The Dover Historical Society has announced that popular speaker, author and Brandeis University Professor Paul Jankowski will return to Dover on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Dover Library, Lower Level. His topic will be: "Verdun: WWI’s Ironic, Iconic Battle."
Dr. Jankowski has received wide acclaim for his recently published book on Verdun which, as he told the New York Times Sunday Review in an article about the book, was the beginning of the disastrous, devastating, yet for the French, iconic battle which lasted 300 days and claimed 300,000 French and German lives. This battle became “a symbol of the horrors of protracted industrialized warfare”. He has appeared at many national and international conferences, seminars, museum openings and other commemorative events all seeking to find meaning in this iconic and apparently meaningless conflict. The leading French newspaper, Le Monde, in its review of the documentary film Dr. Jankowski worked on in France and Germany, he “endeavors to analyze the infernal logic that drives two warring parties to perpetrate confrontations as murderous as it was indecisive.”
In April of 1917, the United States officially entered the war. This was a controversial and ultimately decisive action, but the significance and consequences are still being analyzed and argued about today. President Woodrow Wilson told Congress that this would be “the war to end all wars” and would “make the world safe for democracy.” Well, in a way yes? No? Maybe? Sort of? This is an opportunity for Dover residents to hear one of the war’s foremost authorities on WWI address these questions.
November 11, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the war. The current well-received exhibit on the subject at the Sawin Museum will come down when the Museum closes at the end of November.
All are welcome to attend free of charge. Refreshments will be served starting at 7:00 p.m.
