History, Philosophy & Religious Studies Doctoral Work

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Browsing History, Philosophy & Religious Studies Doctoral Work by browse.metadata.program "History"

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    A History of North Dakota's Petroleum Industry, 1917-2017
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Herz, Clarence Anthony
    North Dakota’s petroleum industry can be traced back to 1917, when Arthur Blum found a small amount of oil in a well drilled to water his cattle. The unsuccessful exploration for oil continued from 1917 until 1951, when on April 4, oil was produced, in commercial quantities, from the Clarence Iverson #1 well. The discovery well initiated the state’s first boom, and after several other wells began production, the state began construction of industry infrastructure. This discovery boom lasted until 1966, when a global oil glut reduced exploration and production slowed. In the 1970s, as a result of OPEC’s manipulation of petroleum markets, the state would again experience a boom in its petroleum industry. This boom was short-lived, however, and ended abruptly and painfully. Government deregulation of the industry, coupled with Middle East tensions easing, caused foreign petroleum to produce once again a global glut in oil which caused prices to fall dramatically. After nearly two decades of anemic production, innovations in technology led to a third and significantly larger, more dramatic boom that saw growth in every aspect of life in western North Dakota. This occurred while the state also enjoyed an increase in agricultural prices and robust crop production. This boom saw intermittent busts in 2008-09 and 2014-15. Predictably, prices fall when oil is oversupplied, and rise when demand increases. The men and women of North Dakota, through each of these periods, have learned some valuable lessons, but despite that, they often continued to make many of the same mistakes. Sometimes they have learned from these mistakes and acknowledged the potential to do better, and sometimes, as in the case of the state’s budget, continue to do things the exact same way, hoping for different results.
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    "The Indians may be led, but will not be drove": The Creek Nation's Struggle for Control of Its Destiny, 1783-1795
    (North Dakota State University, 2016) Cummings, William
    History tends to portray the interactions between Euro-American settlers and native Indian Nations as one in which Euro-American settlers imposed dominance on the Indians. This work takes an in-depth look at the relationship between the Creek Nation and the Euro-American settlers of Georgia in the early years of the American republic and shows the Creeks in control of their own destiny, as well as the destiny of Georgia and the young republic. The core argument is that the nature of the Creek nation allowed them to maintain autonomy while affecting the physical development of the United States. From Massachusetts to Carolina various Native American nations had tried to fend off Euro-American expansion but were forced off their land in short order. The Creek Nation considered Georgia and its settlers to be usurpers without valid claim to Indian land, and put forth a near impenetrable defense of their claim for over a decade. The Creeks steadfastly maintained their claim to the land between the Ogeechee River and the Oconee River, and declared war to enforce the boundary on their terms. In their struggle, primarily with the state of Georgia, new leaders emerged and new polities replaced old traditions. This was a significant accomplishment when one considers the lack of any form of political unity around which to take a stand against the expansionist plans of Georgia. This study will show that the Creeks succeeded because a common determination united the nation in its opposition to Georgia’s attempts to take their land, while its political disunity prevented any group less than the whole from negotiating effectively concerning their land.
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    The Tides of the Tourism Complex at La Paz, Mexico
    (North Dakota State University, 2013) Dutton, Anthony
    By 1940, the outlying Mexican territory of Baja California Sur faced an uncertain future. The extractive industries of mining and pearling had collapsed in the southern areas of the peninsula, and the remaining economic activities of agriculture and fishing held little prospect for growing the population and fueling development. The solution adopted by local government, boosters, and the federal government was to promote international tourism. The rise of the tourism complex at La Paz represented a local response to the regional problems of economic underdevelopment and isolation, and its decline began with the intense federal involvement in funding the comprehensive tourist center at Los Cabos. From the 1940s through the late 1960s, La Paz tourism represented a sustainable model, rooted in place while maintaining and benefitting from the existing characteristics of Baja California Sur. Experiencing transition in the late 1960s and 1970s, Los Cabos underwent a transformation into a sun-and-sand mega-resort, and La Paz shifted to host a wave of national tourists attracted to the free trade zone. The region entered a phase of frenzied expansion of tourism infrastructure, but the inability to sustain this boom led to a bust in La Paz tourism in the early 1980s, and the regional dominance of Los Cabos. The decline of La Paz tourism during that period deepened as the national government gave priority to the development of Los Cabos, creating a tourist pole built along the same model as Cancún.
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    An Unintended Activist: Judge Ronald N. Davies and the Influence of the Northern Plains on Twentieth-Century Civil Rights and Judicial Progressivism
    (North Dakota State University, 2020) Reikowsky, Stacy Michelle
    A devotion to an open and progressive interpretation of human rights and the law secured Judge Ronald N. Davies’ legacy as an unintended, yet influential activist for advancing civil rights and of the twentieth century. His views helped change the definition and meaning of judicial activism in the modern vernacular and transform it into a new notion of judicial progressivism. A biography of Davies crystallizes the meaning of the racial and civil relations across an evolving American landscape. A study of his life alters the way in which scholars and the public perceive and understand the role of the Northern Plain in shaping lasting changes in America’s progressive movements through an interdisciplinary approach of history and law. When Davies of Fargo, North Dakota, rose to the bench of the United States District Court, he ceased any formal political party affiliation and became a Constitutionalist. With an egalitarian approach to the law, he oversaw numerous court proceedings and handed down rulings with measured consideration for any case that appeared on his docket. As his federal appointment came to include cases involving the desegregation of public schools, civil lawsuits against large-scale corporations, and the Alcatraz Indian Occupation, Davies’ sphere of influence exceeded regional and Civil Rights Era boundaries and characterized him as national figure in new facets of legal precedent. His rulings challenged traditional ethics as dictated by society’s majority-consent in the law and cast him as a seminal figure that embodied the meaning and influence of the northern plains within the law and advancing civil rights and social justice in the United States. His efforts to uphold a more inclusive and equal legal standard set into motion renewed consideration of the ways in which an individual’s actions within a broader institution can stimulate a modern national consensus despite entrenched historical precedent. Therefore, Davies’ life and career reflect a historical sensibility of the role, application, and influence of law-based code of ethics. His decisions, though not intended as overt civil activism, instilled lasting social, cultural, and political change in twentieth-century civil rights.
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    The Upper Musselshell Valley: A Grassroots and Bioregional History
    (North Dakota State University, 2012) Lewis, Miles Dwight
    The Upper Musselshell Valley: A Grassroots and Bioregional History chronicles the history of central Montana's Upper Musselshell Valley in an attempt to craft a viable history of region. As a corrective measure or alternate explanation that revises not only historical interpretation, but also takes into account who, or what group, is the driving force behind each distinct narrative stream (i.e. grand narrative history--histories penned by professional scholars and academics--or grassroots perspectives, the history of region as told by local dwellers), which stream is or is not authoritative, and how to modify, adjust, or meld the various interpretations in order to arrive at a more judicious, perceptive, and democratic version of history. The New Regional History is a coalescence of the grand narrative, the grassroots perspective, bioregionalism, and memory studies that is concerned with humankind's interaction with the physical environment, and the succession of cultures within that environment. It examines the use of historical memory in the creation of regional identity in order to expose and explain regional anomalies while providing synthesis and maintaining a stance of critical scholarship. This is much more than a localized case study; it is a novel approach to the history of region that incorporates local and professional scholarship in order craft a much more viable and judicious history of place. The Upper Musselshell Valley of central Montana provides a strong proving ground for a New Regional History. It is a place rich in regional history and lore, provided by a long tradition of local narrators, while fitting within most of the grand narrative paradigms of Montana and the Great Plains in general. As with most comparable regions within the Great Plains, the Upper Musselshell Valley has never been held up to such a standard.