Germany

This study examines the development of German pipe organ culture and French classical pipe organ culture from a single common origin in the Duchy of Brabant, during 1450-1850, with respect to select major attributes of organ construction, organ music and organ technique. The respective music of Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707), Praeludium in G Minor, BuxWV 149, for the North German contrapuntalists, and of Câesar Franck (1822- 1890), Choral No. 3 in A Minor, for the classical French symphonic tradition, is highlighted and appended with suggested technique for each work.

This thesis analyzes the historiography of Neville Chamberlain and appeasement through the lens of Oswald Mosley and British Fascism, arguing that an acute and unexpected convergence emerges between the ardent radicalism of Mosley and the utter rationality of Chamberlain, illustrating the uncanny degree to which appeasement as a policy dovetailed with fascism as an ideology. Beginning at the Spanish Civil War and ending in March 1939, politicians in the vein of Chamberlain - subsequently dubbed 'appeasers' - pursued appeasement as a means to placate German aggression. The British Union of Fascists, with Mosley at the helm, enthusiastically supported this movement and urged the British Government to intensify the appeasement campaign. Ultimately, the convergence of appeasement and fascism illustrates the severe lack of alternatives available to Chamberlain, and underscores the degree to which his pragmatic politics supported fascism abroad.

This thesis examines recent explanations of racial violence in the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, the Oldham Riots of 2001, the French Riots of 2005, and the racial violence of 1992 in Germany. In each case I outline traditional theories claiming that racial violence is caused by competition between ethnic groups for housing, jobs, and cultural identity. These theories may benefit from consideration of the historical elements that have institutionalized racial discrimination in the systematic processes of integration. In conclusion, I argue that the governmental mechanisms of integration; including citizenship models, context of state formation, immigration policy, and nationalist ideology, suggest that the framework of racial prejudice and ethnocentrism may predispose a society to racial conflict.