The Great War and its Legacy, 1914-1918: Fall 2014 Programs

 Understanding World War I – An Introduction to The Great War and Its Legacies

Dr. Laura Belmonte, Professor and Head, Department of History, Oklahoma State University

Thursday, October 2, 3:30 p.m., Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University

Program Description:

Inaugurating a four-year series of lectures marking the 100th anniversary of World War I, Dr. Laura Belmonte, a specialist in the history of U.S. foreign relations, offers an overview of the causes, key events, and ramifications of the conflict.

Biography:

Laura A. Belmonte is Department Head and Professor of History at Oklahoma State University. She is author of Selling the American Way: U.S. Propaganda and the Cold War and editor of Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History. She is currently co-authoring a transnational U.S. History textbook, Global Americans (Cengage, forthcoming 2015) and working on two additional major projects. The first examines the origins and evolution of U.S. global policy on AIDS. The second is a synthesis on the history of the international LGBT rights movement (Continuum, forthcoming 2016). She is a member of the U.S. Department of State's Historical Advisory Committee on Diplomatic Documentation.

View the lecture video below:

J.R.R. Tolkien and the Great Wars

Janet Brennan Croft, Head of Access and Delivery Services and Assistant Professor at the Rutgers University Libraries

Thursday, November 20, 3:30 p.m., Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room, Edmon Low Library, Oklahoma State University

Program Description:

One of the reasons Tolkien is such a popular author is that he can be read at many levels.  For the reader willing to look deeper than the adventure-story surface, there are many important themes in his works. War is one of the themes that runs through all of Tolkien's books, especially The Lord of the Rings.  Particular motifs appear over and over again: the effects of war on individuals, families, and society, whether war can ever be justified, and if so, the proper conduct of war; close friendships among groups of men; the glory and horror of battle. The depiction of war and its effects were drawn from his own life; he served in the First World War at the Battle of the Somme, and two of his sons fought in the Second World War. Like all artists, he absorbed the materials of his own life into his art.

Biography:

Janet Brennan Croft is Head of Access and Delivery Services and Assistant Professor at the Rutgers University Libraries.  She is the author of War in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (Praeger, 2004; winner, Mythopoeic Society Award for Inklings Studies). She has also written on the Peter Jackson films, J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and other authors, and is editor or co-editor of five collections of literary essays.  She edits the refereed scholarly journal Mythlore and serves on the board of the Mythopoeic Press. Her current project is the edited collection Baptism of Fire: The Birth of British Fantasy in World War I.

View the lecture video below: