CWSS Annual Lecture: Robert Gerwarth on the Greater War and the Continuum of Violence after 1918
This year's keynote lecture will address the theme 'The Greater War and the Continuum of Violence in Europe after 1918'.
A Centre for Histories of Violence and Conflict lecture | |
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Date | 6 March 2019 |
Time | 16:00 to 17:30 |
Place | Queens Building LT1 |
Provider | Centre for Histories of Violence and Conflict |
Intended audience | All welcome - staff and students (UG and PG). |
Registration information | No booking required. |
Organizer | Dr Gemma Clark |
Tel | x4342 |
Event details
Abstract
11 November 1918 - a date that remains central to national commemorations in Britain and France - was a date of little meaning for much of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe as violence continued unabated for years to come.
In fact, the idea that the “interwar years” between 1918 and 1939 were characterised by an absence of armed conflict only makes sense for the principal victors of the Great War, namely Britain (with the notable exception of the Irish War of Independence) France and the US, for whom the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front indeed marked the beginning of a post-war era.
For those living across large parts of Eastern, Central, and South-Eastern Europe however, there was no peace, only continuous violence as armed forces of different sizes and political purposes continued to clash, and new governments came and went amidst much bloodshed.
Between 1917 and 1923 alone, Europe experienced more than thirty attempted putsches and violent transfers of political power, many of them accompanied by open civil wars. The lecture will discuss the continuum of violence beyond 1918, its causes and consequences for Europe - the most violent place on earth between 1917 and 1923.
The Centre is delighted to welcome Professor Robert Gerwarth (Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre for War Studies, UCD) to give the keynote 'War State and Society' lecture for 2019.
Robert is the author of several books on twentieth-century political violence in Europe and Nazi Germany, including Hitler's Hangman (Oxford, 2011), a biography of Reinhard Heydrich; Empires at War, 1911-1923, with Erez Manela (Oxford, 2016); War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe after the Great War, with John Horne (Oxford, 2012), and, most recently, The Vanquished: Why the Fist World War Failed to End (Penguin, 2016).
Location:
Queens Building LT1