Skip to main content

World War I Lectures Offered at Mississippi College


MC history professor Steven Patterson

Leading to more than 37 million military and civilian casualties, World War I took an enormous toll on the globe’s population.

The Great War left more than 16 million dead and 20 million others wounded in Russia, Great Britain, Italy, the United States, France and other lands.

This fall at Mississippi College, scholars from around the region will offer a series of lectures providing an in-depth look at the origins, battles, legacy and music of this deadly conflict.

With historians marking the 100th anniversary of the beginnings of World War I in 1914, the five programs on the Clinton campus are well-timed. The public is invited. All of the events are free.

The series takes a broader “focus on a war that most Americans don’t know that much about, but one that shaped the 20th Century,” says MC history professor Steven Patterson. “World War II was a direct continuation of World War I and marks the dawn of the American Century and the rise of U.S. power abroad.” At the same time, the conflict led to the decline of European power.

The Mississippi College School of Humanities and Social Sciences and MC Honors Program are partnering to sponsor “The Great War Remembered” series. Professors with the university’s History and English Departments are offering assistance to make it happen.

Andy Wiest is the keynote speaker at Mississippi College on September 2. An author and former University of Southern Mississippi professor, Wiest is a Hattiesburg resident.

Wiest is a former lecturer at the Royal Military Academy in the United Kingdom who taught at the United States Air Force Air War College. He’s led study abroad programs on World War II to London and Normandy, France each summer since 1992.

Wiest’s talk will begin at 7 p.m. that Tuesday in Aven Hall’s Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall. He will discuss the origins of World War I.

On September 30, Millsaps College professor William Storey will discuss the role of technology in Great War battlefields. The Harvard graduate’s most recent book is “The First World War: A Concise Global History.” The program begins at 7 p.m. that Tuesday at the Williams Recital Hall.

Three other events, all set for Williams Recital Hall at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evenings, are booked.

A specialist in modern British history and Southern Mississippi professor Allison Abra will discuss the role of women and the war’s impact on American soil. The program is scheduled for October 14.

Tait Keller, who earned his doctorate in history at Georgetown University, will lecture on the environmental legacy of World War I, with his primary focus on the Eastern Alps. The lecture is scheduled for October 28th. Keller teaches at Rhodes College in Memphis.

The series on the Clinton campus wraps up with a November 11 concert focusing on the music and poetry of World War I.

For additional information, contact Mississippi College history professor Steven Patterson at 601-925-3469 or Spatters@mc.edu.