Pershing Lecture Series | The Wars Before the War: The American Civil War

Dr. Mitch Klingenberg comes to the National WWI Museum and Memorial on Wednesday, Oct. 21, for a talk titled The Wars Before the War: The American Civil War. It's part of the Pershing Lecture Series, which brings in lecturers and authors from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Department of Military History to look at World War I and how it still touches law, international policy, and culture today.

Klingenberg's focus is on the American Expeditionary Forces fighting in France in 1918. He examines how those officers believed their conduct of war validated the strategic and operational approaches Ulysses S. Grant used between 1863 and 1865. From there, he dissects the mixed lessons the American Civil War left behind and the uniquely American way of theorizing and waging large-scale war. It's a look at how a conflict from the mid-19th century was still shaping the way American officers thought about the battlefield half a century later.

The lecture arrives at a bit of a milestone for the museum: the National WWI Museum and Memorial is marking its 100th anniversary, and the country is marking its 250th. That adds a layer of timing to a talk that's all about how the past keeps showing up in the present.

It runs at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. You can catch it in the auditorium or online, and it's free with RSVP.