Times Talk Wednesday, April 1, noon-12:50 p.m., Pat Peterson Museum Education Room with Dr. Brian Newsome, professor of History on "From Purpose to Trauma: Remembering World War I" 

Times Talk sign

Times Talk Wednesday, April 1, noon-12:50 p.m., Pat Peterson Museum Education Room with Dr. Brian Newsome, professor of History on "From Purpose to Trauma: Remembering World War I" 

Please join us this Wednesday, April 1, in the Pat Peterson Museum Education Room of Russell Library from 12 until 12:50 p.m. for this week's Times Talk facilitated by Dr. Brian Newsome, dean of the Honors College and professor of History on "From Purpose to Trauma: Remembering World War I."  

The discussion will focus on the evolution of understandings of World War I among wartime and postwar novelists (most of them veterans) — from ascribing some sort of purpose to the war (while it was being fought and in its immediate aftermath) to depictions of the war as trauma by the late 1920s. By reflecting on excerpts from the works of Henri Barbusse, Ernst Jünger, Erich Maria Remarque and others, the group will explore how those different perspectives related not only to timing but also to class, rank and individual experience. We will conclude by reflecting on the “distance” separating the world today from that of the early- and mid-20th century, and the extent to which that distance has (or has not) contributed to widespread “amnesia” about the costs of war. 

Times Talk at Georgia College is celebrating 20 continuous years as the first in the nation college weekly facilitated campus-wide conversation series on current and significant public events and issues as reported by the New York Times and other reputable news sources. The topics change weekly and are chosen and facilitated by volunteer faculty, staff, students and community members. Times Talks are open to all campus and local community members. Just bring your brain. There will be free pizza while it lasts!

Next week's Times Talk on April 8, is facilitated by Dr. Shaundra Walker: "Celebrating National Library Week: The Library as a Third Space."

Updated: 2026-03-30
Janet Hoffmann
jan.hoffmann@gcsu.edu
(478) 445-5556
American Democracy Project