MGA President to Discuss His World War I Book at Student-Hosted Events

Author: News Bureau
Posted: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 12:00 AM
Category: Pressroom

Macon and Cochran, GA

Middle Georgia State's History Student Organization, a student club, is hosting Dr. Christopher Blake, University president, at two events to discuss his new book, "And Half the Seed of Europe: A Genealogy of the Great War 1914-1918."

The first event is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, in Russell Auditorium on MGA's Cochran Campus. The second event is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 30, in Library Lab 1 on MGA's Macon Campus. Both events are free and open to the public.

These events are in addition to two occasions in November when Blake will discuss aspects of World War I as part of Middle Georgia State's new "Master Lecture" series, also open to the public: https://www.mga.edu/news/2017/10/WW1-master-lecture.php.

Blake's book is timely for a group of History faculty and students at MGA who are designing a World War I exhibit for the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. The History Student Organization also hopes Blake's work will inspire students currently enrolled in the Historical Methods class.

Here is the publisher's description of Blake's book:

The First World War, or Great War as it became known, was ravaging the human family one century ago, changing forever the nature of military combat and restructuring the twentieth century in a way that was unimaginable before its course. With more than 35 million casualties, the Great War ranks among the deadliest conflicts in all history. While the Great War was hoped to be the War to End All Wars, it instead launched a series of geo-political struggles that defined the future century, and in the shadow of which we still live today. By the end of the War all the major combatants--including the United States--were engulfed in its flames and hostage to its fortunes. But the war was also very personal, shaping the lives of those who went to war, their loved ones, their families, and their future. That story of family is rarely examined in terms of the impact of the Great War. In this book, several family members, British and American, are the context for an understanding of how the War shaped our lives both in the past, and going forward. In the stories of individual combatants, and their family relationships, lie the clues to understanding who we are, where we came from, and where we might choose to go. Although the Great War is lost to living memory, its history lives on in the families whose grandparents, parents, spouses, and children engaged in the most titanic struggle in human history at that time.

For more information about the History Student Organization-sponsored talks, contact Dr. Niels Eichhorn, assistant professor of History, at niels.eichhorn@mga.edu (Macon Campus) or Dr. Andrew Reeves, assistant professor of History, at andrew.reeves1@mga.edu (Cochran Campus).