EX POST FACTO Journal of the History Students at San Francisco State University Volume XXVIII 2019 Ex Post Facto is published annually by the students of the Department of History at San Francisco State University and members of the Kappa Phi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national History honors society. All views of fact or opinion are the sole responsibility of the authors and may not reflect the views of the editorial staff. Questions or comments may be directed to Ex Post Facto, Department of History, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132. Contact us via email at [email protected]. The Journal is published online at http:/history.sfsu.edu/content/ex-post- facto-history-journal. The Ex Post Facto editorial board gratefully acknowledges the funding provided by the Instructionally Related Activities Committee at San Francisco State University. The board also wishes to thank Dr. Eva Sheppard Wolf for her continued confidence and support, as well as all of the Department of History’s professors who have both trained and encouraged students in their pursuit of the historian’s craft. These professors have empowered their students to write the inspiring scholarship included in this publication. In addition to support from within our own department, we have also been fortunate to receive outstanding contributions from the SFSU School of Design. Therein we are particularly grateful for the assistance of Dr. Joshua Singer and Aitalina Indeeva. Lastly, we would like to thank the authors who have allowed us to share their work with our readership and the greater academic community. These papers remain under the ownership of their authors and may be published elsewhere, with or without further edits. Ex Post Facto, with the permission of the authors, retains the right to publish these essays both in print and online. © Copyright San Francisco State University 2019 EGO POSTULO INSPIRATIONEM TUA O DEA CLIO LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITORS It with tremendous pride that we introduce the twenty-eighth volume of Ex Post Facto. Our 2019 edition contains nine articles ranging in theme from medieval perceptions of sight to the regulation and closure of San Francisco’s gay bathhouses in the 1980s. Each article captures a unique moment in time and, as evinced by this year’s apropos cover art, constitutes a formidable effort to contribute to the edifice of historical knowledge. Despite sustained and, in many cases, worthwhile challenges, revisions, and additions to this edifice, it is one that remains, much like the annual development of this journal, fundamentally collaborative in nature. We would like to thank all of the authors who contributed their work to the journal, and happily acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the many professors who have supported them in doing so. We are equally indebted to the contributions of the members of our editorial staff, who have consistently sacrificed their own time to make this year’s volume ofEPF as strong as possible. Our profound gratitude goes out to Dr. Eva Sheppard Wolf for the abundant guidance that she has offered us as our faculty mentor. We are also thankful for Sheri Kennedy’s enduring support and administrative expertise. Outside of the Department of History, we recognize the exceptional contributions of Aitalina Indeeva and Dr. Joshua Singer, both of SFSU’s School of Design, who volunteered their time and creativity to produce this volume’s cover. Without the inspiring contributions of all of the individuals listed above, as well as those of the many others who have guided them along the way, we would not have been able to publish this twenty-eighth volume of EPF. As we present this edition, it is our hope that the special tradition of producing Ex Post Facto will continue for years to come, and will stand as both a reminder of the importance of historical inquiry and a testament to the power of collaboration. We very much hope that you enjoy this year’s rendition, Ashley S. Fitzhugh Jennifer M. Meissner Alesha M. Sohler EX POST FACTO 2018-2019 EDITORS MANAGING EDITORS Ashley S. Fitzhugh Jennifer M. Meissner Alesha M. Sohler ASSOCIATE EDITORS Rebecca A. Coman Niku Radan Madeleine Dix Lucas Thornton Daisy Muñoz Julie van den Hout Margaret J. Paz Brian Williams ASSISTANT EDITORS Fall Semester Spring Semester Eric Gillon Bryan Gigantino Alisa Polischuk Nicole Estela Miller Curtis Rager Kelsey M. Sims Stanton Sheley Cole Taylor Souder Analisa Spina Hailee VanHorn Ashley Worden Alan Yepez-Mejia Table of Contents ISLAM IN THE LIFE AND WORDS OF GANDHI Mitchell Johnson . 9-21 Undergraduate Winner of the Joseph Mullins Prize in History ELF BATTLES: AN INSTANCE OF CULTURAL CONFLICT BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM IN LATE-ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND Curtis Rager. 23-34 A NEW AGE DAWNING: THE DECISION TO USE THE ATOMIC BOmb Julian Marasigan . .37-56 THE DEFENSE OF SAN FRANCISCO’S GAY BATHHOUSES AS AN ISSUE OF CIVIL AND SEXUAL LIBERTIES DURING THE AIDS EPIDEMIC Brandon Michael Ball . .59-70 DARKNESS HALPS US TO FEEL HOLY: THE CLASSICAL CONCEPTION OF WITCHCRAFT IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE David Hlusak . 73-104 Graduate Winner of the Joseph Mullins Prize in History WHAT’S IN A VIEW: AN EXAmpLE OF CONVERSATION BETWEEN MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN SCHOLARS AND THEIR CONVERGENCE IN THE PERCEPTION OF MEDIEVAL SIGHT Margaret J. Paz . .107-127 THE SAILING SHIP AS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY ATLANTIC: FOUR LEGS OF THE VOYAGE OF DE LIEFDE Julie van den Hout . .129-143 FLUID HORRORS: VAmpIRES AS THE FACE OF OTHERS IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY AmeRICA Adam Nichols . .145-160 ARABS IN AmeRICA: THE HISTORY OF DEARBORN, MICHIGAN Scott Pribble . .163-194 Islam in the Life and Words of Gandhi UNDERGRADUATE WINNER OF THE JOSEPH MULLINS PRIZE IN HISTORY Mitchell Johnson The modern, Western study of Mohandas K. Gandhi often seeks to place him in a Western context: Gandhi and King, Gandhi and Washington, Gandhi and the Christian establishment. Both academics and the public have contextualized him within the context of Western leaders, revolutionaries, and religions, to make his teachings more accessible and relatable to a Western canon. Unfortunately, this trend diminishes Gandhi’s own work and greatly limits our ability to learn from him as a remarkable thinker in his own right. The Mahatmas global stature makes him deserving of a close, detailed study in all aspects of his life without the constant restriction of a Western, Judeo- Christian lens. Through close study of his life and career, it is evident that Gandhi’s work was defined as much by his relationship with the adherents of Islam as by the bureaucrats of the British Empire. While Western scholarship often rushes to examine his appraisal of Jesus and his disciples, Gandhi himself was more likely to invoke the words of Mohammad in a speech or letter. A very basic understanding of the geopolitics of South-Central Asia makes it clear that this is due to the large minority population of Muslims living side by side with Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains in colonial India. Gandhi, because of both his upbringing and lifelong goal of seeing an independent, peaceful, and whole India, asked himself the same question that many politicians and diplomats do today: how do we evaluate and fruitfully interact with Islam and its followers as per their central position in the world? In answering that question from Gandhi’s perspective, this paper builds on a series of scholarly articles and academic journals looking at the same or relevant topics. Foremost among these is an article entitled “Islam and Ghandi: A Historical Perspective,” written by Amit Dey and published in the journal 10 Mitchell Johnson Social Scientist in 2013. Dey’s piece is an insightful review of Gandhi’s historical interaction with Islam. It reads much like a biography, but also assesses Gandhi’s own method of historically contextualizing Islam in India. Dey’s work is especially useful in helping the reader consider the effects of Gandhi’s upbringing and how it primed him for thoughtful consideration of Islam.1 Sheila McDonough’s work, Gandhi’s Response to Islam, provides an even more detailed study of these factors. Though a well-regarded scholar of Islam, McDonough sometimes neglects to acknowledge the particular political environment Gandhi was a part of in her book, but does provide a detailed understanding of the denominations of Islam that Gandhi encountered.2 M.N. Srinivas’s piece, “Gandhi’s Religion,” is also useful, as it contains a meaningful and well-argued critique of Gandhi’s religious views in addition to a fair analysis of them as a whole.3 Srinivas spends very little time, however, assessing Islam’s place in Gandhi’s religious study: this leads one to conclude that perhaps too much of his understanding of Gandhi came from the work of B.R. Nanda, an author mentioned thirteen times in Srinivas’s article, and that he would benefit from a closer look at Gandhi’s own publications. The work of these historians is enlightening and thought-provoking, but the most important reading that I have done has been a systematic review of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. In my own research, I found that Islam sometimes dominated Gandhi’s writing, particularly while he was living in South Africa. I came to this conclusion by accessing an online database of the Collected Works, published by the GandhiServe Foundation, and using a search command to find each mention of Islam, Muslims, or Muhammad.4 By filtering through Gandhi’s extensive writings, I have identified the place 1 Amit Dey, “Islam and Gandhi: A Historical Perspective.” Social Scientist 41, no. 3/4 (March-April 2013): 19-34.