EDWARDSVILLE - The last event of the 2018 Madison County Historical Society’s Speaker’s Series will be held on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. in the fellowship hall of Immanuel United Methodist Church at 800 N. Main Street in Edwardsville. The speaker will be Emeritus Professor James Weingartner who will discuss World War I as it was experienced in Madison County, Illinois, a century ago.
Nov. 11, 2018 will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. That war was in many ways “the war that made the 20th century,” but it has faded badly in the American collective memory. Some of us can remember when Nov. 11 was not “Veterans’ Day,” but “Armistice Day,” marking the cease-fire that brought the unprecedented slaughter of World War I to an end. That observation ended way back in 1954, by which time World War II and the Korean War had supplanted “The Great War” in the national consciousness. There have been more wars since the armistice.
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American participation in World War I was brief, approximately 19 months, and less than half that length in terms of actual involvement in large scale combat. Consequently, loss of American life was modest in comparison to that suffered by the warring European powers. Still, World War I was a momentous event in American history that cries out for remembrance. In this program, we will survey World War I as it was experienced by a small fragment of American society – Madison County, Illinois.
Programs in the MCHS Speaker’s Series are free and open to the public. Regular hours at the Madison County Archival Library are Wed – Fri, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sun, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. The Madison County Historical Museum is currently closed for renovations. For additional information, call 618-656-7569.
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