Past Event Category: War in Society, and Culture
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Oct 2“A Variation on the Violence of War”
Sabrina Thomas (UW-Madison)
Room 2212, Irving & Dorothy Levy Hall
Presented by the War in Society and Culture Program Reception to follow Co-sponsored by War in Society and Culture Program, Department of History, and the Center for European Studies
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Feb 26“Cultural Life in Constantinople during the Siege of 1453”
Anthony Kaldellis (University of Chicago)
Education L196
War in Society and Culture Program’s Spring 2026 Speaker Series Marquee Lecture The fall of Constantinople in 1453 marked the end of the Roman (Byzantine) empire and enabled the Ottomans to become a world power. Most attention on the siege has focused on its military aspects, including the deployment of huge cannons against the city’s ancient walls. But the …
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Jan 29“Depicting the Holy War: Crusader Imagery in Medieval French and English Murals”
Elizabeth Lapina (UW-Madison)
Curti Lounge (5233 Mosse Humanities)
This presentation, based on a recently published monograph, will discuss perceptions and representations of the crusades in Western Europe, specifically in France and England, as revealed in a type of source that few historians of the crusades have discussed: twelfth and thirteenth-century mural paintings in France and England. The talk will attempt to demonstrate that …
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Nov 18GETSEA Simulcast Film Screening of “Vietnamerica”
Nancy Bui (Executive Producer, Vietnamese Heritage Foundation)
1111 Mosse Humanities
Following the wars in Vietnam, over two million people fled to country with the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam. That exodus, referred to by many as “the boat people” resulted in nearly half dying while in flight, battling the elements, starvation, and pirates. Vietnamerica follows Master Nguyen Hoa as he returns to former refugee …
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Nov 13“Faith and Fear: America’s Relationship with War since 1945”
Gregory A. Daddis (Texas A&M University)
H.F. DeLuca Forum, Wisconsin Discovery Building
In a groundbreaking reassessment of the long Cold War era, historian Gregory A. Daddis argues that ever since the Second World War’s fateful conclusion, faith in and a fear of war became central to Americans’ thinking about the world around them. With war pervading nearly all aspects of American society, an interplay between blind faith …
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Nov 5“No One Plays Like Them: Martial and Equestrian Sports in the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517)”
Christopher Herde (UW-Madison)
Curti Lounge (5233 Mosse Humanities)
For a mamluk soldier, one of the highest virtues was furusiyyah. This complicated term literally means “horsemanship”, but by the Mamluk period encapsulated a range of skills and codes of behavior including the use of weapons, falconry, veterinary knowledge, and the proper organization and conduct of aristocratic mujahidin. Often compared to the European concept of Chivalry, furusiyyah was the structuring principle of …
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Oct 22“Decolonization, the Algerian War, and the Making of Modern Counterinsurgency”
Terrence G. Peterson (Florida International University)
Fluno Center - Howard Auditorium
The Algerian War was a pivotal event in the global struggle for decolonization. In this discussion of his new book, Terrence G. Peterson highlights how the conflict also helped to transform the nature of modern warfare. As the French Army attempted to counter the struggle for Algerian independence, it fashioned a radical project of armed …
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Oct 8“Politics of the Sword: Ideology and the Martial in Early Modern Japan”
Michael Wert (Marquette University)
Curti Lounge (5233 Mosse Humanities)
This talk explores how the notion of embodied martiality became central to the ideological underpinnings of Tokugawa rule. From martial esotericism to swordsmanship, being “never quite warrior enough” defined warrior status and, by appealing to desire, opened up opportunities for commoners and marginal warriors to become activists during the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. …
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Apr 30Cape, Sword, and Dagger: Spanish Martial Nobility in Colonial Lima’s Black Militias
Sally Hayes
Curti Lounge (5233 Mosse Humanities)
Seventeenth-century Lima, the Pacific gateway to the imperial silver of Potosí, was frequently threatened by Dutch and English ships seeking to seize its treasures. Lima’s Black citizens, who by the second decade of the century had formed officially recognized militia corps, were among the city’s fiercest defenders. They were able to trade on their military …
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Apr 9Book Event: “A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany”
Cindy Schweich Handler and Harry H. Handler
Fluno Center, Skyview Room (8th Floor)
A German Jew’s Triumph: Fritz Oppenheimer and the Denazification of Germany Harry H. Handler and Cindy Schweich Handler In conversation with Prof. Brandon Bloch When Prussian soldier Fritz Oppenheimer left the WWI battlefield with two Iron Crosses, he could never have imagined that the pinnacle of his military career would come 27 years later …