Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Exploring satire in the early postmodern American war novel(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2018) Brown, Kolby Elizabeth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert BennettAfter the Second World War, young soldier-writers such as Norman Mailer, Irwin Shaw, James Jones and Joseph Heller responded to the cultural impact and horrors of World War II by engaging a satire that was meant to not only expose problems of society, but inspire change. Too often, readers mistake satire for pure entertainment. Although satire has a longstanding reputation as comedy, satire is a vital weapon for democratic societies to challenge lies, corruption and the abuse of power. By focusing attention on a diverse range of satiric expression, this thesis aims to fill a gap in the scholarship on early postmodern American war novels and the way they attack systems that objectify and dehumanize human bodies for the agenda of war.Item Damn the torpedoes: the history of science and undersea warfare in World War II(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Sims, Gary Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael ReidyAfter the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy Submarine Service had the submarines to, if not repel the attack on the Philippines, at least slow the Japanese Navy's disbursement of troops and material on Luzon. They could not because of defective torpedoes. This book examines the US Navy's submarine service's torpedo controversy during World War II from December 7th 1941 through the resolution of the torpedo problems in October, 1943. By investigating War Patrol Reports, Action Reports and other official documents including personal and professional communiques between combat theater, command at Pearl Harbor and Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) in Washington, D.C., this work shows how the Mark XIV/VI torpedo was a highly-technical, high-risk invention for war. Failures occur in high-tech, high-risk systems such as this. The U.S. Navy should have been expected and prepared for these failures but they did not. To make matters worse, command in Washington went into denial that there even was a problem. This abstract explains that denial of the problem for almost two years by BuOrd and Naval Command in Washington D.C. was inevitable. Using modern theories of the construction of knowledge, their repudiation of the problem can be predicted response by response. To support my conclusions, I rely on work of historians and sociologists such as Charles Perrow, Tim Bedford and Roger Cooke about high-risk technologies as a framework to view the science and technology behind the Mark XIV/VI torpedo. Supporting my conclusions that Naval Command's denial of the problem was inevitable, I apply theories of knowledge construction originating with sociologists of science such as Thomas Kuhn, Bruno Latour and David Bloor. Former submarine commanders, naval historians and those familiar with the torpedo controversy have long asked how this could have happened at all and why it took so long to rectify the problem. This book answers those questions.Item Mobilizing the rural home front : the extension service, Montana women, and World War II(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2003) Werner, Kathleen Elizabeth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary MurphyThe U.S. government’s push to mobilize all sectors of its population during World War II has taken many forms. For women, most of the attention has focused on urban workers and others who may have engaged in factory work. Rural women, however, were important during the war. Agricultural production was vital to America’s success; a country needs to feed its people to win a war. Unlike the popularization of work in the factories, women’s labor in agricultural production was not feminized. The government worked to create an ideology for rural women that preserved their identity as homemakers but also encouraged agricultural labor. In the rural front, women had to be pulled into the effort; mobilizing them to the cause was essential to national unity. The purpose of this research is to examine the mobilization efforts made towards rural Montana women. What kinds of messages did the national press issue to women, and specifically, to what extent did the Montana Home Extension Service participate in assisting the government’s construction of rural women’s wartime identity? Examining the Cooperative Extension Service’s annual reports in Montana demonstrates how the government sought to mobilize rural women. By looking at Montana State College Home Economics Department’s domestic and scientific training demonstrates how rural women were helped during the war years. Lastly, by comparing those findings with national magazines idea of women’s identity in World War II shows the importance of homemakers. The study reveals that rural women were presented as patriotic homemakers, whose sole aim was to preserve democratic ideals and safeguard the family.Item Development and use of an objective rating scale to evaluate the extent of home sewing(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1944) Wetzsteon, Mary McCoy; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: F. B. CotnerAn objective rating scale was developed to evaluate the extent of sewing done by homemakers of Bozeman, Montana. With the aid of committees of homemakers and professional home economists, rating scales were formulated to measure three major aspects of sewing and from them a score was derived for 47 articles of sewing. These values were then applied to the sewing reports of 276 homemakers. The resultant scores were used as a basis for the study of factors thought to influence the amount and kind of home sewing. Lower cost, satisfaction and enjoyment were the chief reasons for home sewing given by the homemakers. The greatest difficulties reported were in pattern alterations, and the construction, fitting and style of garments. These homemakers devoted an average of four hours per week to their sewing activities. Eighty-two percent of the homemakers were doing some sewing and had increased the total amount done during the two war years. Garments most frequently made were house dresses, aprons, and skirts for girls and women and pajamas for all family members. Many more articles were renovated during the two-year-war-time period than for the corresponding pre-war period. The data were secured by questionnaires in which homemakers gave information concerning their family status and their sewing activities and problems. They were requested to estimate the amount of sewing done during the past four years, 1940-1943 to allow a comparison of the amount of sewing done in two years of war time with that done during the two pre-war years. The development of the rating scales which make possible a quantitative evaluation of home sewing is considered the most valuable contribution of this thesis. This device should prove of value to those responsible for clothing curricula, to students as a means of judging their progress, to homemakers desiring an evaluation of their work and to those people interested in making studies relative to home sewing practices.