Too much about higher education of late… Let’s cleanse the palate with a dose of military history! It was during my first year of college, when I had decided to forego my planned career in international law and instead devote myself to the study of European history, that I first realized how little of the … More The Second World War Before Pearl Harbor: France, 1940
A couple more posts you might have missed during the quiet summer months, both having to do with 20th century war poetry that’s less familiar to most of us. Just over 6000 American soldiers are buried outside the French village of Fère-en-Tardenois, at Oise-Aisne Cemetery. The most famous was killed by a German sniper ninety-five … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Forgotten War Poetry
I’m not sure that anyone has made a good movie about the stretch of WWII that lies between the fall of Poland in early October 1939 and the German invasion of western Europe in early April 1940. But if they did, it wouldn’t fit the conventions of war movies. Given that this half-year was sometimes … More The Second World War Before Pearl Harbor: The Phoney War, 1939-1940
Change the first word to “Twelve” and this post from 9/11/2012 still seems to fit today, 9/11/2013. Eleven years ago this morning I was in Hamden, Connecticut, waking up after a late night of dissertation writing to turn on CNN in time to watch the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Those structures … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: This Day in History: 9/11
If I asked you to name a poem from the First World War, or even the name of a poet who participated in that war, you could probably do it. At the very least, you might recall fragments of “In Flanders Fields.” Or names like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Now, name a poem from … More “Where Are the War Poets?” WWII in Verse
9/3/13 – A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I enjoy musical side projects… If you’re interested in my posts on the commemoration of the two world wars, then check out my new side project: a photoblog called Memento belli. I’ll update it periodically with images and minimal text about various modern war and … More My New Photoblog on War Commemoration
While taking notes earlier this month at the Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial in Rochester, MN, I couldn’t help but overhear the following from another (rather loud) visitor: Kids should come here and read all this stuff because they don’t teach [it] in school. Yes, and no. (Well, more like: yes, and NO!) Yes: there is … More Commemorating WWII: The Memorial as a Work of Public History
I started this series — introducing American readers to the Second World War as it was fought years before the United States joined the conflict — with Japan’s 1937 offensive against China. Let’s continue with an invasion that’s probably more familiar to most Americans and Europeans: Having already remilitarized the Rhineland (March 1936), absorbed Austria … More The Second World War Before Pearl Harbor: Poland, 1939
What do war and veterans memorials mean? What should we think or feel when we visit them? And who decides the answers to those questions? Not long after leaving Highway 61 (the famous road that follows the Mississippi River) and entering the southeastern Minnesota town of Wabasha, you’ll arrive at its small Veteran’s Memorial Park. … More Commemorating WWII: Meaning, Power, and Worship
My recent tour of about twenty memorials in southern Minnesota (plus one in western Wisconsin) was meant to help immerse me in the era of World War II, which I’ll be teaching next January at Bethel University. But more often than not, what I saw were relics of the 1990s or 2000s, not the 1940s … More Commemorating WWII: Back to the Future
The Pietist Schoolman 