Kingman Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival

Joanna Marsh on American Myth and Memory and Christopher Naoum on Down in the Reeds

Brandon WetherbeeSeptember 12, 2019

American Myth and a new American festival ...

ArtBYT RadioInterviewsMusicStuff To Do In DC 21 min read

Photos: Kingman Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival 2016

Blink OfanayeMay 2, 2016

An extensive photo set from an expanding music festival that's cool with dogs, kayaking, s'mores and cigars ...

MusicPhotos 022 min read

Your Best April

BYT at largeApril 1, 2016

Museum parties! Baseball! Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt!...

ArtBooksFeaturedFilm & TVFunny StuffLGBTQMusicSports(?) & FitnessStuff To Do In DC 027 min read

DC News You Can (Maybe) Use

Kaylee DuganMarch 8, 2016

We're average as hell....

News 02 min read

Video of the Day: Cabinet “Pike County Breakdown”

Kaylee DuganApril 22, 2015

Bluegrass is awesome....

Misc 00 min read

Photos: Kingman Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival

BYT at largeApril 28, 2014

There needs to be more events on Kingman & Heritage Islands...

MusicPhotos 06 min read

12nov10:00 am10:00 pmImmersive Multimedia Exhibition: Lucid Motion by Rhizomatiksat ARTECHOUSE10:00 am - 10:00 pm ARTECHOUSE

12nov7:00 pmClairow/ beabadoobee • Hello Yello7:00 pm 9:30 Club

12nov7:30 pm10:00 pmAMADEUS7:30 pm - 10:00 pm Folger Theatre

13nov10:00 am10:00 pmImmersive Multimedia Exhibition: Lucid Motion by Rhizomatiksat ARTECHOUSE10:00 am - 10:00 pm ARTECHOUSE

13nov6:00 pm8:30 pmProfs & Pints: Was Fighting World War I a Grave Mistake?6:00 pm - 8:30 pm Bier Baron Tavern

more

Event Details

Profs and Pints presents: “Was Fighting World War I a Grave Mistake?” with Michael Kazin, professor of history at Georgetown University, co-editor of Dissent magazine, and author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918.

Veterans Day originally marked the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. Historians continue to debate whether that conflict could have been prevented, but for the United States it was indisputably a war of choice. Germany neither threatened a trans-Atlantic attack nor had the ability to mount one. And while Woodrow Wilson and the government’s propaganda agency portrayed the Kaiser’s regime as a cruel autocracy, that regime could not raise an army without the approval of the Reichstag, an elected legislature. It was unclear that Imperial Germany was significantly morally inferior to the three empires it was fighting—the British, the French, and, until March of 1917, the realm of the Tsar.

We cannot know what impact continued U.S. neutrality would have had; by its nature, counter-factual history is a speculative enterprise. But we do know the consequences of the U.S. decision to join the Allied powers in the spring of 1917. At home, the decision to go to war also led inexorably to a campaign of repression of individual rights far greater than any that had occurred before. Newspapers were banned for making the slightest criticisms of government policy. Critics of the war were jailed for speaking out against it. Vigilantes freely assaulted people who failed to echo the hyper-patriotic gospel. The fear of “seditious” radicals and aliens would lead, in the 1920s, to the post-war Red Scare and the racist immigration laws.

Over in Europe, the American Expeditionary Force played a highly significant part in compelling the Germans to sue for peace in the fall of 1918. But the victory won by the U.S. and its allies led to an even greater tragedy, with a deeply flawed peace treaty helping to spur bloody revolutions and sow the seeds of the Second World War, a far deadlier global conflict.

Professor Kazin will analyze arguments made for and against U.S. entry into World War I at the time and in the century since. You’ll gain a much greater understanding of the conflict and its impact. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, save $2 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)

Time

(Wednesday) 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Location

Bier Baron Tavern

1523 22nd St NW Washington DC 20037

Cost

Advance ticket: $12. Door: $15, save $2 with student ID.

Learn More

Calendar GoogleCal

13nov6:00 pmYoga in Luce6:00 pm Smithsonian American Art Museum

13nov6:00 pmSAAM Presents: Street Heroines6:00 pm Smithsonian American Art Museum

13nov7:00 pmBlack Midiw/ Fat Tony7:00 pm U Street Music Hall

13nov7:00 pmRa Ra Riot7:00 pm 9:30 Club

X

X