Bluegrass music is not the normal sort of thesis that the History and Literature Department accepts, and Brown says: "I'm still surprised they let me do it." Despite the oddity of the topic the thesis may have helped the Harvard community learn more about the bluegrass sound so rarely heard around Boston--even in the Square. "Nobody around Harvard knew much about it. There was really nobody who could help much, so I was pretty much on my own," she says.

If bluegrass music seemed like an unusual topic for the History and Literature Department, then haute couture seemed like an equally unlikely topic for the Fine Arts Department. But James H. Lubowitz says he "made the assumption that fashion has aesthetic value and can be considered art," and then proceeded to analyze the aesthetics of Christian Dior in the 1950s.

Lubowitz's thesis stirred some controversy in the department, since some members "didn't respect the topic," he says. Nevertheless he went ahead researching original patterns and documents of Dior's reign as fashion king of Paris in the 50s. "I was really on my own," he says. "It was difficult because I was doing a lot of empirical work from the magazines. Dior elevated fashion to an integral part of popular culture and basically saved the French economy," he adds.

Lubowitz was not lucky enough to go to Paris to do any research on the originals, but did get a grant to travel to New York to do some field work there. But he does not plan to go into fashion or fine arts as his career; he is going to medical school. "Majoring in Fine Arts was almost an indulgence," he says.

The assumption of this thesis is that fashion or dress in the twentieth century is truly an art form. The study of the history of costume encompasses many fields, such as psychology and sociology, but the aesthetic aspects of clothing have attracted little attention from critics of the arts. However, fashion should certainly be considered an art form because it is definitely an expression of the aesthetic impulses of individuals or social groups. Furthermore, since individual designers of clothing have evolved from the role of modest, nineteenth century private couturiers to world-wide dictators of the haute couture, the work of the great twentieth century fashion artists like Christian Dior must be considered as art in the fullest sense of the term.

The first high fashion style of the Fifties was actually created in 1947 when Christian Dior showed his first collection. Dior presented a silhouette which became known as the "New Look." Half-a-century's development of the square, mannish, waistless woman was relinquished in a moment for this new ideal of feminine chic. It consisted of a tiny, nipped waist, rounded (even padded) breasts, rounded hips, and skirts which usually swept as low as eight to twelve inches from the floor.

Dior minimized the waist not only by means of clever cutting and a mini-corset or guepiere; be padded out the front hip bones and used every known trick of the art of couture in elaborately constructing his models. To add the ultra-feminine look of these costumes, Dior added small flowered hats with veils, high-heeled shoes, colored gloves to match a buttonhole or handkerchief, long slim umbrellas to tone with shoes and bag, and two or four strings of pearls.

These lovely dresses were carried out in materials woven with both real and artificial fibers. Many of the characteristics of Dior's new mode--the skirts held out by invisible means as well as the soft drapes which held their own line without visible support--owed their qualities to the new, man-made fibers. Indeed, these models would not have been possible without the aid of such novel fabrics as featherweight holland linings and diaphanous but firm, stiffened nylon.   --"The Aesthetics of Fashion"   James H. Lubowitz, Fine Arts

No one had ever done much work on the Turkey War of 1973-1979 before Michael T. Anderson '84 took up the topic. It was not a major international conflict--the war did not concern the nation Turkey, but the bird Americans eat for Thanksgiving. If they don't seem like much to fight about, then consider that the European Community started raising tariffs on turkey imports from the U.S. and made turkey farmers very upset. The ensuing trade war lasted for five years.

Anderson didn't focus on just the turkey war, but used for comparison the Chicken War of 1961-1964 and also analyzed the Textile Wrangle of 1969-1971 and another textile fight in 1956 between the U.S. and Japan. The Government thesis analyzed the varying intensity of the fights and the causes for the intensity.

"Fighting Over Fabric and Fowl" may have earned the Currier House resident high marks from the department, but his unusual interest in poultry also earned him the name "Captain Chicken" from some of his friends. Nevertheless, Anderson was one of the first to do research on the dispute which, he says, "no one has any clue about." Despite the strange epithet he received from his friends. Anderson has turned his knowledge into a possible job: he is up for a job as confidential adviser to the Undersecretary of Agriculture for International Affairs.

The Turkey War continued into the Ford Administration. On October 11, 1976 (conveniently one month before the November elections) Ford imposed a quota on EC meat imports of 1.26 million pounds. After negotiations failed to solve the poultry trade conflict. Ford on November 29, 1976 raised the tariff on $13-a-gallon brandy from $1.00 to $3.00 and the levy on $9.00 brandy from $1.25 to $3.00

In retaliation, the EC reached once again for its familiar weapon, turkey levies. Tariff levels on turkey drumsticks, legs, and quarters were increased 35%, 55%, and 40% respectively.

The Turkey War simmered on and proved to be a major obstacle to Geneva Multilateral Trade Negotiations. In July of 1977 the EC and US agreed on a procedure to handle agricultural matters in the MTN. Each side was to submit petitions to the other concerning its demand for agricultural trade concessions. As late as July 1978 negotiator Robert Strauss admitted that poultry trade was one problem delaying the successful conclusion of the talks.

The dispute was finally resolved with the conclusion of the Tokyo round of trade negotiations. The EC conceded three minor points. First, they agreed to lower levies on turkey drumsticks, breasts, and thighs by using new coefficients for calculating gate prices. Second, they agreed to keep seasoned, uncooked turkey at the bound rate of 17%. Finally, the Community decided to reduce turkey liver levies from 14% ad valorem to 10%.