The Dover Historical Society will hold its Annual Meeting on Wednesday, March 22 at 7:30 in the Dover Library, Lower Level Community Room. In addition to the election of officers and presentation of the 7th Annual Preservation Award, the featured speaker will be Paul Jankowski, the Raymond Ginger Professor of History at Brandeis University, who will discuss “The United States Involvement in WWI.”
Jankowski has recently received great acclaim for his book “Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Great War.” He calls this WWI’s “Iconic, Ironic Battle” in an article he wrote for the New York Times Sunday Review on February 19, 2016 – the 100th anniversary of 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.” Jankowski 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.
In addition to his writing, Professor Jankowski worked with Director Serge de Sampigny on a documentary film which has aired in both France and Germany. It will be presented at Brandeis in April. The leading French newspaper Le Monde, in its review of the documentary, said that Professor Jankowski “endeavors to analyze the infernal logic that drives two warring parties to perpetrate confrontation 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.
The public is invited to attend and there is no charge for admission. Refreshments will be served.
