R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Gruber, Ira D."

Browsing by Author "Gruber, Ira D."

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Between Churchill and Stalin: the Cripps Mission and its aftermath
(1984) Miner, Steven Merritt (b. 1956); Stokes, Gale; Gruber, Ira D.; Loewenheim, Francis
Sir Stafford Cripps was sent to Moscow in 194 to secure an Anglo-Soviet trade agreement, Cripps believed he, as a socialist, could induce the Soviets to cooperate with Britain. His persistent efforts remained fruitless. Frustrated, he argued that Britain should recognize Soviet territorial gains of 1939-4» thereby winning Stalin's trust. Stalin ignored British approaches, preferring partnership with Hitler until the latter attacked Russia. Even then, Anglo-Soviet relations remained poor. Gradually, Anthony Eden was persuaded by Cripps, and by Soviet chilliness, to recognize Soviet sovereignty over the Baltic States, and he in turn convinced a divided British Cabinet. But Stalin took no notice of unilateral British sacrifices; close friendship with the Soviet Union, as envisioned by the British, was impossible, and misguided efforts to win Stalin's trust were foredoomed. The episode needlessly strained Anglo-American relations and weakened the Western position in Eastern Europe.
Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War, 1861-1865
(2012-09-05) Bledsoe, Andrew; Boles, John B.; Gruber, Ira D.; Stoll, Richard J.; Parrish, Michael
This dissertation engages the historiography of American citizenship and identity, republican traditions in American life and thought, and explores the evolution of military leadership in American society during the American Civil War. The nature, experiences and evolution of citizen-soldiers and citizen-officers, both Union and Confederate, reveal that the sentimental, often romantic expectations and ideologies forged in the American Revolution and modified during the antebellum era were recast, adapted, and modified under the extreme pressures of four years of conflict. Civil War citizen-officers experienced extreme pressures to emulate the professional officers of the regular army and to accommodate the ideological expectations of the independent, civic-minded volunteers they led. These junior leaders arrived at creative, often ingenious solutions to overcome the unique leadership challenges posed by the tension between antebellum democratic values and the demands of military necessity. Though the nature and identity of the officers in both armies evolved over time, the ideological foundations that informed Civil War Americans’ conceptions of military service persisted throughout the conflict. The key to the persistence of the citizen-soldier ethos and citizen-officer image during and after the Civil War era lies in the considerable power of antebellum Americans’ shared but malleable republican tradition. By focusing on the experience of volunteer company-grade officers in the Civil War era, we discover how the ordeal of the Civil War forced Americans to reevaluate and reconcile the role of the individual in this arrangement, both elevating and de-emphasizing the centrality of the citizen-soldier to the evolving narrative of American identity, citizenship, and leadership.
Information wars: The government, the military, the media and the people, 1941--1991
(2000) Thompson, Matthew Andrew; Gruber, Ira D.
This study examined the tensions between the military and the media; the need for governments to articulate clear war aims, win public, and international support; and the public's power to hold a government accountable in a democracy for actions during wartime in a fifty-year period. The long view of history demonstrated the complex and multidirectional. interactions among the government, the military, the media, and the people of a democracy during wartime. In the past, historians and scholars have focused almost exclusively on the relationship between the military and media during wartime. Talking that approach as a starting point, this thesis expanded upon those earlier studies and moved beyond technical disagreements between officers and journalists to examine the broader context of national unity during times of conflict. By looking at the level of national unity during the major conflicts that the United States was involved between 1941 and 1991---and examining the British experience during the Falkland Islands War---the interaction between government leaders and the public overshadowed the relationship between the military and the media. Government leaders were most successful in building and sustaining public support when they clearly articulated war aims, and maintained those aims throughout the period of the conflict. This study also suggested a correlation between the successful building of domestic support for war and the government's prior acquisition of the international community's support for its actions. These findings showed that the relationships among the government, the military, the media, and people have been very nuanced and complex during times of war between 1941 and 1991. The struggles on the homefront and in the international community have been just as heated as clash of armies on the battlefield. While not always victorious, democratic nations have fought and re-fought battles to build and maintain support for during times of war---an element essential for any hope of victory in modern warfare.
Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War: a reappraisal
(1985) Treadwell, James Alan; Gruber, Ira D.; Boles, John B.; Guilmartin, John F.
Jefferson Davis's biographers have credited him with responsibility for most of the changes to the army during his administration of the War Department: experiments with camels on the western frontier, increases to the pay and strength of the army, improvements to the United States Military Academy, development of new rifled weapons and infantry tactics to complement them, revision of army regulations, and a commission to observe the Crimean War. His biographers also claim that while he may have allowed sectional politics to enter into his efforts to secure selection of a southern route for the transcontinental railroad, his other actions were totally without regard to sectional considerations. Currently available evidence indicates that Davis was not nearly so important as his biographers have claimed, and that his southern sympathies were a major, if not determining, factor in many of his decisions.
Line in the wilderness: The adaptation of European military theory to British North America, 1690--1759
(2005) Olsen, Mark A.; Gruber, Ira D.
Early British colonists in North America needed to mobilize military power. Initially, colonists used men with previous experience to train and lead small militias. When population growth demanded more trained leaders, colonists turned to books for military knowledge. Beginning in 1690, in Massachusetts, colonists printed a series of military training manuals. Colonial publishers struggled to adapt European military knowledge to American circumstances. Initially, they reprinted European works that suffered from excessive detail and poor organization. By the 1720s, colonial books were shorter and clearer but still not well adapted to the rugged American landscape. This failure to adapt continued until the 1740s, despite some improvement. During the French and Indian War, colonists finally published books that suited American conditions. The failure to adapt sooner was due to strategic advantages that allowed American colonists to win wars with inferior tactics and to colonists' hostility to Indian warmaking techniques.
Militiamen to regular: the training of the American soldier 1763-1783
(1984) Perry, Edwin M.; Gruber, Ira D.; Helden, Albert Van; Guilmartin, John F.
The militiaman of 1775 evolved into the regular soldier of 1783 because Americans changed their perception as to what constituted military preparedness. Political pamphlets and religious sermons had readied the colonists emotionally and intellectually to take up arms against the British. But their militia's training which which stressed musket drill was inadequate and prepared them only for battle. During 1776 and 1777 Washington attempted to correct the soldiers' deficiencies and used his General Orders to train the Continental Army for war. After 1778 Washington was assisted by Steuben, who as the army's Inspector General stressed uniformity in drill and maneuver, as well as emphasizing the maintenance of equipment. Steuben's and Washington's efforts transformed the soldiers of the Continental Army into competent professionals who were able to engage successfully their European counterparts in battle while sustaining themselves in a war.
Mirabeau B. Lamar's Texas Journal
(1979) Boothe, Nancy; Vandiver, Frank E.; Higginbotham, S. W.; Gruber, Ira D.
Mirabeau B. Lamar of Georgia, a poet, journalist, and would-be politician, first visited Texas in 1835. He traveled by stagecoach and steamboat as far as Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he took to horseback and followed the Old San Antonio Road into Texas. During his four-month sojourn, Lamar made numerous acquaintances and learned much about Texas' history, colonization, climate, economy, etc. He was particularly intrigued by the political situation in Texas, which was on the verge of separating from Mexico, by war if necessary, and establishing herself as an independent republic. He decided to join in this struggle; he went home briefly to settle his affairs, and returned to Texas just in time to distinguish himself at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, and to rise from the rank of private to commander-in-chief of the army in a period of four weeks. Subsequently, Texans elected Lamar Vice-President and then President of the Republic. His major accomplishments were the early recognition by major European powers of Texas as an independent state, and the establishment of a foresighted system of public education. After his one term as President, Lamar retired from public life, except stint as U. S. Minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, until his death in 1859. On his 1835 trip from Georgia to Texas, Lamar kept a manuscript diary, which now belongs to Fondren Library, Rice University. This thesis is the edited Texas portion of the diary, which covers most of July, August, September, and October of 1835. The journal is written in continuous narrative form, with frequent historical or descriptive passages inserted. Lamar was a keen observer of his surroundings, and he recorded his observations faithfully. Although at times Lamar seemed more concerned with literary style than with historical observation or political commentary, the journal is nonetheless significant. It is the previously unpublished work of an important figure at a crucial period in Texas history. Even more important, it may offer to future biographers new evidence which may allow a more detailed and intimate portrayal of Lamars character, attitudes, beliefs, and personality than has previously been possible.
Mission to the Crimea: The American military commission to Europe and the Crimean War, 1855-1856
(1991) Moten, Matthew; Gruber, Ira D.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was a vigorous champion of reform, aiming to enlarge the army, to increase its capabilities, and to foster military professionalism. The Crimean War offered an opportunity to send a delegation of officers to Europe to study military establishments there and to observe the latest technological advances under the trial of combat. During 1855 and 1856, Major Richard Delafield, Major Alfred Mordecai, and Captain George B. McClellan spent a year traveling through Europe, inspecting military schools and facilities of the great powers, and touring the battlefields and camps of the Crimean War. The commission's experiences in the war zone, along with their other observations in Europe, enabled them to compile encyclopedic reports that had immediate effect during the Civil War. Moreover, the reports transformed American military expertise and greatly enhanced the corporate identity of the army officer corps as a professional body.
Organization for revolution: the Committee of Correspondence system in Massachusetts, 1772-1775
(1970) McBride, John David, 1946-; Gruber, Ira D.
The greatest obstacle which the Massachusetts radicals faced in their Campaign to overthrow the Royal government was not the Tory party, but rather the reluctance of the moderate Whigs to engage in any activities which seemed to lead to a direct confrontation with Great Britain. Until late 1772, political control of Massachusetts remained in the hands of the merchants, who as a class were largely satisfied with the state of relations with the mother country, and were most reluctant to jeopardize peace and prosperity for the sake of an abstract political principle. As long as the radicals such as Samuel Adams tried to work within the normal political channels, the moderate Whigs were able to restrain them. In order to bypass the moderates who were blocking his program, Adams created a separate radical organization based upon the radical control over the Boston town-meeting. The Boston Committee of Correspondence was theoretically responsible to the town-meeting, but actually operated independently of any control save the will of the radical leaders. Adams intended the Boston committee to become the mainspring of a network of similar committees which would extend to all the towns of Massachusetts. Initially, only a small fraction of the towns actually appointed a committee to correspond with Boston, although many expressed agreement in principle. Nevertheless, Adams was able to manipulate the responses, using the Boston Gazette, in such a way that the committee system appeared to be very extensive. When the tea crisis developed in December of 1773, the system only functioned in the port-towns and around Boston. The appearance of strength which the system gave the radicals was sufficient, however, that they were able to direct events which resulted in a direct challenge to British rule. Once the Tea Party had led to the Coercive Acts, the committee system quickly spread into most of the towns. The other committees were no longer willing to follow Boston's leadership without question, however, and showed this by refusing to accept the Solemn League and Covenant. Instead, local committees worked through county conventions to dismantle the old militia system and the Royal courts. They also began the intimidation of Tories by forcing the resignations of the Mandamus Counsellors. The Boston radicals were quick to recognize the necessity for new tactics, and acted through the Suffolk County convention to influence the deliberations of the Continental Congress and insure the completion of their program.
Pioneer professional: General John M. Schofield and the development of a professional officer corps, 1888-1895
(1982) Mixon, Robert Wilbur (b. 1952); Gruber, Ira D.; Haskell, Thomas L.; Hyman, Harold M.
Historians have not given General John M. Schofield much credit for contributing to the development of professionalism in the Army officer corps, particularly during Schofield's tenure as Commanding General (1888-1895). Such assessments do not adequately describe his efforts. Schofield had a clear view of both the nature and the importance of professionalism by 1888. He had concluded that the officer corps should be composed of selfless, dedicated men who were experts in the theory and practice of war. As Commanding General he tried to create a corps of such men. Schofield instituted major reforms in officer education, ethics, and politics and legislation designed to make officership a rewarding profession for accomplished men. He worked also to establish an effective command system in the Army, where near chaos had existed before. The success of his program indicates that previous assessments of his contributions have been incomplete.
Professionalism, social attitudes, and civil-military accountability in the United States Army Officer Corps, 1815-1846
(1996) Watson, Samuel Johnston; Gruber, Ira D.
This dissertation explores connections between occupation, class, and state formation, employing comparative and sociological perspectives previously neglected by historians of this topic in order to locate the officer corps more firmly in its social and cultural context. Officers were socialized in responsibility, gentility, and nationalism, closely connected attitudes which encouraged subordination to civilian political control. The ultimate source of this accountability was employment by the nation-state, which provided security in an increasingly unstable society. Officers responded by stressing order and national sovereignty in their peacekeeping duties in the nation's borderlands. Socialization and self-interest also made Jacksonian-era officers much less bellicose than they had been before 1820, which helped to keep the nation out of war with Britain during crises along the Canadian border, while the officer corps dutifully executed policies many of its members disagreed with or found distasteful, like Indian removal or the occupation of Texas. In the process, conflicts with local settlers and authorities reinforced officers' allegiance to the federal government. Army organization and caste structure were ultimately shaped more by subjective social influences like ideals of gentility and organizational phenomena like bureaucracy and careerism than by the needs of military function per se. This thesis provides a study of officers' mentalite, worldview, and motivation, particularly the nuances and paradoxes of individualism and gentility manifested in their balancing of ambition and security through organizational careers and conflict. These behaviours can help historians understand the changing occupational and cultural construction of elite status and the reconstitution of personal ambition and community obligation in nineteenth-century America. The army officer corps was the first national managerial class in the United States, and its experiences anticipated the broader trends toward translocal functional organization and specialization in transferal functional organization and specialization in American society and culture after mid-century. This thesis also examines the construction of military expertise in social, cultural, and institutional context, questioning its content and objectives in new ways, and suggests that American military expertise was primarily administrative and logistical rather than tactical or strategic. This bureaucratic expertise reflected a successful adjustment to the problems of scale, scope, and complexity encountered by the nation's largest organization, reinforcing the army's sense of political accountability and preparing it to effectively manage the mass armies of the Civil War. As a whole, this dissertation demonstrates the social construction of military professionalism and the decisive role of the state therein, providing a paradigm of bureaucratization, social and institutional consolidation, and class and state formation in nineteenth-century America.
Public school reform and school board policy in Painesville, Ohio: 1850-1920
(1978) Darrow, Warren Richard; Gruber, Ira D.
In recent years historians have displayed renewed interest in the history of education. Accompanying this revival in the field of educational history is a more critical examination of the development and goals of public education in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Scholars are new skeptical of the long-accepted belief that the history of public schools is a story of unqualified progress. Although recent scholarship has added greatly to the historical picture of public schools and school reform, these writings are focused for the most part on public education in large urban areas. Excellent studies of schools in Boston, New York, St. Louis, Portland, and other major cities exist, but systematic studies of education in smaller cities or towns are few. This thesis examines public education in one small city, Painesville, Ohio. A study of education in a small community should not, however, ignore the historiography of urban school reform. City and town were not separated by an impenetrable barrier. Educational developments in one area could certainly affect other locations regardless of population. In addition, decisions of state legislatures relating to public schools could apply to both city and village. Thus, the first chapter of this thesis is devoted to the literature on public school reform. Although most of the works considered deal with either urban schools in general or with education in particular cities, they provide a basis for comparison with events in Painesville. Since the purpose of this thesis is to study education in a specific city over several decades, the second chapter provides a brief history of Painesville. County histories, the Painesville Telegraph, and census records supplied most of the information. This historical sketch of the town defines the context within which educational adjustments took place. Rather than attempt a comprehensive account of public education in Painesville, the focus of this study is primarily on the board of education and on the organizational changes in the school system. Chapters three and four describe the policy and membership of the school boards and trace the structural changes in the school system. The school board is an appropriate object of study for this is the body that debated and formulated public school policy. Board members decided which educational changes were needed by the community. Fortunately# the minutes of school board meetings, beginning with the first meeting in 1851# survive intact. This valuable source records educational leaders and the issues they held important. Census records and references in the newspaper give some important information about board members themselves. School reform in Painesville in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries paralleled changes in large cities, but the reasons for changes were not the same for both places. In large urban areas centralized school systems resulted in part from the pressure of numbers. Political leaders also used bureaucratic school systems to counter the social diversity and the potential cultural threat brought by immigration. Painesville*s citizens placed their schools under a central administration in 1851 and over the next seventy years the school board further developed a bureaucratic or centralized system characterized by professional administrators and by codified rules. But in Painesville the motivation for change stemmed primarily from a desire to emulate the progressive educational reforms found in large cities# not from the pressures of urbanization. Some influential people in Painesville wanted an efficient, centralized school system. The reason for the "progress" of the town's schools was not the pressure of social change, rather it was the symbolic importance that these influential people attached to modern public schools.
Saving Galveston: A history of the Galveston Historical Foundation
(2009) Schmidt, Sally Anne; Boles, John B.; Hobby, William P.; Gruber, Ira D.; Masterson, Harris, Jr.; Mahca, Joseph; Cullinan, Nina J.
The history of the Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) reveals how innovative Galvestonians looked to the past to create a future for their distressed city and inspired the development of one of the nation's leading local historic preservation organizations. Galveston, an island city fifty miles south of Houston, flourished economically and culturally as Texas's leading city during the nineteenth century. By 1900, islanders had built a city filled with handsome commercial and residential structures that reflected Galveston's significant status. The city rebuilt following the devastating Hurricane of 1900, but it never recovered its past glory. With the opening of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914 and the overall growth of Houston, Galveston's prominence slipped away. In 1954 a group of preservation-minded men and women organized the Galveston Historical Foundation to prevent the destruction of the second oldest house on the island, the Samuel May Williams House. Influenced by past Galveston historical societies, GHF's volunteer leadership worked to raise awareness of the city's historical and architectural treasures. Many born-on-the-island Galvestonians did not initially see the purpose of saving dilapidated houses and abandoned commercial buildings, and they had to be persuaded. Little-by-little GHF leaders succeeded and the preservation movement found a foothold on the island. With the hiring of the Foundation's first executive director, Peter Brink, in 1973 and the establishment of a revolving fund to save commercial properties on the Strand, GHF began to materially impact the island's physical, cultural, and economic landscape. The subsequent work of the Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s was not easy, but it resulted in the evolution of Galveston from a run-down, second-rate, beach town into a popular destination for historically-minded tourists. It also helped begin the positive transformation that occurred in Galveston's residential neighborhoods and inspired homeowners (of all economic backgrounds) to maintain their property. As GHF worked to revitalize the city, the Foundation itself transformed from a small, volunteer-led historical society into a professionally-managed, nationally-recognized, non-profit institution.
The Delafield Commission and the American military profession
(1996) Moten, Matthew; Gruber, Ira D.
The American regular army gained permanence in the early nineteenth century after overcoming numerous social and political obstacles, most notably a strong militia tradition. The War of 1812 and its aftermath established conditions for professional reform. The army now had a mission: to prepare for another seaborne attack from Europe. That sense of purpose allowed the officer corps to grow in collective ability, institutional autonomy, and corporate identity. The army developed an ethic of responsibility to the state. Intellectually, however, officers derived professional expertise primarily from French sources, mainly in military engineering. The U.S. Military Academy reinforced those trends and fostered "a system and habit of thought" in the officer corps. The profession, maturing quickly in other ways, remained intellectually adolescent. In 1855 Secretary of War Jefferson Davis dispatched Major Richard Delafield, Major Alfred Mordecai, and Captain George B. McClellan to Europe and the Crimean War to seek the newest professional expertise. The Delafield Commission was the most ambitious military observer mission to date, the first sent to observe on-going war. During the year-long tour they traveled throughout Europe and exemplified the characteristic traits of the professional officer corps--corporateness and responsibility. The Delafield Commission was a milepost in the history of American military professionalism. Most noteworthy were the reports that the commissioners wrote after their return, wherein they published a wealth of information useful to their respective branches. Yet the reports manifest the limits of antebellum professionalization: "a system and habit of thought" circumscribed their efforts. The commissioners demonstrated a narrow particularity that focused attention on technical details. They discarded the army's francophile paradigm, but quickly replaced it with an equally uncritical adoration of the Russians. They made reform suggestions, but mostly reaffirmed the status quo, especially the felt necessity for preparing for a European invasion. They refused to reach outside parochial branch interests to collaborate on a single report addressing broad issues of military policy and strategy. The mid-nineteenth century army's best minds were as yet incapable of synthesizing their European observations with their own experiences to create a uniquely American professional expertise.
The Garrison War: Culture, Race, and the Problem of Military Occupation during the American Civil War Era
(2013-04-18) Lang, Andrew; Boles, John B.; Gruber, Ira D.; McDaniel, W. Caleb; Stoll, Richard J.; Gallagher, Gary W; Parrish, Michael
Focusing on nineteenth-century American military occupation, this dissertation critically engages the existing literature on Civil War soldiers. It departs from the traditional historiographical paradigm of “why they fought and endured”—based on motivation and the experience of active combat—and instead emphasizes how the soldiering experience was fragmented and fraught with disillusionment and confusion. The Civil War traditionally is interpreted as period-divide between the antebellum and post-bellum eras. Soldiers’ responses to the culture of military occupation, however, revealed striking continuity across time, space, and conflict in nineteenth-century America. By uniting three principal events—the Mexican-American War, Civil War, and post-bellum Reconstruction—the study interprets how nineteenth-century volunteer citizen-soldiers struggled to understand their roles as occupying forces. As occupation emerged as a fundamental staple of the American military tradition, its complexities challenged the cultural ideals that fueled the citizen-soldier model. The milieu of occupation thus contested American soldiers’ integrity, masculinity, and racial identity. The citizen-soldier tradition collided with an equally aggressive, and oftentimes incompatible, force: the garrison ethos. Volunteer soldiers confronted the principal tenets of military occupation—securing, holding, and guarding territory; enforcing government policies; regulating and defining the limits of civilian-combatants; policing cities and towns; and battling guerrillas—viewing them as trials against the citizen-soldier ideal, which they had intended to fulfill.
The influence of S.-L.-A. Marshall of the United States Army
(1984) Williams, Frederick Deane G.; Gruber, Ira D.; Haskell, Thomas L.; Guilmartin, John F.
Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, a journalist, influenced the United States Army in several ways beginning in 1943. First as a combat historian in World War II, then as a military critic, writer, lecturer, operations analyst, and consultant, he presented several practical and innovative ideas to the army. He pioneered the group after action interview technique for clearing up the confusing, often conflicting stories of participants in combat. As a result of his interviewing over 5 units in World War II, Marshall came to certain conclusions about what motivated Americans to fight. His subsequent experiences in other wars reinforced his theories. His ideas reached many soldiers and caused great controversy. Although he had great initial success in his efforts to reform the army, he spent his last years in a repetitious re-education process caused by such factors as institutional resistance to change. While some of his ideas have been incorporated into army policy, the most lasting influence has been through the education of the post World War II generation of junior officers who were stirred to articulate their ideas and experiences by their exposure to Marshall. These men are the key policy-makers of today's army.
The internment of memory: Forgetting and remembering the Japanese American World War II experience
(2009) Salyers, Abbie Lynn; Gruber, Ira D.
During World War II, over 100,000 Japanese American were confined in relocation and internment camps across the country as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. While many of their families were behind barbed wire, thousands of other Japanese Americans served in the US Army's Military Intelligence Service and the all-Japanese American 100th Infantry and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. These circumstances were largely public knowledge during the war years, but a pervasive silence on the subject became apparent in the decades following the war. Due to widespread racism and recognition of the hypocrisy evident in a democratic country confining its own citizens, many Americans were content to allow the Japanese American experiences to be forgotten. The destruction and scattering of communities through evacuation and resettlement and a sense of shame within the Japanese American community helped perpetuate the silence amongst Japanese Americans as well. Through the Civil Rights Movement, the social protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and ultimately through the redress movement in the 1980s, the Japanese American voice gradually entered the public consciousness. Following the discussion of the historical context for the WWII experiences of the Japanese Americans, this research analyzes the period of forgetting and the various factors that combined to allow for eventual change. An analysis of public commemoration through war memorials, museums, historic sites, community events, and the less traditional memorials of novels, artwork, and films reveals how members of the Japanese American community and sympathetic Caucasian Americans overcame racist opposition and demonstrated determination in their efforts to pay tribute to the sacrifices of the soldiers, preserve relevant sites, and provide for the education of current and future generations on the subject of the Japanese American experience. The research also demonstrates the diversity within the Japanese American community, by disproving the common stereotype of homogeneity within the "model minority," and revealing the strength of individualism within the community as a significant contributing factor to memorialization efforts.
The Stamp Act crisis in North Carolina
(1977) Amos, Jessie A.; Gruber, Ira D.
Recent accounts of the Stamp Act crisis deal with general issues as they evolved in the thirteen colonies during 1765 and 1766. Historians such as Helen M. and Edmund S. Morgan argue convincingly that these two years were decisive ones for the American colonies. There is a need, however, to study this period from a narrower viewpoint. Focusing on only one colony, North Carolina, will disclose the special nature of the resistance: that: such a successful undertaking should have been so little known outside the area. The success of North Carolina’s opposition resulted from the colony’s unique attack on Parliamentary taxation. From the outset, North Carolinians were determined to prevent the implementation of the Stamp Act. The principals in the dissenting faction were community leaders who made no attempt to conceal their identity. Their strategy included making the opposition position known to William Tryon, the royal governor, involving bystanders as a. means to augment the anti-Stamp Act forces, and avoiding violence. Similarly, Tryon met his antagonists in a peaceful manner. When his solution was rejected, Tryon continually prorogued the colony’s Assembly to squelch the opposition’s effectiveness. As a result of the controlled response by both sides, commerce continued in North Carolina, the ports and courts remained open, and the royal governor retained his authority. The preceding developments constituted a successful resistance; however, the North Carolinians’ undertaking became little known outside the area. The events and ideology implicit in the events received little consideration from North Carolinians. Of the large number of pamphlets which the Stamp Act generated, only one was the work of a native North Carolinian, Maurice Moore. This dearth of writing reflects the pragmatic tone of the crisis in North Carolina. Results were the first concern; ideology, a lagging second. Newspapers had no better success in North Carolina. During the period of the Stamp Act crisis only one newspaper was published in the colony, even though several centers of activity were developing, North Carolinians needed a spokesman to espouse their views if their endeavors were to have had effect elsewhere. The pragmatism with which all involved confronted Parliamentary taxation directed the course of the Stamp Act crisis in North Carolina. The result was a very strong reaction against Parliament’s claim to tax the colonists. Ironically, these colonists who were able to force open their ports, courts, and newspaper attracted little attention outside the Cape Fear basin and did not establish their place in the forefront of intercolonial opposition to Parliamentary taxation. North Carolinians' efforts were so little known that at the time of the Stamp Act crisis a merchant in Great Britain noted that: as to the former making restitutions for any damage done during any disturbances I believe your province will be at no trouble about as I have not heard of any commotions in North Carolina...
The Townshend Acts in Virginia: the decay of Anglo-Virginian relations, 1767-1770
(1969) Steed, James Augustus; Gruber, Ira D.
In the period from 1767 to 1770 an attitude toward the colonies matured in Britain which changed in no material way until the Carlisle Commission was formed in 1778. Sovereign power over the empire, lodged in Parliament by the Revolutionary Settlement, could not be shared or divided. So widely was this view held to be orthodoxy that no important political faction ever considered altering the relationship between the mother. country and the colonies. In short, there was no source in British politics from which compromise with America on this central issue might come. Other factors, somewhat less important, complicated imperial relations. Perhaps the chief of these was simple indifference to and ignorance of what was happening in the colonies, Local issues and factional strife within British politics also affected American policy adversely. Finally, the continuing shift in Britain's colonial policy from pure mercantilism to imperialism introduced new elements into policy formation which complicated relations with America yet more. Linked to the supreme consideration of sovereignty, these factors left little ground for peaceful settlement of differences unless the American colonies would give way. Yet Virginians, for example, would not give way. Though they revered the principles of 1688-1689 just as their British cousins did, the influences of a different environing past made Virginians give a different reading to the common Anglo-American intellectual tradition. Reacting against efforts to change their constituted order, the colony's leaders struggled to articulate their understanding of the past. In the course of this process, the Townshend Act episode drove Virginians to assert their sole authority over "internal polity" -- the ordinary but vitally important powers of government -- leaving only foreign affairs and trade regulation(narrowly conceived) to Britain. The uncertainty of local political power and economic troubles aggravated the colony's discontents. In the end neither Britain nor Virginia could imagine an acceptable future if the other's policy prevailed. Neither could yield any essential point to the other. There was no real chance of successful compromise. Law, custom, forbearance--none could avail against the dilemma of who should be sovereign. Only force remained.
The warrior heritage: a study of Rhodesia
(1980) Alphin, Arthur Brent; Vandiver, Frank E.; Drew, Katherine F.; Gruber, Ira D.
A warrior is a person who adheres to values which inspire in him a willingness to engage in certain activities regardless of risk to his life. In battle such people accomplish great things. The heritage they leave to others is frequently said to be an advantage when a nation is embroiled in military troubles. Rhodesia is a nation in trouble and they have such a heritage. In 1893 Major Allan Wilson and thirty-three men died in a last stand against some four thousand Ndebele tribesmen. The fight was so bitter that the Ndebele lost heart for further combat and surrendered immediately thereafter. A rebellion by two tribes in 1896 was put down; and, in so doing, Rhodesians left a heritage of intangibles, such as courage, and tangibles, such as proper use of forts. World Wars I and II saw sacrifice by Rhodesians that, on a per capita basis, exceeded the sacrifice of any other nation in the free world. In the current anti-terrorist war, Rhodesians are, in some cases, making good use of their heritage. Yet in other areas, like the use of forts, they seem to have learned nothing from their mistakes and eventual success in the 1896 Rebellions. Their heritage of courage from Major Wilson and from their efforts in World Wars I and II seems to inspire no one as they lose hope and shun sacrifice in a brutal and lonely war. Rhodesia is beset by a tide of trouble that is so great and so lacking in other favorable factors that they cannot seem to win. Their warrior heritage, though a great thing, is not sufficient alone.

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