Despite significant cultural attention on the phenomenon of school shootings, one of the most predictive dimensions of these tragedies is under-analyzed: gender. Men commit 98% of mass shootings, but robust discussion and research on this relationship is lacking. This dissertation investigates the relationship between masculinity and gun violence on American campuses from a historical perspective. Using historical methods, this study analyzes four distinct instances of fatal gun violence on college campuses in the United States. The episodes investigated are the 1840 shooting of the faculty chairman by a student at the University of Virginia, the 1917 shooting of the Black son of a campus laundress by a student at the University of Florida, the 1966 mass shooting by a student at the University of Texas, and the 2007 mass shooting by a student at Virginia Tech University. Though each episode is culturally, historically, and circumstantially distinct, this investigation uncovered the historical influence of socially constructed hegemonic masculinity as a consistent and linking factor between these four instances of school violence. Butler's Gender Performance (1990), Connell's Hegemonic Masculinity (1993), and Kimmel's Aggrieved Entitlement (2013) provided the conceptual and interpretive framework for this study. Findings demonstrated the chameleonic but consistent presence of hegemonic masculinity in episodes of campus gun violence. Additionally, each instance investigated produced a cultural reaction significantly greater than comparable gun violence occurring elsewhere in the community. This suggests that school environments have an amplifying effect on the violence that occurs within them, likely due to the juxtaposition between suffering and death and what has been culturally constructed as a place of learning, development, and youth. Despite significant differences in sociocultural and historical context in the four episodes and other meaningful variables such as firearm access, mental health, and campus security, hegemonic masculinity had a consistent and significant impact on each instance of violence. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]