A WORLD WAR ONE SYMPOSIUM September 28-29, 2018 Michigan Technological University • Houghton, Michigan
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Armistice & Aftermath A WWI Symposium Michigan Tech, 28-29 September 2018 Proceedings Edited by Patricia Sotirin and Steven A. Walton Introduction We are pleased to bring together many of the papers presented at the Michigan Tech World War I symposium, Armistice & Aftermath. They provide various examples of how WWI affected the heartland, both during and after the war – a topic often missed in general histories, at least in the United States. American stories of WWI are relatively scarce in relation to general American military history, where the Civil War and WWII dominate, and in relation to WWI histories, which are dominated by the European combat experience. It is understandable that other countries have more robust histories and analyses of the Great War, mainly because it was so proportionally more devastating to their generation that fought: it is estimated that of the 15–19 million deaths in the war (and about 23 million wounded military personnel), France and Germany lost 4.25% and 3.8% of their entire population to deaths in the war, respectively, and two to three time more casualties who survived the war, while some other countries like the Ottoman Empire and Serbia lost 13– 18% of their population; the U.S. suffered 117,000 deaths, or 0.13% of our population at the time. This collection is not about the battlefield experiences of American troops in France, but about the hometowns, the families, wives, mothers, children, and society that was left behind while our boys (and girls: we must not forget the “Hello Girls”) were “over there”, and the effects of their return to the U.S. There are some stories that are not told in this collection, unfortunately, like the Red Summer of 1919, the violent backlash against returning African-American soldiers who were expecting more civil rights upon their return. Instead they met over two dozen riots against them across the country with hundreds killed. Instead, this volume looks at a view of how the war affected the homefront during 1918–19 and then during the roaring ‘20s that is seldom considered. We would like to thank all the speakers who were able said to contribute their papers, but also want to thank the speakers who were not able to because their papers are out for review elsewhere or otherwise committed. Our thanks also go out to the WW1CC Committee members and student helpers, for helping to make this symposium a reality. Financial support was provided by the Michigan Humanities Council,† Michigan Tech’s Institutional Equity and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, and with support from the Carnegie Museum in Houghton and Finlandia University in Hancock, as well as the Departments of Humanities and Social Sciences here at Michigan Tech. Patty Sotirin and Steve Walton Houghton, MI, Dec. 2018 —— ww1cc.mtu.edu —— † WW1CC is made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Michigan Humanities Council. WORLD WAR ONE & THE COPPER COUNTRY PRESENTS ARMISTICE & AFTERMATH A WORLD WAR ONE SYMPOSIUM September 28-29, 2018 Michigan Technological University • Houghton, Michigan he Armistice that ended the “Great War” remains a marker of hope, change, sacrifice, T and struggle. In commemorating this marker, the Symposium features diverse reflections on the cultural, political, and technological experiences and legacies of WWI. friday, september 28 1:00—4:00 PM Registration and exhibits open at Michigan Tech, Carnegie Museum, Finnish American Heritage Center, and conference hotel. Exhibits open: Dug In: Experiential WWI Trench, Michigan Tech (41 & MacInnes) Town and Gown in the Great War: A Look Back at the Copper Country and Michigan Tech During World War I, Van Pelt & Opie Library, Michigan Tech World War I & the Copper Country Home Front, Van Pelt & Opie Library, Michigan Tech Reflections on Technologies of Warfare, Immersive Studio, EERC 510, Michigan Tech Shell-shocked: Footage and Sounds of the Front, Rozsa Gallery Lobby, Michigan Tech American and French Propaganda Posters, Rozsa Gallery, Michigan Tech Soldier Stories: The U.P. in World War I, Carnegie Museum of the Keweenaw, Houghton Copper Country Voices of Dissent in the Great War, Finnish American Heritage Center, Finlandia University, Hancock 4:00—5:30 PM “Local Theaters, Propaganda and WWI,” Sue Collins (Michigan Tech University) Orpheum Theater, Studio Pizza appetizers. Shuttle available to this talk and back to Tech campus. Contact Symposium office, Datolite Room #100 Memorial Union or email [email protected] 5:00—6:00 PM Shuttle from Orpheum Theater to Rozsa Box supper available in Rozsa Lobby 6:00—7:00 PM “Europe, America, and the World: An Outdoor Concert,” Michigan Tech Wind Symphony, Walker lawn, Michigan Tech (inside in case of inclement weather; check signs in Rozsa Lobby) 7:30—8:30 PM Keynote Address: Dr. John Morrow Jr., “African American Experience in WWI and Aftermath,” Rozsa Lobby, Michigan Tech 8:30—9:30 PM Shuttle from Rozsa Lobby to conference hotel Copper Crown Hancock saturday, september 29 8:00—9:00 AM Coffee and muffins, Alumni Room, Memorial Union 8:45 AM Welcome, Symposium Committee 9:00—10:00 AM Session 1a Ballroom B2-3 Session 1b Ballroom A1 Contestations over Loyalties The Art and Legacy of WWI and Identities Propaganda Conflicted Loyalties: Austro-Hungarian Immigrants in The Sights and Sounds of WWI Propaganda Posters — Michigan and the Great War — Robert Goodrich Jessy Ohl (The University of Alabama) (Northern Michigan University) A Tale of Two Princips: Contested Memory and National A Heartland Artist as Prisoner: The End Of Guy Brown Identity in the Former Yugoslavia — Christina Morus Wiser's Air War — Doug Lantry (National Museum of the (Stockton University) and Gordon Coonfield (Villanova U.S. Air Force) University) Propaganda as Public Relations Antecedent: The Population, the Lessons of War, and the Promise of Complex Legacy of the Creel Commission — Peace — Kathleen Tobin (Purdue University Northwest) Christopher McCollough (Columbus State University) Chair: Patty Sotirin Chair: Sue Collins 10:15—11:15 AM Session 2a Ballroom B2-3 Session 2b Ballroom A1 bringing it home to the midwest depicting war in the arts Oshkosh on the Home Front: Activities and Attitudes An American Abroad: Perceptions of Americans in During World War I — Amy Fels (University of Wisconsin- Buchan's WWI Thriller, Greenmantle — Peter Faziani Milwaukee) (Indiana University of Pensylvania and Jackson College, Michigan) 'Lest We Forget': Remembering World War I in Wisconsin, 1919-1945 — Leslie Bellais (University of “Pour la France ! Pour ma famille !”: Haunting War Wisconsin-Madison) Legacies in Rouaud’s Champs d’honneurs -- Dany Jacob (Michigan Tech) Patriotic Acts of Copper Country Children in the Great War — Seth Dahl (Finlandia University) Art and Activisim in Abel Gance's Film, J'accuse: Revisiting Anti-war Sentiment in French Art and Society Chair: Steven Walton a Century Later — Ramon Fonkoue (Michigan Tech) Chair: Ramon Fonkoue 11:30 AM—1:00 PM Lunch buffet and Keynote: Dr. Lynn Dumenil, “Women and the Great War“ Memorial Union Ballroom A2 1:15—2:15 PM Session 3a Ballroom B2-3 Session 3b Ballroom A1 shifts in technology and law exhibiting war Electrical Communications Impacts During the Great War ‘Your Duty on Display’: The Allied War Exhibition in and Impacts on the Interwar Period — Martha Sloan Chicago, the State Council of Defense, and the Role of (Michigan Tech) the State in Defining American Identity — Josh Fulton (Northern Illinois University) American Chemical Companies: World War I and Beyond — Jason Szilagyi (Central Michigan University) The Allied Exhibitionary Forces: From Encouragement to Commemoration of WWI — Steven Walton (Michigan Impact of the First World War on India — Imrana Begum Tech) (NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan) WWI Propaganda Poster Fluidity — Sarah Price (The University of Alabama) Chair: Diane Shoos Chair: Steven Walton 2:30—3:30 PM Session 4a Ballroom B2-3 Session 4b Ballroom A1 taking the long view gender and the great war The Great War and Modern Homosexuality: Transatlantic Recalling the Trenches from the Club Window: Crossings — Chet DeFonso (Northern Michigan University) Contrasting Perspectives in Dorothy Sayers and P.G. Wodehouse — Laura Fiss (Michigan Tech) Henry Ford‘s Dearborn Independent: A Reflection of Post-WWI Rise of Anti-Semitism in America — Catherine Men, Military, and the Law: An Examination of Wadle (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, Germany) Conscription During World War I and Its Legal Challenges — Victoria Stewart (Northwest Florida State World War One & Africa: Contesting History, Nation, and College University) Identity in ‘Western Togoland’ — G. Edzordzi Agbozo (Michigan Tech) ‘This Mad Brute’: Postwar Male Violence and the Pathological Public Sphere — Rebecca Frost ‘The War Has Ended; the Doors Are Open Again’: Baha‘l (Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College) Western-Women Pilgrimage to the Holy Land After the Great War — Shay Rozen (Avshlom Institute) Chair: Patty Sotirin 3:45—7:00 PM Shuttles available between Michigan Tech and Hancock. Please check in the Symposium office, Datolite Room #100 or email [email protected] Exhibits open at Michigan Tech, Carnegie Museum, and Finlandia University Dinner on your own -- see the list of area restaurants in the Symposium folder 7:30—9:00 PM “Copper Country at the Silver Screen in 1918” Charlie Chaplin’s silent film, Shoulder Arms (1918) with live musical accompaniment by organist Jay Warren (Chicago) Four-Minute Man performance Participation in all Symposium events is FREE and open to the public. For registration, information, meal tickets, and tours, visit the Symposium office, Memorial Union 106. hours Friday, 1:00—4:00 PM, Saturday 8:00am-5:00pm All presenters will receive a box supper on Friday evening and a buffet lunch (WWI recipes) on Saturday.