comparing these debates, this paper ultimately seeks to argue that racial hatred was most significant in causing mass death during the Great Irish Famine.
  • Letter to the editor

    Smith, Gabriel (SUNY Oneonta, 2024)
    Firstly, I would like to thank you for your sincere interest in our journal. Our authors worked diligently to edit and improve their manuscripts for publication: from their inception during their tenures in undergraduate research, all the way to what is now being presented for your appreciation. Secondly, I would like to thank the authors themselves for their cooperation, patience, and eagerness while working with me during the editing and review process. I hope they take as much pride in the quality of their labors as we do in having the privilege to publish them for the public eye.