The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America | Sunday Lecture with Michael Neiberg, PhD

Only after lengthy debate and soul-searching about national identity did America enter the Great War. In a special Sunday lecture on February 11, Michael Neiberg, PhD, will track American responses to the 1914 outbreak of the war, the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, and debates on national preparedness in 1916. By 1917, most Americans, even those who opposed the war, came to see belligerence as America's only option. An author of several books and articles on World War I, Dr. Neiberg is a professor of history at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he holds the Stimson Chair of History and Security. The lecture is presented in conjunction with the new feature exhibition “In the Footsteps of Sergeant York” at the Museum of East Tennessee History through July 8. A panel exhibit, “World War I and America,” from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History will also be on view. The lecture is free and open to the public.  Museum admission is also free on the day of the lecture.

The lecture is the second in a series of WWI in America programs presented in partnership with the University of Tennessee Center for the Study of War and Society. The program is sponsored by the Library of America’s World War I and American Grant, received by CSWS in conjunction with the State of Tennessee World War I Commission. The lecture is free and will begin at noon at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville.